The Contact Epaper 10 Sept.16 Sept,2013

Issue # 527 (1)

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THE CONTACT WEEKLY NEWSPAPER

10 Sep. to 16 Sep., 2013

ISSUE - 527, 10 Sep. to 16 Sep., 2013 PH: (905) 671 - 4761

Ominous signs of revival of Sikh US sees mysterious surge of asylum seekers from India militancy in India with support from some extremist Canadian expats

Sikh militants in Pakistan are in contact with extremist pro-Khalistan expatriates, particularly in Canada, according to India's intelligence sources. These expatriates are known to fund extremists for missions like reviving militancy in Punjab and India.

Ten of the most wanted Sikh militants have holed up in Pakistan for many years and are being pressurized to revive

militancy in India or leave Pakistan forever, an officer told reporters on the condition of anonymity.

"Pakistan is so desperate to reactivate the militant leaders that it has told them to either create turmoil in India - or quit Pakistani territory for good," said the security official.The names of the wanted militants have been shared with several forces in the country, including Delhi and

Punjab, where a bloody decade-long separatist campaign was finally put down by 1993. "These terrorists are on our radar," Punjab's Additional Director General of Police Hardeep Dhillon told reporters.Prominent among those living in Pakistan are Babbar Khalsa International's Wadhawa Singh and his aides Ratandeep Singh and Mehal Singh.

Continued... Page 2

WASHINGTON: The United states has seen a mysterious surge of asylum seekers from India entering America illegally through the southwestern desert state of Arizona bordering Mexico, according to a media report. Hundreds, and perhaps thousands, of Indians over the past year have asked for asylum claiming to fear they may be persecuted if returned to their country, the Arizona Republic published in Phoenix, said in an investigative report.

They arrive after paying as much as $35,000 to be smuggled halfway around the globe, flying from India to Central America and then embarking on an arduous and often dangerous 3,000-mile journey through several countries, including

Mexico, to reach Arizona, it said.Some have been caught crossing illegally by the Border Patrol. More often, they are simply turning themselves in at legal border crossings in Nogales, Arizona, asking

Phoenix Sky Harbour International Airport, it said. Before their release, they are given notices to appear in immigration court at a future date, when a judge will decide whether

for asylum based on claims of political persecution, the US daily said.On a nightly basis, as many as two dozen Indians who have managed to establish socalled "credible fear" of persecution during hearings with US immigration asylum officers are set free at a bus station near the

to grant asylum.In addition to the many hundreds who have already been released, hundreds more remain in detention centres in Eloy and Florence waiting for credible-fear hearings, the Republic said.

Continued... Page 4

Ugly memories of Khalra episode refuse to die US shooting: Indian-American community in shock The abduction and murder of a prominent human rights activist Jaswant Singh Khalra by the Punjab Police in 1995 continues to haunt his supporters in Canada.

Khalra had initiated documentation of the cases of police atrocities in Punjab during an armed conflict for a separate homeland for the Sikhs from 1980s1990s. The struggle for a theocratic state saw killings of over 25,000 people both by the

militants and the security forces.Khalra had gathered the information of over 2,500 people who were killed in staged police shootouts and cremated

unceremoniously as part of cover up. He was abducted on September 6, 1995 and later killed in the police custody. His corpse was never found. In 2005, six junior police officials were convicted for his abduction and murder following a probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation.

The investigation was a result of the human rights campaign.His Canadian supporters remember him as a dedicated human rights activist who visited this Continued... Page 4

WASHINGTON: The local Indian-American community was in shock as a vigil was held outside Saleh's Market in Elkhart, Indiana, where two Sikh men, Jagtar Bhatti and Pawan Preet Singh, running a grocery store were shot and killed during an attempted robbery. Both were natives of Punjab.

Condemning the deadly attack, Satnam Singh Chahal, executive director of North American Punjabi Association (NAPA), said the Sikh community is

living under the shadow of fear and insecurity. NAPA in a statement urged the US government to leave no stone unturned to take all necessary measures to protect the lives and property of the people. A

memorial now sits outside the market, according to Fox 28.com. People have left candles, flowers, stuffed animals, and more for Bhatti, 55, who hailed from Preet Nagar in Jalandhar and Continued... Page 4

NRI doctors under fire for attempted girl abortion in UK LONDON: The UK has decided not to bring charges against two Indian-origin doctors who were caught last year on video agreeing to perform an illegal sex-selective abortion. However, health ministry has stepped in demanding a review of the case of Dr Raj Mohan and Dr Prabha Sivaraman and Health secretary Jeremy Hunt has referred the case to the attorney general after the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS)

decided not to bring charges against the two doctors. "We are clear that gender selection abortion is against the law and completely unacceptable. This is a concerning development and I have written to the attorney general to ask for urgent clarification on the grounds for this decision," Health secretary Jeremy Hunt said here yesterday.The two doctors were filmed as part of an investigation by 'The Daily Telegraph' last year

agreeing to arrange terminations for women who requested them purely because they said they did not want to have a baby girl.

At the Calthorpe Clinic in Edgbaston, Birmingham, Dr Mohan had been filmed agreeing to conduct the procedure even though he

told the pregnant woman: "It's like female infanticide, isn't it?"Dr Sivaraman, who worked for both private clinics and NHS hospitals in Manchester, was recorded telling a woman: "I don't ask questions. If you want a termination, you want a termination." Dr Sivaraman has restrictions imposed on her practice, according to the General Medical Council's (GMC) register of doctors. The conditions, which run from March 9, 2012 to September 8, 2013,

include that "she must not authorise any termination of pregnancy or carry out any termination of pregnancy work, either by consultation or surgery".

Sex-selection abortion is banned in the UK but the practice is believed to be prevalent under the radar among certain Asian communities in the country, including Indians and Chinese, where boys are sometimes considered preferable for cultural or economic reasons.

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Issue # 527 (2)

10 Sep. to 16 Sep., 2013

Life expectancy gap growing Casts of Angkor between rich/poor world women Wat returns

Life expectancy for women at 50 has improved, but the gap between poor and rich countries is growing and could worsen without better detection and treatment of cardiovascular disease and cancers, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Monday.

A WHO study, one of the first to analyze the causes of death of older women, found that in wealthier countries deaths from noncommunicable diseases has fallen dramatically in recent decades, especially from cancers of the stomach, colon,

breast and cervix.

Women over 50 in low and middle-income countries are also living longer, but chronic ailments, including diabetes, kill them at an earlier age than their counterparts, it said. “The gap in life expectancy between such women in rich and poor countries is growing,” said the WHO study, part of an issue of the WHO’s monthly bulletin devoted to women’s health. There is a similar growing gap between the life expectancy of men over 50 in rich and lower income countries and in some parts of the world,

this gap is wider, WHO officials said. “More women can expect to live longer and not just survive child birth and childhood.

But what we found is that improvement is much stronger in the rich world than in the poor world.

The disparity between the two is increasing,” Dr. John Beard, director of WHO’s department of ageing and life course, said in an interview at WHO headquarters.

Beard, one of the study’s three authors, said: “What it also points to is that we need particularly in low and middle-income coun-

tries to start to think about how these emerging needs of women get addressed.

The success in the rich world would suggest that is through better prevention and treatment of NCDs.” In women over 50 years old, noncommunicable diseases (NCDs), particularly cancers, heart disease and strokes, are the most common causes of death, regardless of the level of economic development of the country in which they live, the study said. Health ministers from WHO’s 194 member states agreed on a global action plan to prevent and control noncommunicable diseases at their annual ministerial meeting last May. Developed countries have tackled cardiovascular diseases and cancers in women with tangible results, the WHO study said.

Fewer women aged 50 years and older in rich countries are dying from heart disease, stroke and diabetes than 30 years ago and these improvements contributed most to increasing women’s life expectancy at the age of 50, it said.

Forgotten and abandoned for over 70 years, casts of the art treasures at the Khmer temple complex at Angkor in Cambodia are coming out of storage to be rediscovered in a Europe that first shunned them.

The statues, reliefs and temple decorations in the style of the original ninth to 15-century monuments at the site in northern Cambodia are to be exhibited in Paris’ Musee Guimet in all their splendour.

The casts made between 1870 and the late 1920s were commissioned by Frenchman Louis Delaporte (18421925), a member of the expedition team who “rediscovered” Angkor

Keira casts her spell at Toronto film festival

The actors were promoting their film, Can A Song Save Your Life?

Keira Knightley looked demure in a strapless silk frock at the Toronto International Film Festival.

SHE flew solo without her new husband James Righton but was beaming regardless.

Keira Knightley made a stunning appearance at the Toronto International Film Festival on Saturday where she promoted her recent film, Can A Song Save Your Life? The 28- year- old actress looked demure in a brightlycoloured strapless frock, and her co- star Adam Levine didn’t look too scruffy by her side either.

Keira’s dress choice for the event boasted an elaborate forest- inspired design with purple flowers and pretty greenery. She wore nude shoes and kept her jewellery to an absolute minimum, creating a beautiful natural look.

The Love Actually star pulled her brunette tresses back into a messy ponytail and flashed her signature smile on the red carpet.

Her co- star Adam Levine scrubbed up quite nicely in a sleek suit and crisp shirt and tie.

The Maroon 5 singer — who stars opposite Keira in the musical romance/ drama — smiled as he posed at the premiere for the movie that sees him acting as well as singing.

The pair was also joined by fellow co- stars Catherine Keener and Shannon Maree Walsh as they welcomed their film to the Canadian festival.

Can A Song Save Your Life? was written and directed by John Carney.

nearly 150 years ago.

Displayed at Paris’ Indochina Museum at Trocadero until its closure in 1936, the works were passed from one storage site to another over the next seven decades, some becoming damaged in the process.

A year ago, the Musee Guimet took the pieces to a secure warehouse where they were inventoried and in certain cases restored, ready for the exhibition entitled “Birth of a Myth.

Louis Delaporte and Cambodia” that opens October 16. Some 250 works will be shown including the casts and original Khmer art plus photographs and drawings.

Continued.. from Page 1 Others include Jagtar Singh Tara of Khalistan Tiger Force, Ranjit Singh Meeta of Khalistan Zindabad Force, Gajinder Singh of Dal Khalsa, Paramjeet Singh Panjawar of Khalistan Commando Force, Lakhweer Singh Rode of International Sikh Youth Federation, Harminder Singh Mintu of Khalistan Liberation Force and Harmeet Singh of Komagata Maru Dal. Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) has for decades controlled both Sikh and Kashmiri separatists, providing them weapons, training, cash as well as sanctuary, say Indian security agencies.Once the Khalistan movement was put down, some of the surviving militants escaped to Pakistan. This has been corroborated by Lashkar-e-Taiba member Abdul Karim Tunda, who is now in Delhi Police custody, intelligence sources told reporters. Tunda has also told Indian interrogators that the Pakistani intelligence has provided shelter to small and big terrorist groups to execute bombings in India.Delhi's Special Commissioner of Police S.N. Srivastava told reporters, "Wadhawa Singh, Ratandeep Singh and Mehal Singh are the most wanted Sikh extremists."Tunda confessed that he had been assigned by Ratandeep Singh to carry out bomb attacks in India.

Tunda also said that the Babbar Khalsa International had demanded explosives before the Commonwealth Games in Delhi in 2010 - and he sent the consignment.Over the last four years, Punjab Police has busted over a dozen modules of terrorist groups trying to revive terrorism in the state.

Some suspects have been arrested and weapons and ammunition seized from them.

Issue # 527 (3)

THE CONTACT

10 Sep. to 16 Sep., 2013

FLOWER POWER

No wardrobe is complete without floral prints.

Take a cue from these trendy ladies who are flaunting it in style.

ROSY (S)TINT Kalki Koechlin opts for a gorgeous rose print collared shirt, and keeps her look fresh with a soft hair-do, simple make-up, plain denims and black pumps.

TINY BLOSSOMS Vaani Kapoor plays it pretty in a spaghetti strap dress dotted with tiny flowers. Such busy prints add volume to the figure where needed.

BLUSH BEAUTY Shraddha Kapoor looks elegant and graceful in a Sabyasachi chiffon floral sari in soft pastel tones. She enhances its simplicity by teaming the golden border of the garment with a gold embroidered clutch and jhumki earrings.

ENGLISH BLOOM BURST OF BUDS Sophie Choudry looks great in this layered patterned dress that is both sexy and sophisticated. Sticking to a big metallic watch, plain black clutch and classic side-braid, the simple style gets full marks from us.

INSTAGRAM/ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER

Arnold Schwarzenegger (left) with Sylvester Stallone (right) and Patrick Hughes. Arnie will be back in a fifth Terminator movie in 2015.

This pink-hued flower embroidered dress flatters Madhuri Dixit’s body and skin tone equally. Pick a colour in the orange to pink range to highlight your face.

Arnie gives fans an ‘insta’ treat HE’S CURRENTLY filming his return to action hero status alongside Sylvester Stallone and Harrison Ford.

But fans don’t have to wait until The Expendables 3 hits screens to see Arnold Schwarzenegger in all his glory, for the actor will next be seen in a follow-up to 1977’s Pumping Iron, bodybuilding docudrama Generation Iron, which is slated for a September 20 release.

Micky Rourke narrates the film which also focuses on other big names in bodybuilding such as Phil Heath, Kai Greene, Branch Warren and Dennis Wolf, Lou Ferrigno and Jay Cutler. It will be the “first major film focused on bodybuilding since Pumping Iron”, writer and director

Vlad Yudin said in a press release.

Speaking of the intention behind his film which will star 66-year-old Schwarzenegger himself, he added: “The bodybuilding sport is very misunderstood and has so many stereo-

Posts photos from shoot of The Expendables 3 types associated with it. I really wanted to focus on the lives of these athletes and explore what motivates and inspires them both in this unique world and in their everyday lives.”

Meanwhile, Schwarzenegger is in Bulgaria filming action flick The Expendables 3 alongside Stallone

and Ford. The bulky former politician posted happy snaps from the set during the week, showing himself and his co-stars looking every bit the part in the Patrick Hughes directed action-adventure.

Arnie boasted of a hefty 5 o’clock shadow as he sucked on cigars, while Stallone — also in character — had blood pouring down the side of his face. Ford — who replaced Bruce Willis 72 hours into filming — was looking far more tidy in another snap, wearing a neat army green jacket at what appeared to be an airport. “Sly and I are having a great time working with our director here in Bulgaria,” Arnie said alongside one of the uploads.

Issue # 527 (4)

‘Love one another but make not a bond of love: Let it rather be a moving sea between the shores of your souls. Fill each other’s cup, but drink not from one cup. Give one another of your bread, but eat not from the same loaf.’ There’s good advice from the poet Kahlil Gibran in his classic book, The Prophet. Too often, we get living in one another’s hearts mixed up with living in one another’s pockets. Why is there so much concern in your world about what certain people are doing? Surely, what matters is what they are feeling?

Some folk find it easy to be callous. They shut themselves off from the suffering of others and, even more strangely, they somehow manage to ignore their own unhappiness. They live in a kind of intellectual nether world where thoughts reign supreme and feelings are treated as maverick interlopers.

Life, for you, though, is all about learning how to trust

your deepest voice of inner wisdom. Rarely, if ever, does that voice speak to us in our native tongues. So now, you must be fluent in the language of your heart.

Life is full of surprises. Life is also full of gentle joys and precious pleasures. It is full of magic, hope, generosity and positive energy. Yet life is also often full of trouble and trauma, stress and strife, hassle and hardship. So how can life be full of all those things at once? And if it is really full, why does it often seem so empty?

The sky is now filling you with assertive energy. You are assuming a tense situation has a great deal to it. See it as big, and it will become big. See it as small, and it will shrink.

We elect the lawmakers. We vote them in or out of power. It’s arguable whether the new lot are ever any better than the old lot, but at least we go through the ritual of feeling that we are

Continued.. from Page 1

US sees mysterious surge It is unclear, however, whether those asking for asylum are legitimately fleeing persecution and whether they intend to show up for their asylum hearings, the daily said.In fiscal year 2012, nearly 10 percent of Indian asylum seekers failed to show up for their final asylum hearings in US immigration courts nationwide, the daily said, citing the Department of Justice.Homeland Security buses staffed by immigration and customs enforcement officers, routinely bring recently released immigrants, who are deemed low-flight risks and not a danger to the community, to the bus station so they can arrange travel to meet relatives in other parts of the US.About half the migrants getting off the buses each night are Spanish speakers from Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador and other Central and South American countries, the US daily said. The other half are Indians.The Republic cited a US State Department spokesperson Nicole Thompson as saying she is unaware of any mass conflict in India that would be contributing to an increase in asylum seekers from India.But India is a complicated country with a "great degree of variance internally as far as the standard of living and income", she was quoted as saying.Department of Homeland Security officials cited by the Republic said they are investigating the surge in Indian migrants at the Arizona border. "DHS has implemented a collaborative, coordinated response to Indian apprehensions along the Southwest border," US Customs and Border Protection spokesman Victor Brabble was quoted as saying in a written statement. That includes working with the governments of other countries to "analyse potential threats" and "identity and dismantle human smuggling networks", Brabble said.

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ultimately their masters.

Sadly, the same thing does not apply to the shapers of social protocol.

What’s fashionable and what’s outdated? What’s to be applauded and what’s to be derided? The folk who decide this are always anonymous. As long as you are breaking no laws, you are safe to trust your own judgment.

It is all your fault. You are to blame. Entirely and completely.

For everything. The rest of us can be let off the hook.

There’s not so much as a stain on our character. Not a shred of guilt or culpability. Why should we bother looking at any part that we may have played, when you are so generously shouldering the whole burden? So, you go right ahead and carry on giving yourself a hard time. We will support you in this. We will even give you a hard time too, if you like. Though the truth is not so simple.

People who are in the wrong usually loudly

proclaim themselves to be completely in the right. If they cannot get away with pretending that no mistake has been made, they will turn their energy instead towards the task of blaming someone else for it! What is even more ironic is that there are other people who, despite being clearly in the right, feel too shy - or unnecessarily guilty - to defend themselves.

Events in your emotional life now bring clear proof of how wise you have been lately. Don’t be humble; be proud!

Where others like to know what they have got, down to the last inch, minute or penny, you generally prefer to ‘guesstimate’. You have got good intuition. You may need now, though, to be a little more specific and detailed in your appraisal of a key matter.

Sacrifice spontaneity for the sake of reassurance.

Count properly, the chickens that have actually hatched, and you’ll yet discover that you

10 Sep. to 16 Sep., 2013

don’t need to sit around waiting for more eggs to prove productive. You’ve already got more of what you need than you realize.

How much energy do you want to expend? How much time are you willing to invest? How badly do you want to prove a point?

To what extent do you want an argument? Or do you simply want to get a result? You remain capable of accomplishing a great deal. Success, though, doesn’t mean very much unless it is carefully thought through.

It’s no good doing very well at a task - or connecting with a target only to realize later that you have been aiming for the wrong thing. Weigh your options carefully, then make your move.

What you can’t escape you can transform. Where you need progress you can have it. Think, if you want to understand your current situation, of the geometry they taught you at school.

Remember tangents? Two

lines, both very near each other when they begin. A small difference in direction, though, becomes a vast divide, the longer that line gets.

Now think of the choices you are able to make.

That’s the kind of impact that these can have.

Overnight change you may not get - but a steady journey to a brighter world you can make.

A little eccentricity is a fine thing. Even besuited business executives are encouraged to ‘think outside the box’. They are urged to be lateral and to indulge in ‘blue sky’ creative exercises. They often have to be shown how to do this by special consultants, hired at a vast expense. Why? Because, although invention ought to come naturally to us all, our world requires us to repress it. Most of the time we are expected to be sensible. You now fear that a particular idea is far too crazy. It is not. It is just crazy enough.

Continued.. from Page 1

Ugly memories of Khalra episode refuse to die country before his murder on the invitation of the World Sikh Organization (WSO) to address the Canadian parliament about his findings. Apprehensive of his safety, his friends suggested him to stay in Canada and apply for a refugee status. However, Khalra was determined to return and pursue his mission, according to the WSO President Prem Singh Vinning. Describing him as a "brave martyr'', Vinning demanded that the senior police officers involved in his murder should be brought to the book.Khalra was associated with the human rights wing of the Akali Dal, a party that currently rules Punjab in coalition with the Hindu nationalist Bhartiya Janata Party. Ironically, the Akali Dal-BJP government appointed Sumedh Singh Saini as the Director General of Police. Saini is a controversial police officer, who is frequently accused of being involved

in human rights violations during militancy by numerous groups. He is not convicted in any such case though.

Whereas, the Akali Dal government in Punjab has failed to bring Khalra case to its logical end, the NDP which is an official opposition of Canada bestowed upon him a title of the human rights defender early this year.

Khalra had another Canadian connection. His grandfather Harnam Singh was aboard the Komagata Maru ship that brought more than 300 Indian passengers to Vancouver in 1914. The Japanese vessel was forced to return under the discriminatory continuous journey law.

Harnam Singh was also a participant of the Ghadar movement that was launched in 1913 by the Indian immigrants of the pacific coast of North America. The Ghadar Party believed in an armed rebellion against the British occupation of India and was

a result of the systematic racism against South Asians in Canada and US with the British Empire remaining mute spectator to injustices against their East Indian subjects. The Ghadar centenary is being widely celebrated this year. The Ghadar activists did not just confine their struggle for the freedom from foreign occupation and continued their fight for social justice even after Indian gained its

independence in 1947.

Incidentally, a Ghadar activist Bujha Singh had joined the ultra leftist Naxalite movement in an independent India and was killed in a staged shootout in Punjab during 1970 when Akali Dal was in power.

Khalra too was previously associated with the naxalite movement but later changed his political affiliations. (Gurpreet Singh, Post Media)

US shooting 20-year-old Pawan Singh from Munnan village in Hoshiarpur, Punjab. A group of people gathered around the memorial on Friday night to share stories of the two men, the news site said. They said Bhatti and Singh were extremely generous and well known in the community. The Elkhart Police Department has arrested 28-year-old Kevin Moore, said to be a regular customer at the market for the murder Thursday morning. People at the vigil also said the men who were killed as they worked inside Saleh's Market were like family.

They were always looking out for everybody in the neighborhood and offering advice when they could. The mourners said they aren't just devastated by the loss of their friends but also by the shock of who is suspected of killing them. Those at the vigil say they knew Moore, they called him "Lorenzo."

Issue # 527 (5)

THE CONTACT

10 Sep. to 16 Sep., 2013

To Love A Wounded World!

In commemorating Seamus Heaney (1939-2013), the Irish poet who died in Dublin a few days ago, I’d like to focus on the speech he made when he received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1995. Considered the greatest Irish poet since Yeats, who won the Nobel Prize seventy or so years earlier, he talks about Yeats’s contribution to the cultural life of Ireland, and to the concerns that Heaney himself addresses. These are concerns to which we can relate very well in these troubled times: How do we keep some internal balance when we are surrounded by what he called the “wounded spots on the face of the earth.”

Needless to say, the wounded spots in our own psyches as well.

These are concerns shared by many major modern writers. Camus, in “The Plague,” asks how we can be saints without God. Beckett’s tramps wait

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endlessly for “Godot” who never arrives.

Waiting for Godot is an absurdist play

by Samuel Beckett, in which two characters, Vladimir and Estragon, wait endlessly and in vain for the arrival of someone named Godot. Godot’s absence, as well as numerous other aspects of the play, have led to many different interpretations since the play’s 1953 premiere. It was voted “the most significant English language play of the 20th century”. Waiting for Godot is Beckett’s translation of his own original French version, En attendant Godot, and is subtitled (in English only) “a tragicomedy in two acts”. The original French text was composed between 9 October 1948 and 29 January 1949. The premiere was on 5 January 1953 in the Théâtre de Babylone, Paris. The production was directed by Roger Blin, who also played the role of Pozzo.

Then it’s Eliot’s protagonists’ search for fragments to “shore against” their ruins. He ends “The Wasteland,” with a prayer: Shantih, shantih, shantih, hoping that peace of soul will prevail some day. The Waste Land is a 434-line modernist poem by T. S. Eliot published in 1922. It has been called “one of the most important poems of the 20th century”. Despite the poem’s obscurity - its shifts between satire and prophecy, its abrupt and unannounced changes of speaker, location and time, its elegiac but intimidating summoning up of a vast and dissonant range of cultures and literatures - the poem has become a familiar touchstone of modern literature.

Among its famous phrases are “April is the cruellest month”, “I will show you fear in a handful of dust”, and the mantra in the Sanskrit language “Shantih shantih shantih”. “It is difficult at times to repress the thought that history is about as instructive as an abattoir; that Tacitus was right and that peace is merely a desolation left behind after the decisive operations of merciless power.”

Again, “Only the very stupid or the very deprived can any longer help knowing that the documents of civilization have been written in blood and tears, blood and tears no less real for being remote.”

He talks about Yeats who won the Nobel Prize at a time when Ireland was recovering from a war of independence against the British, and a civil war. But Yeats did not refer to any of this. He talked about the Irish Dramatic Movement of which he, Lady Gregory, John Synge and others were a part, a movement which dramatized Irish myths, attempted to use Irish dialects in plays, and other such. Heaney writes, “He came to Sweden to tell the world that the local work of poets and dramatists had been as important to his native place and time as the ambushes of guerilla armies.”

Of course, it’s not as if everything was smooth sailing even in the world of the arts. Synge’s marvelous play, “Playboy of the Western World” was seen as an insult to Irishmen, and protestors rampaged around the city. (Sounds familiar?) They protested too against the acquisition of paintings for the National Gallery. There was a time too when unimaginative academics treated Matthew Arnold’s dictum that art can make us better people as hilarious nonsense. The critic Terry Eagleton, I think it was cited the Nazi commandants

who listened to Beethoven and then went to turn on the gas. Well, as someone pointed out in return, Beethoven can hardly be held to account for the failures of his listeners.

