THE CONTACT WEEKLY NEWSPAPER ISSUE - 634, 29 SEP. - 5 OCT. 2015 PH: (905) 671 - 4761
ISI reviving Sikh militancy Captured terrorists say more Pakistani infiltrators are heading for Indian metros New Delhi Recent infiltration by Pakistani terrorists in Jammu and Kashmir is part of a larger plot to carry out terror strikes Another intelligence input indicates that Pakistan’s intelligence agency, the InterServices Intelligence (ISI), has mobilised terrorists of the Lashkare-Taiba (LeT), Jaish-eMohammad (JeM) and Hizbul Mujahideen, besides Sikh militants living in Pakistan, for strikes in Delhi, Punjab and Jammu and Kashmir. ISI officials recently held a meeting with terrorists from jihadi and Sikh
in Indian metros, fresh intelligence reports have indicated. The fresh wave of infiltrators has been tasked to strike beyond the Kashmir Valley in
several big cities including New Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata. Installations of the Army and other security forces will also be targeted.
ISI met with Sikh militants
camps across the border, with the help of LeT founder and Jamaat-udDawah chief Hafiz Saeed. The inputs suggested that some of the terrorists who are undergoing training familiarised themselves with Sikh traditions and Gurmukhi script at Kartarpur Sahib, a gurdwara in Pakistan, with the help of Khalistan Zindabad Force (KZF) chief Ranjit Singh alias Nita. (By Abhishek Bhalla in New Delhi)
radical outfits in Pakistan and have provided funds for the possible strikes. Around 15-20 terrorists from PoK and other parts of Pakistan are being trained in the use of arms and ammunition at
“Recently-arrested Pakistani terrorists revealed plans of terrorist groups to target establishments of security forces, vital installations and vulnerable urban areas, including major metropolitan cities in the immediate future,” an Intelligence Bureau report states. Based on revelations made by the arrested terrorists and other intelligence inputs, an alert has been issued to increase security in New Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Bengaluru, Chennai and Ahmedabad. The note said while there is an urgent need to strengthen security deployments at Army establishments and vital installations across the country, the security of vulnerable civilian targets in cities also
needs to be reinforced. “Concerned law enforcement and intelligence agencies need to urgently deploy adequate resources to secure major metropolitan cities,” the note adds. The note mentions the killing of five Pakistani
infiltrators on September 18 in Naushera Nar, Gurez sector in J&K as a case in point. The alert was sent last week to police chiefs in Maharashtra, Karnataka, West Bengal, Telangana, Continued on Page 2
Dera chief redraws battle lines in Punjab NASA find evidence of flowing Chandigarh The decision to exonerate Haryanabased religious sect Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim by Akal Takht - the highest Sikh temporal authority in the blasphemy case has not only sparked protests in many parts of Punjab, but also come as a major embarrassment
to both Akal Takht and Gurmeet Ram Rahim.
This is the first time that Sikhs have protested against the Akal Takht decision. The Sikh organisations are also debating the issue of political interference into the working of the supreme Sikh body. Various Sikh organisations, including Dal Khalsa, Shiromani Akali Dal
(Amritsar), Panthak Committee, International United Gurmat Granthi Sabha and Panch Pardhani, have criticised the move. Among the protesters are the families of a Sangrur resident, Karmjit Singh, and Dabwali resident, Harminder Singh, who died during the protests against Dera chief in 2007 when he had Continued on Page 2
water on Mars, life next?
Washington You have one more reason to book your date
Vladimir Putin denies being a ‘gangster’ and has no plans to put Russian troops into Syria ‘for now’ Russian President Vladimir Putin has denied being a ‘gangster’ and insisted he does not plan on putting ground troops in Syria ‘for now’ during an interview with 60 Minutes. Speaking on the eve of his appearance at the United Nations in New York and a meeting with
President Obama, Putin brushed off criticisms that he is an autocrat - saying he is only trying to serve Russia. Putin also insisted there are not any Russian troops in Syria - despite reports to the contrary - and that he has no plans to station
any there in the near future.
However, he did voice his support for the leadership of President Bashar AlAssad, calling his administration the ‘legitimate government’ and saying his cooperation is necessary to eliminate ISIS. In a swipe at
America’s military intervention in the Middle East, Putin told CBS’s Charlie Rose that destroying Syria’s leaders would only destabilize the region more. He added: ‘It’s my deep belief that any actions to destroy the legitimate Continued on Page 2
with the much-awaited Matt Damon-starrer science-fiction film “The Martian” this weekend. The data obtained from NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) has revealed first ever definitive signs of liquid water flowing on the surface of the Red Planet. A strong evidence for seasonal flows of liquid salty water has been detected, scientists reported on Monday a hint towards a full-fledged life that may have been sustained on Mars Continued on Page 2
Issue - 634 (2)
29 Sep. - 5 Oct. 2015
NASA find evidence of flowing water on Mars... Continued from Page 1 in the past. In a paper published in the journal Nature Geoscience, the team looked at streaks that form on some slopes on Mars during warmer times of the year, having previously suspected they might be caused by flowing, salty water. According to Alfred S. McEwen, professor of planetary geology at University of Arizona, the team has identified waterlogged molecules - salts of a type known as perchlorates - in readings from orbit. “That’s a direct detection of water in the form of hydration of salts. There pretty much has to have been liquid water recently present to produce the hydrated salt,” Dr McEwen noted. NASA also provided details of this major science during a news briefing at the James Webb Auditorium at NASA headquarters here. Nepaliorigin researcher Lujendra Ojha, currently pursuing PhD at the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta, is the lead author of the paper. Ojha originally discovered signs of water on the Martian surface when he was studying at the
University of Arizona, Tucson, in 2011. “We find evidence for hydrated salts at all four locations in the seasons when recurring slope lineae are most extensive, which suggests that the source of hydration is recurring slope lineae activity,” he wrote in the new paper. “Our findings strongly support the hypothesis that recurring slope lineae form as a result of contemporary water activity on Mars,” Ojha pointed out. For the study, scientists developed a new technique to analyse chemical maps of the Martian surface. They found striking fingerprints of salts that form only in the presence of water. Adding to the growing literature on possible life conditions on the Red Planet, NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity found in April this year that it is possible that there is liquid water close to the surface of Mars. The explanation was that the substance calcium perchlorate has been found in the soil which lowers the freezing point so the water does not freeze into ice, but is liquid and present in very salty salt water - brine.
ISI reviving Sikh militancy.... Continued from Page 1 Gujarat, Tamil Nadu and J&K. In August, two Pakistani terrorists identified as Mohammed Naved and Sajjad Ahmed alias Javed were arrested after they infiltrated from Pakistan. They were part of different groups of terrorists who have been crossing over and targeting security forces in J&K. Naved was arrested on August 5 after his associate Noman was killed when they attacked a BSF convoy, while Sajjad was arrested on August 27 after his four associates were gunned down in Baramulla. A group of terrorists, who infiltrated from Pakistan earlier, also attacked a police station in Gurdaspur. Intelligence officials say the dossier prepared on Naved, which is based on evidence gathered after his disclosures, is proof of the fidayeen factory across the border preparing young boys to spread terror across India. The dossier lists around 40 people, who were trained along with Naved at various camps in Pakistan to carry out fidayeen attacks in India. The arrest of the two Pakistani terrorists, and other would-be infiltrators
Vladimir Putin denies being a ‘gangster’... Continued from Page 1 government will create a situation which you can witness now in the other countries of the region or in other regions, for instance in Libya where all the state institutions are disintegrated. ‘We see a similar situation in Iraq. It’s only the Syrian people who
a series of tents could mean Russia was about to deploy ground troops into Syria, but Putin has said he has no plans to do this ‘for now’ There was also speculation that Russia was preparing to deploy ground troops after images showed what appeared to be tents or other temporary structures
are entitled to decide who should govern their country and how.’ Russia has previously provided the regime with tanks and artillery pieces, and satellite images released yesterday suggest that has been followed with fast jets and attack helicopters. There was speculation that
designed to house personnel around a key Assad-controlled airbase. However, Putin denied that was the case. He said: ‘Russia will not participate in any troop operations in the territory of Syria or in any other states. ‘Well, at least we don’t plan on it right now. But we are
considering intensifying our work with both President Assad and with our partners in other countries.’ He also insisted that all Russian help being given to Assad was simply to combat Russian ISIS fighters, who he estimated to number around 2,000. Putin said that, instead of waiting for them to return home and start causing problems in Russia, he preferred to fight them in the Middle East with Assad. Putin also highlighted the Pentagon’s recent admission that an effort to train more than 5,000 Syrian rebels had yielded only four or five fighters. Another 50 were captured, wounded or fled in their first encounter with extremist militants. In remarks omitted from the U.S. broadcast, Putin said: ‘It turns out that just 60 were properly trained, only four or five with weapons are fighting, while the rest of them simply took the American weapons and ran over to join ISIS.’ In a wide-ranging interview Putin also took on criticism that he is a ‘gangster’ or a ‘tsar’. He said: ‘How can I be a gangster, if I work with the KGB? That does not correspond to reality.’
being gunned down by security forces, has not deterred Pakistani terror groups from sending fidayeen for terror strikes in India.
ready young men to carry out attacks in India. Sources said after the recent arrests, and terrorists who managed to infiltrate being gunned
skirmishes on the IndiaPakistan border and a series of infiltration leading to terror strikes have prompted the government to plan an overhaul of security
Recent intelligence reports indicate that there is a surge in infiltration attempts being made by terror groups. It’s not just the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), even groups like Jaish-eMohammed (JeM) and Hizbul Mujahideen have intensified their drive to
down, there is an increase in intelligence inputs about small groups being sent from across the border. “There is an increase in such intelligence inputs. There are specific inputs being generated on a daily basis,” said an intelligence official. The recent
apparatus in the border areas. The BSF, guarding the IB, has communicated to the Union home ministry that increasing the strength of the force is an urgent need for a long-term solution to combat terrorists and Pakistani forces on the border.