In contrast, there are the accounts of Heaney’s funeral in various newspaper reports. One recounts that around 80,000 people stood up and clapped and cheered in Heaney’s honor for three minutes during the semi-finals

of a football match. Paul Muldoon, another Irish poet, arriving for the funeral, was surprised when he arrived at Belfast International Airport to find the border control official say, “You must be devastated today.”

Heaney’s son Michael said at the funeral that in the minutes before his death, Heaney sent a message in Latin to his wife Marie (he loved Latin). It read, “Noli timere.” Do not be afraid.

As the newspaper commentator remarked, the message “encapsulated the writing and the philosophy of the greatest Irish poet since W B Yeats.”

The institution of cult worship The manner in which the supporters of the religious leader Asaram have been defending him against rape and molestation charges is quite remarkable.

They show great fealty for their leader in spite of the disturbing allegations made against him. They have attacked journalists. They have picketed police stations. This is not the first time that allegations of various sorts have been made against Asaram and his associates. But it is the first time they have been taken seriously to the extent that he has been arrested and remanded to judicial custody.

The need for a cult leader seems to be intrinsic to human nature and can be found in all societies all around the world.

India perhaps has a lien on the maximum number of such people with godly pretensions. It is one thing to believe in God or gods or divinity in general. But it is quite another to ascribe those attributes to a human being, especially in the 21st century...

Even more interesting is what happens when divine characteristics are given to a politician - like the current chief minister of Gujarat for instance.

Narendra Modi is nothing less than a cult figure for his followers. He can do no wrong, he is perfect in his thinking

and his delivery, and he has super human powers. What makes Modi more than just a popular politician is that his devotees do not necessarily belong to his vote bank. All 100 per cent of the voters in Gujarat do not vote for this great leader. In the last assembly elections in 2012, the Bharatiya Janata Party got 47.9 per cent of the vote share, a small decrease in fact from 2007.

The people of Gujarat therefore are not those who have made Modi into a cult figure. Indeed, when you consider that the Congress got 38.9 per cent of the vote share in 2012, you can see how many traitors there are to the great cause of the Perfect Man. No, Modi’s popularity comes from the mythic proportions that his followers outside Gujarat many on the Internet and in other countries - have given him.

Some portions of the Indian middle classes in other states also belong to his fan club, with popular authors like Chetan Bhagat giving him advice on how to better himself every time he makes a little misstatement like comparing dead riot victims to the children of dogs being run over his car.

Modi is not the first chief minister to win consecutive elections or indeed to improve conditions in his state. Indeed there are enough contradictory figures which come out of Gujarat to show that it is as haphazard as the rest of the country. The state has always been entrepreneurial and industrious. Modi has made life better for new and existing businesses, yes. But life for everyone else in Gujarat — having lived there in two time frames including during Modi’s time - is hardly perfect compared to the rest of India. However, facts and figures are of no use to believers in the Modi cult — the way they are of no use to followers of Asaram. Instead cultists seem to be emboldened rather than disgusted by criticism or even proof of misdemeanors by their Ideal Leader.

They get a greater impetus to prove that their initial leap of faith in trusting X or Y was correct.

To give in to criticism reflects very badly on their own decision-making processes.As Asaram’s followers continue to believe outside his jailhouse, so will Modi’s fan club become shriller as we get nearer to the general elections.

Ashok Singhal of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad informs us that even God wants Modi to lead. The myth-building will continue. Take BJP president Rajnath Singh’s assurance that he has seen the pain in Modi’s eyes whenever the 2002 Gujarat riots are mentioned.

With no disrespect to Singh’s mindreading powers, that sounds a bit like LK Advani’s tears as the Babri Masjid collapsed. You don’t really quite know why exactly they were pained or weeping. Devotees of cult figures have no such doubts though. They see greatness even in the muck. A testament to human greatness or foolishness?

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THE CONTACT

Schools plan to make teenage girls undergo virginity tests in Indonesia sparks outrage A plan to make teenage girls undergo virginity tests in an Indonesian city has sparked outrage.

Muhammad Rasyid, head of the education office in South Sumatra's district of

Prabumulih, said he wants to start the tests next year to discourage premarital sex and protect against prostitution.

But Indonesian officials have dismissed the proposal as unethical. The country's education minister Education Minister

Mohammad Nuh dismissed the plans saying:'If the goal is improvement, so that our children avoid negative things, there are more noble ways,' Education Minister Mohammad Nuh

reportedly told reporters at the State Palace in Jakarta. 'If they are not virgins, then what? Will they not be allowed to go to school?' asked the minister, according to Khabar.After the outcry Rasyid decided to clarify his statement to the

Jakarta Post newspaper.'We never planned a virginity test for female students,' he wrote, reported Al Jazeera.'We were only approving the request made by the parents of a student after she was accused of no longer being a virgin by a suspect in a human trafficking case.'

Aris Merdeka Sirait of the National Commission for Child Protection, said the plan was 'just aimed for popularity' reported The Telegraph.

'Loss of virginity is not merely because of sexual activities. It could be caused by sports or health problems and many other factors,' Sirait said. 'We strongly oppose this very excessive move.'

Indonesia is a predominantly Islamic country, with more than 200million Muslims living in the South-East Asian nation.

Britain? It’s just a small island no-one pays any attention to, taunt Russians

10 Sep. to 16 Sep., 2013

Getting closer to God

Meet the monk who lives a life of virtual solitude on top of a 131ft pillar and has to have food winched up to him by his followers It takes a strong mind and a lot of willpower to become a monk and feel closer to God. But one man has taken his devotion to new heights, literally.

Maxime Qavtaradze, a 59-year-old monk, has lived a life of virtual solitude on top of a pillar high above his Georgian monastry for 20 years.When he wants to leave Katskhi Pillar, he spends 20 minutes getting down a 131ft ladder.

Supplies are winched up to him by his followers and he only comes down twice a week to pray with his followers.But having worked as a crane operator before taking his orders in 1993, Maxime has always had a head for heights.He said: 'It is up here in the silence that you can feel God's presence.'

His only visitors are priests and a group of troubled young men who are seeking solace in the monastry at the foot of the pillar.A photographer called Amos Chapple paid a visit to Stylite monk Maxime but was not at first allowed up onto the pillar.

Instead he had to

spend four days taking part in seven hours of daily prayers including a four hour stint from 2am until sunrise.When he finally was granted permission to scale the 'dicey' ladder to the top, he was worried

following the Ottoman invasion of Georgia.

Finally, in 1944 a group led by the mountaineer Alexander Japaridze made the first documented ascent of the pillar and discovered the remains of

that it might be too dark to get back down. After making it to the top, Maxime told Amos that he became a monk after a stretch in prison and decided he wanted to make a change.The monk slept in a fridge when he first moved to the top of the pillar, but now has a bed inside a cottage. The Katskhi Pillar was used by stylites, Christians who lived on top of pillars to avoid worldly temptation until the 15th century when the practice was stopped

a chapel and the skeleton of a stylite who had perished there.Shortly after the collapse of communism, and the subsequent resurgence of religion in Georgia, Maxime decided to live atop the pillar in the way of the old stylites. He said: 'When I was young I drank, sold drugs, everything.

When I ended up in prison I knew it was time for a change.'I used to drink with friends in the hills around here and look up at this place, where land met sky.

Astonishing attack

on PM as tensions mount at G20

Russia dismissed Britain as 'just a small island no one pays any attention to' last night as a summit of world leaders descended into acrimony over planned military strikes on Syria.

In an astonishing attack, Vladimir Putin mocked the UK's size and influence, and boasted that Soviet oligarchs had 'bought Chelsea'.However as controversy erupted, Russian officials flatly denied the remarks attributed to President Putin's official spokesman Dmitry Peskov - had ever been made.But the episode underlined the Cold War style tensions that have been created by the row over Syria.The seating plan at the summit has had to be changed so that Barack Obama and President Putin are kept as far apart as possible.

Last night, arriving at the summit venue in St Petersburg, President Obama strode in alone rather than walking in with President Putin.

The war of words with Britain came as

David Cameron continued to make the case for intervention in Syria despite his defeat in Parliament last week.

They represented an extraordinary breach of protocol, particularly as Russia is hosting the G20 meeting.President Putin, a belligerent ally of Syrian tyrant Bashar Assad, has been revelling in MPs rejection last week of British participation in USled military action. But the Kremlin's decision to rub Mr Cameron's nose in it with the Prime Minister on Russian soil - will plunge Anglo-Russian relations to a new low. Told of the

Russian verdict on Britain, an infuriated Mr Cameron insisted: 'I don't accept that for a moment.' A Downing Street source said: 'As host of guests from the world's leading countries, I'm sure the Russians will want to clarify these reported remarks, particularly at a G20 where it's a very British agenda on trade and tax.

'It highlights how a small island with great people can achieve a big footprint in the world.' A British diplomat pointed out that the UK economy was significantly larger than Russia's.

2960 Drew Rd., #151, Mississauga (Near Malton Guru Ghar)

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Hitler’s bodyguard who was one of the first men to find the Fuhrer dead in his bunker dies aged 96 The man who served as Adolf Hitler's bodyguard has died aged 96.Rochus Misch was by the Nazi leader's side for five years throughout the Second World War.Burkhard Nachtigall, who helped Misch ghost-write his 2008 memoir, The Last Witness, confirmed on Friday that Misch died in Berlin.

It is thought he died on Thursday following a short illness. Misch travelled with Hitler from bunker to bunker throughout the 1940s.Following a German defeat on January 16, 1945, Misch and the rest of Hitler's personal staff moved into the Führerbunker in Berlin. He was told not to leave the bunker for any significant period of time until the end of the war and handled all of the direct communication from the underground area.After Hitler killed himself on April 30 1945, Misch was one of the first to find the Nazi leader's body.

He fled the bunker and was captured by the Russian Red Army - but was released in 1954 and lived in Berlin, only two miles away from the bunker, until he died.Before his death he spoke several times about his experience of working with the Nazi leader.Talking to the BBC in 2007, Misch said: 'My first meeting with Hitler was rather strange.'I'd been in the job 12 days when Hitler's chief adjutant started asking me questions about my grandmother, about my childhood.'Then he got up and walked towards the door.

Being an obedient soldier, I flung myself forward to open it, and there was Hitler standing right behind the door.'I felt cold. Then I felt hot. I felt every emotion standing there opposite Hitler.'In a 2005 interview with the Associated Press, Misch said Hitler, who he referred to as 'boss', was 'a very normal man'.Misch said, 'He was no

brute. He was no monster. He was no superman.'His close proximity to Hitler caused him to have a cult following and his character has appeared in a number of films.Three years ago, at the age of 93, he told a German newspaper that he could no longer deal with all the correspondence he received from fans.He told newspaper Berliner Kurier that, with most of the letters he receives asking for autographs, it was 'no longer possible' to reply because of his age.He said: '[The letters] come from Korea, from Knoxville,

Tennessee, from Finland and Iceland - and not one has a bad word to say.'He was even consulted by Christopher McQuarrie, the writer of 2008 film Valkyrie, about an assassination attempt on Hitler's life.

Hollywood actor Tom Cruise, who starred in the film, refused to meet Misch and told the Los Angeles Times: 'I didn't want to meet him. Evil is still evil, I don't care how old you are.' With the death of Hitler Youth courier Armin Lehmann on October 10, 2008, Misch was the last survivor of the Führerbunker staff.

10 Sep. to 16 Sep., 2013

The skyscrapers that are a massive waste of space How vast chunks of the world's tallest buildings are useless vanity floors to say ‘mine’s bigger than yours’

Some of the tallest and most recognisable skyscrapers across the world have been slammed as 'vain' for having a large amount of useless space. For a skyscraper to be labelled with the prestigious supertall tag, it needs to be over 985ft in height, but the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (CTBUH) has discovered many of these luxury buildings in places such as Dubai and China use unused space on top of their designs to bolster their height. It has highlighted the ten 'vainest' skyscrapers, and discovered that in Dubai alone, 19 per cent of space at the top of the cities' skyscrapers is going unused. The CTBUH said in the report: 'We noticed in Kingdom Tower in Jeddah, that a fair amount of the top of the building seemed to be an unoccupied spire.' 'This prompted us to investigate the increasing trend towards extreme spires and other extensions of tall buildings that do not enclose usable space, and create a new term to describe this - Vanity Height.'

The council - which officially determines the height of a building using its Height Criteria - go on to explain that Vanity Height is classed as the distance between a skyscraper's highest living space, and what is considered its architectural top.It lists the 10 worst offenders, with unused space ranging from 27 per cent up to 39 per cent, with five of them in Dubai.

The skyscraper with the greatest Vanity Height was found to be the iconic Burj Al Arab in Dubai. It is architecturally 1,055 feet tall, yet the top 405 feet is 'useless' and without this unused space, the skyscraper wouldn't qualify as supertall. The ratio of the living space in this luxury hotel, compared to the useless space, is 39 per cent. The second vainest building is the Bank of America Tower in New York, which has 36 per cent unused space. This equates to 429 feet of its 1,200 feet height, and again would lose its status if this top was removed.

The world's tallest building, Dubai's Burj Khalifa, also made the list with 29 per cent unused space, which consists of 800 feet of its 2,716 feet height. Three of the top ten are in China, including the Zifeng Tower (30 per cent), the Minsheng Bank (28 per cent) and The Pinnacle (27 per cent).CTBUH claim that the trend of these so-called vain skyscrapers was started

by New York's Chrysler building, which was built in 1930.However, it didn't become common place until China and the United Arab Emirates began building their supertall skyscrapers with spires and similar extensions.

‘My gastric bypass almost killed me’ A morbidly obese woman came close to death when a gastric bypass caused her to lose a massive 27 stone.

Beth Birch reached 31 stone by the age of 19 but after the operation her weight plunged to a life-threatening four stone.

Ms Birch underwent the gastric bypass surgery after claiming her leg had snapped in nine places under her extreme weight, leaving her confined to a wheelchair.She hoped the surgery would help her to achieve her dream body but within weeks of the operation was losing weight dangerously fast.

Sixteen months later she was down to a skeletal 4st 3lbs and doctors told her she could die

Woman, 25, plummets to FOUR STONE after surgery damages her stomach unless she started regaining weight.Ms Birch was rushed to the Spire Murrayfield Hospital in Wirral, Merseyside, where specialists found her gut wall had stopped working so she could not absorb food. She was put on a 15,000 calorie-a-day cocktail of medicines and drinks - plus six meals a day - to build up and defend her gut wall.

Her weight slowly climbed up to healthy 11 stone, but doctors warned her that because of her rapid change in weight she would probably never be able to have children.However, Ms Birch

became pregnant last year, and gave birth to daughter Violet 12 weeks ago.She now weighs a healthy 12st 4lbs and can eat

normally. Ms Birch, 25, of Manchester, said: 'People said I looked like a corpse - in fact one person said he had seen a corpse

look better. 'I was lying on my mum's settee and I couldn't even lift me head up.'I was trying to eat but I wasn't able to swallow and when I could my body just couldn't absorb it.

'My body was shutting down and I was so weak. I was wearing clothes for a ten to 11-year-old girl. 'The doctors said to my parents he didn't think I would be able to come through it and to prepare for all eventualities.'

She added: 'I was elated when I found out I was pregnant. There weren't even words to describe how happy I was.'I can't believe I have been so fat, then so thin and pregnant in just 25 years.'

Ms Birch says that her doctor was shocked by her weight loss.

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THE CONTACT

10 Sep. to 16 Sep., 2013

Could GOOD hygiene cause Alzheimer’s?

People in wealthy countries are at ‘greater risk’ as they have less contact with bacteria An obsession with being too clean and hygienic could lead to a higher risk of dementia, researchers have warned.Their study pinpointed a significant relationship between a nation's cleanliness and the number of Alzheimer's patients.Countries which can afford better sanitation have higher rates of the disease.

So Britons and inhabitants of other developed nations were around ten per cent more likely to suffer dementia than those in countries like Kenya and Cambodia.The researchers suggested the 'hygiene hypothesis' was behind the difference. This is the theory that an excessively clean lifestyle leaves our immune systems out of balance and unable to combat many germs.

It has already been linked to the rise in the number of

allergies, such as asthma and eczema.One in three Britons over 65 will develop dementia.

Alzheimer's and other forms of the condition blight the lives of more than 800,000, with 500 new cases each day.

Lead researcher Dr Molly Fox, from Cambridge University, said: 'The hygiene hypothesis is well-established. We can now add Alzheimer's to this list of diseases.'There are important implications, especially in developing countries as they increase in sanitation.'

The study of health data from 192 nations found those with a relatively low risk of infection had more patients with Alzheimer's.

Likewise, better sanitation and urban living were linked with a higher incidence of the disease, irrespective of life expectancy.

Taken together, these factors accounted for 42.5 per cent of the variation in rates of Alzheimer's between countries.

Dr Fox said changes in diet, life expectancy and healthcare could not explain the differences.

The researchers found that

types of inflammation found in the brains of those with Alzheimer's, said the report in the journal Evolution, Medicine

exposure to germs throughout an individual's lifetime, not just early on, may affect the risk of dementia.A lack of contact upsets the development of white blood cells, particularly those called T-cells, which are a key part of the immune system.This imbalance has been linked to the

and Public Health.

Dr Fox added: 'We need to find the right balance of exposure.'A spokesman for the Alzheimer's Society said: 'It is an interesting theory. However, it is always difficult to pin causality to one factor.'

The best way to cut risk is to

Women go for men who look like their father Women prefer men that physically resemble their fathers, a new study suggests.

Researchers used a computer model to show that female animals seeking mates with their father's physical traits tend to have more offspring than animals with no dad preference.

Since a father has, by definition, succeeded in the mating game, looking for males with similar features is a good strategy for finding good partners, according to study co-author Tucker Gilman, an evolutionary biologist at the University of Manchester in England.

"The idea is that if a female has a strategy that's genetically encoded that causes her to look for mates that are similar to her father, then she gets the advantage of being better able to choose genes that are fit and sexy," Gilman told 'LiveScience'.

It is yet to be determined whether the model is applicable to human mating, though some research has suggested humans choose mates in a similar way to other animals.

In the study, published in the journal Evolution, Gilman's team developed a model in which several organisms chose mates.

Some females had genes that led them to prefer mates that shared their father's traits, whereas others had weak preferences or no preferences for their dads' looks.

Then, the team let the simulated organisms "reproduce" for millions of generations.

The females with strong paternal preferences tended to outcompete females who didn't imprint on their fathers. Over time, a strong preference for daddy look-alikes emerged in the population.

When dads were not around, the model predicted that females would imprint on their mothers or on other males.

The more physically similar two animals are, the more likely they have the same underlying genes.

Looking for physical similarities to fathers could therefore provide animals with a shortcut for choosing quality mates, researchers said.

eat healthily, exercise, not smoke and keep blood pressure and cholesterol in check, he added.Countries where more than three-quarters of the population are located in urban areas, such as the UK and Australia, had 10 per cent higher rates of Alzheimer's compared to countries, such as Bangladesh and Nepal, where less than onetenth of people inhabit urban areas.

Overall, differences in levels of sanitation, infectious disease and urbanisation accounted for 33 per cent, 36 per cent and 28 per cent of the variation in Alzheimer's rate between countries.

Previous research has shown that Alzheimer's affects fewer people in Latin America, China and India than it does in Europe.

Even within those regions, prevalence is lower in urban than in rural areas, according to the new findings.

Amorous couple caught having sex in the back of a MOVING TAXI in broad daylight This is the astonishing moment a randy couple almost caused a mass pile-up on a Chinese highway by having sex in the back of a moving taxi.The pair were photographed at the height of

passion during rush-hour on a busy Shanghai road by an astonished driver.The woman can be seen straddling her partner in the back of the taxi with the man throwing back his head in apparent ecstasy. The stoney-faced taxi driver keeps his eyes firmly fixed on the road ahead as the couple make love in the back of his car.One motorist who witnessed the incredible moment said: 'I was

in the lane next to them and I could see them kissing and pawing each other to start with. 'They soon got carried away and started having sex right there in the taxi so I decided to film it.'I saw at least 10 near misses as drivers swerved to get a better look or took their eyes off the road,' he added.Other witnesses said they believed the couple were foreign with Weibo.com reporting that the car was rocking heavily in backed up traffic while the couple had sex.Police officers later criticised the couple.A spokesman said: 'It was clearly very dangerous. Their driver should have stopped and told them to get out. 'They weren't even wearing seat belts.'Despite China's astonishing transformation recently, it is still a conservative country, leaving many shocked by the couple's behaviour.

Calling time on the wrist watch?

While most of the tech world has been focused on forthcoming smartwatches, one man has invested a ring that can tell the time.The Ring Clock is the brainchild of Gusztav Szikszai and tells users the time when they twist it on their finger.

Made of stainless steel, the timepiece was developed by the 26-year-old Hungarian as an alternative watch for people who do not like wearing anything around their wrists.The clock is composed of three bands that rotate around the master ring to tell the time, with the largest band tracking the hours, the centre one showing the minutes

and the thinnest one dots to show the seconds.To tell the time, users twist the watch and

The clock that is worn as a RING and gives wearers the hour with a simple twist of the finger the time displays for one minute using LED lights in either blue or orange.

His team has been finetuning the design as well as the technology and has set its sights on being eco-friendly.

Currently the ring needs to be

charged using a wireless power pad which comes with the jewellery, but in the future there are plans to power it using kinetic energy.

Mr Szikszai said: 'I wanted to create something that is

innovative, good to look at and can actually be useful.'I never wore a watch on my wrist because I don't like the feeling, but I like watches in general.

'So I used that opportunity to let my mind come up with

something that I could wear the Ring Clock.'The ring measures just three millimetres in thickness so it is no larger than most ordinary statement rings and they can be customfitted.Mr Szikszai said the watch will go on sale in April next year and horologists can get their hands on one for £120 if they pre-order as the device will cost £135 afterwards.

Company spokesman Mark Blair, 38, from Crawley, Sussex, said: "What they'll get is the opportunity to be one of the first people in the world to own this most innovative and beautiful gadget.

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An invention to chew over Scientists create ‘smart tooth’ that can monitor a person’s drinking, eating and smoking habits Scientists have developed a 'smart tooth' that works out how much time someone spends chewing, drinking, eating, coughing and smoking.

They say it could be used by doctors to monitor respiratory problems or to check if dieters are telling the through about why they can't lose weight.

Dentists might also find the device, which looks like a normal tooth, useful.

The 'smart tooth' capitalises on the fact that activities from chewing to tooth-grinding, all lead to the jaw moving in different ways.A computer programme can crunch the information and work out what someone is doing from what their mouth is doing.Key to the 'smart tooth' is a tiny motion sensor the size of a finger nail.Eight volunteers had a sensor attached to their teeth, together with thin wires that were used to carry the information gathered out to a computer.

The men and women then coughed for half a minute, drank a bottle of water, chewed gum and read a story aloud.When the computer programme was adjusted to take into account

each person's quirks, it proved to be 94 per cent accurate in working out which of the activities they were doing.The gadget's inventors, from the National Taiwan University, have

also created a removable artificial tooth that contains a sensor.They hope to be able to wirelessly transmit the information gathered to a computer or smartphone dispensing with the need for wires. The artificial tooth would be removed overnight, allowing it to be cleaned and the battery that powers it to be charged.

Other possibilities include miniaturising the sensor so that

Monkey tears off eight

month old baby’s testicles

As his mother changes his nappy at a Chinese zoo and EATS one before it can be caught A mother watched in horror as a monkey tore off one of her eight-month-old baby's testicles at a Chinese zoo before running off and eating it.

The shocking incident, is understood to have taken place at the Guiyang Qianling Wildlife Park in Guìyáng, the capital of Guizhou province in Southwest China.

The mother was changing the infant's dirty nappy when the animal attacked, ripping off the testicle before dropping it onto the ground.

An old man reportedly picked it up but a monkey then snatched it out of his hand before scampering away and eating it before it could be caught.

A Chinese news reports

shows the baby recovering in a hospital bed with his mother looking over him. His injuries are not life threatening.

Monkey numbers at the open zoo have reportedly exploded from around 70 to 500 in recent years with the situation now apparently out of control.

Although they are fed three times a day by keepers, members of the public like to feed the monkeys too and while there are signs warning against doing so, they do not seem to be enforced.

Other footage shows one of the monkeys attacking a little girl, nipping her on the fingers as she reaches over to pet it.

The report mentions that the monthly incidents involving the monkeys at Guiyang, of varying degrees of severity, are running in the hundreds.

it fits snugly inside a cavity or crown.The researchers acknowledge that safety is 'paramount' but say that if the device was somehow swallowed, it would pass harmlessly through the body.

They said: 'The human mouth is one part of the human body that is always in constant use.'We use our mouth to perform some of the most important daily functions, such as eating, drinking, speaking, coughing, breathing and smoking.'Because the mouth is an opening into human health, this oral sensory system has the potential to enhance existing healthcare monitoring applications such as dietary tracking.

'In other words, doctors could use the information to check if those who are struggling to lose weight as eating as little as they say.Trevor Johnson, of the Faculty of General Dental Practice, said: 'This could have a number of uses in dentistry, for example as a research tool, for monitoring patients who clench or grind their teeth and for assessing the impact of various dental interventions.'