Dera chief redraws..... Continued from Page 1 The Sikh leaders have said president, Pratap Singh allegedly dressed as Guru that one reason for the Bajwa, refused to comment Gobind Singh. Dal Khalsa, degradation of Sikh on the issue, senior BJP an Amritsar-based Sikh institutions was the leader Manoranjan Kalia organisaton, has termed the absence of proper norms for said forgiveness is part of decision “shocking”, “hasty” the appointment of the Indian culture and there is and “surreptitious”. It said heads of five powers (Takhts) no political motive behind that granting a pardon to. and issuing of orders under exonerating the Dera chief Gurmit Ram Rahim was in the seal and stamp of Akal eight years after the case violation of the norms, Takht. The Sikh body, in a was registered. “Akal Takht tradition and status of Akal meeting held in Amritsar on is independent to take Takht. In fact, Dal Khalsa and Panch Pardhani have threatened to launch a protest in response to the “gross wrongdoings” of the five heads of various seats (Takhts), and continue their agitation till the decision is reversed. “The entire Sikh community is shellAkal Takht has accepted Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet shocked. It’s ironic Ram Rahim’s apology in the blasphemy case against him. that the norms, traditions and sovereignty of September 24, said it is decision and our party has Akal Takht have been satisfied with the nothing to do with it,” Kalia undermined, compromised explanation given by Dera emphasised. While the BJP and destroyed by those who chief and has pardoned him, and the Akali Dal are eyeing are mandated to safeguard though it warned him from the Baba’s ‘secret’ voteit,” said Kanwar Pal Singh, repeating the incident in bank, radical Sikhs and the spokesperson of Dal future. “Akal Takht had Congress have criticised the Khalsa. Advocate Harpal received a written apology move to woo the Dera chief’s Singh Cheema, a Sikh from the chief of the Sirsa- supporters for the 2017 leader, said: “Giani headquartered sect in which assembly elections. Fearing Gurbachan Singh (the Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh an almost decade-long antiJathedar of Akal Takht) has has stated that he has deep incumbency in Punjab, the shaken the conscience of respect and regard for Guru BJP and the Akali Dal are devout Sikhs. Hence, we Gobind Singh as well as leaving no stone unturned to would be converging at Akal Sikh religion and Sikh grab power in the state. Takht to take a pledge to community. We are The controversial Baba, who carry on with the mission to satisfied with his apology is facing serious charges liberate Sikh institutions and have warned him not to like rape, murder, attempt to from wrong hands that have repeat such instances in murder and castration, had ruined the authority of Akal future,” said Gyani played an important role in Takht Sahib and degraded Gurbachan Singh. Haryana by announcing his the Sikh religious authority.” While the state Congress support to the BJP.
Issue - 634 (3)
29 Sep. - 5 Oct. 2015
Issue - 634 (4)
29 Sep. - 5 Oct. 2015
Hajj tragedy invokes fatalistic explanations in many! This week I am presenting to you the World View of Generational Dynamics on the Hajj stampede. The worst disaster to befall the Islamic event in a quarter of a century occurred on Thursday as two large groups of pilgrims arrived together at a crossroads in Mina, a few kilometers outside the holy city of Mecca. The Hajj is a pilgrimage to Mecca that every Muslim is required to make at least one in his or her lifetime. About two million Muslims from 180 countries around the world had arrived in Saudi Arabia in the past couple of weeks for their one in a lifetime Hajj pilgrimage. On Thursday, hundreds of thousands of pilgrims were walking towards the site of one of the most important rituals, “stoning the devil,” which requires throwing seven stones at a pillar representing Satan in the city of Mina. However, when two massive crowds converged on the same narrow street, the people in front were forced to stop, while the ones hundreds of meters to the rear kept on walking. All of this took place
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under a burning hot sun, with a temperature of 46 degrees centigrade. The result was that hundreds of pilgrims suffocated or were trampled to death. One eyewitness said the majority of the dead people were elderly people who were walking with their children, and were not able to leave the children behind. Initially, Saudi officials placed the blame on the pilgrims themselves for not following safety instructions, saying that many of the pilgrims were “undisciplined and did not follow instructions.” One Saudi official blamed “some pilgrims with African nationalities” for the incident, resulting in outrage in responses like, “Anti-black, anti-poor, xenophobic, totally outrageous yet predictable response from the Saudi Monarchy.” Postings on many twitter accounts blamed the Saudis for poor administration in allowing the stampede to happen. Others blamed it simply on “human error,” and supported the Saudi officials by commending the quick work by first responders after the stampede. The stampede incident comes just a few days after a massive construction crane collapsed into Mecca’s Grand Mosque, killing more than 100 people and leaving over 200 others wounded. By Friday, Saudi officials were giving Fatalistic explanations. Sheikh Abdul Aziz alSheikh told Saudi officials: “You are not responsible for what happened. As for the things that humans cannot control, you are not blamed for them. Fate and destiny are inevitable.” Iran rejects Fatalism, blames Saudi officials for ‘crime’ Saudi Arabia’s enemy, Iran, is rejecting any claim that the stampede was the will of Allah, and is holding the Saudi officials responsible. Iran’s president Hassan Rouhani gave a long-scheduled speech to the United Nations on Saturday, and used the speech to demand an international investigation into the cause of “this incident and similar incidents in this year’s Hajj rituals,” referring to the crane incident. Iran’s Prosecutor General Ebrahim Raisi said: “We will urge international courts and circles to start the trial of the Saudis for their crimes against hajj pilgrims. This is not incompetence, it’s a crime,” Of the almost
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1100 pilgrims killed in the stampede, at least 136 were from Iran, which was more than from any other country. Iran’s Foreign Ministry is protesting Saudi Arabia’s handling of the disaster, and said that Saudi Arabia has yet to issue visas for an Iranian delegation to visit the kingdom to oversee the treatment of injured Iranians and the repatriation of the remains. Muslims debate the role of the ‘Will of Allah’ in human life Fatalism is relatively uncommon in the West. It’s unusual for Westerners to blame even natural disasters on God’s will. In January 2010, evangelical Christian leader Pat Robinson was scorned when he said that the devastating Haiti earthquake occurred because Haiti had made “a pact with the devil” in defeating
the French in 1804. He was similarly scorned linking Hurricane Katrina to abortion. After the Lisbon earthquake of By: SUNNY BAINS 1755, Voltaire wrote: Would you say, seeing this heap of victims, That God is avenged, that their death is President Obama might blame George Bush or the Republicans. But when payment for their crimes? What crimes, what bad things have been something goes right, they take all the credit, just as any politician would. committed by these children, Lying on the breasts of their mothers, Theological contradictions in omnipotence and omniscience vs flattened and bloody? Lisbon is a city no longer. Did it have more free will In both Christian and Muslim theology, vices Than London, than Paris, given to doubtful God or Allah is described as being the omnipotent (able to do anything) and delights? However, Fatalism is expressed more omniscient (knowing everything about the commonly in the Muslim world, according past, present and future). Granting such to an analysis by Daniel Pipes, following powers to God yields some important
the statements by Saudi officials to blame the stampede on Fate and Destiny. Philosophical and theological dilemma goes like this: If humans have the ability to make decisions, this diminishes God’s universal powers. But if God makes all decisions, humans have no responsibility for their own deeds, negating such concepts as justice and punishment. For centuries, there have been two main Islamic schools of thought, one arguing for free will and one holding that God acts through man, and the individual has no say. Pipes says that there are many fatalistic passages in the Koran, and gives some examples: a) Nor can a soul die except by God’s leave, the term being fixed as by writing. b) All people have a set term, and when the end of that term approaches, they can neither delay it by a single moment, nor can they speed it up. c) No misfortune can happen on earth or in your souls but is recorded in a book before we bring it into existence. However, it’s not all onesided, even in Islam. Pipes also quotes a number of Koran passages that contradict the fatalistic outlook: a) God does not wrong people at all, but it is the people themselves who do wrong. b) God does not change the condition of a people until they change that which is in their souls. Pipes quotes numerous Islamic and Christian scholars throughout history on the question of whether Islam is a Fatalistic religion. Pipes also notes that neither activist Muslim crowds, such as those that overthrew governments in Iran and Egypt, nor jihadists use “Allah’s will” as an excuse to sit and do nothing. However, what Pipes finally concludes is that Muslims are no more fatalistic than Christians, and that Muslim politicians use Fatalism as an excuse. Thus, when something goes wrong, they blame “the will of Allah” in the same way that
conundrums and contradictions. Can God make 1+1 equal 3? Mathematical logicians would say even God can’t create a mathematical contradiction. Can God create both an irresistible force and an immovable object - a theological question that was heavily debated a century ago? The conundrums become much more personal when they involve a human being’s free will. In the Daniel Pipes essay referenced above, he quotes Bernard Lewis as follows: “In the great debate among medieval Muslim theologians on the question of predestination or free will, (chess and backgammon) sometimes served as symbols and prototypes. Is life a game of chess, where the player has a choice at every move, where skill and foresight can bring him success? Or is it rather backgammon, where an ounce of skill may speed or delay the result, but where the final outcome is determined by the repeated throw of the dice?” In fact, the debate over omnipotence does not lead to a theological contraction over free will. One can say that God is omnipotent, but that he still allows individual humans free will, and only intervenes in the human affairs at specific times for specified reasons. But once you add omniscience to God’s capabilities, then you reach a genuine insoluble theological contradiction with free will. If God is omniscient, and in particular knows everything that’s going to happen in the future, then there’s no human free will, because it’s impossible for any human to do anything different from what God knows is going to happen. From the point of view of Computer Science and Mathematical Logic, we may not have free will anyway. After all, isn’t our brain just a collection of neurons and synapses just doing what they’re programmed to do? One college professor took this concept a step further, and suggested that each of our brains is nothing more than a Turing machine computer (a pre-programed machine), and that God might even have inscribed each of our computer program codes in the bones of our heads and necks, just to be sure.