10 Sep. to 16 Sep., 2013

Police seize cursed coconut Over fears it was placed by polling station in voodoo attempt to rig election A cursed coconut has been seized by police near a polling station in the Maldives igniting fears a black witch is trying to rig the country's upcoming election with a voodoo spell.The furry fruit was spotted near a school on Guraidhoo Island on Tuesday with suspicious Arabic writing scribbled on its shell.Closer inspection found the script to be a verse from the Koran prompting officers to summon a specialist white witch to reverse the spell.'The police brought a "ruqyah" practitioner (white magician) to examine the coconut, who said it was a fake,' a police source told Minivan News. 'Because it's a fake the police are not worried.'

'The four-inch coconut had a Sura [Qur'anic verse] written in Arabic and was lying on the ground near the school, easy for the public to see,' added another source. 'When school students saw the coconut they called the principal, who then contacted the police.'After studying the coconut, the 'ruqyah' deemed it to be nothing more than a hoax.

The source added: 'Now the police and school officials are more aware and police are

patrolling the school at night, so magicians can't practice real black magic at the school.'

Now, with the case apparently cracked, the country's

presidential elections have been given the go ahead and will take place on Saturday.Using black magic to either stop people voting or to influence their decision is common practice on Guraidhoo.In July parents at the same school boycotted a polling station on the premises claiming a black witch was on the island and was trying to influence the fortunes of the Progressive Party of the Maldives (PPM). 'Girls in the school were getting headaches and some have fainted,' the island source told Minivan.The Maldives, whose population is just 300,000, introduced democratic elections in 2008, after 30 years of autocratic rule.

Sixteen-year-old students asked to declare if they are gay or transsexual on college enrolment form A college has been condemned for asking 16 and 17-year-old students whether they were gay or straight on registration forms.

The teenagers were asked to complete the paperwork and indicate whether they were bisexual, a gay man, a lesbian, a heterosexual, a transsexual or 'prefer not to say'.

The questions came on the same form they completed with innocent personal details such as their age, address and contact details.Some students have been in tears and claim it is an invasion of their privacy.

They demanded to know why such a personal question is on the front of the form along with their names when the information could be provided anonymously.

Student Kelsey Bennett, 16, said: 'You did feel under pressure to tick a box and then if you ticked 'prefer not to say" it might make people question why you have done that.'

Ray Sanchez, 16, was shocked to see the question on the front of the form.

'It was odd because it was amongst a jumble of basic questions you expect like contact details and ethnicity.'

Connor Hewitt, 16, said: 'I

don't get why they need to know.'

Gay campaigners criticised the college's approach and called on staff to review the enrolment procedure.Wes Streeting, Head

of Education at equality campaigners Stonewall, said:'Sexual orientation monitoring can be a helpful tool in making sure that all students receive a high quality experience, but it is simply not acceptable that students were asked to disclose their sexual orientation in a way that failed to respect their privacy.

'There are lots of examples of excellent practice and Barnsley College really should have done their homework before embarking on a well-intentioned but ultimately misguided initiative.'Kay Tinkler, cochairman of the Barnsley Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Forum said it could have been done in a different

way.'I'm not sure why it's on the front of an enrolment form,' she said. 'Coming from a 16-yearold's point of view when just filling in your name on a form can be daunting it is probably better done anonymously in a way that respects people's privacy.'But a Barnsley College spokesman said it was a method of monitoring the success of protected characteristic groups including age, disability, gender reassignment, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, sex and sexual orientation.

It was part of the 'general equality duty' which came into force in 2011 which required public authorities to consider how they can 'contribute to advancing equality.' Barnsley College Principal, Colin Booth, said: 'We apologise to any students who were upset over questions asked on our enrolment form.

'All colleges are required to collect this and similar information in order to fulfill our duties under the Public Sector Equality Duty 2011.

'We will review and change how we collect this information taking into account feedback from our students.'

Issue # 527 (10)

Saini parents invite an alliance from GTA for their slim and fair 5'-3", 30 yrs. old daughter. She is born, raised and educated in Canada. She is a B.Comm graduate, working as a manager. The groom should be clean shaven, born and educated in Canada and professionally employed. Send info. with photo to: sub2405@gmail.com ***527*** Jat Sikh parents seek a suitable match for their Canadian born daughter, 29 yrs. old, 5'-5" tall, M.B.A., beautiful, family oriented & well versed in both cultures.

The boy should be Canadian born, equally educated, family oriented, having good family values. Please send bio-data and recent picture to email: parmjitdulai@hotmail.com or call: 905-874-6608 **527** Kumhar Sikh parents seek a suitable match for their daughter, 25 yrs. old, 5'-2" tall, M.Tech. in computer science. The boy should be American citizen / immigrant and well settled.

Please send biodata and picture to email: satwinder.sanghu@gmail.com or call: 925-325-2486 **527** Jat Sikh parents, highly educated and from a well connected family seek matrimonial alliance from Canada or US for their beautiful, fair, slim, convent educated, 5'3" tall, daughter, 29 yrs. old, B.Com. diploma in textile design, bank employee working in India. Please call 905-6545480 or email to: malhias2000@yahoo.com **527** Jatt Sikh parents seek a suitable match for their daughter, Canadian Citizen, 27 years old, 5-6’ tall, beautiful, slim, educated in Canada, well versed in both cultures and family oriented. The boy should be Canadian Citizen, 5'-11" or taller, working, well educated and settled. Please email recent photo and bio data to klatala@hotmail.com or call 905-915-6017 or 647-4066017. **527** Jat Sikh parents invite matrimonial alliance for their son, born in India and raised in Canada, 29 yrs. old, 6'-2" tall, handsome, clean shaven, nondrinker, graduate from Canadian university and well versed in both cultures. The girl should be tall, educated and beautiful. Please send your bio-data and recent picture to email: paldhami49@yahoo.com or call: 604-851-5563 or 604-832-7088 **527** Jat Sikh parents seek a suitable match for their daughter, 26 yrs. old, 5'-3" tall, B.Com., M.B.A., slim, fair, beautiful, athletic built, living in India. The boy should be Canadian / US immigrant or citizen, well educated, family oriented. Brother is well settled in Canada. Please send biodata and picture to email: devinderboyal@yahoo.co.in or call: 778-991-3457 or 360-2195284 **527**

THE CONTACT

Jat Sikh parents in India invite matrimonial alliance for their daughter, 25 yrs. old, 5'-7" tall, M.Tech. electrical engineering, working as asst. professor in engineering college in Ludhiana distt. The boy should be professionally qualified, employed, Canadian immigrant or citizen, preferably from Malwa area. Please send biodata to email: jagjitc@hotmail.com **527** Jatt Sikh parents seeking a suitable match for their Canadian born daughter, 27 yrs. old, 5'-10" tall, completed B.Sc. and is currently working in her field as a lab technologist. She is well versed in both cultures. Boy should be Canadian born from Jatt Sikh family, university graduate, professionally employed and preferred from Ontario. Please call: 416-2139862 (evening time). **527** Wanted a life partner educated (doctor / engineer) for a divorcee Rajput, manager girl, 5'-4" tall, 39 yrs. old (looks 25 yrs.), having 2 children, one girl 15 yrs. old & boy 12 yrs. old. The life partner should be between 35-45 yrs. of age, Canadian / US widower preferred. Ph: 416-662-4961 or 647-766-4961 **527** Jat Sikh parents seeking a suitable match for their daughter, 25 yrs. old, 5'-2" tall, beautiful, working as registered nurse. The boy should be professionally qualified from Jat Sikh family, vegetarian and Gursikh. Please respond with latest picture and bio-data to email: bsingh2474@hotmail.com or call: 647-588-4902 **527** Parents (GoldSmith) invite matrimonial alliance for their son, 26 yrs. old, 6' tall, PGDCA degree holder, advance course in computer software and hardware, hotel management degree from Singapore and presently working in Singapore.

The girl should be Canadian immigrant or citizen and family oriented. Please call: 647-4646767 or 98159-83208 **527** Saini Sikh parents seek a suitable match for their daughter, 32 yrs. old, 5'-8" tall, Canadian born and educated, C.G.A., currently working as an auditor in CRA. The boy should be educated, clean shaven. Please send biodata and recent picture to email: gjbudwal@gmail.com or call: 604-339-2464 **527** Jat Sikh Gill family seeks a suitable match for their daughter, 30 yrs. old, 5'-6" tall, college graduate with a diploma in business administration and accounting. The boy should be between 30-34 yrs. of age, raised in Canada and well qualified.

Please call: 905-874-0721 **527** Khatri Sikh girl, Canadian citizen, 41 yrs. old, 5'-6" tall, Masters degree in Commerce, office assistant diploma holder, licenced ESL teacher diploma from TESL On., divorced with one

male child going to college first year. Seeking a Hindu Punjabi match, family oriented, clean shaven, Sikh residing in Toronto.

Preference to Canadian citizen or permanent resident. Ph: 416840-8693 or 647-526-8693 (weekdays call after 4 pm, weekends anytime) **527** Well settled Jat Sikh parents seeking a suitable match for their son, raised in Canada, educated in B.Sc. computer science & M.B.A., 31 yrs. old, 5'-11" tall, handsome, wears turban, currently managing family owned retirement residence. Looking for attractive educated Canadian raised girl from a good family background. Please send biodata and recent picture to email: sukh@rogers.com or call: 416-895-1313 **527** Well settled Jat Sikh parents invite matrimonial alliance for their son, 31 yrs. old, 6' tall, clean shaven, non drinker, Canadian born and raised, professionally engineer in electrical and working with a large corporation in BC. The girl should be educated with family values, beautiful, slim, at least 5'-5" tall, below 30 yrs. of age and from BC only. Please call: 604-217-0556 **527** Toronto based Jat Sikh Brar boy, 27 yrs. old, 5'-11" tall, Canadian born, CGA accountant, working with a top ranking CA firm, own house, well settled, wears turban, vegetarian and non drinker.

Looking for a well educated and professionally employed girl in Canada, preferably from Toronto.

Please email recent picture and bio-data to email: ruby.d@hotmail.com or call: 416666-8997 **527** Jat Sikh parents invite a matrimonial alliance for their daughter, 35 yrs. old, 5'-3" tall, professionally employed, never married, RN and well versed in both cultures. The boy should be employed and preferably from Canada or GTA resident only or willing to relocate. Please send biodata and picture to email: rnhealth2013@hotmail.com or call: 647-987-9685 **527** Jat Sikh parents invite a matrimonial alliance for their daughter, 40 yrs. old 5'-3" Tall, born and raised in Canada, university graduate, settled in job, intelligent and beautiful. The boy should be born and raised in Canada, well educated and professionally settled. Ph: 604626-0444 or 778-386-7060 **527** Well settled Jat Sikh parents invite a matrimonial alliance for their son, 31 yrs. old, 6 ft. tall, mechanical engineer, born and educated in Toronto, working with a large corporation. The girl should be educated with good family values, age under 30 yrs. old. Please send a recent picture and biodata to: matrimonial22@hotmail.com or call: 905-301-7422 **527** Seeking Jatt Sikh male for Jatt

10 Sep. to 16 Sep., 2013

Sikh female, 32 years, divorced.

Looking for a handsome, hardworking, honest male, divorcee will be taken into consideration. No calls from India please. Call 604-725-3234 if interested. **527** Match for Jat Sikh girl, 33 yrs. old, 5'-2" tall, divorced, without kids, beautiful, slim, Canadian citizen, well educated, working as a nurse, living with moral and ethical values. The boy should be very well settled, between 3545 yrs. of age, divorced without kids and with good family values.

No student or visitor please.

Contact from Canada with biodata and picture to email: beautifulbc2013@gmail.com or call: 778-872-2004 **527** Ramgarhia parents seek a suitable match for their daughter, beautiful, fair complexion, finished her nursing course and pursuing internship in India also graduating in Commerce (B.Com.), 27 yrs. old, 5' tall. The boy should be US / Canadian immigrant or citizen. Uncle well settled in Canada and USA. Please contact email: sohalsp@gmail.com or call: 416-247-8865 (between 7pm to 8:30 pm) or 416-878-1970 (between 8:30 am to 7pm) **527** Ramgarhia parents seeking a suitable match for their daughter, 31 yrs. old, 5'-1" tall, USA citizen, B.S. Airport Management / Aircraft dispatcher. The boy should be from America or Canada, well educated and well settled vegetarian. Student visa could also be considered. Doaba area preferred. Please send a recent picture and biodata to email: kuldeepsc82@gmail.com or call: 347-484-1441 **527** Ramgarhia American citizen boy, 30 yrs. old, 5'-7" tall, B.S aeronautical engineer, working with American Airlines, vegetarian, looking for an American/ Canadian well educated and beautiful girl.

Student visa / visitor visa could also be considered. Doaba area preferred. Please respond with a recent picture and biodata to email: kuldeepsc82@gmail. com or call: 347-484-1441 **527** Seeking a beautiful Sikh girl for a Canadian born, 35 yrs. old, 6' tall, Jat Sikh turbaned boy, employed as a computer engineer in Toronto. For further details please send biodata and recent picture to: gurcharan.kaur45@gmail.com or call: 416-768-9605 **527** Canadian Sikh Tonk Kashatriya parents seek a suitable match from Canada for their Canadian citizen son, 35 yrs. old, 5'-8" tall, never married, Indian born, M.A., employed with reputed company.

The girl should be educated, family oriented and well versed in both cultures. Those on study / work permit could also be considered. Please send a recent picture and biodata to e m a i l :

idealmatch13@hotmail.com or call: 604-591-3698 **527** Jat Sikh parents seek a suitable match for their Canadian born daughter, 28 yrs. old, 5'-5" tall, M.Sc. degree holder, vegetarian, working in a hospital. The boy should be Canadian born, educated, clean shaven, well settled, professionally employed and at least 6' tall. Doaba area preferred. Please call: 647-2908059 (weekdays 3:00-9:00pm, weekend 9:00am - 9:00pm) ***527*** Sikh parents seek a eligible alliance for their intelligent, down to earth and beautiful daughter, 29 yrs. old, 5'-4" tall, M.Sc. from University of Toronto and employed as a research professional. The boy must be university graduate, professionally employed and clean shaven. Please send biodata and picture to email: rc.match.784@ gmail.com or call: 905-792-0981 **527** Suitable match for Mair Rajput (Sikh goldsmith) boy, 27 yrs. old, 6' tall, handsome, registered pharmacist, studying medicine in USA (doing rotations), small family, well settled in Surrey (B.C.). Sister also studying medicine.

Looking for professionally qualified and beautiful girl. Please email recent picture and bio-data to email: sukhdev_32@hotmail.com or call: 604-346-6175 **527** Well settled Jat Sikh family seeks a suitable match for their son, 29 yrs. old, 6' tall, Canadian citizen, well educated, well settled. The girl should be tall, fair, slim, educated and family oriented. Please respond with a recent picture and bio-data to email: bajwp77@gmail.com **527** Jat Sikh parents invite a matrimonial alliance for their daughter, 34 yrs. old, 5'-3" tall, professionally employed, never married, RN and well versed in both cultures. The boy should be employed and preferably from Canada or GTA resident only or willing to relocate. Please send biodata and picture to email: balnat2012@hotmail.com or call: 647-987-9685 **527** Jat Sikh parents seek a suitable match for their Canadian citizen daughter, 29 yrs.old, 5'-7" tall and professionally a doctor. The boy should be well educated, professionally employed. Please send a recent picture and biodata to email: jmatrimonial3@gmail.com or call: 905-455-6697 **527** Hindu Punjabi Arora Khatri well educated family seeking a suitable match for their Canadian born daughter, 21 yrs. old, 5'-5" tall, post year medical student, slim and fair. The boy should be well educated, preferred medical field from Canada / USA. Please respond with latest picture and biodata to email: nbassi@outlook.com **527**

Issue # 527 (11)

THE CONTACT

10 Sep. to 16 Sep., 2013

Battered and bruised Hindu goddesses unveiled Looks like a dead end! to highlight plight of India’s sex trafficking victims Elegantly dressed, dripping with jewels and stunningly beautiful, India's pantheon of goddesses holds a special place in the heart of the country's Hindu majority.

But one ad agency has turned the concept upside down by unveiling a hardhitting campaign that depicts Lakshmi, Durga and Saraswati as the victims of domestic abuse.

Described by commentators, including the team at Scoopwhoop.com, as something that 'needs to be taken more seriously', the shocking images are intended to highlight the plight of India's most vulnerable women, including victims of human trafficking.

The text accompanying the shocking images reads: 'Pray that we never see this day. Today, more than 68 per cent of women in India are victims of domestic violence.

Tomorrow, it seems like no woman shall be spared.

Not even the ones we pray to.' Although the horrific gang rape and murder of student Jyoti Singh last

December caused outrage across the world and intensified Indian government efforts to get to grips with endemic domestic violence, little is known about human trafficking.

counselling while also providing them with education and life skills needed to keep them off the streets.Other initiatives include workshops set up to employ trafficking victims and give them a

According to Save the Children India, which commissioned the images to promote its Save Our Sisters anti-trafficking initiative, trafficking of young girls and women for sexual exploitation is all too common.Along with campaigning, the charity hopes to tackle the problem through its Sahas Kendra Livelihood Programme, which helps victims of trafficking to overcome their experiences through

new future in the garment industry - two of which are supported by Beulah London founder Lady Natasha Rufus-Isaacs who has seen the plight of India's exploited women and girls first hand.

'Both Lavinia [Brennan] and I witnessed the effects of human trafficking in India 2010 when we worked in local slum schools, and at an aftercare home with trafficked girls,' she reveals.'It opened our eyes to this horrific crime, and

The underwater park created every year When snow melts from surrounding mountains At first glance, these photographs seem to show a scuba diver exploring the depths of an underwater

enjoying the stunning landscape from one of the benches set near the water's edge.

They can wander down several footpaths and

world.But if you look more carefully you will see a tree, a bridge and even a park bench.

In fact these incredible images show a diver traversing an Austrian lake that floods every year, covering everything in the surrounding area.

Set among the snowy Karst mountains, the Green Lake in Tragoess, Austria, is normally only one metre deep.

For most of the year, visitors to the beauty spot can leisurely stroll around the picturesque lagoon,

cross one of many small bridges. But every year when the snow melts, the lake floods and submerges everything surrounding it.

Around twelve metres of water covers trees, footpaths, benches and bridges. Gallons of clear, 7°C water doubles its size from 2,000sq metres to over 4,000sq metres.

Diver Marc Henauer, from Perly, Switzerland, heard about the natural phenomenon and came to explore the lake for himself.The 39-year-old said: 'When I was

underwater, it felt like I was swimming in a magical world, it was so beautiful.

Swimming over the green grass, flowers, paths, rocks and trees was like being in a fairy tale.

'We were lucky that the sun created fantastic light rays through the water. My wife and I stayed there for seven days and we did three dives every day, spending one hour on each dive.'

Mr Henauer, who works in central purchasing in Geneva, was thrilled with the set of photos.

He added: 'All pictures were taken in natural light without a flash. I am very delighted with the result because we had a lot of problems with the heavy rain, thunderstorms and wind.'We only had a very short time to take images when the sun was in a perfect position. Diving is possible only for a month in the spring. Throughout the year the depth of the lake is too low. The visibility is just incredible.

Usually you only see water like that this in tropical seas.'

we were shocked at that this sort of modern-day slavery still goes on.

'It's one of the largest crimes in our society today - more so than trafficking drugs. Drugs can be sold once but human beings can be sold over and over again, it is an extremely lucrative market.'

Beulah works with antitrafficking organisations Freeset and Open Hand in Delhi and Calcutta, which produce canvas bags and some garments for the label.Rufus-Isaacs added: 'We launched Beulah London in 2011 to help provide a sustainable livelihood to those that have come out of sex trafficking.

'The name Beulah represents the journey of woman coming out of despair into a new life of hope and restoration.

'We fully support the Abused Goddesses campaign, and its aim to raise awareness of human trafficking.

'The imag ery is powerful and moving, and we hope it will help prevent and protect many women from being trafficked in the future.'

Sculptor with a reputation for using street art to shock viewers creates piece that appears to be a man crushed under an apartment block Maybe this artist is hoping to build on his reputation for creating shocking installations. But Italian experimental sculptor Fra Biancoshock certainly

different concept from being an artist and further still, from being a street artist. 'My "experiences" are not showcases to promote my activities, they do not require any description. 'They are simply opportu-nities to communicate and provoke reactions from common people. 'I'm talking about all those who, although with little or no artistic education,

had the residents of Prague stopping in their tracks when they came across his latest piece of work.The artwork, entitled 'urban intervention', was made to seem as if a building in the Czech capital had fallen from the sky to crush an unsuspecting rough sleeper. Bianco-shock is developing a growing following of fans with his 'pop up' installations which appear randomly in streets around Europe. Explaining the idea behind his latest concept, He said: 'Biancoshock is a

still want to be surprised and moved by something that was left on the street for all to see.' Biancoshock is part of a new breed of unconventional and provocative street artists. According to the biography on his own website, 'He does not read about art, he does not work in the art field, he does not paint, he is not part of a scene and, above all, as soon as he can, he takes his distances from all the cliches that build the fancy world of art.

Issue # 527 (12)

THE CONTACT

10 Sep. to 16 Sep., 2013

School principal apologises after Muslim A ‘cure’ for Down’s syndrome? pupils were accidentally fed ‘halal’ chicken sandwiches containing BACON Scientists discover compound that reverses learning difficulties caused by the condition

A school principal has apologised after Muslim pupils were inadvertently fed bacon when a box of sandwich spread was wrongly labelled as halal chicken and sweetcorn.Chris Quinn, the executive principal of Ninestiles School in Acocks Green, Birmingham, formally apologised for the mix up on the school's website, putting it down to 'human error'. A former teacher pointed out the mistake after eating one of the baguettes herself at the school where more than 50 per cent of pupils are from ethnic minorities. The principal posted a statement of apology on the school's website, saying it is 'nationally and internationally acknowledged as a high achieving, innovative and exciting school which recognises and celebrates the diversity of its community.'The halal food error was discovered by a Muslim teacher who had bought one of the baguettes at lunch in July, during the last week of term before the summer break.

The teacher, who has now left the school, said: 'All the halal food is meant to be labelled clearly as halal and I took what I believed was a halal chicken and sweetcorn baguette.'But after eating it I became aware of a smoky smell and taste. As I

looked inside I was horrified to find that there were pieces of what I thought were ham.'She approached catering staff who confirmed the mislabelled baguette contained bacon. 'I felt physically repulsed, terribly upset. I had never eaten pork before and couldn't believe I was eating it by mistake at school,' the teacher said.

'I had taken the last baguette so all the others and the sandwiches with the same filler in would have been eaten by the pupils, many of whom are Muslim.'This means pupils were therefore not only given non-halal chicken, but were also given bacon, a meat that is clearly forbidden in Islam and is not supposed to be anywhere near the lips of a Muslim.'

The teacher complained to the school immediately and an investigation was launched, with the full apology issued this week.

An above average number of students at the school are eligible for free school meals, according to its last Ofsted inspection report. Just over half are white British; slightly more than ten per cent are from Asian Pakistani backgrounds and a similar proportion are of Asian Indian heritage, the report said.

A special unit attached to the school has 45 students with speech and language or 'community difficulties'.

In her website apology Ms Quinn said: 'It has come to the school's notice that a small number of sandwiches, sold on the 17th July 2013, which were labelled as halal, contained products which were not halal.

'The school apologises for this unfortunate mistake. It is an important part of Ninestiles' ethos that we meet the dietary requirements of all our students and staff.'The school is taking steps to ensure its suppliers meet their commitment to the school's expectations with regards to food standards. The school is also reviewing its own procedures to ensure that this does not happen again.

A compound that reverses Down's syndrome-like learning disabilities has been identified.

Researchers used the compound to reverse learning disabilities in mice.

However, it only works when given to affected mice on the day of their birth. The Down's Syndrome Association has described the finding as of 'great interest' but recognises that it would not help people currently living with Down's syndrome.

U.S. researchers, led by Professor Roger Reeves at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, in Baltimore, identified the compound that dramatically boosts the learning ability and memory of mice with a Down's syndrome-like condition.They believe that a single dose encourages the cerebellum of the rodents' brains to grow to a normal size - most people with Down's syndrome have a cerebellum that is only 60 per cent of the normal size.

After being injected with the compound, the rodents' were able to function as well as mice without learning disabilities in behavioural tests.The scientists have warned that use of the compound, a small molecule known as a sonic hedgehog pathway agonist, has not been proved safe for use in people with

Down's syndrome, but say their experiments hold promise for developing drugs like it.Carol Boys, chief executive of the Down's Syndrome Association, said: 'Professor Reeves and his

A six-year-old Indian girl who was locked in a room and raped is being forced to marry the eightyear-old son of her alleged attacker.

The victim, who lives in the village of Keshavpura, in Rajasthan, was attacked by the 40-year-old around two weeks ago, it is claimed.

Instead of going to police, her family complained to council elders who held a meeting to decide what should happen to the alleged rapist.

Astonishingly, they then told the girl's parents that their daughter must marry her attacker's eight-year-old son.

Meanwhile, the girl is believed to have been raped by the same man again on Wednesday, according to NDTV. The victim's family has refused to accept the elders' decision.The case is the latest in a string of horrific sexual assaults on women and young girls in India, including a fatal attack on a 23-year-old medical student in Delhi late last year and the rape of a photojournalist in Mumbai last month. In the latest case in Keshavpura, which is about 150 miles from the city of Jaipur, police only became involved after social activists brought the victim and her

parents to Mahaveer Nagar police station in Kota to file a complaint.The man was arrested and an investigation has been launched into the allegations against the council elder.

A police spokesman said: 'He locked her in a room and raped her. Instead of registering a police complaint, elders belonging to the girl's caste called a panchayat (village council) meeting.'