Issue - 634 (5)
29 Sep. - 5 Oct. 2015
Nepal mulls banning disabled climbers from Everest
Where should you draw the line? Why do goalposts keep moving? When will life ever become a little less full of unanswered (and seemingly unanswerable) questions? Let’s tackle the last point first. It will all ease up as soon as you stop worrying so much. Goalposts move. It’s just the way things happen in the ‘game of life’ that we on Planet Earth find ourselves playing. Somehow, you have to be OK - even about what’s seemingly not OK. In your emotional life, keep as many of your lines as flexible as you can. We are not all disposed to be helpful and friendly. Some of us, when asked a question, might be more inclined to see it as an imposition. That’s why money is such a powerful force in this world. It creates motivation. Happily, it is not the only thing that we can offer one another when we need a favor. Human beings are hard-wired to respond well to kindness, to charm, to politeness and to something as simple as a gentle sincere smile. If there’s something you need in your personal life, you know how to get it. They say it is ‘far better to lose a battle, but win the war.’ They also say, ‘It’s not the winning, but the taking part that counts.’ They say a lot of things but we have to wonder to what extent they are speaking from experience. If the battle that you lose is serious enough, then your eventual ability to win the war becomes academic. If it is only the taking part that counts, why give prizes? Yet there is a germ of truth in all this. If you want to win in the realm of the heart (and you can if you try) just stop worrying about losing. Why does it seem as if
you can’t do what you want to do? What is the problem? What lies behind the sense of frustration and exasperation? Is someone attempting to thwart you? If you really have an enemy, it is no more (or less) than an attitude. You may be failing to understand something because you aren’t treating a certain sensitive situation with respect. Look at it again more carefully and be open to advice and insight from someone wise. All that has lately seemed frustrating may soon start to look inspiring. Movies take ages to make. Even short sequences require days to plan. Many members of a busy crew must strive to create a perfect set of images. Stories, by contrast, are easy to tell. A few well-chosen words can conjure an image that’s every bit as effective in our mind’s eye. You are currently writing a script of your own inner movie. Nobody else but you can see it. That’s why you are not getting much by way of empathy or understanding. Talk someone else through the tale and they’ll help you make it come to life. The world is full of people who feel sure that they know where the rest of us are going wrong. ‘It would all be so much better,’ they say, ‘if only you were to do this and believe that.’ When we are struggling or our usual policies don’t seem to be paying off, we can become susceptible to their suggestions. Not that this does us much good! Someone, somewhere in your world, is being overly generous with their criticism and disapproval. Persuade them to replace this with support if anyone is ever to make any real progress.
KATHMANDU Nepal is considering banning severely disabled climbers and those deemed too old from Everest and other mountains in an attempt to improve safety on its peaks, an official said Monday. The government is also mulling issuing permits only to Everest climbers who first scale another mountain above 6,500 metres to prove they can handle the world’s highest peak, said tourism department chief Govinda Karki. The proposals come five months after an avalanche triggered by a massive earthquake killed 18 people at Everest base camp. The April disaster saw hundreds of climbers abandon their bids to ascend the 8,848-metre (29,029-foot) mountain, marking a second spring season with virtually no one reaching the summit. A Japanese climber with only one finger, who failed on the weekend to reach the top of Mount Everest in his latest attempt, will try again within days, expedition organisers said Monday.
Nobukazu Kuriki, who lost nine fingers to frostbite in 2012 on Everest, is the only climber trying to summit
climb without legs? Someone will have to carry you up,” he said. “We want to make the mountains
the world’s highest mountain this year after a quake-triggered avalanche killed 18 people at base camp. An avalanche the year before killed 16 guides and triggered global debate about the huge risks borne by Nepalis who fix ropes and repair ladders to help climbers with varying levels of experience. “We don’t think we should issue permits to people who cannot see or walk or who don’t have arms,” Karki told AFP. “Climbing Everest is not a joke... it is not a matter of discrimination, how can you
safer for everyone, so we have to insist on some rules.” But the proposals are likely to spark concerns about discrimination including on Everest, which has in recent years drawn multitudes of climbers wanting to overcome their disabilities and achieve the formidable feat. New Zealander Mark Inglis, who lost both his legs to frostbite, became the first double amputee to reach the top of Everest in 2006. Blind American Erik Weihenmayer scaled the peak in May 2001 and seven years later, became
India launches first space observatory BANGALORE India successfully launched Monday its first high-tech telescopes into
space to study the stars, as New Delhi seeks to take another major step in its ambitious and low-cost space programme. A rocket carrying the 150tonne mini space observatory called Astrosat, along with six foreign satellites, blasted off on schedule from India’s main southern spaceport of Sriharikota. “About 20 minutes after a perfect lift off at 10:00 am from our spaceport, the rocket has placed Astrosat in the intended orbit,” mission director B. Jayakumar said at Sriharikota, about 90 kilometres (55 miles) from
Chennai. The launch comes one year after India became the first Asian country to launch a
successful mission to Mars to study the Red Planet, beating giant rival China and sparking an outpouring of national pride. The unmanned probe, still orbiting Mars, cost a fraction of the missions launched earlier by the United States, Russia and Europe. India’s Astrosat, which includes a telescope that uses x-ray, is expected to orbit 650 kilometres above the Earth and will send back data and study parts of the universe including black holes and the magnetic fields of stars. Astrosat, which reportedly cost 1.8 billion rupees ($27 million) to build, has been
compared by local media to the famous Hubble telescope launched by NASA in 1990. But Astrosat is much smaller and has a limited life span of five years. The rocket also carries six foreign satellites, including the first from the United States. The launch comes as Prime Minister Narendra Modi winds up a visit to Silicon Valley in the US where he urged top technology companies to bring investment and jobs to India. India’s successful and frugal Mars mission dominated newspaper front pages at the time and sparked huge pride in its home-grown space programme, while Modi hailed it as a sign of the country’s technological potential. Critics of the programme say a country that struggles to feed its people adequately and where roughly half have no toilets should not be splurging on space travel.
the only visually-impaired person to summit the highest mountains on all seven continents. “We are considering changes to our permit policy, including a new requirement that anyone who wants to climb Everest should first climb another mountain with a height of at least 6,500 metres,” Karki said. Officials were also keen to limit access to all of Nepal’s top Himalayan peaks to climbers aged between 18 and 75, he said. Nepal does not grant climbing licences for Everest to anyone under 16 but has never imposed an upper age limit. Japanese adventurer Yuichiro Miura, 82, currently holds the record for the oldest climber to summit Everest, at 80. Mountaineering is a major revenue-earner for impoverished Nepal, home to eight of the world’s 14 peaks over 8,000 metres. But the April 25 earthquake which killed nearly 8,900 people raised fears for the immediate future of the tourism industry.
Somnath surrenders, but after Supreme Court deadline
Travelling over 1,000 kilometres, changing cars and donning different garbsthere’s nothing that AAP MLA Somnath Bharti didn’t do to dodge the cops. But he ran out of time on Monday. Bharti was forced to give himself up after the Supreme Court asked him to surrender in connection with the domestic violence case slapped on him by his estranged wife Lipika Mitra. The AAP leader surrendered at Dwarka North police station around 10.15 pm on Monday. Before entering the police station, he said he was not running from the law. “I was availing the remedies given by the Constitution of India. Today, the Supreme Court directed me to surrender, so I am surrendering,” he told the media.
Issue - 634 (6)
29 Sep. - 5 Oct. 2015
2.1m Audi cars fitted with emission-cheating software
FRANKFURT Volkswagen’s top-of-therange automaker Audi said Monday that 2.1 million of its diesel cars worldwide are fitted with the sophisticated software enabling them to cheat emission tests. In Germany alone, 577,000 vehicles were affected and 13,000 in the United States, an Audi spokesman said. In western Europe as a whole, the number was 1.42 million. The models concerned were the A1, A3, A4, A6, Q3, Q5 and also the TT, the spokesman said. VW sparked global outrage last week when it admitted that 11 million of its diesel cars are equipped with socalled defeat devices that activate pollution controls
during tests but covertly turn them off when the car is on the road. After the severe battering VW shares took last week in the wake of the revelations, the stock continued to slide on Monday, shedding nearly seven percent. According to German media reports at the weekend, Volkswagen ignored warnings from staff and a supplier years ago that the emission test rigging software was illegal. German authorities meanwhile heaped pressure on the embattled corporate titan, demanding it set out a timeline by October 7 on how it will ensure its diesel cars meet national emission standards without using the cheat technology.
‘Super blood moon’ shines bright across the world WASHINGTON Skygazers were treated to a rare astronomical event Monday when a swollen “supermoon” and lunar eclipse combined for the first time in decades, showing Earth’s satellite bathed in blood-red light. The celestial show, visible from the Americas, Europe, Africa, west Asia and the east Pacific, was the result of the sun, Earth and a larger-than-life, extra-bright moon lining up for just over an hour. Images from France, Argentina and the United States, among others, capture the progression of the lunar eclipse to a striking red finale. In Brooklyn, New York, crowds of people gathered on plazas and sidewalks, gazing up at the sky and trying to take photos with their smartphones - though in other cities, including Washington, cloud cover hid much of the spectacle. While the phenomenon was not visible in any major Indian cities, stargazers equipped with telescopes were able to catch a glimpse of the eclipse in the country’s remote northeast. The event also
led to speculation about an impending apocalypse among certain followers of the Mormon Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The fears are believed to have been stoked by a statement from Mormon author Julie Rowe, who
across the planet as the satellite reached its closest orbital point to Earth, called perigee, while in its brightest phase. The resulting “supermoon” appeared 30 percent brighter and 14 percent larger than when at apogee, the farthest point
last, only the fifth recorded since 1900, was in 1982, according to the NASA space agency, and the next will not be until 2033. On top of the wow factor, the event was also of great interest for researchers. Over a 24-day cycle, the temperature on the surface
regularly speaks to audiences about upcoming worldwide calamities. Church officials were forced to issue a statement warning against panic, saying that while members should be “spiritually and physically prepared for life’s ups and downs” they should avoid “being caught up in extreme efforts to anticipate catastrophic events”. The “blood moon” - which so far has had no apocalyptic consequences - appeared in stages
- which is about 31,000 miles (49,900 kilometers) from perigee. Unusually, the Earth took position in a straight line between the moon and the sun, blotting out the direct sunlight that normally makes our satellite glow whitishyellow. But some light still crept around the planet’s edges and was filtered through its atmosphere, casting an eerie red light that creates the blood moon. For people younger than 33, this was their firstever chance to see a “super blood moon”. The
of our satellite normally varies between highs of about 121 degrees Celsius (250 degrees Fahrenheit) in direct sunlight, and lows around minus 115 C in the dark. These changes help researchers study the composition of the crust, as rocks warm and cool slower than sand-like dust. But on Monday, the eclipse saw that temperature shift happens much faster, allowing scientists to make detailed observations of the moon’s uppermost surface.
Thousands enter Syria to join ISIS despite global efforts WASHINGTON Nearly 30,000 foreign recruits have now poured into Syria, many to join the Islamic State, a doubling of volunteers in just the past 12 months and stark evidence that an international effort to tighten borders, share intelligence and enforce antiterrorism laws is not diminishing the ranks of new militant fighters. Among those who have entered or tried to enter the conflict in Iraq or Syria are more than 250 Americans, up from about 100 a year ago, according to intelligence and law enforcement officials. President Obama will take stock of the international campaign to counter the Islamic State at the United Nations on Tuesday, a public accounting that comes as American intelligence analysts have been preparing a confidential assessment that concludes that nearly 30,000 foreign fighters have traveled to Iraq and Syria from more than 100 countries since 2011. A year ago, the same officials estimated that flow to be about 15,000 combatants from 80 countries, mostly to join the Islamic State. That grim appraisal coincides with the scheduled release on Tuesday of a six-month, bipartisan congressional investigation into terrorist and foreign fighter travel, which concludes that “despite concerted efforts to stem the flow, we have
largely failed to stop Americans from traveling overseas to join jihadists.” Other parts of the Obama administration’s policies on Syria and for combating the
against the Islamic State, has told the White House that he will step down at the end of the year. The focus on shortcomings in the global effort to combat the Islamic
a terrorist organization. But this month, Tina S. Kaidanow, the State Department’s top counterterrorism official, offered a sobering summation of the foreign
Islamic State have suffered significant setbacks, as well. A $500 million Pentagon effort to train rebel forces to take on the Islamic State in Syria has produced only a handful of fighters. Russia has defied American attempts to block Moscow’s buildup of a new air base with warplanes in Syria a topic Mr. Obama will discuss with President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia at the United Nations on Monday. And in a break in continuity for the mission, John R. Allen, the retired four-star general who since September 2014 has served as the diplomatic envoy coordinating the coalition
State, also known as ISIL or ISIS, is playing out as tens of thousands of refugees flee strife in the Middle East and North Africa, including many seeking to escape the violence in Syria and oppression in areas under the control of the Islamic State. A year ago, Mr. Obama and other top American officials spent a great deal of diplomatic capital rallying support for a legally binding Security Council resolution that would compel all 193 United Nations member states to take steps to “prevent and suppress” the flow of their citizens into the arms of groups that each country considers to be
fighter problem. “The trend is still upward,” Ms. Kaidanow said. “We’re going to see that for the whole gamut of reasons.” Mainly, she added, because of the Islamic State’s unprecedented ability to recruit and to radicalize followers over the Internet and on social media. At the United Nations meeting on Tuesday, chaired by the president, the heads of state and government from Iraq, Nigeria and Norway will speak; all told, 104 countries have been invited to the event. Iran has not been invited, American officials said. Despite Pentagon reports that coalition strikes have killed about 10,000 Islamic State fighters, the
group continues to replenish its ranks, drawing an average of about 1,000 fighters a month. The government several months ago last publicly assessed the flow at “more than 25,000,” including at least 4,500 from the West. Given the region’s porous borders, American officials emphasize that their figures are rough estimates not precise head counts, based on allies’ reports on citizens’ travel and other intelligence, which vary by country. “By now there is a ‘network effect’ where friends, family are bringing along other friends and family,” said Daniel L. Byman, a counterterrorism expert who is a professor at Georgetown University and a fellow at the Brookings Institution. In a new bipartisan report after a six-month investigation, the House Homeland Security Committee criticizes the administration and its allies for failing to do more to combat the threat from foreign fighters. “Foreign partners are still sharing information about terrorist suspects in a manner which is ad hoc, intermittent, and often incomplete,” says the 85page report. Its release is timed to the meeting at the United Nations. “There is currently no comprehensive global database of foreign fighter names,” it says. “Instead, countries including the U.S. rely on a weak, patchwork system for swapping individual extremist identities.”
Issue - 634 (7)
29 Sep. - 5 Oct. 2015
Italian student crowdfunding his PhD research to fight mafia Rome An Italian student is appealing for the public to crowdfund his PhD research into the mafia so he can shed new light on organised crime on the streets
of Naples where the powerful Camorra syndicate holds sway. After being rebuffed by supervisors in Italy who thought studying statistics beat infiltrating the grimy world of extortioners and victims, Mario Trifuoggi decided to move his PhD to London and ask donors to help with the costs.He is looking to raise £22,000 (29,700 euro) to study at Goldsmiths University alongside others working in the field. Growing up in an area of Naples dominated by the powerful mafia syndicate left its mark on Trifuoggi, he told AFP. “In Southern Italy we are portrayed either as victims of these criminal gangs or as complicit in their work,” he
said.“But the reality is a lot more complicated. There is a grey area and I believe that understanding it is the key to tackling the mafia.”Trifuoggi wants to research the effects of organised
crime on everyday life in southern Italy, explore what prevents people from engaging in collective action and understand how compliance with the mafia is perpetuated.The Camorra took root during the 19th century unification of Italy as the ruling dynasties collapsed. Instead of cracking down on the gangs, police forces relied on them to ‘maintain law and order’ and the organised crime network flourished.“Naples is run by around 20 mafia clans with a precarious equilibrium between them,” said Trifuoggi.“As a teenager, it was not the police or the state that guaranteed my safety but the neighbourhood clan.”‘Out of the mafia’s
clutches’ While there are those who appreciate the Camorra’s protection, others have been taking a stand and their resistance will feature in Trifuoggi’s research, as will the use of confiscated assets. The Libera association, for example, produces mozzarella on land seized from the Camorra and provides valuable employment to local people. “The employees are not necessarily committed to fighting organised crime but employment keeps them out of the mafia’s clutches,” said Trifuoggi.He believes that researching what motivates citizens to resist mafia and getting them to tell their stories will encourage others to engage in collective action to help tackle organised crime.“Even my crowdfunding campaign is a form of collective action... Those financing my research are collectively tackling the problem of organised crime.” Trifuoggi initially had a full scholarship to complete his PhD at the University of Trento in northern Italy but after his supervisors opposed his methodology, he enrolled at Goldsmiths in Britain.So far, in 24 days, Trifuoggi’s Four Days of Naples Reloaded page has raised £2,093, largely from southern Italians who support his anti-mafia efforts and academics committed to freedom in research.