Rajasthan is one of the most conservative states in India and, despite efforts by campaigners, child marriage is still relatively common.The attack comes amid nationwide protests to force Indian authorities to introduce tougher laws for crimes against women and girls.Last December, a 23-year-old medical student

was gang-raped and murdered while travelling on a bus in Delhi.

The case has sparked outrage and revulsion among the public after one of her teenage attackers has been sentenced to only three years' punishment for the crime.

Last week, the victim's father spoke out against the verdict, saying: 'It's a crime to be born a girl in this country.'

A 22-year-old photojournalist was also the victim of a gangrape by five men on the compound of Shakti Mills in Mumbai last month.

The young woman, who was accompanied by a male colleague who was beaten by the attackers, was allegedly raped during an assignment on August 22.

team are part of the respected worldwide Down's syndrome research community. 'This successful piece of clinical research will be of great interest to them all. 'As Professor Reeves explains, this is not going to translate into clinical applications for people currently living with the condition but is another step along the path of understanding the complexity of an extra chromosome 21 in every single cell.'Down's syndrome is a genetic condition that causes learning disabilities and a characteristic range of physical features.

Could a lack of sleep Indian rape victim, six, is forced to marry be making you FAT? eight-year-old son of the ‘man who attacked her' Study finds tiredness causes people to eat higher calorie foods

A lack of sleep not only increases tiredness and irritability - it can also expand your waistline.After being deprived of one night's rest, participants in a study went on to purchase food that was higher in calories and weighed almost a fifth more than their normal shop.Scientists from Uppsala University in Sweden found that poor or no sleep resulted in raised levels of a hormone that is linked to boosting hunger.

Instead, the findings suggest another mechanism, such as reduced willpower or impulsive decision making, may be to blame.In the tests, adults who spent an entire night with no sleep were given a selection of 40 food items the following morning. They bought food with nine per cent more calories compared to mornings when they had a night's sleep.Shopping while tired could have a knock-on effect for our overall wellbeing, the researchers warned, as individuals will often purchase several meals during one trip.'We hypothesised that sleep deprivation's impact on hunger and decision making would make for the 'perfect storm'

with regard to shopping and food purchasing-leaving individuals hungrier and less capable of employing self-control and higher-

level decision-making processes to avoid making impulsive, calorie-driven purchases,' said lead author Colin Chapman from Uppsala University in Sweden.

The study, published in the journal Obesity, examined 14 men who were of normal weight.

After one night of total sleep deprivation, they were given a fixed budget of around £30 to spend on a display of foods that included 20 high-calorie and 20 low-calorie options.

Issue # 527 (13)

THE CONTACT

10 Sep. to 16 Sep., 2013

Still frisky at 50!

Woman sues hospital after anesthesiologist put mustache and teardrop STICKERS on her face

As a joke and nurse took picture during surgery A woman undergoing a minor surgery at a Southern California hospital was shocked to discover that her anesthesiologist decorated her face with stickers while she was unconscious and then had a nurse text her a photo of his handiwork.

According to a lawsuit filed by the patient, Veronica Valdez, during an operation on her finger at Torrance Memorial Medical Center in October 2011, Dr. Patrick Yang used stickers to give her a black mustache and teardrops under her left eye.

A nurse's aide then used a cell phone to snap a picture of Valdez, 36, looking like 'a male member of a street gang,' according to the court filings cited by ABC7.

Miss Valdez worked at the hospital for 13 years before the

surgery and was 'friendly' with the anesthesiologist and staff present in the operating room that day.

The hospital called the incident a breach of professionalism and said in a statement that it demonstrated poor judgment on the part of the doctor and the nurse's aide borne out of their familiarity with the patient, according to the Los Angeles Times.

Dr Yang said in a deposition that he cut out and colored the stickers, and then placed them on Valdez's face near the end of the hour-long procedure.

'I thought she would think this is funny and she would appreciate it,' he said.

The Daily Breeze reported that when Yang was asked if he was bored at the time, he responded that he simply thought that his then-colleague 'would get a kick out of it.'

Nursing attendant Patricia

Gomez took Valdez's photo at Yang's request. Gomez testified in her deposition that she didn't email or post the photo anywhere, and deleted it after showing it to Valdez.

'I felt violated. I was in shock,' Valdez said in court documents.

Others testified in depositions about seeing a surgery photo of Valdez posted on Facebook.

In court filings, lawyers for the hospital said there was no evidence the photo was published online.

Hospital officials reported the incident to state regulators as a potential violation of medical privacy. Dr Yang and other employees involved in the incident were briefly suspended, but ultimately allowed to keep their jobs. Hospital employees were also given additional training on privacy in the aftermath of the incident.

Torrance has since put in

place a zero-tolerance policy for any unauthorized photography, and staffers now must sign a confidentially agreement.

Valdez's civil suit is scheduled for trial in January.

She's seeking damages from the hospital, the anesthesiologist and his medical group for violation of privacy, infliction of emotional distress and other allegations.

Her attorney, Andrew Ryan, said Miss Valdez was forced to quit her job ordering and maintaining supplies for the hospital's operating rooms because she was 'ridiculed and humiliated while under anesthesia.' Valdez's lawsuit

claims that there may also be a sexually suggestive photo of her taken during the procedure.

According to court filings, Miss Valdez's neck was positioned while she under anesthesia 'so that they could keep her mouth open in order to make a crude sexual joke.'

In response, Torrance Memorial said the allegations in Valdez's lawsuit were 'factually inaccurate, grossly exaggerated or fabricated.' It will present a motion to dismiss the case in November.

In court filings, the hospital contends that Valdez is trying to 'play litigation lottery' against a 'deep-pocket defendant.

Want to work out if someone is lying?

The boy who never stops SMILING

Time their texts: Liars take longer to reply because they're making up stories

walking and talking but is always happy

Have you ever noticed an awkward pause in the middle of a text message conversation?

New research suggests that you should be suspicious of those

Dr Meservy and fellow BYU professor Dr Jeffrey Jenkins, along with colleagues at the University of Nebraska-Omaha and the University of Arizona, set

pregnant pauses.

U.S. researchers have discovered that people who are lying in digital messages take longer to respond.

The study also found when people lie in digital messages texts, social media, email, and instant messages - they make more edits and write shorter responses than usual.

'Digital conversations are a fertile ground for deception because people can easily conceal their identity and their messages often appear credible,' said Dr Tom Meservy, Brigham Young University in Utah.

'Unfortunately, humans are terrible at detecting deception.

We're creating methods to correct that.'According to Dr Meservy, humans can detect lies about 54 per cent of the time if they are lied to in person. It is even harder to tell when someone is lying through a digital message because you cannot hear a voice or see an expression.

up an experimental instrument that tracked possible cues of online lying.

The researchers created a computer programme that carried out online conversations with participants.More than 100 students from two universities had conversations with the computer, which asked them 30 questions each.The participants were told to lie in about half of their responses. The researchers found responses filled with lies took 10 per cent longer to create and were edited more than truthful messages.'We are starting to identify signs given off by individuals that aren't easily tracked by humans,' Dr Meservy said. 'The potential is that chatbased systems could be created to track deception in real-time.'

The findings appear online this week in the academic information systems journal ACM Transactions on Management Information Systems.

Toddler with rare genetic disorder has difficulty A toddler suffers from a rare genetic condition which means he cannot stop smiling.

Ollie Petherick, two, from Devizes, Wiltshire, was born with Angelman syndrome - a chromosome disorder which causes severe learning difficulties - and puts a permanent smile on his face.

Sufferers present a happy demeanour, so are often smiling or laughing, and tend to be easily excited.

The condition is so rare that less than 1,000 cases have been reported in the UK. Ollie's mother, Annie Campbell, said: 'Ollie's smile and happy personality just makes everything worthwhile.

'I can be seriously sleep deprived but his smile never fails to cheer me up - he has a knack of really making you feel his excitement and his giggle is just amazing. 'The only thing any parent wants is for their child to be happy, and I know that with Ollie, I will always have that.'

Ms Campbell, 24, often receives compliments about her little boy's beaming smile.

She said: 'We get a lot of comments about his smile when we're out which his lovely - it really does make you happy when you see his grin.

'He was a very relaxed and placid baby too - he'd always babble away to himself without a care in the world.' Ms Campbell, who is now a full time carer for her son, only discovered Ollie's condition when she noticed he couldn't focus on things properly.She said: 'Ollie was six-months-old when I

started to notice that his development was delayed - his older brother was much more advanced at his age.

'Then, one evening, I spent hours trying to get him to follow my finger with his eyes, and he just couldn't do it.

magazine, and was convinced it was what her son suffered from.

She said: 'I'd read an article in the magazine and the symptoms they were described were exactly the same as Ollie's.

'I really started to worry, so the next morning I went to the GP to be on the safe side.

'We were referred to the hospital where they did eye tests, but we were eventually told that Ollie suffered from something neurological, but they weren't quite sure what.'Ms Campbell was then transferred to a second hospital where her little boy underwent more tests.

Meanwhile, she had come across Angelman syndrome in a

'I rang his dad straight away and told him that Ollie had Angelman - I was certain of it.

'I just knew that's what he had, and then two days later six weeks after our first appointment - it was confirmed by the doctors.'By this point, I'd already convinced myself he had Angelman, so it was a relief to finally get a diagnosis. I just wanted to learn as much as I could about it so I knew how to help Ollie.

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Two-year-old girl WALKED out of private nursery and all the way home After ‘workman left door open’

On her first day at nursery school, Louise Hilton walked the half mile there and back handin-hand with her mother.

The two-year-old did the same on her second morning and so, when she later spotted an open door, had no hesitation in striking out for home by herself.

Braving busy roads, a roundabout, two subways and woods while narrowly avoiding a canal, the toddler made her way back from the privately run nursery.

On arriving home, she announced to her astonished mother Samantha O'Connor: 'I have walked home on my own - aren't I a big girl?'

No one noticed she had gone and no passerby intervened even though her route took her past a

busy pub.

Yesterday her father John Hilton, 30, said: 'It is frightening to think what might have happened had the wrong person seen her.

'There is a canal 50 yards from the house and she always tries to jump in and feed the ducks but cannot swim.

'It's so shocking that they cannot even notice she's gone. Anything could have happened.'

Miss O'Connor, 26, took Louise on the 15-minute walk to Windmill Hill Nursery near their home in Runcorn, Cheshire, for the first time on Monday and again on Wednesday.

At 2pm, there was a knock at the door when Mr Hilton, who delivers cars for a living, was also at home.

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Volcano the size of Oregon discovered beneath the Pacific Ocean But luckily it’s extinct A giant volcano that covers the same area as the whole of the UK has been discovered buried deep beneath the Pacific Ocean.

Tamu Massif sits 1,000 miles east of Japan, along the Shatsky Rise plate, its tip is 6,500 feet below the ocean surface and it stretches around 400 miles wide.

After studying rock samples, scientists from the University of Houston believe the behemoth is the volcano that caused the underwater Shatsky Rise mountain range to form between 130 and 145 million years ago and may be the largest volcano in the solar system - even wider than the giant Olympus Mons volcano on Mars.

William Sager, a professor in the Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences at the university, began studying the volcano 20 years ago.

Tamu Massif is the largest feature of the Shatsky Rise, which was formed following the eruption of several underwater volcanoes.

Why women really are the stronger sex Research suggests testosterone weakens the immune system (which means man flu could actually be real) When it comes to fighting cancer, do men have one hand tied behind their back? Women are far less likely to die from the deadly form of skin cancer melanoma, according to a report out last week.

And experts suggest that part of the reason could be due to their more aggressive immune system.'It's generally accepted that women have a more responsive immune system,' says Professor Peter Johnson, chief clinician at Cancer Research UK. 'They respond more reliably to vaccinations which work by activating the immune system.

Fewer vaccinations "fail to take" in women. Men's immune systems, by contrast, are harder to stir up.'

What this means is that men's immune systems are a bit less likely to clear away cells that are beginning to turn cancerous, or stop cells

10 Sep. to 16 Sep., 2013

from a tumour spreading round the body. This is what could be happening with melanoma.'This sort of cancer is particularly responsive to the state of the immune system,'

drive too fast and get into fights, also has the effect of damping down the immune system. Several years ago, researchers at the famous Mayo Clinic in the U.S. found that one way

explains Professor Johnson. 'Men tend to have melanomas that have grown thicker by the time they are diagnosed, and they are more likely to come back.' So why is a man's internal defence system less alert? One culprit is generally agreed to be testosterone which, besides being required for muscles, beards, square chins and a readiness to

to boost the immune response in male mice was sharply to reduce their testosterone level. 'It drives up the number of immune cells being produced,' commented the lead researcher. 'What's more, the new immune cells in the testosterone-free mice are more aggressive and ready to attack than the ones the animals were producing earlier.'

Until now, scientists were unsure whether Tamu Massif was a single volcano, or was made up of multiple eruption points.

The team of researchers studied core

Sager continued that Tamu Massif stands out among underwater volcanoes not only because of its size, but also its unusual shape.

It is said to be 'low and

samples, radars and data collected from the region to confirm that the huge mass of basalt that makes up the volcano erupted from a single source near the centre.

Sager said: 'Tamu Massif is the biggest single shield volcano ever discovered on Earth.

'There may be larger volcanoes, because there are bigger igneous features out there such as the Ontong Java Plateau, but we don't know if these features are one volcano or complexes of volcanoes.'

broad', which suggests the erupted lava flows would have travelled longer distances compared to other volcanoes known about on Earth.

Other underwater volcanoes are predominantly small and steep.

'It's not high, but very wide, so the flank slopes are very gradual,' said Sager.

'In fact, if you were standing on its flank, you would have trouble telling which way is downhill.

'We know that it is a

single immense volcano constructed from massive lava flows that emanated from the center of the volcano to form a broad, shield-like shape.

Before now, we didn't know this because oceanic plateaus are huge features hidden beneath the sea.

'They have found a good place to hide.'

Tamu Massif covers an area of about 120,000 square miles - an area roughly equivalent to the British Isles.

The largest volcano on Earth is Hawaii's Mauna Loa that covers approximately 2,000 square miles - just two per cent of the size of Tamu Massif.

The Olympus Mons volcano on Mars isn't as wide as Tamu Massif stretching 370 miles across - but it's overall mass is said to be approximately 25 per cent larger than Tamu Massif.

Sager added that Tamu Massif is around 145 million years old but 'became inactive within a few million years after it was formed'.

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10 Sep. to 16 Sep., 2013

Special Sale 50% off For More Detail Please Contact : 416-992-5489

Issue #527 (16)

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Lonely Bachelor Wanders around Manhattan Looking for a Rich Wife For the past 12 years, Robert Darling, a 58-year old unemployed man from New jersey, has been traveling to Manhattan in search of a life companion. To make it easier for women to notice him, he carries a sandwich board which reads “Looking for a rich lady to be my wife”, along with his phone number and email.

Robert Darling has never had much luck with the ladies. He has never been in a serious relationship, and never realized he wanted

someone to spend the rest of his life with until his middle age. And because he got such a late start in his quest for love, he decided extreme measures were necessary to find a suitable companion. Ever since 2001, Robert has been traveling to Manhattan twice a week to advertise himself to potential wives using a sandwich board. It might sound like a joke o a lot of people, but the lonely bachelor says that every time he leaves home he tells himself that

could be the day he finally meets the woman he will settle down with. The sign is pretty clear about his intentions, but so far it hasn’t worked quite as well as he would have hoped. Many women have stopped to have a talk with Darling or have their picture taken with him, but he has been on a single date, and that was with a woman who actually wanted him to marry a friend of hers so she could get a green card.

Fancy Dresser Wears a Different Costume Every Day for a Year

Mary Saba, a young Australian woman whose favorite hobby is creating funny costumes, challenged herself to wear a different one every day for a whole year. Since most of her costume were homemade, Mary only needed $440 to reach her goal.

Even before she started her original project, Mary’s friends called her “costume queen” for the time and passion she put into every one of her wacky outfits.

She had always enjoyed creating funny attires and having people walk up to her just to say how cool they think she looks. “Most people have regular hobbies – reading, writing, dancing, playing sports – but I always received most enjoyment from creating a really funny costume,” Mary writes on her Theme-Me blog, where

she documented her personal challenge. The idea to create and wear 365 different costumes came to her around Christmas, in 2011, when she decided to dress in a series of green and red outfits every day during the last week of work, as a way of getting into the festive spirit of the Holidays. One day, she overheard some of her colleagues discussing which ones of her costumes they liked most, and that’s when she realized just how much her dressing habit entertained those around her. Mary then thought of The Uniform Project, where a girl pledged to style a black dress differently everyday for 365 days as an exercise in sustainable fashion, and it all just came together in her head.

10 Sep. to 16 Sep., 2013

Wife Tells Husband to Take Up a Hobby, He Builds a Giant Wine Cork Rhinoceros

Two California couples, Jim and Mary Lambert of Carmichael, and Bob and Di Nelson of Fair Oaks, have spent the last three years making a life-size rhinoceros sculpture out of plywood, foam and 12,000 wine corks. It all started one day, three years ago, when Mary told her husband Jim to take up a hobby. Instead of choosing a typical passtime like fishing or woodworking, Jim immediately thought of the thousands of wine corks he had been collecting for the past 20 years, and said ‘OK, I will build a giraffe out of corks.’ But then he realized giraffes are 20 feet tall and quickly changed his idea. ”I said, ‘Mary, forget the giraffe, we’re going to build a rhi-

noceros,’ ” Lambert told the Sacramento Bee. Jim’s sole artistic experience was an art class he had taken back in college, but Bob Nelson and his wife Di, old friends of the Lamberts, were eager to jump on board as soon as they heard about the quirky project.

They put up their garage as a work space, and Bob, who was an architect, started working on the frame of the artwork.

Using an online photo of a rhinoceros as a guide for proportions and size, Nelson crafted the structural frame from plywood and added pieces of plastic foam to give it the appropriate shape. All that was left to do was cover the whole 12-foot-long sculpture with Jim’s wine corks.

Awesome Dad Sends His Kids’ Toys into Outer Space, Records the Whole Trip

No Internet, No Cable, No Problem Canadian Family Lives Like It’s 1986 Most people couldn’t imagine a day without their fancy smartphones, but a family in Guelph, Canada has decided to shun all post-1986 technology from their lives for a whole year, as part of a social experiment.

It all started last year when Blair McMillan asked his five-year old son if he wanted to come outside and play, only to realize that even on a perfect summer day the child preferred to stay indoors and play video games on an iPad. He started thinking about his own childhood and how today’s youth have become so dependent on modern technology like computers, mobile phones and the internet. The 26year-old father-of-two talked to teens and young people in their 20?s, most of which confessed they

couldn’t even picture their lives without all their different gadgets, and began questioning contemporary public service announce-

ments that encourage parents to get their kids active outdoors for at least 30 minutes a day. He remembered that when he was a

child, it was nearly impossible to keep kids siting quietly indoors for half an hour. And that’s when it hit him – what if he could go back in time and give his own children a taste of how life was back then? Since April, the McMillans have given up all modern-day technology, and went back to living in 1986 (the year Blair and his wife were born) with its bad hair, cassette tapes and most importantly, real social interaction.

Mother arrested in China for breastfeeding baby while driving a moped

A woman has been stopped by police for aparently breastfeeding her baby while riding a moped. The young mother was allegedly driving through the streets of Yuzhou, China when she was pulled over. Officers said she was weaving through traffic while holding her 18-month-old son on her lap as he breastfed, and they pulled her over before she had an accident. Witnesses have claimed they saw the mother begin to breastfeed the child while keeping a hand on the handlebars.

'The Huffington Post reports that police were concerned she was risking her life, her son's life and the lives of all the other road users.

Children make all kinds of ridiculous requests, and sometimes parents agree to them, even if they don’t plan on keeping their promises.

But not Nicholas L., a French father-of-three who in order not to let his kids down actually sent a couple of their toys into outer space.

Last December, Nicholas’ three children asked him to send their favorite toys into space.

Without giving much thought to what he was getting himself into, the young father agreed.

Later he realized he didn’t want to be the kind of parent who disappoints his kids by not keeping his word, so he embarked on an incredible project to

fulfill their wish. In the beginning, the Frenchman had no idea how he was going to pull it off, but after spending four months researching online he had a list of necessary equipment to fly the toys into outer space and retrieve them, as per his kids request. He ordered a weather balloon from a US army surplus store, and had the parachute and GPS tracker shipped all he way from Hong Kong. He was ready for the big test, but he needed proof to show his kids he had actually sent their toys into outer space, so he installed two GoPro waterproof cameras on his DIY flying device to record the entire journey.

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10 Sep. to 16 Sep., 2013

You often feel too emotional around this time of the year, as the Sun plays a challenging role.

Remembering that a little learning is a dangerous thing, you’d be silly to worry about your prospects on the basis of false information.

If you have doubts about personal matters, slow down and give yourself plenty of time to think....

A helpful planetary pattern is coming into view, and you’ll benefit in ways which may not be obvious at first, but will become quite soon.

Past efforts are about to pay dividends, and you’ll be overjoyed when a partner concedes that you were right. Pay attention to how you can improve your work prospects in the long run.

Sometimes, you have to accept that life is mysterious. It is strange but true that younger relatives seem to have their finger on the pulse and can spot the truth better than any adult. Listen to all those immature statements and avoid the tendency to laugh, for they may contain a core of truth which will do you a great deal of good.

Your social stars suggest that this is a good time to make the most of new contacts. If you’re planning a career move, use your intuition, and think carefully about the causes and consequences of your actions. Please avoid an unnecessary clash with authority, as you may come off worse!

It may be best to bide your time.

You are famous for knowing exactly what is going on. However, your normal familiarity with the facts is turned on its head this week, even though you could be much more convinced than usual that you know exactly what you’re talking about. It may, though, be no more than wishful thinking!

You can afford to move forward with hope in your heart. Your professional planets are reaching the last of a peak of powerful waves, each of which has promised to lift your achievements higher than before. It is vital that you push your emotional ambitions to the limit or your opportunity will be wasted.

Take advantage of a stimulating planetary line-up to break your normal routine and try something different. There may also be some serious decisions to be made and loose ends to be tied, especially if you’re still at the planning stage.

The good news is that a family goal is now finally coming within your reach.

The fact that your stars will become a little less tense over the coming few weeks doesn’t mean that they’re any less powerful. Indeed, you should find that events, and other people, gently nudge you towards taking a surprisingly adventurous course. There is much to gain and little to lose, so plan your course of action well.

All is change in the celestial realms.

The Moon is sweeping through intimate reaches of your chart, so before the month is out, you’ll have a much better idea of where current personal schemes are heading. You’ll be at the centre of highly productive, innovative changes at work, and you’ll need to be on the ball.

Monetary matters require top consideration, and there is some risk of a loss. However, in your case, the signs will soon be profoundly favourable, especially if property deals or home improvements are underway. Family members will back you, but only if you tell them the truth. Honesty is almost always the best policy!.

One of your skills is your ability to do the right thing in the right place at the right moment. Every period in your life brings its appropriate strategy, and right now your best plan is to seize the moral high ground. This doesn’t mean preaching what you believe to be the truth, but setting an example by your behaviour.

There are times when the heavens reward you for your good work, and this should be one of them. Your romantic stars are at once profound and specific. Two of the most rewarding things you can do are write letters and make phone calls, all with the intention of renewing contacts with people you love.

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10 Sep. to 16 Sep., 2013

Hong Kong doctor offers Giant alligator implants to eye-gouged boy breaks record A six-year-old Chinese boy who had his eyes gouged out by a woman believed to be his aunt may one day see again after a Hong Kong hospital offered him “electronic eyes”.

Hong Kong-based eye expert Dennis Lam said his team would provide the treatment for free to Guo Bin — known as Bin-Bin — who was found covered in blood near his home in the northern Chinese province of Shanxi last month after the horrific attack.

Lam told AFP that future technology could restore up to 40 percent of the boy’s lost vision.

“When I heard about it. I was really angry, very upset.

I was asking myself if I can help,” Lam told AFP. “Being an eye doctor, our greatest sort of encouragement is when the patients see again,” he said.

Lam said that he is still waiting for consent from the child’s parents to bring him to his eye hospital in Shenzhen in southern China, where he can be given a pair of false eyes as

soon as next week.

Cameras in the prosthetic eyes would relay a signal, based on the shape of objects, to an electric pulse generator connected to his tongue helping him to recognise shapes, Lam said.

He added that the technology is already being used in Japan and Europe.

The final goal is to give the boy bionic eyes linked directly to the brain which will help him partially regain his sight, Lam said, a treatment which is still being developed.

“In the high end it (his sight)could be 20 to 40 percent when we talk about ten

years down the road. It’s a wild guess. The ultimate goal is the help him to see again.”

Hong Kong’s Cable TV said the boy’s parents were considering the offer.

The little boy went missing after playing outside and his eyes were found nearby.

Authorities have now made his aunt, who committed suicide on Friday, their prime suspect, state news agency Xinhua said, quoting local police.

The aunt, who Xinhua named as Zhang Huiying, killed herself by jumping into a village well.

Xinhua said police found

the boy’s blood on his aunt’s clothes following DNA tests.

Her younger brother, Zhang Ruihua, denied reports of a family row over caring for the boy’s grandfather. Everyone had agreed to share the cost, he told the Beijing News. “There was no dispute,” he said, adding it was hard to accept his own sister was considered a suspect. Lam’s medical team visited Guo, who is currently being treated in Shanxi.

“He seemed cheerful given that he has gone through so much. He is a very brave boy,” team member Dr Fairooz P. Manjandavida told the South China Morning Post.