Saudi Arabia should apologise for Hajj stampede says Iran’s supreme leader Khamenei
London “Instead of accusing this and that, the Saudis should accept the responsibility and apologize to the Muslims and the victims’ families,” Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was quoted as saying. Iran’s supreme leader has said Saudi Arabia should apologise for a crush outside the Muslim holy city of Mecca that killed 769 worshippers performing the annual haj pilgrimage, Khamenei’s website said on Sunday.“This issue will not be forgotten and the nations will pursue it seriously. Instead of accusing this and that, the Saudis should accept the responsibility and apologize to the Muslims and the victims’ families,” Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was quoted as saying.Shi’ite Muslim Iran, which is locked in a series of proxy wars in Arab countries
around the Sunni Muslim kingdom, says that at least 144 Iranians are among the dead. Over 300 other Iranians remain unaccounted for, including former ambassador to Lebanon Ghazanfar Roknabadi, Fars news agency reported. “The Islamic World has a lot of questions. The death of more than 1,000 people is not a small issue. Muslim countries should focus on this,” Khamenei said. Other Iranians officials have also alleged the total death toll is more than 1,000.The tragedy happened when two large groups of pilgrims collided at a crossroads in Mina, a few kilometres east of Mecca, on their way to performing the “stoning of the devil” ritual at Jamarat.Iran has summoned the Saudi charge d’affairs three times to ask Riyadh for more cooperation over the incident.
France back as world’s Burqa a ‘garment of extremism, top ski destination backwardness’ says top Chinese official
GRENOBLE France glided past the United States last winter to emerge as the world’s top ski destination despite a 2.7 percent drop in visitors to its stations, according to industry body DSF.Domaines Skiables de France (DSF) said it had registered some 53.9 million individual days of skiing on the slopes, a 2.7 percent drop from the year before. However this still placed France slightly ahead of the United States which also suffered a drop in visitors of some 5.2 percent with 53.6 million days on the slopes.“There’s hardly any difference between us,” the DSF’s Laurent Reynaud said of the results. “But we are still happy because the season was challenging, we had a difficult start in terms of snow, and a strong drop (in visitors) over the spring holidays at the end,” he
said. It is only the fourth time that France has won the crown of top skiing destination, traditionally held by the United States. It is only the fourth time that France has won the crown of top skiing destination, traditionally held by the United States. France last held the title back in 2013 and the secret to its success has been put down to a combination of affordability and having the biggest and best resorts. “The main reason is the price of the ski passes in France, which remain the cheapest in the world in relation to the size of the resorts,” DSF’s Reynaud told The Local previously.“Skiing is still a sport for the most wealthy but we still have many families and students who,despite the expense, come skiing in France because we have catered to them,” Reynaud said.
Beijing Burqa is a “garment of extremism” and “backwardness”, a top Chinese official has said while denouncing the veil worn by Muslim women as an outer cover misused by people to hide their identities.“We Uyghur people don’t like to see women wear such kinds of clothes either, and by covering the eyes, the burqa represents some kind of backwardness,” Shewket Imin, a Muslim official of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region Committee of the ruling Communist Party of China, was quoted as saying by state-run Global Times.Shewket lamented the problems when people misuse burqas to hide their identities. He said some men wear burqas to abduct children.Burqa is the “garment of extremism,” not ethnic minority costume nor a Muslim cloth, Shewket said after the release of a government “white paper” on Xinjiang on Thursday, outlining the government policies in the Uyghur Muslim majority province which is restive over an increasing settlement of Hans from mainland China.The document defended China’s crackdown on Islamic militants
in Xinjiang, saying suppression of religious extremism is a “just move” to protect all people including Muslims. Jihadi ideology is manipulating young people to become terrorists to kill innocent people, the document said. Xinjiang, bordering Pakistan-
the Research Centre for Chinese Borderland History and Geography at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences said, “Wearing burqas is not required to fulfil religious freedom, nor a tradition for Uyghurs or Muslims.”“Religious extremists have taken
occupied Kashmir (PoK) and countries like Afghanistan, is experiencing a spate of violent attacks by al Qaeda-backed separatists, the East Turkistan Islamic Movement (ETIM). China has deployed a large number of security personnel to curb the militancy, while Pakistan is carrying out a massive crackdown in its bordering tribal areas to destroy ETIM bases.Defending the comments by Shewket, Xu Jianying, a research fellow from
advantage of religious freedom to twist and politicise some religious doctrines,” Xu told the daily. The fight against religious extremists and terrorists is global, which has safeguarded the interests of believers, Xu said.Li Wei, a security expert at the China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations, said that 95 per cent of terrorist activities in Xinjiang have been aborted, a significant improvement in anti-terrorism efforts.
Issue - 634 (8)
29 Sep. - 5 Oct. 2015
Ten years on, Danish ‘Prophet Mohammed’ cartoonist has no regrets Copenhagen Ten years after a Danish newspaper triggered deadly protests by publishing 12 cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed, the man behind the
Jyllands-Posten on September 30, 2005. In 2010 an axe and knife-wielding man broke into his home, forcing him to take refuge in a panic room for 10 minutes as his attacker
most infamous drawings says he feels anger but no regret over his work. Kurt Westergaard, 80, has received numerous death threats and lives under police protection since his caricature of a swarthy man with a bomb swaddled in his turban was published by daily
pounded on the door, while his five-year-old granddaughter was left alone in the living room. “My basic feeling has been and still is anger. If you are threatened I think anger is a good feeling because it is like you mentally strike back,” he told AFP in a telephone interview.
With his brightly coloured scarves, silver encrusted walking stick and a grizzled red beard, Westergaard is not a man who easily blends in, and he has had abuse shouted at him by people from Denmark’s immigrant community.“I have no problems with Muslims as a whole, I will always fight for people’s right to have their religion and their beliefs. That is a private matter,” said the artist, who became an atheist after growing up in a conservative Christian home. Rather than an attack on Muslims, his illustration should be seen as a criticism of “terrorists who get their spiritual ammunition from parts of the Koran,” he said. Routine job When Jyllands-Posten published the 12 cartoons, they triggered deadly protests around the world as demonstrators burned Danish flags and torched diplomatic offices.The drawings were printed as part of a debate about selfcensorship and freedom of
One and half-pound baby born on cruise ship beats odds to survive
London A Utah woman who unexpectedly gave birth on a cruise ship months before her due date says she wrapped towels around the 1 1/2-pound boy and, with the help of medical staff, managed to keep him alive until the ship reached port. Emily Morgan, of Ogden, said Thursday that doctors didn’t expect her son, Haiden, to live, but thanks to strong lungs, a makeshift incubator and an early arrival in Puerto Rico, the baby made it. He’s now receiving care at a neonatal intensive care unit in Miami.Morgan, 28, said the baby was due in December, but contractions began Aug. 31 during a seven-day cruise around the eastern Caribbean. Her doctor approved the cruise to celebrate her daughter’s third birthday, Morgan said. The pregnancy had been uneventful, so she was shocked when the contractions began just past the halfway mark in her pregnancy. She thought they might be false labor. But she and her husband called medical staff when they saw blood. A doctor aboard the Royal
Caribbean ship told her she couldn’t give birth because they were still 14 hours from the nearest port in Puerto Rico. But holding back wasn’t an option, Morgan said. “I knew the baby was coming,” she said.After the delivery, she said the doctors told her she had miscarried and she should get some rest, but she insisted on seeing the baby. About 45 minutes later, medical staff said the baby had survived but wasn’t expected to live long. “I had felt him kicking. I felt the process of him getting bigger,” she said. “I said, ‘I’m going to see him, I don’t care if he’s alive or if he’s dead.'” They brought her to her newborn son, who was wrapped in towels wet from the birth. He was wearing a tiny oxygen mask on his face. “He was crying, like a little feeble cry,” she said. Along with his healthy pink coloring, it was a positive sign that his lungs were relatively strong. As the hours went on, she insisted he be wrapped in fresh, dry towels, and she helped staff tuck microwaved saline packets
around him to create a makeshift incubator. They used a sanitary napkin to keep his head warm and tried to avoid touching his sensitive skin. Meanwhile, the captain was speeding the boat to Puerto Rico, and it arrived about two hours early. It was none too soon black spots were starting to appear on Haiden’s fingers, indicating his circulation was starting to fade. Two ambulances rushed the family to a hospital, and they were transferred to a children’s hospital in Miami a few days later. Morgan said she was frustrated when officials initially didn’t let her see the baby, but she believes they were just trying to protect her. She added that they have been very responsive in helping her family navigate a difficult situation. Royal Caribbean officials did not return a message from The Associated Press seeking comment. Haiden is making good progress, Morgan said. He’s being fed breast milk through a syringe into a tube in his stomach 2 tablespoons at a time over the course of 90 minutes.
expression, after no one could be found to illustrate a children’s book about Mohammed amid fears that drawings of the prophet prohibited by Islam would provoke retaliation. The cartoons were once again thrust into the spotlight this year after January’s deadly attack on French weekly Charlie Hebdo, which relentlessly satirised Islam and had published the Danish cartoons to show its support for press freedom. Less than a month later, Danishborn gunman Omar El-Hussein killed a filmmaker outside a Copenhagen free speech event with Swedish artist Lars Vilks, whose 2007 sketch of the Prophet Mohammed as a dog whipped up Muslim outrage. Hours later the gunman opened fire at a synagogue, killing a Jewish man.Like the rest of Jyllands-Posten -- which was founded in a region of wealthy, conservative farmers and is widely viewed as Denmark’s most right-wing daily
Westergaard was shocked by the reactions sparked by his work.“During the years I have made a lot of cartoons that criticise politicians and politics, so it was kind of a routine job. It was just another day at the office,” he said. A decade later, he says he has no regrets and believes that what happened was inevitable. “Now it was the cartoons that started this confrontation or collision, but it might also have been a play, a book or something else,” he said. Westergaard retired from Jyllands-Posten in 2010, saying he hoped to lower the terror threat against the paper, which has been the target of several terror plots.Although it has never backed down from its 2005 publication, the newspaper, citing security concerns, was the only major Danish daily not to carry any illustrations from Charlie Hebdo in the wake of the Paris attacks, in which gunmen killed 12 people.
UK schoolboy interrogated for saying ‘eco-terrorist’
London Muslim teenager was interrogated by British child protection services about possible links to the Islamic State group after he used the word ‘eco-terrorist’ in a French class, The Guardian reported Wednesday. The 14-year-old boy used the word during a lesson as part of a discussion at his school in central London about environmental activism, according to the report. A few days later he was pulled out of class and taken to a room where he was questioned by two people, one of whom was a child protection officer, the left-ofcentre daily said. He was asked if he was ‘affiliated’ with IS or had heard of the militant group, it added. “I didn’t know what was going on,” the unnamed boy was quoted as saying. “They said there had been safety concerns raised. If you are taken out of French class and asked about ISIS, it is quite scary. My heart skipped a beat.” A new law from this year places a legal duty on British schools to “prevent people from being
drawn into terrorism”. The boy’s parents are reportedly seeking a judicial review, claiming that the child was discriminated against because he was a Muslim. The teenager explained in legal documents seen by the Guardian that he had used the word ‘eco-terrorist’ to refer to people who ‘take action such as spiking trees with nails to prevent chainsaws from chopping them down’. The Central Foundation boys’ school reportedly told the Guardian it was respecting government guidance including the ‘Prevent duty’, an initiative which aims to stop people engaging in terrorism. The newspaper said the incident shone a light on how schools were dealing with Britain’s new anti-terrorism initiatives. A spokesman for the school said: “The safeguarding and the wellbeing of our young people is our primary concern.“The school is confident that its safeguarding policies and the work of the professionals in the operation of these policies are proportionate, justified and place the wellbeing of the child to the fore.”
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29 Sep. - 5 Oct. 2015
US woman charged for Malaysia again shuts schools as riding sea turtle Indonesian smoke thickens Florida A 20-year-old Florida woman has been arrested on suspicion of riding a sea turtle on the beach in photos that went viral on social media in early July, police said. Stephanie Moore, of Melbourne, faces a felony charge of possessing and selling a marine turtle or eggs nest, a violation of the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission rules, according to a statement by the
Melbourne Police Department. She was booked into the Brevard County Jail at around 7 a.m. and remained there on Saturday afternoon in lieu of a $2,000 bond, according to jail records. Moore was one of two young women whose photos showed up on Facebook in early July, in which they appeared to be riding a turtle on the beach, police said. “These pictures flooded social media networks and eventually multiple complaints were forwarded to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, who handled the criminal investigation,” the statement said. The second woman has been identified by authorities but has not been arrested, said David Hochberg, chairman of the board of the Florida-based nonprofit Sea Turtle Preservation Society.
Moore was arrested early on Saturday after police responded to a call about a disturbance at a home in Melbourne, the statement said. When police arrived, they encountered Moore and found out she had a felony warrant related to the turtle incident, the statement said. The state wildlife commission protects the state’s five species of marine turtles, which officials say are vulnerable due to illegal harvesting, habitat en-croachment, and pollution. “Sea turtles, which are among the oldest creatures on earth, have remained essentially unchanged for 110 million years,” the commission’s website reads. “However, they face an uncertain future.” Four of the five species are considered endangered, and the loggerhead turtle featured in the photographs is listed as threatened, Hochberg said. O n S a t u r d a y, t h e s o c i e t y posted news of the arrest on its Facebook page, a post that had been shared nearly 600 times by early afternoon. Hochberg said he was glad to see authorities enforcing the laws and hoped Moore would get a punishment that would “sting a bit” and perhaps inspire her to advocate for the turtles. “I do hope that there are some kind of penalties levied against her to where she realizes that what she did was not only stupid but wrong,” Hochberg said.
KUALA LUMPUR Thick white smoke from Indonesian slash-and-burn farming enveloped Malaysia’s capital and other areas Sunday, triggering school closures for the following day as weeks of choking haze showed no sign of abating. Pollution readings in Kuala Lumpur soared into the “very unhealthy” territory in the Malaysian government’s hourly air-quality index. The Ministry of Education ordered schools shut on Monday in the capital and three states due to health concerns, the second time this month it has had to issue such an order. Malaysia, Singapore and large expanses of Indonesia have suffered for weeks from acrid smoke billowing from fires on plantations and peatlands that are being illegally cleared by burning. The fires are located on Indonesia’s huge islands of Sumatra and Borneo. The crisis grips the region nearly every year during the dry season, but the current outbreak is one of the worst and longest-lasting in years. Authorities have said tens of thousands of people in the three countries have been forced to seek medical treatment for respiratory problems, and that dozens of flights have been cancelled or delayed due to poor visibility. Indonesia has faced pressure from its neighbours to address the problem since it first emerged nearly 20 years ago. But the issue has persisted, especially as plantations expand to meet rising global demand for products like palm oil, a key ingredient in a vast
range of everyday consumer products. Singapore on Friday ordered rare school closures across the city-state as air reached “hazardous” levels there, with Environment Minister Vivian Balakrishnan saying the problem has lasted “for far too long”. “This is not a natural disaster. Haze is a man-made problem
That forced at least 20 flights to be cancelled, according to Malaysian media reports. Other reports on Sunday said air service between the Malaysian city of Kuching and Indonesia’s Pontianak - both of which are on Borneo - was halted until further notice. Indonesian National Disaster Management Agency spokesman Sutopo Purwo
that should not be tolerated. It has caused major impact on the health, society and economy of our region,” he said in a statement. The Singapore government also said Friday it had launched legal action against five Indonesian companies blamed for the fires, including multinational Asia Pulp and Paper (APP), which could lead to massive fines. Air quality in Singapore improved Sunday, dropping below the “unhealthy” mark. An airport just outside Kuala Lumpur closed temporarily on Saturday afternoon as visibility dropped to less then 400 metres (yards).
Nugroho said Saturday that “fires continue to rage” despite a push to extinguish the blazes by more than 25,000 military, police and other personnel. He said new fires were cropping up, while some that were previously extinguished had flared anew or had been deliberately re-ignited. Nugroho also said pollution readings in several Indonesian cities were at hazardous levels, and that nearly 168,000 people in the country had sought medical treatment for respiratory ailments. Indonesia had earlier declared a state of emergency in Sumatra’s hard-hit Riau province.