Although initial reports suggested that his corneas were missing, prompting speculation that he had been attacked for organ sales, Chinese authorities have ruled that out, saying the corneas were still attached.

The attack has shocked the nation and has stirred fury on the Internet with users demanding retribution.

A record-breaking 727pound alligator has been caught in the Mississippi River in Claiborne County.

Dustin Bockman - a driver for a courier company - captured the reptile within days of the opening of the alligator hunting season.

The huge animal, which is 13ft 4.5ins long, broke the Mississippi weight record set only an hour earlier by another catch.

Mr Bockman described the struggle he and his fellow hunters had while trying to pull the wounded animal into their boat.

“It took us four, probably four-and-a-half hours to

actually catch him from the first time we saw him,” he told WLBT. “And then another four hours trying to load him in the boat, and (we) finally just gave up and called for help.”

The alligator exceeded the weight of a gator caught by hunter Beth Trammell earlier in the day.

Ms Trammel’s alligator - which was caught in Issaquenna County in the Yazoo Diversion Canal weighed a total of 723.5 pounds.

The current Mississippi state length record remains unbroken at 13ft 6.5ins.

Issue #527 (19)

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10 Sep. to 16 Sep., 2013

UAE has vainest skyscrapers

Revealed! Why mornings are

floors, but in developing economies where land and labor is cheaper they can more readily use tall buildings to spark nearby development and make wider schemes viable, said Steve Watts, a tall buildings expert at construction consultancy Alinea.

An Indian scientist has claimed that evidence from people suffering from heart disease supports the existence of the molecular link first discovered in laboratory mice between the body’s natural circadian rhythms and cardiac arrest or sudden cardiac death.Mukesh Jain, M.D., said that it pinpoints a previously unrecognised factor in the electrical storm that makes the heart’s main pumping chambers suddenly begin to beat erratically in a way that stops the flow of blood to the brain and body.

A pint-sized android has uttered the first robotic words in space, showcasing Japan’s drive to combine cutting-edge technology with cuteness.

The wide-eyed and bootie-wearing “Kirobo” — roughly the size of a chihuahua — broadcast a message from inside the International Space Station, greeting citizens of Earth and paying cheeky tribute to Neil Armstrong.

“On August 21, 2013, a robot took one small step toward a brighter future for all,” Kirobo said in a video that showed the humanoid creation drifting weightlessly on-board the ISS, as it moved its legs in the air.

The images made their global debut on Wednesday as part of Tokyo’s bid for the 2020 Games during

a presentation ahead of a meeting of the International Olympic Committee in Buenos Aires which will decide the host city.

“Good morning to everyone on Earth. This is Kirobo. I am the world’s first talking robot astronaut.

Nice to meet you,” it said in Japanese. The humanoid was created jointly by

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has the “vainest” skyscrapers in the world, a report measuring the extent of spires and other height-boosting additions to the top of buildings said.

The Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (CTBUH) said unusable space at the top of the UAE’s 19 tallest buildings was an average 19 percent of their total height, a measure it called the “vanity height”.

The building with the largest vanity height is the 828-meter Burj Khalifa in Dubai, of which 29 percent

or 244 meters is unusable - which would rank on its own as the 11th tallest building in Europe, the CTBUH said. The top three was completed by the Zifeng Tower in Nanjing, China, and the Bank of

America Tower in New York. China and the United States were also second and third respectively for the average figure across all of their tall buildings.

Developers typically get higher rents on upper

Smoking warning works just on cigarette pack

Big anti-smoking messages on the front of cigarette packets may help deter youngsters tempted by tobacco but have little effect when they are on the back of the pack, research has found.

Touching on a subject that has stirred controversy in countries where pro- and anti-tobacco lobbies are fighting over smoking controls, investigators looked at data from a large survey among British teenagers.

More than a thousand 11-

to 16-year-olds took part in the survey, which unfolded in two waves, in 2008 and a followup in 2011.

In 2008, cigarette packets sold in Britain had large text warnings on the front and back. In 2011, these were joined by anti-smoking pictures on the back panel of the pack. Between two-thirds and three-quarters of respondents in the survey had never smoked.

Between 17 and 22 percent had experimented with cigarettes.

Around one in 10 were already “regular” smokers, defined as smoking at least one cigarette a week.

All were asked if they recalled the text message or the picture, and say which warning was likely to discourage them from smoking. The most commonly recalled messages were the two types of general warnings on the packet front.

“Smoking kills” was remembered by 58 percent in 2008, while “Smoking seriously harms you and others around you” by 41 percent. These rates fell to 47 percent and 25 percent respectively in 2011.

In contrast, the more specific text messages on the back of the pack were recalled by less than one percent of participants both 2008 and 2011. Recall of the back-of-the-pack images was generally below 10 percent in both waves.

Australian teen tests Apple tolerance with new iPhone leak An Australian teenager who has built an online following by leaking pictures of upcoming Apple Inc products has done it again, showing off the purported fingerprint scanner of the latest iPhone ahead of its expected launch next week.

Sonny Dickson, who lives with his parents in suburban Melbourne, attracted attention in August after he released detailed pictures and videos of the new grey and champagne casing on the upcoming iPhone.

On Thursday, Dickson leaked what he says are the first detailed pictures of the new model’s new “home” button with its rumored biometric fingerprint scanner.

“While the design differences have yet to be technically assessed, they could have a whole lot to do with the rumored biometric fingerprint scanner that numerous pundits and analysts have predicted. In fact, we’d count on it,” Dickson said on his website, http://

sonnydickson.com/ Apple, which zealously controls information of its new product launches in the face of rampant interest from consumers, has invited media to an event on September 10, where it is expected to unveil at least one new model iPhone.

deadliest for heart attack deaths

Japan’s robo-astronaut takes ‘one small step...’

advertising firm Dentsu, the University of Tokyo, robot developer Robo Garage and Toyota. The robot stands just 34 centimetres (13.4 inches) tall and weighs about one kilogram (2.2 pounds).

It left Earth on August 4 on a cargo-carrying rocket that was also delivering supplies to the ISS.

Issue #527 (20)

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10 Sep. to 16 Sep., 2013

Airplane Enthusiasts Girls Squeeze Limes in Sunlight, Suffer Severe Caustic Burns on Their Hands Build Realistic Boeing 737 Cockpit and Flight Simulator

For as long as he can remember, Kjetil Mathisen has been fascinated with flying machines. As a kid he spent most of his time playing with model airplanes, helicopters and virtual flight simulators, but as an adult he has taken his passion to a whole new level by building his very own scale replica of a Boeing 737 cockpit.

32-year-old Kjetil, from Norway, had been talking with his buddy Stian Alexander Hoddevik about building an airplane cockpit for a long time, until one day, about two years ago, when they finally decided to go through with it. At first they wanted to build a McDonnell Douglas MD88 but quickly gave up on their plan after realizing the necessary parts were hard to come by and they would

have had to build most of them from scratch. The Boeing 737, on the other hand, was much more popular and they could easily get their hands on all kinds of hardware, for the right price. They worked in Kjetil’s home for a few hours every day, building the cockpit from scratch and later installing all the necessary equipment, but as their creation took shape, it became clear they needed more room. The day Mathisen had to move his wife’s coffee table out of the living room to work on his project was the day they were forced to set up shop somewhere else. Luckily, the two airplane enthusiasts found an empty space close to Norway’s main airport that proved to be the perfect home for their “baby”.

Burping Champion Tries to Get Drunk by Chugging 30 Non Alcoholic Beers in One

Competitive eater Tim Janus wanted to make history by becoming the first person to get legally drunk on non-alcoholic beer. To reach his goal, Tim recently tried to chug 30 cans of nonalcoholic beer in one hour.

People have been asking if it’s possible to become intoxicated by drinking nonalcoholic beer for years.

Theoretically, it’s possible, but one would have to consume large quantities of the stuff to make it happen. Tim “Eater X” Janus decided he, as a of the International Federation of Competitive Eating, definitely had the stom-

ach to do it, so in April he contacted the Deadspin website to have the stunt documented by a reputable news outlet. Tim estimated he would have to chug around 30 cans of non-alcoholic beer in under an hour in order to reach the .08 alcohol level to be declared legally drunk. That’s over 2.5 gallons of liquid in a very short amount of time, enough to probably kill an ordinary person. But Tim’s stomach is anything but ordinary, as he has proven during the many competitive eating contests he has won throughout the years.

Squeezing a slice of lime into a refreshing drink on a hot summer day isn’t as harmless as you may think. Fredrikke and Selma, two young Norwegian girls, found that out first hand after they suffered from severe Margarita Dermatitis during their vacation in Spain.

Fredrikke and Selma, both seven years old, were vacationing with their families in the Spanish resort of Marbella. One day, during an outdoor lunch, they spotted a lime tree and thought it would be fun to squeeze juice out of its fruits. They went at it for about an hour, enthusiastically squeezing dozens of limes, before going to the beach for a swim, one of the girls’ parents told Norwegian website, Klikk.

But when Fredrikke woke up the next morning, both

her hands were swollen and the skin felt tender to the touch. Thinking it might

be a reaction to mosquito bites, her mother, Kathryn, gave the girl an allergy pill.

Only when they met up with Selma’s family and noticed she presented the exact same symptoms, it became clear that what ever was affecting them had something to do with the limes they had squeezed the other day. After a few hours, both Fredrikke and Selma started complaining of burning pain and their hands began to blister. On the morning of the third day, Fredrikke’s hands looked even worse and her parents knew they had to seek medical help as soon as possible. They jumped on the first plane home, gave the girl painkillers so she could sleep during the flight, and rushed her to the emergency room as soon as they landed in Oslo.

Selma and her family had another week of vacation left so they went to the hospital in Marbella.

Croatian Confectioners Create White-and-Blue Ice Cream, Name It Facebook, Make a Killing Facebook, the world’s most popular social network, has just passed the 100 billion valuation mark, but thanks to a couple of business-savvy ice-cream makers from Croatia, anyone can have a slice of it for as little as 1 euro.

Brothers Admir and Ibi Adili run the Valentino ice cream shop in Tisnom, on Croatia’s Murter island. After noticing his 15-year-old daughter Bibi spent a lot of her free time on Facebook, Admir came up with the idea of creating a Facebook ice cream to attract other fans of the social network.

All he had to do was make a plain white ice cream,

decorate it with blue syrup, slap a “Facebook” sign on it and wait for the new business to roll in.

Believe it or not, his plan actually worked. The treat

has been a big hit with tourists this summer, and Adili told reporters it’s been going like crazy. His Facebook ice cream apparently tastes like chew-

ing gum and candy, but it’s not the flavor that has customers begging for more, but the name and the trademark “Facebook” logo on the sign.

MALAWI TO FEED POOR BY SELLING PRESIDENT’S JET Malawi plans to use the $15 million it gained from selling its presidential jet to feed the more than 1 million people suffering chronic food shortages, the Treasury said on.

Malawi angered Western donors, whose aid typically accounted for about 40 percent of the budget, when the government of late President Bingu wan Mutharika bought the 14-passenger Dassault Falcon 900EX aircraft in 2009.

President Joyce Banda, who took over after Mutharika died of a heart attack in April 2012, made selling the plane a priority as she sought to repair the damage left by the previous president, who picked costly fights

with donors that left the economy a shambles.

“The $15 million we got from the sale of the presidential jet will be used to purchase maize locally to help feed the suffering masses and some of it will go towards legume production,” Treasury spokesman Nations Msowoya said.

The $15 million represents over half the money allotted to buy maize until the end of March for the 1.46 million people listed as suffering from food shortages by the U.N.-affiliated Malawi Vulnerability Assessment Committee, Msowoya said.

Britain, Malawi’s main bilateral donor, criticised the plane purchase and reduced its aid budget to Mutharika’s government by $4.7m because if it.

However, Banda, who faces election next year, has won acclaim in the West for austerity measures and gestures to bolster the economy of the impoverished country.

Banda has cut her salary by 30 percent and pledged to sell off 35 Mercedes Benz cars used by her cabinet.

But moves such as a devaluation of the kwacha currency have stoked inflation, raised the price of food for rural poor and cut into her domestic support.

The sale of the plane to the Virgin Islands company Bohnox Enterprise was announced in May. The luxury jet cost Malawi some $300,000 a year in maintenance and insurance, a government official said.

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Pop-Out Coffee The 3D Latte Art of Kohei Matsuno

Latte art has become very popular in recent years, with more and more talented baristas using the fragile milk foam as a miniature canvas for their artworks, but Japan’s Kohei Matsuno is already taking the delicate art form to a whole new level with his amazing 3D latte masterpieces. Kohei Matsuno used to work in an Osaka restaurant where he used latte art to surprise his clients. However, he noticed people are not so easily impressed with the usual designs on their cups of caffeinated beverages anymore, so he decided to step up his game. He had become an

expert at creating traditional Japanese landscapes, popular manga characters and realistic portraits on milk foam, but he still felt restricted by the flat surface of his delicious canvas. To make things really interested he began using large amounts of milk foam to design all kinds of cute shapes, decorating them with with a sharp utensil, usually a toothpick. This ingenious trick has made Kohei one of the most popular latte artists in Japan. Using the alias “Mattsun”, the young barista now spends his days taking ideas from his fans and turning them into delicious reality.

THE CONTACT

10 Sep. to 16 Sep., 2013

Dead whale shark washes ashore near Philippine capital A dead young whale shark has washed ashore in Manila Bay near the Philippine capital, far from the endangered giant fish’s traditional feeding grounds, fishermen and a wildlife official said Thursday. The five-metre (17foot) corpse took locals by surprise in Tanza, a fishing district near the mouth of the bay, fisherman Edgar Biri told AFP. “It was near the shore, we thought it was some kind of a deadly shark,” he said. “When we ap-

proached, we saw it was not moving anymore.” Local fisheries bureau veterinarian Marco Espiritu said he would examine the 300 kilogram (660 pound) carcass to determine the cause of death. “It is unusual to see whale sharks around these parts,” he told. “Their migratory patterns are far from here, but it may have been following food that’s why it came into the bay,” he added. In 2009, he said a dead whale shark about the same size was found at a

busy wharf on Manila Bay. Whale sharks (Rhincodon typus), the largest fish species in the world, are slowmoving creatures that can

reach 12 metres in length and weigh more than 20 tonnes, feeding mostly on plankton, small fish and crustaceans.

Drug use surges among US baby boomers The use of illegal drugs among Americans in general is holding steady, but it’s surging among middle-aged baby boomers, according to report released . The National Survey on Drug Use and Health indicated that 9.2 percent of Americans aged 12 and over, or 23.9 million, were current consumers of illicit substances.

That’s down slightly from rates of 8.7 to 8.9 percent in 2009 to 2011, said the report, sponsored by the US government’s Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services

Administration. But among adults aged 50 to 64, illicit drug use has grown substantially — a trend that the report attributed in part to “the aging ... of members of the baby boom co-

hort” born between 1946 and 1964. For adults aged 50 to 54, the rate more than doubled from 3.4 percent in 2002 to 7.2 percent last year. For those aged 55 to 59, it more than tripled from 1.9 percent to 6.6 percent. “Among those aged 60 to 64, the rate increased from 1.1 percent in 2003 to 3.6 percent in 2012,” the report added.

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POKER-FACED

Call him Arizona Slim.

Or just the Maverick.

While America’s most senior foreign policy and military officials made President Obama’s case for using military force against the regime of Syrian dictator Bashar alAssad on Tuesday, Arizona Republican Sen. John McCain was busy playing poker on his iPhone.

A Washington Post photographer snapped an over-the-shoulder picture of McCain casually betting play money on his electronic cards, while Syria’s fate was the subject of passionate statements and often carefully manicured rhetoric.

Minutes after the Post published the photo online, McCain cracked a joke in the hope of limit-

THE CONTACT ing what is bound to be an embarrassing news cycle.

‘Scandal!’ read his sardonic tweet. ‘Caught playing iPhone game at 3+ hour Senate hearing worst of all I lost!’

As the news broke, McCain was waiting to appear on CNN to discuss the Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing.

‘Occasionally I get a little bored,’ he admitted on the air, ‘and so I resorted.’

CNN associate producer Ashley Killough tweeted afterward that McCain ‘said he lost “thousands” of fake dollars’ during the marathon Capitol Hill session.

McCain may have been distracted by the presentations from Secretary of State John Kerry, Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel and Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Martin Dempsey. He had, after all, already made up his

mind to side with the president and his request for authorization to bomb Syria.

‘If the Congress were to reject a resolution like this, after the president of the United States has already committed to action, the consequences would be catastrophic,’ McCain said after her emerged from a closeddoor meeting with Obama on Tuesday morning, ‘in that the credibility of this country with friends and adversaries alike would be shredded.’

‘And there would be not only implications for this president, but for future presidencies as well.’

The next time McCain meets with he president, the two might have more to discuss than just foreign policy: Obama played a game of spades – with physical cards, not a hand-held phone – while Seal Team Six killed Osama bin Laden in 2011.

Woman eats dog food for a living It’s definitely a dog’s life for taste tester Lucy Postins after landing a job sampling bowls of pet food, but at least she is guaranteed strong teeth and a nice shiny coat.

While the mere thought of eating dog food is enough to turn most people’s stomachs, Ms Postins, originally from the UK but now based in San Diego, USA, says she absolutely loves her job.

Ms Postins, 38, not only samples every individual ingredient that goes into the food but even chows down on the final product - to make sure it tastes just right.

Ms Postins insists on all the recipes being made in a human food facility instead of a pet food rendering plant, and then tests for the likes of flavour, aroma

and colour which is an indication of freshness.

Her company The Honest Kitchen was the first pet food manufacturer to achieve a ‘human grade’ rating from the FDA (U.S. Food and Drug Administration) which means the final product is legally allowed to be described as ‘human grade’ on the prod-

uct labels.

This is because the ingredients are sourced directly from the human food chain and production takes place alongside ‘people foods’.

Lucy, who studied in Warwickshire, believes that by producing pet food in this way animals receive stacks of health benefits

including improvements to their skin, fur and general immunity.

The dog food - which includes everything from free range chicken, ranchraised beef and sweet potatoes to eggs, bananas and even dandelion greens - is carefully blended before being mixed with water by the buyer to help bring the mixture together.

CEO Lucy, whose family includes two pet Rhodesian Ridgebacks and a Pug in San Diego in California, USA, said: ‘There are a lot of people who think their pets are inferior and don’t deserve quality food.

‘But so many people are becoming educated on conventional pet food ingredients and production that they want to make a move away from that.

10 Sep. to 16 Sep., 2013

New work sets timeline for the first pharaohs

Archaeologists drawing on a wide range of tools said on Wednesday they had pinpointed the crucial time in world history when Egypt emerged as a distinct state.

Experts have wrangled for decades as to when turbulent upper and lower Egypt were brought together under a stable, single ruler for the first time.

Conventional estimates, based on the evolving styles of ceramics found in human burials, vary hugely, from 3400 to 2900 BC. A team led by Oxford University’s Michael Dee, reporting in the British journal Proceedings of the Royal Society A, widen the methods used for estimating the date.

They took radiocarbon measurements from more than 100 samples of hair, bones and plants found at burial sites and held in museum collections. The archaeological and radiocarbon evidence were then knitted together in a mathematical model.

It calculates the accession of King Aha — the first of eight dynastic rulers in early Egypt — as

taking place between 3111 and 3045, with a probability of 68 percent.

This period was a critical one in world history, marking the emergence of a durable civilisation in the western hemisphere.

It occurred when people began to settle permanently on the banks of the Nile and started to grow crops, providing a surplus that spurred trade. “The origins of Egypt began a millennium before the pyramids were built, which is why our understanding of how and why this powerful state developed is based solely on archaeological evidence,” said Dee. “This new study provides new radiocarbondating that resets the chronology of the first dynastic rulers of Ancient Egypt, and suggests that Egypt formed far more rapidly than was previously thought.”

Aha and his seven successors ruled over a territory spanning a similar area to Egypt today, with formal borders at Aswan in the south, the Mediterranean Sea in the north and the modern-day Gaza Strip in the east, according to the study.

OVER 200 LANGUAGES LOST IN DIVERSE INDIA

More than 200 languages have vanished in India over the last 50 years, a new study says, blaming urban migration and fear among nomadic tribes of speaking their traditional tongues.

The extensive study, conducted throughout the country over four years and released this week, has found 230 languages have “elapsed” while another 870 have survived the test of time in richly diverse but rapidly modernising India, home to a vast number of indigenous or tribal peoples.

Ganesh Devy, who spearheaded the survey, said 480 tribal languages

are among those still spoken in India, where Hindi and English are strengthening their grip in an increasingly mobile and interconnected world. “I am concerned and alarmed that a very large number of languages have been rapidly declining in India,” Devy, an author and founder of the non-profit Bhasha Trust, which seeks to preserve languages, told. Devy’s team of 3,000 volunteers fanned out across India, visiting communities in the most remote parts of the country of 1.2 billion people, to study and document living languages spoken and written. The team scruti-

nised evidence of the existence of a language such as a community’s use of folk songs and stories in their mother tongue as well as terms used for their geographical surroundings.

The team compared their findings with the results of a government census conducted in 1961 which stated that some 1,100 languages existed throughout the country.

The first five of some 50 detailed volumes of the team’s People’s Linguistic Survey of India will be released in New Delhi on.

Devy said languages of coastal communities seemed to have eroded the

most over the years as traditional fishermen, whose livelihoods have declined, move inland in search of employment in cities.

“For coastal communities, hit adversely by changing sea-farming technology, a wonderfully abundant terminology for fish and waves is of no use in inland areas,” he said.

Tongues are also dying out among nomadic tribes, branded criminals by many in the past and considered at the bottom of India’s caste system.

Many attempt to conceal their identity, including by not speaking their traditional dialects, to “escape harassment”, Devy told

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THE CONTACT

10 Sep. to 16 Sep., 2013

Priyanka’s 3rd shot Zanjeer is the third remake of Big B hits she’s worked in APOORVA Lakhia’s Zanjeer is all set to reinvent Prakash Mehra’s 1973 action classic for the new generation this Friday.

While Mehra’s original gave Bollywood its angry young man, Priyanka Chopra claims she might emerge as the Angry Young Woman of the generation with the new film. “ Film- makers can creatively tweak a character for me and present it as an angry young woman,” Priyanka said during her visit to the India Today Mediaplex in Noida on Wednesday along with

the film’s debutant hero Ram Charan and director Lakhia.

The actress is ecstatic about her character Mala, originally essayed by Jaya Bhaduri. “ Except for the name, there is no resemblance with Mala’s character in the original. This is a specially- written character. I play an NRI girl who visits India to attend a wedding and ends up witnessing a murder. She is provided

police protection and that’s how she becomes a part of the drama and action,” Priyanka said, pointing out how she has been part of all three remakes of Big B’s hit films — Don , Agneepath and Zanjeer . “ My name rings the bell when a film- maker thinks of making a film based on Amitabh Bachchan’s hits,” she said.

Forty years ago, Prakash Mehra’s Zanjeer went on to earn ` 6 crore,

a huge collection in those days. The film has also attained a cult status since then. Lakhia’s film, therefore, is reeling under pressure of expectation, especially at a time when the ` 100 crore club is in prominence in Bollywood. “ It is inappropriate that films are compared on the basis of numbers. We should calculate the profit on the basis of the total budget of a film,” PC said.

Lakhia stressed that

he has only borrowed the title and a few iconic dia-

logues from the original Bachchan- starrer film.

BOLLYWOOD FOREIGN IMPORTS AND THEIR VISA WOES When Salman Khan was recently denied a work permit to travel to UK for a shoot, it cost the film’s unit an entire overseas schedule. Back home, theatre actor and comedian Gary Richardson apparently had to leave India recently after spending almost a decade in the country without a valid visa. So stringent are the rules for applying, renewing and maintaining work permits across the world that even the crop of foreign actors in Bollywood have to toe the line -- keeping track of their paperwork and making frequent trips back home in order to ensure it’s alright to stay on.

Join the queue Adnan Sami had been hoping to secure an Indian citizenship. Interestingly, late Yash Chopra agreed to be the singer’s guarantor for his Indian passport. As of now, he holds Canadian passport.

Katrina Kaif Active since: 2003 Profile: With a British passport in tow, the Hong Kong-born actress is one of the highest-paid actresses around. She has been working in the film industry on an employment visa for almost a decade now.

Status: The validity of the visa begins from the date of issue by the High Commission of India and the duration of the visa is at the sole discretion of the issuing au-

thority. Extensions can be sought.

Nargis Fakhri Active since: 2011 Profile: The pouty model-turned-actress holds an American passport and her mother is Czech while her father is of Pakistani origin. She made her debut opposite Ranbir Kapoor in Rockstar.

Status: The consulate grants an employment visa valid for a year irrespective of the duration of the contract signed with the employer. Further extension of up to five years can be obtained too.

Jacqueline Fernandez Active since: 2009 Profile: After representing Sri Lanka at the Miss Universe pageant, she turned her attention to Bollywood and made her debut in Sujoy Ghosh’s Aladin. She shuttles between Mumbai and Colombo.

Status: A minimum of one year is granted. All the documentation takes place on arrival. Renewal of work permits require proof of employment such as employment letter, photographs etc.

Sunny Leone Active since: 2012 Profile: Applicable for Overseas Citizenship Of India (OIC), the actress is of Punjabi origin and holds a Canadian passport. After making her debut in Jism 2, she appears keen on Bollywood projects.

Pallavi Sharda Active since: 2010 Profile: After making her film debut in My Name is Khan, the lawyerturned-actress is from Melbourne but has now shifted base to Mumbai. She’ll be soon seen opposite Ranbir Kapoor in Besharam.

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THE CONTACT

10 Sep. to 16 Sep., 2013

NOT LOSING MY HAIR!

NARGIS DISHES OUTA SIZZLER

NARGIS Fakhri is clearly in a mood to expand her oeuvre to include a little bit of everything Bollywood has to offer.She started off as Ranbir Kapoor’s lady love in Rockstar , going on to play a war reporter in the recently released Madras Cafe . And now, the US- raised Czech- Pakistani actor has taken the leap into the world of item numbers. In the soon- to- be- released Phata Poster Nikla Hero , Nargis will be seen matching steps with dancer extraordinaire Shahid Kapoor, whom she is reportedly dating, in a song called ‘ Dhating Naach’.

Nargis is said to have agreed to do the item number at Shahid’s instance.

The peppy number has been composed by Pritam, and its video choreographed by Bosco- Caesar. Amitabh Bhattacharya has written the lyrics, and the duet sung

by Nakash Aziz and Neha Kakkad. In the video, Nargis is seen flaunting her midriff in a black outfit. ‘ Dhating Naach’ is Nargis’ first brush with fullfledged Bollywood song and dance, and it was all but easy, with the former model reportedly suffering a muscle strain while rehearsing the steps.

Why Suniel Shetty refused to go bald for Prabhu Deva’s next It seems his thick mop of hair is one of Suniel Shetty’s best- kept assets. Reluctant to shave his head off for a role of a stylised, crafty evil guy, the actor had to pass on an opportunity to act in Prabhu Deva’s upcoming film, starring Ajay Devgn.

Insiders say the director and actor both wanted Anna to act in the film.

But citing his other film commitments, Suniel had to bow out of the project.

Says a source, “ Suniel didn’t want to use prosthetics either.

He wanted to look as au-

thentic as possible.” Says Shetty, “ I would have loved to be a part of the film but due to my other commitments I cannot go bald. I would love to work with Prabhu Deva in future. I regret missing the opportunity.” The director remained unavailable for comment.

be about personal experiences or random thoughts. Kangna will also share her fashion tips with fans through the posts, and impart make- up and styling advices.

On her decision to launch a website instead of using social networking sites to communicate with fans, Kangna said having one’s own site is an exclusive experience. “ I don’t subscribe to social media and microbogging sites. There are a lot of fake accounts opened in my name,” she said.

Plus, the world wide web has an adverse effect too; what with haters and trolls randomly entering social network-

ing domains of celebrities and posting abuses.

A website is easier to handle that way since a team of experts will constantly filter all comments and mails that are posted by netizens on Kangna’s website. Only healthy criticism and positive thoughts will be allowed to appear on the site.

Kangna has selected a very strategic time to launch her website.

It comes at a time when the actress has several films coming up.

She will play an evil mutant in the Hrithik Roshan- starrer Krrish 3, opening on Diwali. Next year, she will be seen in three films — Queen, Revolver Rani and Rajjo.

OOOOO

It comes at a time when the actress has several films coming up. She will play an evil mutant in the Hrithik Roshan- starrer Krrish 3 MOST Bollywood celebrities connect with fans through social networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook, but Kangna Ranaut has chosen to “ get up, close and personal” with fans through an official interactive website of her own.

The actress launched h e r w e b s i t e w w w. officialkanganaranaut. com at a high- end bar in Bandra on Wednesday. “ I’m really excited to introduce my website. It has been on my mind since a long time. I always wanted to connect to my fans on a more regular basis,” said Kangna.

Dressed in a short flared dress and donning a signature

neckpiece, Kangna was a delight for the shutterbugs.

The website will be regularly updated with Kangna’s usual activities in the professional and personal front. Details about her upcoming movies, news, trivia about the actress and neverseen- before images will the highlights.

A special treat for fans will be a personal blog post from the actress on the website regularly. “ Because of my professional commitments, I can never interact with fans. But now with this website, I will connect to fans across the globe. It should be fun and quirky,” she declared.

The blog post could

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THE CONTACT

‘There was already a star in the family’ On the eve of her 81st birthday, Asha Bhosle reminisces old times with her sister Lata Mangeshkar and her buoyant journey ahead With Asha Bhosle’s 11- year- old granddaughter Zanaya making her first public appearance this year at a live concert in Holland, the stage is set for the fourth generation of Mangeshkars to make their mark in music.

The veteran singer, who turns 81 tomorrow, just can’t help rejoice at the significance of the moment. “ When Zanaya joined me on stage in Holland, it was as if the pain and suffering that I’ve gone through recently and in the past, were automatically washed away.” More happiness, more triumph for her: she has just opened a new branch in Bahrain of her chain of restaurants. “ Singing and my restaurant business keep me busy. I never sit down to think about my losses in life,” says Asha who lost her daughter Varsha to a tragic suicide last year. “ It feels like a hard slap on a mother’s face. I don’t allow myself to think about what I haven’t got in life. I only think of the bounty that life has given me.” One of the singer’s happiest moments occurred recently when her legendary Didi Lata Mangeshkar described her as selfmade woman. She says, “ Didi put her hand on my head and said that whatever I’ve achieved in life I’ve done on my own. At the age of 15, I left home and I’ve never sought any financial help from my family.

When Didi acknowledged this I felt very happy, very fulfilled. God has been kind.” About the infamous rivalry between the two legendary singing sister, Asha gives her inimitable take. “ The so-

called rivalry has been fuelled over the years by trouble- makers and opportunists. There are people who touch my feet when she is not around. But when she is there they pretend they don’t know me.” Reminiscing about their life together she says, “ We were in Kolhapur when I started at the age of 12 or 13 in 1947. It’s true that when there’s already a star in the family, others have to suffer in spite of being talented. One has to face constant comparison. During my childhood we used to watch a lot of English films.

Classical toh ghar mein chalta hi tha. Didi’s voice had cast such a spell on people that another voice in the same style didn’t stand a chance on earth.” Recalling those days of struggle Asha says, “ When there was already a Taj Mahal I came to build another one.

Bahut mushqil thi. Who would want to go to another singer when there was already a Lata Mangeshkar?

On top of that, I was her younger sister. It isn’t Didi’s fault. Lekin haan, I did feel at one time that the industry was giving me a stepmotherly treatment. I didn’t get good songs. I didn’t receive my due. Now I feel it doesn’t matter.

Asha Bhosle has her own place.” The singer made a conscious effort not to copy her sister. “ Copying her would have meant the end of my career even before it started. I had to cultivate a Western style of singing. Didi became instantaneously successful.

Plus there were other singers like Geeta Dutt. As a woman who has been working since the age of 13, I just sit back and watch. I have no love, no

BOLLYWOOD hottie Malaika Arora Khan launched a charity campaign titled Taiwan Excellence Cares at a Mumbai fivestar.

For a change, Malaika chose to make a conservative style statement at the do — a far cry from the sexy wardrobe she is normally known to flaunt.

The 39- year- old modelturned- actress graced the event looking gorgeous in a flowing blue gown.

She was at the do as the celebrity endorser of the campaign, in a bid to boost the brand image and reputation of Taiwan. “ Charity is something which begins at home.

One should do it only if one feels like doing it,” said Malaika on the oc-

casion, stressing that she is associated with this particular cause only because she believes in it.

The effort has been initiated by Bureau of Foreign Trade, MOEA, to popularise the country of Taiwan as a brand. For this, the bureau has roped in Taiwan External Trade Development Council ( TAITRA) to ensure integrated marketing and communication for brands from Taiwan.

Malaika has been the celebrity endorser for the project in India for the past few years. “ I feel honoured to be associated with TAITRA for the last three years.

It is a pleasure to know that brands from Taiwan have a large fan base among users of ex-

10 Sep. to 16 Sep., 2013 hate for any of them. It’s like sitting at Chowpatty one evening and enjoying the tamasha.” In addition, she had to fight off the image of singing naughty number. “ People during those days considered cabaret and dance numbers to be very lowly. And here I am. In real life I am a very domesticated, just like any middleclass woman. I love to look after the kids and cook in the kitchen.

At home I am myself.”

Speaking on new generations of singers Asha ponders, “ The world has moved on.

Earlier the female singer sang at a high pitch and the male singer at a

low pitch.

Now that has been reversed. There’s no time for slow soft sentimental songs. No point in clinging to the past and pining for nostalgia.” She speaks of R D Burman with much affection, though she is not too fond of the RD remixes. “ When I did Rahul & I, I wanted to be faithful to the original. But my son Anand told me to just leave it to him. The album was a resounding success. No one can stop others from doing remixes. People are forever cashing in musical names. But please, if you are doing remixes, do be thoughtful towards the original.”

cellent lifestyles products, which also includes me and my family,” said Malaika.

In Bollywood, Malaika was last seen doing item numbers in a couple of blockbusters last year.

She danced to the beats of Anarkali disco chali in Housefull 2 and Pandeyji seeti bajaye in Dabangg 2. She also appeared as a celebrity judge on India’s Got Talent season 4 last year.

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THE CONTACT

Crossing the line?

Rumors are that TV actress Pratyusha Banerjee has sought help from cops against he ‘abusive’ boyfriend to gain publicity before her stint on an upcoming reality show In an industry that constantly thrives on publicity gimmicks to gain maximum eyeballs, this one seems to have hit a new low. On Wednesday, TV actor Pratyusha Banerjee, best known for her portrayal of Anandi in Balika Vadhu, filed a complaint against her ex beau Makrand Malhotra at the Oshiwara police station.

The actor has accused Makrand, a city- based businessman, of misbehaving with her and her father. But what’s interesting is that there is buzz among certain sections of the television industry that Pratyusha has done so to get maximum media coverage in the run- up to her entry into the Bigg Boss house next week.

In his defense,

Makrand alleges that Pratyusha has moved on from their relationship and is rumoured to be dating another guy. The entrepreneur cites his former girlfriend’s apparently straying ways for their recent break- up after their two- year romance.

Makrand also says that while they were in a relationship, the actress allegedly even went on a date with Mithun Chakraborty’s son, Mahaakshay, a claim vehemently denied by a close friend of Pratyusha.

A source says, “ Pratyusha is egoistic. She fought with Mak over another guy. He got angry and confronted her and that is when all the drama started. It seems she is taking it a notch higher to

create controversy before entering the Bigg Boss house.” A seemingly distraught Makrand tells us, “ I tried to reason with her and her father but they pushed me and abused me. Our mothers spoke to each other and it was decided I would not go to their home again. But around 2.30 am I got a summon from the police.” Though the source close to the actress maintains it was a well-planned move to raise eyebrows with her ‘antics’, Makrand feels it is just to satisfy her ego.

In an earlier interview, Pratyusha had been quoted saying she was “ quite short- tempered” and that her boyfriend was “ nice at heart”. Currently, an NC has been registered against him where

Pratyusha has levelled charges against him for abusing and harassing her.

While we have witnessed many regular tiffs in the industry ending up snowballing into something larger, involving the police for allegedly selfish gains is definitely a case of crossing the thin line between publicity gimmicks and playing with fire.

Gimmicky girls >> Sara Khan and her thenbeau Ali Merchant created ripples on the same reality show post their marriage on national TV and divorce soon after. >> Poonam Pandey claimed she would dance in the buff if India won the Cricket World Cup. However, the starlet went missing in action when the laurels came our way.

10 Sep. to 16 Sep., 2013

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10 Sep. to 16 Sep., 2013

Kochadaiyaan teaser out, fans celebrate their much-loved ‘Superstar’ in his new avatar It has been almost three years since we saw 'Superstar' play the hero and two, since Soundarya Ashwin's announcement of her mega budget period film Kochadaiiyaan. For a Rajini fan, it's the kind of wait that's punishing. So, when Kochadaiiyaan's official trailer was released at 9.30 am this morning, it was received with almost as much festivity as would the release of his film. Though the comments for trailer gave mixed reviews about its animation and special effects, most of Rajini's loyal fan following made

up for these reviews with a generous dose of frenzied admiration, with some people even claiming that this was the first time they looked forward to a Monday. "There have been complaints about the film's CG quality, but I strongly feel we should cut some slack for this film, because the technology used is one-of-its-kind in Tamil cinema and that's a great start. Also, considering the market, the money that could be collected for the film is low," says city-based filmmaker and lyricist Charukesh Sekar. "I think the intrigue is tapped a lot because we see him young again and definitely larger-than-life," he adds.

Is Pallavi Sharda Trying To Avoid Ranbir Kapoor?

We are still wondering what's going wrong between Ranbir Kapoor and his Besharam co-star Pallavi Sharda, who has reportedly given a miss to an event due to the former's presence at the do. As per the media reports, Ranbir has been trying to avoid Sharda on the sets of Besharam over some unknown reasons.

Possibly, this is the reason why debutant Sharda too doesn't want to face Kapoor anywhere off the sets. As per a leading daily, Pallavi Sharda was absent at the media launch of her first Bollywood movie Besharam, while Ranbir Kapoor and the film's director Abhinav

Kashyap were present at the do. While a few sources has claimed that Pallavi couldn't make it to the event, due to her hectic schedule, a few others told the daily, "Pallavi and the rest of the cast were never supposed to be part of this function". Sources also claim that the actress couldn't attend the do, since she was very tired and had to leave after her film's shooting got over.

But, if the ongoing tension between the two actors is any indication, it seems like the latter's indifference towards Sharda is possibly the reason why she chose to give a miss to the media launch of Besharam.

Issue #527 (28)

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The end of extinction?

Scientists are close to ‘cloning’ an Australian frog that no longer exists - and there are plans to resurrect more dead species

Scientists around the world are working to resurrect extinct animals from the long-lost woolly mammoth to an Australian frog that gives birth to its young via its mouth.

Researchers in Australia have made the first steps

towards bringing the frog, which was certified extinct in 1983, back to life, but the Lazarus Project - a 'de-extinction initiative' - is hopeful that many other species can be reintroduced to be studied by scientists.The process of deextinction is more complex than cloning living animals, but a group of scientists believe humans have the ability and obligation to repair the damage they have done to the planet, which has led to countless types of animals dying out.An effort is underway in Australia to resurrect the southern gastricbrooding frog, which swallowed fertilised eggs and gave birth orally, before the last known female died in captivity in 1983.

Scientists had been fascinated by the creatures, which seemed to disappear from the forests of Queensland every year and were thought to be hibernating, but before they could study them in detail, the frogs died out, M.R. O'Connor

said in an article for Salon.com.

Luckily,samples of the frogs had been frozen and scientists are now using a cloning technique called somatic cell nuclear transfer to try and resurrect them.

Researchers at the University

of New South Wales removed the nuclei from eggs of a closely related living frog species and replaced it with the extinct species' cells and in spring the eggs reached the early embryonic stage.Mike Archer, a professor of paleobiology and a member of the Lazarus Project, told the publication: 'We are watching Lazarus arise from the dead, step by exciting step.

We've reactivated dead cells into living ones and revived the extinct frog's genome in the process.'He said he is confident any problems are technological and not biological.

It is not just Australian scientists who are pinning their hopes on de-extinction techniques.Four years ago researchers in Spain managed to produce a baby Pyrenean Ibex born of a domestic goat but unfortunately the animal died soon after birth. The species has been extinct since 2000.

Scientists at the University of California are sequencing the

genome of the passenger pigeon, which died out in 1914, with other groups setting their sites on doing similar work on the extinct Californian monk seal, Carolina parakeet and Tasmanian tiger.

But perhaps the Sooam Biotech Research Foundation in Korea has embarked on the ambitious and high profile deextinction project as it is working to reintroduce the woolly mammoth.

However, opinion is divided as to whether such science is responsible. Scientists in favour of the practice believe it could un-do human wrongs against the planet. Environmentalist Stuart Brand, who is co-founder of the Revive and Restore Foundation (another de-extinction project) told Salon: 'Humans have made a huge hole in nature, we have the ability, maybe the moral obligation, to repair that damage.' However, other scientists think advances in the field could actually damage current conservation efforts and could potentially make more animals extinct.A number of researchers attending a summit at Stanford University to debate the ethics of de-extinction were reportedly concerned the ability to litterally put extinct species on ice, could become standard pracitice instead of trying to protect current animals at risk of extinction living in the wild.

Jamie Rappaport Clark, president and CEO of Defenders of Wildlife, reportedly said that she believes politicians would take advantage of de-extinction technology to undermine species conservation. Professor Ronald Sandler from Northwestern University said de-extinction is not guaranteed to preserve a species or solve the problem of its habitat being damaged by humans.

10 Sep. to 16 Sep., 2013

Why your toast falls butter side down Scientists finally uncover the reason... and it’s all to do with the height of the table

It's a sticky issue that has plagued scientists - and breakfast tables - for decades.

But now researchers claim to have found the definitive answer as to why a piece of toast always seems to fall buttered side down.

Apparently, it's all to do with the height of the table. They claim that after it topples off the edge, the toast only has time to perform a half-somersault before it lands.As the side which has been buttered is naturally facing upwards, that's the side which ends up on the floor.

To confirm the theory, food expert Professor Chris Smith and his team dropped 100 slices of toast from a table at Manchester MET University. The table was two and a half feet high.In 81 per cent of cases, the buttered side made contact with the floor. The research was commissioned to mark the DVD release of the latest series of The Big Bang Theory, a US comedy about a group of socially awkward physicists.'The question of whether the toast does indeed always land buttered side down is exactly the kind of quandary that would keep the characters in Big Bang Theory

awake at night,' said Professor Smith. 'Our research shows that Sod's Law really does exist when it comes to dropped toast.

'The upshot is that if you want to ensure your toast lands butter side up then you should invest in a higher table approximately 8ft high that allows the toast to rotate a full 360 degrees. Failing that - try not to drop the toast.'

While the crucial element is the height of the table, which affects the time the toast takes to fall, the physics of the slice of toast itself also have an effect.

The air pockets in a slice of bread create drag as it falls.

But buttering one side of the bread changes that surface, altering the level of drag and changing the way it rotates as it falls.The phenomenon has baffled scientists and the public alike for almost 180 years.

It was discussed as long ago as 1835, in the New York Monthly Magazine.Of course, the problem only occurs if you can spread the butter in the first place. A recent survey of 3,000 people found their biggest breakfast bugbear was ruining a slice of toast by trying to spread butter that was too cold.

Time to give up monogamy?

Women could improve the ‘quality of their offspring by having multiple partners’, claims study

Women could improve the quality of their offspring by mating with multiple partners, researchers have said.

Experts from four universities examined the behaviour of an ancestor of the domestic chicken and found that mating with different males helped females produce offspring that are more resistant to disease.

The findings could be applied to other animals including humans, they claim.

Professor David S Richardson, from the University of East Anglia, said: 'Our research has shown that females don't need to choose between males to produce the most healthy offspring.

'Rather by mating with multiple males, they allow their internal choice mechanism to favour the most genetically different sperm.

'This could be the case in other animals - including humans, however the practicality

of testing this in mammals would be very difficult, and obviously impossible in humans for ethical reasons.'Researchers studied red junglefowl using both natural matings and artificial insemination in a project with the University of Oxford, Stockholm University and Linkoping University.They claim the effect is down to 'cryptic female choice' where an internal mechanism in the reproductive tract favours the sperm from males that are most genetically different to them.

By increasing the diversity of particular genes, which help detect and fight infections, female birds can provide their offspring with better disease resistance.esearchers also

claim that signals given off by the male, such as odour, could help the female subconsciously choose the best father.

The findings could be important for animal breeders and conservation projects because they show that allowing multiple matings will produce the most disease resistant and genetically healthy offspring.

'To optimise the quality of offspring produced in breeding programmes we may need to make sure that females mate with multiple males and that they avoid artificial insemination, which could lead to the genetic health of bred stocks being weaker,' Professor Richardson said.'Many breeding

programmes for livestock and conservation use artificial insemination. But our research suggests that this may not produce the best quality offspring.'This is because the effect appears to require the subconscious female assessment of the male by some cue during actual mating.'So having correct cues during mating, perhaps the smell of the male, can affect a females' chances of being fertilised.

And the cues from different males may not work equally well on different females. This is something that needs to be explored further in various animals including humans.

Issue #527 (29)

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10 Sep. to 16 Sep., 2013

Men ‘are more likely to be gay ‘LSD could be good for you’ if they have older brothers’ The more older male siblings a man has, the greater chance he will be gay, according to a series of studies.Scientists say the phenomenon cannot be explained by the youngest boy being babied and mollycoddled or other differences in the way they are brought up.Instead, it has a biological basis, claim researchers.They believe the immune response a woman mounts against having a male baby in her womb increases with each son, raising the odds of 'feminising' the foetus's developing brain.

In one study, Canadian scientists collected data from almost 1,000 men, including some who had been adopted or brought up with stepbrothers and stepsisters.

This revealed that having lots of brothers raised a man's odds of being gay - but only if they were blood brothers.

Stepbrothers did not have an effect, the research by Brock University in Ontario found.

However, biological brothers who were brought up separately did.

This suggests that the link can be explained by nature rather

than nurture, New Scientist reports.Each older brother raised the odds that a man was homosexual by a third.

This means that if a first-born son has a 3 per cent chance of being gay, the figure for the

the odds of homosexuality.

Genetics and exposure to hormones in the womb are also likely to be important, while some argue that upbringing plays a role in sexuality.Female foetuses do not provoke the

second son will be 4 per cent.

By the fourth son, the odds will have more than doubled. It is thought that carrying a male baby in the womb triggers an immune response in the mother, creating antibodies that attack part of the unborn child's brain linked to sexual orientation.This response gets stronger the more boys a woman carries, raising

same reaction and no link has been found between having lots of sisters and lesbianism.

This week's New Scientist reviews other studies that link physical and psychological traits to a person's place in the order of siblings - or parity.

Studies show eldest children to be more cautious but also more intelligent.

Hallucinogens ‘wrongly linked with mental health problems for years’ Hallucinogenic drugs may actually be good for you, a team of researchers has concluded.

Norwegian scientists have carried out extensive research on the effects of LSD - or trips by studying drugs surveys from tens of thousands of Americans.

The findings are at odds with the long held belief that LSD and other 'mind-enhancing' drugs - such as mescaline and the drug psilocybin, found in magic mushrooms result in flashbacks, paranoia and long term mental health problems. Researchers PalOrjan Johansen and Teri Krebs from Norway's University of Science and Technology in Trondheim examined the drug taking habits of more than 130,000 American citizens between 2001 and 2004. Last year the duo even recommended that LSD could be an effective treatment for alcoholism.Some 22,000 of those surveyed had taken psychedelic drugs at least once. Their findings were

published in the science journal PLOS One. They wrote: 'There were no significant associations between lifetime use of any psychedelics, or use of LSD in the past year, and an increased rate of mental health problems.

Rather, in several cases psychedelic use was associated with a lower rate of mental health problems.'Mr Johansen said that previous studies on the psychedelic drugs had not proved that they caused chronic health problems in an interview with Norway's English-language news website, The Local. Mrs Krebs added: 'Everything has some risk; psychedelics can elicit temporary feelings of anxiety and confusion, but accidents leading to serious injury are extremely rare.'Over the past 50 years, tens of millions of people have used psychedelics and there is just not much evidence of long-term problems.

'Instead, they said, the idea that the drugs caused mental health problems came from a small number of case studies, and that these patients were already suffering some form of mental illness.

Issue #527 (30)

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Chinese inventor creates contraption to help you Pee Straight It's a minor misdemeanour that lands millions of men across the world in trouble with their wives.

But help could finally be here for those who miss the mark and wet the toilet seat while relieving themselves, thanks to a Chinese invention.

The Pee Straight contraption is effectively a standard funnel attached to a 10 inch pipe designed to help both men and women with their aim.

The device was invented by Shenzhen entrepreneur Ma Xianqing in response to a civic crackdown on those who can't aim properly.

As part of the Shenzhen City Public Toilet Management Act, those who make a mess in a public toilet could be hit with a $15 fine by sanitation managers if caught.

The law also punishes anyone who is found grafittiing, smoking or littering public loos.

As well as helping to keep Shenzhen's toilets sparkling, the inventor also claims that

And yes, it is for women too

the Pee Straight affords its user a degree of privacy while at the urinal.

The device comes in male and female versions, with the women's having a shorter pipe.According to NBC News, city officials wouldn't comment on whether on not anyone had been fined under

Judge forces man, 58, to wear a sign calling himself 'an idiot' for threatening police

A judge has forced a 58year-old man to stand outside a police station wearing a sign referring to himself as an 'idiot' for calling 911 and threatening to kill officers.Richard Dameron will be wearing the large yellow sign with black lettering for three hours every day this week as he stands outside the Second District police station in Cleveland, Ohio.The sign reads: 'I was being an idiot calling 911 and threatening to kill you. I'm sorry and it will never happen again.'The punishment was handed out by Cleveland Municipal Court Judge Pinkey Carr.The apology was directed at former 'super cop' Jim Simone, a retired officer who was shot twice in his career,

including once to the head.

Police said Dameron threatened to kill his son's girlfriend and Officer Simone in February.Speaking outside the police station with the sign around his neck, Dameron expressed his remorse.'I stand up and be a man and do what I've gotta do and get it over with,' he told WEWS. 'I apologize to officer Simone and all the other officers. I get drunk a lot of times and I make a fool out of myself.'He added to WKYC: 'I was under the influence of alcohol, very deeply into it. We just got to rambling off, acting like fools... I do feel bad about it, cause the man's never done nothing to me.'

the new law.

While many took to social networking sites in China to ridicule both the new law and the subsequent invention, others were clearly impressed.

One user urged the inventor to have the device patented as soon as possible on Weibo, China's answer to Twitter.