Gangster-style car stunts put South Africa in a spin JOHANNESBURG Deep in the Soweto badlands, between car scrap shops and evangelical churches, a diminutive teenage girl showcases her determination to become South Africa’s greatest “spinning” star. With her engine revved to its deafening max, Stacey-Lee May climbs out of the window of her pink 325 BMW, hooks her legs on the door and hangs upside down, winning screams and cheers from the crowd. The baby-faced 19-year-old is a far cry from traditional spinners gangsters from apartheid’s racially segregated townships who stole cars to make ends meet and showed off their bounty by performing wild stunts in the streets.“When I’m about to jump out I get this feeling - this is my moment,” said May, wearing her hair scraped back in a tight bun and black Converse shoes. “This is my talent. I was born to do this,” she told AFP after Saturday’s show in Soweto. May is part of a new generation pushing to take spinning out of
South Africa’s criminal underworld and make it a legitimate sport in the new democratic era that began with Nelson Mandela’s election as president in 1994. “I’d like to see spinning on the
motorsport where hustlers and dreamers of modest means become heroes. The more guts you have, the greater the glory. “It was something started by South Africans,” said Sakhi Spirit, a 34-year-old spinner from
news, in the sports section,” May said. “I want to take my spinning to New York and Paris to showcase the style of South Africa.”Unique for its longstanding popularity, spinning in South Africa is a celebrated
Soweto who describes spinning cars as “Insimbi”, the Zulu word for steel, because they can take the heat. “It’s not just a sport, it’s a culture.”May is proficient at spinning (sliding the car in tight circles until the tyres pop),
suicide slides (using a gadget to keep the car running then hanging out the window upside down) and crazy flips (driving in a snakelike motion then suddenly pushing the car up into second gear and doing a 360 degree spin). An average spinning set lasts just three minutes, ending when both the back tyres burst with an explosive bang, spewing hot shards into the roaring crowd. Following the racially demarcated boundaries set by the whites-only apartheid regime, spinning events are held in hinterlands like Midway in Soweto, a neighborhood where people live in matchbox houses nestled between dusty yellow mountains of toxic gold-mining scraps. But today whites are getting involved in a culture that used to be exclusively practised in the townships. Dylan Brough, known as “Vaatjie” - Afrikaans for barrel is a crowd favourite famous for planting one foot on the pavement and pumping it up and
down while the car is spinning, making the vehicle bounce as if powered by hydraulics. On Saturday, the spinners rolled in one by one to the Soweto venue, a grassy lot with a paved rectangle the size of a basketball court ringed by a two-metre deep wall of tyres. Spectators stand under beach umbrellas to shade themselves from the searing sun, sipping beer, smoking hookah and bobbing their heads to the pulsing house music. There are few rules, a legacy of the sport’s illicit beginnings. At just 16 years old - too young for a driving licence in South Africa - Austin Kruger from Mafikeng is one of spinning’s breakout stars. Renowned for his audacious style, Kruger jumps out of his battered black 325 BMW while it’s spinning, runs up the bonnet and jumps on the roof before scrambling back into the driver’s seat and taking control of the wheel.Later, he’ll hand over the car to his 12-year-old brother, who will give it an equally experienced whirl.
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Jat Sikh parents invite matrimonail alliance for their dauther, born and raised in Canada, 30 yrs. old, 5’ 6” tall, post gradute degree in Clinical Psyclology, professionally employed, well versed in both cultures, can speak punjabi as well. The boy should be well educated, professionally settled with family values between 28-34 yres. of age. Lower Mainland area prefered. Please email recent picture and bio-data to: parmjit50@gmail.com or Call : 1604-317-7576 ***634*** Seeking a professionally qualified Jat Sikh match for a Jat Sikh Canadian Citizen girl, 80 born, 5'7" tall , Convent Educated, B.Sc. Computer Science working as a Programmer Analyst in a Software Company in Toronto, Canada. Please respond with your bio-data and recent picture to: d.sdhindsa@yahoo.com or contact 011-91921-6713431. ***634*** Jat Sikh Cheema Parents invite matrimonial alliance for their son, 26 yrs. old, 5’-6”, tall, at present in Canada on work permit, working as a manager in a reputed transport company, very handsome and belong to a good family. The girl should be Canadian Immigrant/Citizen, educated, beautiful with family values, girls on student visa or work permit may also be considered. Please email recent picture and bio-data to: kanwarpalc@gmail.com Or Call :416-803-533 ***634*** Match for Canadian PR Jat Sikh boy, 28 yrs. old, 5’-8”, tall, M.Tech. from Canadian University, working as electrical engineer in Bramton, Urban and rural property in Punjab. Looking for educated, beautiful, family oriented girl having PR/work permit/student visa in Canada. Please email recent picture and bio-dafta to: thindmohie@yahoo.com Or Call : 905-412-0225 ***634*** Jat Sikh Parents invite matrimonial alliance for their daughter, 28 yrs. old, 5’-4”, tall, B.Sc. (Medical) from India, Postgraduation in bio-technology from Canada, family oriented and well settled in job. The boy should be well educated, professionally settled, from a good family background. Please email recent picture and bio-data to : preetmann58@yahoo.com Or Call : 011-91-98158-91252 ***634*** Jat Sikh Parents seek a suitable match for their daughter, Canadian born, DOB 1980, 5’-5” tall, University graduate, working in government job, divorced after a short marriage. The boy should be Jat Sikh, University educated in raised in Canada. Please Call : 1-604-214-9011 ***634*** Jat Sikh Parents seek a suitable for their Canadian Citizen son, 31 yrs. old, 6’ tall, well educated, well
29 Sep. - 5 Oct. 2015
settled, professionally Employed. The Girl should be from Canada, beautiful, tall, slim, fair, family oriented, professionally Educated or Employed. Please send your bio-data & recent picture to: bajwap@hotmail.com ***634*** Jat Sikh Dhaliwal Parents looking for suitable match for their 28 yrs. old, 5’-5” tall daughter, born and raised in Canada, holding two degrees in health. The boy should be Canadian Citizen or immigrant. Please email you information to: abc_1512@hotmail.com or call 416-357-0472 ***634*** Well Established US Jat Sikh parents seek a Jat Sikh match for their handsome, clean shaven MD son, 29 years, 6’ tall. The girl should be born and raised in USA or Canada, at least 5’4" tall, non-drinker and highly educated with strong family and Sikh values. Please send biodata and recent photo to 113hsingh@gmail.com or call: 1- 916-296-1528. *** 634*** Jat Sikh Sidhu family seek a suitable match for their beautiful, fair, slim daughter, 30/04/1986 born, 5’-5" tall, Highly educated (B.Sc., M.Sc.-Botany, B.Ed., PDCA), working as a Lecturer (Botany) in a reputed college in Punjab, well-cultured and pure vegetarian. Good status family. Many respectable well established close relatives in Surrey, BC. Early marriage. Please send your bio-data and recent picture to: sidhugurpreet91@yahoo.co or call: 1- 604 825 4276 (before 9am or after 8pm BC time) or 011-91- 9464419612 (India) *** 634*** Well settled Jat Sikh parents living in North California USA seek a suitable match for their very handsome son, 26 yrs. old, 6’-2” tall, American born, well settled, owns a very successul business. The Girl should be well Educated, beautiful, attractive. Please send your bio-data & recent picture to: ssandhu1966@gmail.com Or Call: 1-209-890-9384 ***634*** Jat Sikh parents seek a suitable match for their son, Canadian Citizen, 30 yrs. old, 6’-2” tall, born in India, University degree holder from Canadian University, running his own successful business. The girl should be tall, educated from good family. Please send your bio-data and recent picture to: manpreetgill48@yahoo.com Or Call : 1-778-344-0303 ***634** Saini Sikh parents seek a suitable match for their daughter, 25 yrs. old, 5’-4” tall, living in India, B.Sc. B.Ed., bearutiful, slim, having 10 yrs. Multiple Visa of Canada. The boy should be clean shaven, Canadian/ American Immigrant or Citizen, Educated, belong to a well settled
family. Caste no Bar. Please send your bio-data and recent picture to: lakhbir184@gmail.com Or Call: 1-250-885-1291 ***634** Saini Sikh parents seek a suitable match for their daughter, 30 yrs. old, 5’-1” tall, Canadian imiigrant, did Engineering, Working as a I.T. Consultant in a Major Bank of Toronto, beatiful, family oriented, well versed in both cultures. The boy should be professional, family oriented & well versed in both cultures. Please send your biodata and recent picture to: saini080185@gmail.com Or Call : 647-709-1853 ***634** Jat Sikh parents seek a suitable match for their daughter, 38 yrs. old, 5’-4” tall, Canadian Citizen, Never married, well versed in both cultures, working full time in health field, family oriented. The boy should be Jat Sikh, professionally employed, clean shaven, well versed in both cultures. Please send your biodata and recent picture to: health2016@hotmail.com ***634*** Jat Sikh Parents invite matrimonial alliance for their son, 22 yrs. old, 5’-10” tall, born and raised in Argentina, School graduate, diploma holder, handsome with family values. The girl should be Canadian Citizen/immigrant and family oriented. Uncle (Chacha Ji) is well settled in Canada. Divorced may also be considered. Please email recent picture and bio-data to : pdeol3@yahoo.ca Or Call : 647-740-5792 ***634*** Ramgaria Sikh parents a seek a match for their son 26 yrs. old, 5’6” tall, Bachellor in engineering, living in India. The girl should be beautiful, Canadian/American immigrant citizen. Please email recent picture and bio-data to: sohalsp@gmail.com Or Call : 647-829-5872 (Leave Message) ***634** Ramgaria sikh parents a seek a match for their daughter, 27-1/2 yrs. old, 5’-3” tall, done registered nursing and now finished B.Sc. nursing in a few months, living in India. The boy should be Canadian/American Immigrant or Citizen. Please email recent picture and bio-data to: sohalsp@gmail.com Or Call: 647829-5872 (Leave Message) ***634*** Ramgaria sikh parents seeking a suitable match for their daughter, 29 years old, 5’ tall, BSc. nursing degree holder in India. The boy should be Canadian/American Citizen/immigrant with family values. Please email recent picture and bio-data to: singh636raj@gmail.com Or Call: 416-247-8865 ***634*** Ramgaria sikh parents invite matrimonial alliance for their son, 25 years old, 5’-8” tall, Dental Surgeon in India at present in USA on visiter visa, belongs to a very well settled family. The girl should be American citizen, beautiful and family oriented. Please email