10 Sep. to 16 Sep., 2013

Rare fish nicknamed the Nutcracker that bites men's testicles As they swim is found in the River Seine A rare fish known for gnawing through men's testicles while they are out swimming has been found in the River Seine in Paris.

The sharped-tooth Pacu is a Piranha-style creature with a variety of nicknames, including 'The Nutcracker'.

Mainly found in steamy South American waters, it is known for gliding below male swimmers and taking a nibble out of their most sensitive organ, sometimes allegedly ripping it off and swallowing it.

A fisherman in Paris called the river police when he reeled in the frightening looking fish, which can weigh as much as 25 kilos, last Friday morning.

'He sent us an image of the picture through his smart phone and it turned out to be a Pacu,' said a police spokesman.

'It is a fish with a very dangerous bite!' The Pacu, which is of Brazilian Indian origin, is technically a vegetarian, but tends to be attracted to male genitalia for unknown reasons. There have been unconfirmed reports of

fishermen in Papua New Guinea having their manhoods ripped off by the fish.When one was found in Denmark last month, Copenhagen University professor Peter Rask Moller said: 'All we suggested was that

swimmers keep their pants on until we know if there are more of these fish out in our brackish waters.'When Pacu turn up in strange places, it is usually because the owner of an exotic aquarium has dumped one.

'Pacu are commonly kept in aquaria because they are fairly docile, but look like piranhas,' Peter Moyle, a fish biologist, told the Los Angeles Times last month.

'They grow quickly in captivity and, unlike goldfish, will outgrow aquaria, so owners release them into whatever pond they can find locally.

Pregnant women who eat chicken wings have sons ‘with small genitals’ Women who eat chicken while pregnant give birth to boys with smaller penises, according to 'shock-tactic' animal rights group Peta.

In an attempt to ruffle feathers at last weekend's National Buffalo Wings Festival, in Buffalo, New York, Peta wrote to organisers to warn of the effects of the chemical phthalate which is found in chicken flesh.

The letter from Peta's Lindsay Rajt, to festival founder Drew Cerza, reads: 'The latest scientific evidence shows that the sons of pregnant women who consume chicken are more likely to have smaller penises because of a chemical found in the birds' flesh.

'Findings published by the Study for Future Families showed that eating poultry during pregnancy may lead to smaller penis size in male infants.

'In addition, eating cholesterol-laden chicken flesh during pregnancy may also increase unborn babies' risk of being born with blocked arteries, which can lead to strokes and heart attacks later in life.'

But don't toss out that drumstick just yet.

According to Woman's

Health magazine, the research was for the Study for Future Families did not actually look at chicken consumption at all.

While it did identify a link with prenatal phthalate exposure and penis size, chicken was not found to be a food with particularly high levels of the chemical, with spices and fast food packaging being the worst culprits.

Shanna Swan Ph.D., a professor in the department of preventive medicine at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, who conducted the research PETA cites, told Women's Health: 'I think any link between eating buffalo wingseven by pregnant women-and

the size of their son's genitals is very tenuous.'

Peta are known for using controversial tactics to highlight the issue of animal suffering including nude models, throwing buckets of blood and a children's comic entitled Your Mommy Kills Animals.

However it appears their latest stunt failed to deter food fans at the Buffalo Wings festival with an estimated 40 tons of chicken wings being consumed.

And in a potentially Petapleasing gesture, a meatless alternative was offered for the first time in the festival's 12 year history.

Issue #527 (31)

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10 Sep. to 16 Sep., 2013

Entrepreneur buys Boeing 747 Jumbo from Is Facebook bad for bankrupt airline and turns it into a 27-room hostel your child’s health?

Complete with penthouse suite with views from the pilot’s cockpit

Aviation fans are in for a treat as a 450-seater jumbo jet has been converted into a unique hotel - letting guests sleep on a Boeing 747.

The unique Jumbo Stay hostel has a selection of 27 cabins to choose from, with some en-suite and all with WiFi and flatscreen TVs. For frequent flyers it might not exactly be their cup of tea, in fact far from it, but for aeroplane enthusiasts, it could be the next big buzz.

Guests can even stay in the

luxurious cockpit suite, which has panoramic views of the airport in Arlanda, near Stockholm, Sweden.

The plane - which now remains grounded - can also be used for conferences and is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week for guests to come and visit.

The owner and the man behind Jumbo Stay is Swedish business man Oscar Divs, who bought the 1976 Boeing 747200 and converted it into the hostel.Oscar said: 'I was

Give off a strange vapour and have locals fearing for their health Mysterious rocks that shine and emit a strange vapour have been discovered in Mexico.

The rock fragments, which were found in the state of Sonora, emit vapours that are said to have a chlorine-like odour.

The emanating gas has also been reported to produce a colour change in materials including paper and cardboard.

A metallurgical laboratory in Copper del Mayo, Mexico, is currently testing samples of the material. 'We don't know what

these rocks are but mining companies operating in the region are interested in

getting ready to expand my hostel business in 2006 when I heard about an old wreck of an aircraft for sale at Arlanda.

'Since I had for a long time wanted to establish my business at Arlanda I didn't hesitate for a second when this opportunity struck.'

The prices at the Jumbo hostel range from 50 euros around £42 - for a shared single sex dorm to almost 200 euros - £170 - a night for the exclusive pilot's suite.

The airplane, a decommissioned jumbo jet built in 1976, was last operated

by Transjet, a Swedish airline that went bankrupt in 2002.

Guests will recognise the jet as one of the most popular planes for holiday travel, and the owner promises guest will have an experience like no other in this novelty hostel.

Mystery of the Mexican rocks that shine

analysing them in their laboratories,' said technical secretary of Novojoa's Civil Defence, Juan Manuel Ramirez Sandoval, according to the

Brazil Weird News report.

According to the commander of the region's Fire Department, the public are concerned about the damaging effects that these rocks may pose.

'We do not know where they came from these stones,' he told Brazil Weird News.

'They can have fallen from some truck, perhaps. We also don't know if the gas is something like a toxic substance or if the stones are radioactive.

'Only a careful study can determine their origin, if these rocks are of the Earth... or not.'

Teenagers are more likely to smoke and drink if they see pictures of friends partying on the site Using Facebook could make teenagers more likely to drink and smoke, a new report suggests.Teenagers who see friends smoking and drinking alcohol in photographs posted on Facebook are more likely to smoke and drink themselves, according to the report.

'Our study shows that adolescents can be influenced by their friends' online pictures to smoke or drink alcohol,' said Dr Thomas Valente, professor of preventive medicine at the University of Southern California and the study's principal investigator. 'To our knowledge, this is the first study to apply social network analysis methods to examine how teenagers' activities on online social networking sites influence their smoking and alcohol use.'

Dr Valente and his team surveyed 1,563 15 and 16-yearold students about their online and offline friendship networks, the frequency of their social media use, their smoking, and their alcohol consumption.

The researchers found that the size of a student's online network of friends was not significantly associated with risky behaviour.

Exposure to friends' online pictures of partying or drinking, however, was significantly associated with both smoking and alcohol use. Teenagers whose close friends did not drink

alcohol were more likely to be affected by increasing exposure to risky online pictures.

'The evidence suggests that friends' online behaviours are a viable source of peer influence,' said Dr Grace Huang, the study's first and corresponding author. 'This is important to know, given that 95 per cent of 12 to 17-year-olds in the United States access the Internet every day, and 80 per cent of those youth use online social networking sites to communicate.'

Nearly 30 per cent of survey's respondents had smoked and more than half had had at least one drink of alcohol.

Roughly one-third of the students reported having at least one friend who smoked and/or consumed alcohol.

Almost half of all students reported visiting Facebook and Myspace regularly.

Between October 2010 and April 2011, Facebook use - 75 per cent - increased while Myspace use - 13 per cent decreased.

On average, 34 per cent of students had at least one friend who talked about partying online and 20 per cent reported that their friends posted drinking pictures online.

In line with earlier studies, the researchers observed differences between Facebook and Myspace users.

participation,' said the study.Dr Cross said an alternative explanation for the results is that the questions designed in the 1970s could now be out-ofdate.Skiing, for instance, may no longer be viewed as a novel or intense activity.The study also

showed that sex differences in other areas have not changed across time. For example, men consistently reported higher average scores than women for disliking dull or repetitive activities, and for enjoying challenging social situations.

Modern men are BORING Unhealthy lifestyles have made 21st century males less adventurous than their fathers Young men are not as adventurous as their fathers a generation ago because they are less fit and lack motivation, according to a new study.

It found that males have become less willing to engage in thrill-seeking activities over the past 35 years.Research conducted in the late 1970s found that men were 48 per cent more likely than women to be involved in adrenalinefuelled sport. However, today men are only 28 per cent more likely than women to participate in adventures

activities, such as parachuting, scuba diving or mountaineering.

The researchers claim this is an indication of dwindling male appetite for thrill-seeking activities rather than an increase in women interested in these sports.

Dr Kate Cross, who conducted the study at the University of St Andrews, said that the results indicate that young men have lost the spark needed to get involved in exciting activities. 'The decline in the sex difference in thrill and adventureseeking scores could reflect

declines in average fitness levels, which might have reduced people's interest in physically challenging activities,' she said.A loss of interest in thrillseeking activities could be also be attributed partially to a decrease in genderrelated differences.' This interpretation is consistent with evidence that participation in college sports is becoming more gender balanced across time in response to concerted efforts to encourage female sports

Issue #527 (32)

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10 Sep. to 16 Sep., 2013

Could Nasa astronauts one day watch HD TV in DEEP SPACE? Space agency to beam laser videos to the Moon to develop new technology Deep space can be a lonely place. But what if astronauts could beam their favourite HD videos from Earth? Or create their own 3D films for us to see?

That's exactly what Nasa hopes to achieve by testing a system that could replace primitive radio transmissions, which are currently used in space, with laser-based communication.The agency claims the technology will make it possible to eventually send huge amounts of data to deep space.However, its first step will be to establish a twoway laser communication with the moon to prove that the technology is possible.The experiment is part of the Lunar

Laser Communication Demonstration (LLCD) mission which is scheduled to launch on Friday.As well as HD video it could, for instance, also allow humans to remotely control machines for tasks such as asteroid mining or building structures on the moon.LLCD is Nasa's first dedicated system for two-way communication using laser instead of radio waves. 'The goal of the LLCD experiment is to validate and build confidence in this technology so that future missions will consider using it,' said Don Cornwell, LLCD manager. 'We can even envision such a laser-based system enabling a robotic mission to an

World’s slimmest keyboard is PAPER-THIN and turns ANY area into a touchscreen

British scientists have invented a flexible computer keyboard that is as thin as a piece of paper and can turn any area into a touch-sensitive surface.Tech company Cambridge Silicon Radio (CSR) claims its keyboard is the world's thinnest, at half a millimeter thick and offers consumers a 'glimpse of future computing interfaces' that are paper-thin, wireless and respond to touch.

The device can be used to extend the touch-sensitive areas of tablets and smartphones so customers can use a full-size thin keyboard to type messages on their mobile.

It combines the company's low-power wireless technology with cutting-edge printable and flexible electronics.

Paul Williamson, director of Low Power Wireless at CSR, said: 'The device can do basic text input as well as touch and gesture control, so you can

swipe and pinch and zoom, as well as use much more complex gestures,' that people now use many touch screen devices.

'It can also be used with a stylus-type pen for handwriting recognition and to draw and sketch,' he added.

The company said the keyboard can be integrated into a proprotective cover for a tablet, or used to create large touch zones on a desktop computer.

It claims the device adds a 'full keyboard experience' to a tablet without using up screen area like the pop-up keyboard that comes as part of most tablet software.The paper-thin surface is wirelessly connected using a new CSR1010 chip that is optimised for this 'Bluetooth Smart' technology.

This allows it to connect to the latest Apple smartphones and tablets as well as Windows 8 PCs, using much less power of standard Bluetooth.

asteroid,' he added. 'It could have 3D, high-definition video signals transmitted to Earth providing essentially "telepresence" to a human controller on the ground.'

Since Nasa first ventured into space, radio frequency (RF) communication has been the communications platform used.

But it is now reaching its limit as demand for more data capacity increases. According to Nasa, laser communication would be less likely to suffer from interference, another limitation of radio frequency (RF) signals.

'LLCD is designed to send six times more data from the moon using a smaller transmitter with 25 per cent less power as compared to the equivalent state-

of-the-art radio (RF) system,' said Cornwell. 'Lasers are also more secure and less susceptible to interference and jamming.'The LLCD experiment is hosted aboard Nasa's LADEE: a 100-day robotic mission designed, built, integrated, tested and will be operated by Ames. The LADEE spacecraft will take 30 days to reach the moon because of its flight path.

LLCD will begin operations shortly after arrival into lunar orbit and continue for 30 days afterward. LLCD's main mission objective is to transmit hundreds of millions of bits of data per second from the moon to Earth.

This is equivalent to transmitting

more than 100 HD television channels simultaneously.LLCD receiving capability will also be tested as tens of millions of bits per second are sent from Earth to the spacecraft. There is a primary ground terminal at Nasa's White Sands Complex in New Mexico, to receive and transmit LLCD signals.

An MIT team designed, built, and tested the terminal.

They also will be responsible for LLCD's operation at that site. There are two alternate sites, one located at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California, which is for receiving only.

Is city living making animals more intelligent?

Urban creatures found to have bigger brains than their country cousins A U.S biologist has found human behaviour could be driving the evolution of animals' brains by changing the habitats in which they live.

The research suggests the brains of some animals have got bigger in tandem with the industrialisation of their habitat - making some city animals smarter than their rural peers.

Evolutionary biologist Emilie Snell-Rood discovered whitefooted mouse and meadow voles living in cities, had on average brains that were six per cent larger than the brains of animals collected from farms in the countryside.Associate Professor Snell-Rood, of the University of Minnesota's College of Biological Sciences, believes animals are showing 'complex cognitive responses to both urban and rural areas with cranial capacity tracking human-induced change in some cases'.She is interested in whether small animals will be able to cope with the conversion of prairies to agriculture or forests being replaced by cities to ultimately cope with humaninduced change.

Previous research found a link between brain size and the ability to adapt to urban environments in birds, but did not investigate whether the change of environment caused the evolution.

Together with undergraduate student Naomi Wick, Professor Snell-Rood set out to find 'if dealing with a new environment is just a matter of species sorting - in which a

particular species is "preadapted" for success in a particular environment - or actually changes going on within species in addition to that species-level variation'.

The researchers examined specimens from the Bell Museum of Natural History collections dating back to the early 20th Century, focusing on the cranial capacity of 10 species, including varieties of

suggests the former.

'We tended to not see changes in body size which suggests it's not just nutritional, but rather an evolutionary response,' said Professor SnellRood.

She said the study 'reminds us of the fact that populations adapt, and that at least some species are tracking humaninduced environmental change.'

However, some of the

shrews, voles, bats, and squirrels, along with a mouse and gopher, from locations in and around the Twin Cities metro.

They found the urban populations of two of the species did, in fact, possess significantly greater cranial capacity and predicted that if cleverer animals thrived in urban environments, cranial capacity should also increase over time.

The white-footed mouse and meadow voles living in cities, had on average brains that were 6 per cent larger than the brains of their peers collected from rural habitats.While the researchers can't say for certain whether the changes are evolutionary or developmental, evidence

specimens examined contradicted her theory.

'We didn't see cranial capacity increases over time in the urban specimens...and actually, for two species we see a decline over time, while the bats and shrews show an increase in cranial capacity in rural populations.'

Professor Snell-Rood said: 'Neural tissue is incredibly expensive metabolically. There are trade-offs in investing in brains and investing in reproduction, which may be why we see a reduction in cranial capacity over time in two of the species - larger brains may be favored just during the initial colonisation of the city.'

Issue #527 (33)

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10 Sep. to 16 Sep., 2013

‘It’s like you’re trapped They’re in someone else’s body’ impressed!

Transgender Canadian, 11, born a girl returns to school for first term as a boy

When 11-year-old Wren Kauffman goes back to school this week it will be the first time many of his classmates will have seen him as a boy. The Canadian child was born a girl but, thanks to the support of his family, Wren is ready to start life as the gender he believes he should have been born as.

Teachers and fellow pupils are aware of Wren's transformation and when he starts at his Edmonton school he will use the boy's locker rooms and toilets.

Although Wren, who was born Wrenna, knew from a young age that he was different, it took his parents a little longer to realize their daughter wanted more than to just be a tom boy. 'It's like you're trapped inside someone

else's body that you don't want to be in,' Wren told CTV News.From a very early age Wren enjoyed dressing up as comic book heroes, wore his hair short and, at about the age of 3, would ask when he would get to be a boy. It was his little sister, Avy, who finally pressed home to their parents that Wren was transgendered. 'She said to me, "You know, Mom, Wren is a boy and he told me to tell you,' Wendy Kauffman told 680 News.

She said that when she told Avy, Wren just wants to be a boy, her six-year-old daughter said: 'No, Mom, he really wants to a boy,' Mrs Kauffman said her young child had been able to see what Wren was going through, before his parents had.

Smoking chimp sent to rehab with nicotine and alcohol addiction After career as Russian casino mascot

A chimpanzee who spent years working as a mascot at one of the biggest casinos in Russia, has been treated for addiction to cigarettes and alcohol.John was left on the career scrapheap when the practice of employing chimps in such roles was outlawed across the country.But years of socialising with gamblers had seen John develop a couple of unhealthy vices.Though casino bosses found John a new home at Gekendzhik Safari Park, in south west Russia, when he could no longer work, he was unable to kick his bad habits.

John continued to smoke thanks to visitors throwing lit cigarettes into his enclosure and began stealing pints of beer from visitors. Peter Skorsky,

deputy director at the safari park, said: ''We saw this and tried to prevent possible "gifts" but he still managed to drink and smoke.'Eventually, John was sent to the zoo's own form of rehab - a specially built glass enclosure - and his diet was given a radical overhaul.Mr Skorsky added: 'We have developed for him a special diet of fresh fruit and established sports equipment (in his enclosure).'Now he is cheerful and full of energy and I think (he) was completely rehabbed, getting rid of bad habits.'John is not the first chimpanzee to develop an addiction to tobacco.Charlie, a chimp at Bloemfontein Zoo in South Africa, found fame with his habit of enjoying the odd cigarette.

When he was nine, Mrs Kauffman said Wren got really upset, and told her: 'I know that I'm different, I feel different every day. I can't be a girl and be happy.'Mrs Kauffman added: 'When I think about it, it makes me sad that I didn't listen sooner.'

She later told Wren: 'I love you whether you're a boy or a girl and I understand now. And we'll figure out how we can help you. And we'll do it together.' His parents got in touch with Kris Wells, from the University of Alberta's Institute for Sexual Minority Studies and Services. He said when he first met the family, he could see they loved their children unconditionally and were on a quest to be able to help Wren. Six out of 1,000 students experience transgenderism, according to some studies, and Dr Wells said his department receives calls and emails from parents and schools asking for help at least once a day.In Wren's case, he is being given injections to delay puberty until he is 16, so he can decide whether to being male hormone treatment and, ultimately, gender realignment surgery when he is 18.

Life-sized photos of women pulling shocked faces are installed above the urinals in a Canadian bar to give customers a boost If size is important to you, than the men's restroom at a pub in Nova Scotia will certainly have you feeling more confident.

Above the urinals in the restrooms at Your Father's Mustache in Halifax, various photos of women give off alternate positive reactions on the size of your...you know.

An old lady gasps, while a woman with glasses look shocked and another woman

gives two thumbs up.

They are all clearly impressed.

Of course this isn't the only urinal out there meant to entertain men mid-meal.

At the Rolling Stones memorabilia museum in Germany, you can pee into the iconic Stones mouth.

Or if you like to multitask, there is the WACOM XPEE machine which allows you to draw a picture.

But clearly the urinals at Your Father's Mustache are one of the few attempting to boost men's self esteem.

Actor lived in caves and ate only fish and apples for THREE MONTHS To prepare for role of reclusive serial killer Scott Haze says he spent three cold months living in the mountains of Tennessee, subsisting on one piece of fish and one apple a day, and sleeping in caves to prepare for the role of serial killer Lester Ballard in the film adaptation of Cormac McCarthy's novel 'Child of God.'He lived alone and completely isolated, no cell phone and not internet. The only piece of the outside world he brought along was an iPod with songs by rapper Eminem.

'I knew that this was a role that I had to go to crazy extreme lengths,' Haze said in an interview Saturday ahead of the film's world premiere in competition at the Venice Film Festival.Haze's Lester Ballard descends into violence after being kicked off his family's land and losing his parents, moving outside the social order into caves where he abandons himself to extreme degradation. McCarthy's character was inspired by reallife killer and body snatcher Ed Gein, who also was the basis for the Norman Bates character in 'Psycho,' and Leatherface of 'The Texas Chainsaw Massacre.'

To prepare for the Ballard

role, Haze said he dropped from 195 pounds to 150 pounds on the apple-and-fish diet while living in a cabin in the Tennessee mountains, sleeping at times in caves often without a sleeping bag until the December temperatures dropped too low.

'I slept in caves many nights with bats all around. It was crazy,' Haze said. 'I let everything go, just hung out with the hillbillies and stayed as isolated as possible.'The only thing he took with him 'from society': an iPod loaded with Eminem music.

Director James Franco said Haze took off for the hills without consulting the director and showed up to shoot not only looking the part undernourished, ratty beard and disheveled - but acting it. Haze

'didn't really talk to anyone, stayed to himself, and was like that for the whole shoot,' Franco told reporters.The director said audiences may think he `found some maniac in the woods and shot him. But it is Scott giving the performance of a lifetime.'

Haze said he managed to stay 'in the mind-state' while filming, conceding he was 'not in this world.' He didn't check his phone, text messages or even how his beloved Lakers were doing.'I thought, at the end of the day, we'd have a great movie and James and I would hug each other and say we did it.' Haze said. He hopes people will look back on 'Child of God' as film as pivotal as 'Taxi Driver,' 'which was really shocking back in the day.

Issue #527 (34)

THE CONTACT

10 Sep. to 16 Sep., 2013

Issue # 527 (35)

THE CONTACT

10 Sep. to 16 Sep., 2013

All worn out!

Madrid couldn’t wait to offload Ozil after German star ‘exhausted himself’ chasing after former Miss Venezuela

Arsenal's new clubrecord signing Mesut Ozil has been accused of tiring himself out sleeping with beauties to such an extent that Spanish giants Real Madrid couldn't wait to sell him.The 24-yearold, who moved to Arsenal for £42.5million on deadline day, was asked

by Real Madrid to put his footballing career first af-

ter becoming besotted with ex-Miss Venezuela Aida Yespica, according to Spanish newspaper El Mundo.Ozil is reported to have flown to Italy at every chance to be with the 31-year-old model in Milan or with her at hotels in Paris. He is thought to have forked out £15,000 every couple weeks for a private plane, which would

bring him to Yespica.

El Mundo reported: 'The early morning trips, extended to the last minute of passion, led to a down which affected his performances.' Real Madrid happy to lose Ozil due to his tiring pursuit of... His new girlfriend Many Capristo is thought to want to move to the UK to be beside him, but the

Sun on Sunday report that she has rejected the advice to find a place near Hertfordshire's training ground. Capristo is set to be a glamorous addition to Britain's collection of

I yelled at Van der Vaart

‘Stop the lies or I’ll break both your legs’ - I wanted to rip another teammate limb from limb... and how I dragged one scared opponent along like a disobedient dog I joined AC Milan in 2010 and our biggest league match was approaching. The Milan derby against Inter, whose most passionate fans - the Ultras - were going to hate me. On top of that, I had issues with Oguchi Onyewu, a guy in my team. He was an American the size of a house, and I told a mate in the squad: 'Something serious is gonna happen. I just feel it.'Onyewu resembled a heavyweight boxer. He was nearly 6ft 5in and weighed over 15 stone, but he couldn't handle me. He ac-

cused me of trash talking, but that wasn't true. People trash talk me. I've heard so much s**t over the years: 'F****** gypsy', stuff about my mum - all that stuff. I retaliate with my body, not with words.I told Onyewu I did not trash talk, but he just kept on. He shushed me with his finger. Then he did it again. I saw red. I didn't say anything, not a word.

That b****** was going to

find out how I trash-talk!The next time he got the ball in training, I rushed towards him and jumped up with my feet and studs out in front the worst type of tackle. But he saw me and leapt out of the way. As we both crashed to the ground, my first thought was: 'S**t! I've missed!' As I got up and walked away I felt a blow to my shoulder. Not a good idea, Oguchi Onyewu.I

headbutted him, and we flew at each other. We wanted to tear each other limb from limb. It was brutal. We were rolling around, punching and kneeing each other. We were crazy and furious - it was like life and death.

Afterwards, the weirdest thing happened. Onyewu started praying to God with tears in his eyes, making the sign of the cross.

Monty's toils continue as spinner faces innings defeat in first Essex match

Essex were left facing the follow-on as Northamptonshire totally dominated the second day of the LV= County Championship Division Two clash at Colchester.Needing to reach 382 to steer clear of that possibility, Essex reached the close on 187 for five in reply to a formidable 531 by their promotion-chasing opponents.Earlier in the day, England outcast Monty Panesar finished with two wickets for 133 runs after having got through 54 overs.Indian Test star Gautam Gambhir, who was also making his debut for Essex, scored 31 without looking in any trouble until he chopped on against Steven Crook shortly after tea.The paceman also struck another blow immediately afterwards when he found a way through the defence of Ravi Bopara, who was bowled for 12.

footballing WAGs - with her pop star background leading to the couple being dubbed 'the German Posh and Becks'.Ozil, who is of Turkish ancestry, is a devout Muslim,

but his girlfriend has become a celebrity in Germany thanks to her flamboyant musical performances and participation in a dancing-themed TV show.

BATTLE ENTERS

FINAL ROUND

THE battle for the final spot at the 2020 Olympics has entered its business end with wrestling, squash and a combined bid from baseball- softball hoping to emerge stronger than ever when the full IOC assembly takes a call on their future on Sunday.The crucial vote during the 125th International Olympic Committee (IOC) session in Buenos Aires, Argentina, will see the culmination of a contest that began two years ago.

One of the sports will join the 2020 Summer Games while the others will be left to ponder about their future outside the Olympic programme. Nearly seven months (February 12) after wrestling was dealt a severe blow by the IOC, the sport's governing body, FILA, made sweeping changes to make the sport more spectatorfriendly and paved the way for greater participation of women in decision making.The body put forth equal number of weight categories for women from 2016 Olympics onwards as compared to men who participate in grecoroman and freestyle wrestling.The futuristic approach prompted the IOC executive board to shortlist the game for a final vote. The changes were well received by the outgoing IOC president Jacques Rogge and vice president and his

likely successor Thamas Bach.Wrestling has a realistic chance of making a comeback into the Olympic fold with strong backing of Russian President Vladimir Putin and support garnered

from the United States and Iran.It will face steep competition from squash. The World Squash Federation (WSF), headed by president N Ramachandran, delivered a dynamic and television- friendly presentation to the IOC executive board in Russia on May 29 before being shortlisted for Sunday's vote.

Issue # 527 (36)

THE CONTACT

Smartphone a sight for sore eyes Simon Kamau, 26, has been in almost constant pain since he was a playful three-year-old and accidentally pierced his eye with a sharp object, but smartphone technology now offers hope.

His family live in an impoverished part of rural Naivasha in Kenya’s Rift Valley region and could not afford the 80-kilometre (50-mile) journey to the nearest specialist hospital, leaving the young Kamau blind in one eye ever since.

23 years later, Kamau has a chance to better his quality of life thanks to a team of doctors from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine armed with an innovative, low cost, smartphone solution.

“Kenya was a natural test location,” the

project’s team leader, Dr Andrew Bastawrous, told.

“For a country with a population of more than 40 million, there are only 86 qualified eye doctors, 43 of whom are operating in the capital Nairobi.” The equipment used in the study, which has been running for five years and is now in its final stages, is a smartphone with an addon lens that scans the retina, plus an application to record the data.

The technology is deceptively simple to use and relatively cheap: each ‘Eye-Phone’, as Bastawrous likes to call his invention, costs a few hundred euros (dollars), compared to a professional ophthalmoscope that costs tens of thousands of euros and weighs in at around 130 kilogrammes (290 pounds).

Bastawrous said he hopes the ‘Nakuru Eye Disease Cohort Study’, which has done the rounds of 5,000 Kenyan patients, will one day revolutionise access to eye treatment for millions of low-income Africans who are suffering from eye disease and blindness. With 80 percent of the cases of blindness considered curable or preventable, the potential impact is huge.

Data from each patient is uploaded to a team of specialists, who can come up with a diagnosis and advise on follow-up treatment.

The results are also compared to tests taken with professional equipment to check the smartphone is a viable alternative.

Bastawrous says his ‘Eye-Phone’ has proved

DEAR BIKE THIEF

A cyclist has taught a bike thief a lesson after he found his friend’s stolen bicycle locked up in the street - and replaced it with a cardboard one. Known as Festethejeste on Reddit, the Toronto friend helped get the bike back using tools to cut through the lock and then left the cardboard cut-out and a tongue-in-cheek letter to the bike thief. The letter explained how the friends had found the bike and why they were taking it back.

‘You rascal!’ the letter addresses the bike thief, adding: ‘You took my bike earlier this week but forgot to tell me where you’d leave it!’ The letter goes on to explain that the friend recognised the bicycle because he is a mechanic and has serviced the bike several times.

The friends write that they are leaving the (cardboard) replacement until the thief can afford their own real bike.

Further details of the story are revealed in the Reddit feed, where Festethejeste posted the pictures of the cyclists’ revenge. His friend’s bike was stolen from the

Christie Pits area in Toronto.

When questioned about whether they could be certain it was his friend’s stolen bike, he said: ‘...the bike is 100 per cent, without a shadow of a doubt property of my friends (sic).

I did him a favour and I already own these tools (to break the lock) because I run a bike shop.’

He claimed the police in Toronto are often ‘busy and to be honest don’t have the time or resources to deal with this stuff’.

The friend goes on to explain that bike theft is a big problem in Toronto and thieves appear to buy lots of the same kind of lock and leave stolen bikes on the street so they can’t get caught with them on their property.

He said: ‘... there were

other bikes locked up and down the street with the exact same unlock...’

He said this tactic was common in Toronto and was used by Canada’s infamous prolofic bike thief Igor Kenk, who is now servign time for his stealing. The friend said Kenk would lock stolen bikes up all along Queen Street for blocks.

When questioned about whether the bike had already been sold to another cyclist, the Reddit user said he would ‘gladly work with the person that bought the stolen bike to nab the thief if they exist’.

He added: ‘I’m willing to bet that they don’t though. As mentioned bike thieves do this “lock up stolen bikes in public” thing all the time in Toronto.’

its worth, and can easily and accurately diagnose ailments including glaucoma, cataracts, myopia and long-sightedness.

Treatments range from prescription glasses and eye drops to complex surgery that is conducted once every two weeks at a hospital in Nakuru, the nearest big town. So far, up to 200 of the 5,000 people involved in the study have had surgery to correct various eye ailments.

Kamau is among those expecting to receive surgery on his blind eye.

While doctors say he is unlikely to recover his full vision because the injury was so long ago, they can at least stop the pain and swelling caused by the ad-

10 Sep. to 16 Sep., 2013

ditional strain on his functioning eye.

“I can hardly do manual work around the farm. Once the sun shines, my eyes water and I feel a lot of pain,” said Kamau, who lives on a small farm with six family members.

Neighbour Mary Wambui, 50, has had eye problems for 36 years but gave up on finding treatment because existing medical care was far too expensive. Instead, she settled for home remedies like placing a cold wet cloth over her eyes when the pain became unbearable.

“I was treated at the Kijabe Mission hospital but the follow-up visits became too expensive. I had

to pay bus fares and then queue in the waiting room for the whole day, and then go back home without seeing a doctor,” she recalled.

She said Bastawrous’ project, in which the tests were carried out at her home, was a welcome relief.

“I do not like the feel of hospitals. Their process is long, laborious and costly but with this phone, I got to know of my diagnosis with just a click,” she said.

Bastawrous says the success of the smartphone meant it could soon be replicated in other poor areas of Kenya. He said the arid Turkana area, one of Kenya’s poorest regions, was next on the list.

Merkel’s flag necklace gets own Twitter account A necklace worn by Chancellor Angela Merkel sporting the colours of the German flag has acquired a dedicated Twitter account delivering satirical jibes following its muchcommented upon appearance at a TV debate.

For many years Germans were uncomfortable flying their flag publicly because of its nationalistic associations and echoes of the country’s Nazi past.

But Merkel’s proud gesture did not go unnoticed by the 17 million

viewers who tuned in to watch her only public de-

What a lobster!

When it comes to lobsters, there are a whole host of unusual varieties from blue to orange and even albino.

However, the one that is on display at the Gulf of Maine Research Institute in Portland is in a league of its own being half orange, half brown.

Steven Profaizer, institute spokesman, says it’s being kept in a tank used by the LabVenture education experience.

Around 10,000 students to the institute each

bate with Social Democratic challenger Peer Steinbrueck on Sunday, ahead of a general election on September 22.

By Monday, the “Germany necklace” worn by Merkel had its own parody account on Twitter which has so far attracted more than 7,500 followers to @schlandkette.

“Do you really want her hanging around your neck for four more years? Believe me, as her necklace I know what I’m talking about” read one tweet during the debate.

year.

The Lobster Institute at

half brown lobster was caught off the Massachusetts coast last October.

On that occasion, a

the University of Maine says the two-tone lobster is one in 50 million.

Another half orange,

lobsterman from Salem, Massachusetts gave the one-pound lobster to the New England Aquarium.

Issue # 527 (37)

‘Lifelogging’ camera shrugs off privacy

When Martin Kaellstroem was a young adult, he lost both his parents to cancer. It became a spur for him to seize the day, as a person and an entrepreneur.

The result: A lens with no off-button that captures every moment of your life.

The 38-year-old cofounder of Swedish company Memoto is a man in a hurry as he promotes his “lifelogging” camera, which is worn with a clip on the shirt or on a string around the neck, and takes a picture once every 30 seconds.

“When you lose your parents, you realise that

you don’t live forever. It has definitely affected me in my entrepreneurship. I can’t wait until later to fulfil my dreams, I have to live my dream now,” he said.

Some may see parallels with George Orwell’s 1984, the Truman Show or other dystopias. But the team behind the Memoto camera insists that it doesn’t breach any privacy. Rather, they see it as a way to collect memories.

“Traditionally, people only brought their camera to special events when everyone was dressed up, smiling into the camera,” Kaellstroem said.

Plymouth woman wakes up Chinese

THE CONTACT

10 Sep. to 16 Sep., 2013

Croc traps man on island for two weeks A crocodile has trapped a man on an island in a remote part of Australia for two weeks as he feared he would be eaten if he tried to escape.

The tourist, named only as a New Zealander called Ryan, had been taken to Governor Island by boat and had been intending to kayak the 4km (2.5 miles) back to the mainland.

But he told his rescuers that every time he tried to paddle away from the island, off Western Australia, the giant reptile - said

to be about 6m (20ft) long - stalked him and looked as if it was likely to attack.

So he stayed on dry land where he thought he was safer, despite diminishing food and water supplies. Two weeks later, Ryan was finally rescued

by Don Macleod, who went to the island after he spotted a light and feared it may be someone who needed help.

When he arrived on Saturday, Mr Macleod came across Ryan, who was very distressed.

US grandma swims into world record book Diana Nyad swam into the history books Monday, completing a marathon three-day crossing from Cuba to Florida to become the first person to do so without a protective shark cage.

The 64-year-old American, who left a Havana yacht club early Saturday, arrived on a Key West beach to realize her lifetime quest after four previous attempts failed amid stormy weather and jellyfish attacks.

“I’ve got three messages,” a visibly exhausted Nyad, her face puffy and sunburned, told cheering crowds as she walked ashore.

“One is, we should never, ever give up. Two is, you never are too old to

chase your dreams.”

“Three is, it looks like a solitary sport, but it’s a

team,” Nyad added in a nod to her supporters. She was accompanied by five

boats and a team of divers as she braved the perilous waters.

‘TB does not come from animals’

How would you feel if one day you awoke to find your Glaswegian, Home Counties or West Country tones inexplicably gone, with a French, Danish or even Indonesian accent in its place?

38-year-old Sarah Colwill doesn’t have to wonder. On the March 7, 2010, she woke up to discover that her customary Plymouth pronunciation had gone - replaced by Chinese enunciation.

Sarah is one of the handful of people to be diagnosed with Foreign Accent Syndrome, a condi-

tion so rare there were just 61 confirmed cases between 1941 and 2012. So what is it like to live with a voice that is not your own?

A new BBC documentary, The Woman Who Woke Up Chinese, aims to find some answers.

The star of the show is Colwill herself, whose bizarre Chinese accent is completely at odds with her looks, background and experiences. After suffering a severe migraine, Colwill was rushed to hospital only for doctors to be left baffled after she developed a strong Chinese accent.

Tuberculosis has been shadowing humankind for at least 70,000 years, new research suggests.

Both humans and the TB bug Mycobacterium tuberculosis have followed parallel paths of evolution, starting in Africa, scientists believe.

Researchers analysed 259 TB strains from around the world to determine their genetic pedigree.

Their findings, published in the journal Nature Genetics, point to an origin in Africa at least 70,000 years ago. It was around this time that early modern humans were starting to migrate from Africa into Asia and Europe.

The shape of the TB and human genetic family trees look surprisingly similar, the researchers found.

‘The evolutionary path of humans and the TB bacteria shows striking

similarities,’ said lead scientist Dr Sebastien Gagneux, from the Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute in Basel.

Alongside humans, TB migrated out of Africa and expanded all over the globe. As humans colonised the Earth, TB adapted and evolved.

‘We see that the diversity of tuberculosis bacteria has increased markedly when human popula-

tions expanded,’ said Dr Gagneux. A switch to living in village-like communities during the so-called Neolithic Demographic Transition period may have favoured human-tohuman transmission of TB and added to its virulence, said the scientists.

The findings indicate that, unlike many other infectious organisms, TB is unlikely to have jumped from domesticated ani-

mals to humans.

According to the evidence, TB emerged long before humans started to domesticate animals, said Dr Gagneux.

Scientists hope tracing the evolutionary origins of TB can help them predict patterns of infection and contribute to drug discovery and disease control.

Scientists have identified 39 new TB genes associated with increased drug resistance, according to another report in Nature Genetics. Researchers examined the whole genomes, or genetic codes, of 123 TB strains including 47 with various levels of resistance to different drugs. ‘We have found that more genes might be implicated in resistance than previously thought, and this means that we can start to unravel the role of these genes,’ said Professor Megan Murray, from Harvard Medical School in the U.S.

Issue # 527 (38)

World’s bendiest woman

THE CONTACT

10 Sep. to 16 Sep., 2013 formers, trainers and acrobats will meet in Bergisch Gladbach, near Cologne, for workshops, shows and various special events with Zlata billed as the star attraction. Zlata has been contorting herself since she was four years old. After discovering how much she loved twisting herself into odd shapes, she joined an afterschool circus class before turning her talent into a career.

She said: ‘As soon as I started doing it I was addicted and I knew this is what I wanted to do for the rest of my life.’

For many of us, simply bending over to touch our toes can be a difficult. But it’s not a problem for the world’s bendiest woman Julia Guenthel aka Zlata. In fact, if she wants to touch her toes she can actually do so by twisting her legs up to her head.

Russian-born Zlata can contort herself into the most extreme poses imaginable - and has broken numerous world records for her flexibility.

The former gymnast, who is 5ft 8in, is so flexible she can cram herself into a 50cm squared box.

She said: ‘Doing these poses just feels very natural to me. Sometimes it can get a bit uncomfortable if I have to hold a pose for a long time in photo shoots.

‘But I think that’s like anyone who sits down for a long time - their muscles get stiff.’ The 27-year-old is set to show off her ability at the upcoming International Contortion Convention in Germany, where she now lives. Per-

Putin’s valrus shake hand

Being a country’s head of state can involve a lot of pressing the flesh.

If you’re Vladimir Putin, you can expect to not just be shaking hands with foreign dignitaries but also, from time to time, walruses.

The Russian president, no stranger to bizarre photocalls, befriended the giant sea creature when he visited an aquarium on Russky Island near Vladivostok.

Mr Putin even took the opportunity to break his normally icy demeanour, finding it impossible not to laugh as the giant sea creature covered its face with a flipper in a display of apparent surprise during the meeting.

Also requiring the president’s attention was the largest indoor dolphin

enclosure in the country, where he rolled up his sleeves and got stuck in to feeding the animals as a reward following their performance. And Mr Putin was called in to keep a close eye on monitors while two tigers were transferred into a new pen outside. The centre on Russky Island near east-

Way to school This combination of four pictures shows children on their way to school around the world.

(Top L): A child walks to school on June 11, 2013 in Qunu, a village outside the town of Mthatha in the Eastern Cape, where former South African President Nelson Mandela grew up, in South Africa.

(Top R): Swiss boy Leon, 9, walks on June 20, 2013 to school in Moudon, western Switzerland.

(Bottom L): Colombian indigenous child from the Nasa ethnic group Gari Camayo Pito, 12, (L) and his sister leave home to go to school in the village of Las Guacas, rural area of Florida, Valle del Cauca department, Colombia, on June 21, 2013.

(Bottom R): Kelvin Leadismo,12, with his schoolbag hanging on his shoulder, tending to his family’s cattle near his family’s manyatta (traditional home plastered with cowdung) at Kisima township of Kenya’s nothern county of Samburu on July 17, 2013 before he heads off at tuition for young shepherds from the Samburu community who are usually unable to attend regular daytime classes, at nearby Loltulelei primary school.

ern Vladivostok will welcome its first public visitors next year, and seemed to receive the approval of the country’s leader.

Putin has previously been photographed going horse-riding with his shirt off, sedating Siberian tigers and polar bears, and guiding cranes to new migration routes in a microlight.

Cat in a can A hungry feline had to be rescued by firefighters after it got its head stuck in a tin of cat food.

The distressed pet was found wandering the streets yesterday morning by a woman as she drove to church in Crawley, West Sussex, with its face poking out of the open end of a Felix tin.

Fire crews initially tried to slide its head out with washing-up liquid, but when that failed they used a tin opener and finally a ring cutter to free the animal.

Tim Taylor of West Sussex Fire and Rescue Service said: ‘A couple of people brought round a cat with a Felix tin of cat food stuck on its head.

‘We tried a bit of soapy

liquid to see if the head would slip out. When that didn’t work we used a tin opener on the other end so that the cut could see and then used a ring cutter to cut the cat out of it.

‘The cat was a bit scared with the tin on its head and was scratching

a bit but seemed alright once we had got it out.’

The cat, which was found in the Pound Hill area of Crawley at 8am, is now at a nearby vet’s in the hope of locating a microchip and reuniting the animal with its owners.

THE CONTACT

Issue # 527 (39)

Cauliflower and Peas Curry (Phoolgobhi Aur Mutter ki Kari)

Health Drink

Ingredients: 2 tomatoes 1 carrot 1 orange a few drops of lemon juice 3 drops saccharine or 2 pills saccharine 2 pinches salt crushed ice for serving Method: Chop the tomatoes and carrots into big pieces.

Put the orange segments and ½ teacup of water.

Blend it with all the remaining ingredients in a liquidizer and strain.

Serve it with lots of crushed ice.

chicken curry Ingredients: 1 kg chicken For Seasoning : 3 tsp ghee few coriander leaves 1/2 onion finely sliced Salt to taste For Vindalu Masala : To be ground into paste : 3 tsp jira 12 dry kashmiri chillies 1/2 an inch turmeric 2 pods cardamoms 10 garlic cloves 2 tbsp vinegar

Fish with Moong Dal

Ingredients: 1 cup moong dal 2 fish heads 1 onion, chopped finely 1 tomato, chopped finely 1 tsp garlic paste 1 tsp ginger paste 2 green chillies, chopped finely 1 tbsp turmeric powder 1 tsp cummin seeds powder 1 tsp coriander seeds powder 3 dry red chillies 2 bay leaves 2 cardamoms 1/4" cinnamon 4 cloves 3 black pepper 1 tsp garam masala 1 tbsp lemon juice A pinch of hing Salt as per taste Oil for frying Method: Wash the dal and soak for half an hour.

Pressure cook the dal with ½ tsp turmeric powder.

10 Sep. to 16 Sep., 2013

Clean the fish heads and make into big pieces.

Marinate the heads with ½ turmeric powder, salt and lemon juice. Keep aside for 45 mins.

Heat oil for frying. Deep fry the fish heads till golden brown.

Drain and keep aside. Remove the oil from pan keeping only approx 3 tbsp of it.

Add hing, bay leaves, cloves, cardamoms, red chillies, and black pepper.

Add onion and fry till transparent. Add ginger, garlic and green chillies.

Simmer for 2 minutes. Add chopped tomatoes and simmer for 5 minutes.

Add cummin powder, coriander powder. Add fish heads and simmer till they crumble.

Add dal and 1 cup water. Let it boil till the required consistency of curry.

Sprinkle garam masala. Serve hot with rice.

Method: Cut and wash the chicken and make pieces.

Grind masala in vinegar.

Fry sliced onion till brown, add coriander leaves and stir, put masala and fry it.

Stir frequently. Now add meat and salt to taste.

Cover the dish. Allow the meat to cook in its own gravy.

Stir frequently, so that it does burn. Boil the potatoes, peel and cut into fours.

Add them to the meat. Allow it to simmer for 10 minutes.

Ingredients: 2 teacups cauliflower, small florets 1 teacup boiled green peas 2 bay leaves 2 tomatoes 2 tsp fresh curds 2 tbsp cashewnuts, chopped ½ tsp sugar 3 tbsp ghee or refined oil Salt to taste For the paste : 1 onion, chopped 2 tbsp coconut, grated 5 garlic cloves 2 coriander seeds 1 tsp jeera 12 mm (½ “) piece ginger 2 tsp khus khus

6 red chillies Method: Keep the tomatoes in hot water for 10 minutes. Remove and blend into a puree. Heat the ghee, put the cauliflower florets and gently fry for 6 to 7 minutes.

Take out and keep aside.

In the same ghee, put the bay leaves and paste and sauté for 2 to 3 minutes.

Put the tomato puree and curds and sauté for another 2 to 3 minutes.

Put the cauliflower, cashewnuts, green peas, sugar, ½ cup of water and salt and cook for 5 to 7 minutes till the vegetables becomes soft.

Coconut Pachadi

Ingredients: ¼ cup coconut 2 green chillies coriander leaves, finely chopped a small piece ginger ¼ tsp mustard seeds a small pinch hing 1 cup yogurt ¼ tsp salt Method: Wet grind coconut, green chillies, ginger, coriander leaves, and salt.

Combine this with yogurt.

Fry mustard and hing in little ghee or oil and add it to the above.

Coconut Burfi Ingredients: 3 cups coconut gratings 3 cups sugar 4 tsp ghee 3 cardamom pods 15 cashewnuts Method : Grind coconut gratings with cashewnut bits, without adding water.

Mix sugar with ½ cup of water in a vessel and heat till syrup is formed that can be drawn into strings.

Add the ground mixture to the

syrup and turn over constantly till the blend thickens a bit.

Then add 2 tsps ghee and continue turning over till it forms a lump. Remove from flame.

Flatten the blend on a wooden board, smeared with ghee, evenly to ¾” thickness.

Cut into pieces of desired size of square/diamond shape, using a spatula (or dosa lifter), when still warm.

Separate the pieces and store in a container, when cool.

Issue # 527 (40)

THE CONTACT

Documents reveal Canadian government examined limiting refugees with health problems

MONTREAL - The federal government has examined setting limits on the number of refugees that Canada takes in with health problems, such as trauma from torture.Staff at Citizenship and Immigration Canada were asked last year to suggest ways to cut down on the number of "high needs" refugees in order to reduce strain on the health-care system, according to documents obtained by The Canadian Press.

That request came from former immigration minister Jason Kenney, who is still the Conservatives' minister responsible for multiculturalism.He was eventually given a series of

options including a cap on refugees with health problems - such as "developmental delay, blindness, victims of trauma and torture" - allowed from within a specific population group, according to one memo.There were concerns such a change might create a public-relations problem.Canadians might consider it an abdication of the country's efforts to help the world's most vulnerable, according to the 2012 memo. "Implementing quotas for refugees with these needs could be perceived as a reversal of Canada's humanitarian tradition," says the memo, signed last Dec. 11 by a top official in the immigration depart-

ment, Neil Yeates.

"Vulnerable refugees would be disproportionately affected, as vulnerability within refugee populations is often tied to health and mobility issues."

Another option suggested was to work with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees to change the definition of a "medical case referral," in order to curb the number of refugee arrivals with "serious medical needs."

Those proposals are now coming to light amid a major overhaul to Canada's refugee policies, affecting everything from which refugees the country accepts to how claims are processed.Starting in 201314, Ottawa will shift away from a global resettlement program to focus on between three and five specific refugee populations.

The Conservatives have, meanwhile, faced criticism for last year's cuts to health services provided to refugees and refugee claimants. Doctors and refugee advocates argue that the move is short-sighted and puts the most vulnerable at risk.

10 Sep. to 16 Sep., 2013

Edmonton school sees surge in Nepalese students; immigrants seek brighter future One year ago, a family from Nepal registered their son at St. Catherine Catholic elementary junior high.

Now, about 60 Nepalese families send children to the school in the Queen Mary Park neighbourhood, at 10915 110th St., principal Dwain Tymchyshyn said.Word of mouth seems to be responsible for the exponential increase of Nepali families at the school over the past year,he said.A few families moved into the Queen Mary Park neighbourhood and then helped more families find homes nearby and register at the school, and word kept spreading."It's very similar to what we had happen here several years ago with people from the Horn of Africa,and continue to have,and at onetime with people coming from northern Burma," Tymchyshyn said."One family moved in and before you know it there were 35 families.What happens is those other families are now filtering out (of the school). They've been in Canada for five to 10 years and now they're starting to move out to other parts of

the city. For example, a number of African families moved out to the west end because they've now either bought a house or they're renting space in the west end because they've become a little bit more affluent."The students from Nepal are not Catholic, but St. Catherine school has enough room to accept them, Tymchyshyn said.

About 470 students are enrolled at the school this year.The school is surrounded by many moderately priced walk-up apartments which are home to many immigrant families, said Tymchyshyn. The population of immigrant families at St. Catherine school tends to hover around 65 per cent, he said.More than 70 per cent

of QueenMary Park residents rent their homes, the majority of which are oneto four storey apartments,according tothe2012municipalcensus.

About 17 per cent of Queen Mary Park residents reported being non-Canadian citizens, compared with eight percent citywide, the census said.St.Catherine school's shifting ethnicity is reflected in its school snack program and annual summer barbecue. There were chicken dogs on the barbecue grill for the first time this year, Tymchyshyn said.

"We had to find an alternative to hamburgers because we have 60 families who don't eat beef. Before, we used to have 50 African families who didn't eat pork," he said.