recent picture and bio-data to: piarausa@hotmail.com Or Call: 662-347-9532 ***634*** Saini Sikh Parents invite matrimonial alliance for their beautiful daughter, 26 yrs. old, 5’6”, tall, M.Sc. in Health Administration and MBA degree holder. Professionally employed. The boy should be well educated, clean shaven, handsome, professionally settled around Fremont City. Doaba preferred. Please email recent picture and bio-data to: kamalkaur1966@gmail.com Or Call :1-510-566-1872 ***634*** Jat Sikh Parents seek matrimonial alliance for their daughter Canadian Citizen, 27 yrs. old, 5’5” tall, working in a Reputed Company in Mississauga, family oriented, innocently Divorced after short Marriage. Boy should be Jat Sikh, well settled with family values. Boys from India, Work permit, Visitor Visa please don’t contact. Please send your bio-data & recent picture to: alliance55@outlook.com *** 634*** Ramgarhia Sikh parent seeks matrimonial alliance for their Canadian Citizen, 27 years old son, well qualified and employed as a Mechanical Technologist, wears dastar and uncut beard. The girl should be professionally compatible, family oriented and beautiful. Please send your biodata & recent picture to: rsrehal1@gmail.com or call: 1778-869-7172 ***634*** Jat Sikh parents seek a suitable match for their 1986 Canadian born and raised daughter, 5 ’6” tall, gradute from U OF T and professionally employed in a government Job in Toronto area. The boy should be Jat Sikh, Canadian born or raised, University graduate, professionally employed and clean shaven. Please send recent Picture and biodata to : matchontario@gmail.com OrCall : 647-213-6284 ***634*** Goldsmith, Bagga family looking for a suitable match for their beautiful daughter, 25 year old, 5’6” tall, graduate in B.Sc Nursing, Working as a registered Nurse in India, Nanka family is settled in Brampton, Canada. The boy should be Canadian immigrant/ citizen, well educated and nonsmoker. Please send your biodata & recent picture to : jkhwumi67@gmail.com or Call: 647-403-6811 Or 647-983-6859 ***634*** Jat Sikh Parents seeking a suitable match for their son, 28 yrs old, 6’ tall, Canadign Citizen, Master’s degree hoolder from a reputed University of Canada and professionally employed. The girl should be University graduate, beautiful, tall, family oriented and well versed in both cultures. Please email recent picture and bio-data to: seeking4myson@gmail.com Or Call: 647-927-3779 ***634***
Jatt Sikh parents seek suitable match for their 6’1" tall, US citizen,born 1984 son holding computer engineering degree, CFA & MBA. Seek family-oriented and professional Jatt Sikh girl willing to live in New York. Please send your bio-data & recent picture to: NycSingh23@gmail.Com *** 634*** Jatt Sikh Mann family looking for professionally qualified, well settled Canadian/American Jatt Sikh match for their 1989 born, 5’3", Canadian PR, M.Sc. Nursing daughter. Preference will Malwa Zone with property at least 40 acres in India. Girl family all settled in Canada. Study visa may be considered. Please send bio-data & recent picture to: sukhdeepmann38@yahoo.ca or call: 1-780-908-7866 *** 634*** Status jatt sikh family seek a suitable alliance for their daughte,r canadian PR, 5'-8", 1981 born, fair, convent educated, MBA, working in a reputed canadian bank. Immediate marriage. Please send your bio-data & recent picture to: shaganshubh@gmail.com or call: 011-91- 99884-21210 *** 634*** Suitable match for Tonk-Kshatriya boy, 1986 born, 5'-6" tall, Canadian PR, B.TECH (ECE), MBA, working in city of Calgory as project Manager, salary six figure Canadian Dollar seeks a punjabi life partner, beautiful, educated. New comers and student visa in Canada are also welcome. Caste no bar. Kainth/ Gotra/Purba. Please send your biodata & recent picture to: kainthharminder@gmail.com or jagdevkanwal @gmail.com or Call: 1-604-854-5099 *** 634*** Jat Sikh parents, looking for a match for their 32 year old daughter, born and raised in California. Has a Masters Degree. The boy should be educated, clean shaven and family oriented. Please email biodata and pictures to: bbkaur1963@gmail.com ***634*** Jatt Sikh (Bajwa) Parents seek suitable match for their son, 6’1”, born 1987, Masters in Engineering, H1B visa holder, working in the automotive industry in USA. Girl should be family oriented and professionally qualified. Please contact brampton1980@hotmail.com ***634*** Jat Sikh Brar parents invite matrimonial alliance for their dauter, 31 yrs old, 5’-6”, US green card holder, will get Citizenship next year, M.A. B.Ed., Working as quality inspecter/computer programmer in Sanjose (Calefornia). The boy should be professionally employed, non drinker/non smoker, Boy on Student Visa/HI Visa may also be considered. Jat Sikh boy from India with Master’s degree in Engg. or with medical background welcome to. No marriage bureau. Please email recent picture & biodata to : brar_2012@outlook.com or Call : 1-831-524-4850 ***634***
Issue - 634 (11)
29 Sep. - 5 Oct. 2015
Clinton proposes $250 monthly Mexico marks one year cap on prescription drug costs since 43 students vanished Washington US Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton proposed on Tuesday a $250 monthly cap on outof-pocket prescription drug costs and other measures
said in Des Moines, adding drug companies keep the profits for themselves while “shifting the cost to families.” Clinton’s comments came after the New York Times reported on how a startup
to stop what she called “price gouging” by pharmaceutical companies. At a campaign stop in Iowa, Clinton rolled out a plan to encourage the development and use of generic drugs and to end pharmaceutical companies’ ability to write off consumer-directed advertising as a business expense. Under Clinton’s plan, the monthly cap would limit what insurance companies could ask patients to pay for drugs that treat chronic or serious medical conditions.“We need to protect hardworking Americans here at home from excessive costs. Too often these drugs cost a fortune,” she
biotechnology company, Turing Pharmaceuticals, raised the price of the 62year-old Daraprim treatment for a dangerous parasitic infection to $750 a tablet from $13.50 after acquiring it. “That is bad actors making a fortune off people’s misfortune,” she said. In the face of sharp criticism of its action by patients, medical groups and Clinton, Turing’s chief executive officer, Martin Shkreli, told ABC’s “World News Tonight” on Tuesday that the price of Daraprim would be lowered “to a point that is more affordable.” “Good,” tweeted Clinton in response to news of the planned price rollback. The
Nasdaq Biotechnology index closed down 1.7 percent on Tuesday after falling as much as 3.5 percent during the session. It had already fallen 4.4 percent on Monday after Clinton tweeted her intent to tackle high prices of some drugs. The index, which had finished the last six years higher, is up 10.4 percent so far this year. Citi biotechnology analyst Liav Abraham said that with 2016 presidential candidates taking on steep drug pricing, “companies with less differentiated, more concentrated product portfolios are likely to come under increased political scrutiny.” But the rhetoric may have “more bark than bite,” he said, since the reforms would require approval by a Republicandominated Congress that is unlikely to implement them. While Clinton has maintained her front-runner status in the Democratic race, she has been under pressure to take more populist stances to widen her lead over U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders, her second-place rival who has also offered a plan to rein in prescription drug costs.
Syrian baby born with shrapnel in head
London A baby girl has been born with shrapnel lodged in her head in Syria after her pregnant mother suffered horrific injuries in a rocket attack. The woman, named locally as Amira, had to undergo an emergency caesarean section at a hospital in Aleppo. Graphic footage posted on Facebook by the Aleppo City Medical Council showed doctors, delivering the lifeless and pale child, who had a piece of shrapnel that had
pierced her mother’s womb embedded in her forehead. Doctors suggested the name Amel, meaning Hope, in honour of the child’s miraculous survival. “She wasn’t even born, and she was targeted,” Dr Mohammed Tabbaa, from the Syria Expatriate Medical Association, told CNN. “I mean, that’s the situation.I’m hoping she’ll have a bet ter future.” An update posted on the M1hospital’s Facebook page on Wednesday showed mother and baby
resting in bed and said they were both in good health. Amira and her three older children were injured in the air strike on September 18, CNN reported, which was blamed on President Bashar al-Assad’s regime by medics. Aleppo, Syria’s largest city, is divided between opposition fighters, the Syrian government and Kurdish forces and witnesses frequent bombardment, airstrikes and street battles.
MEXICO CITY Hundreds marched through Mexico City on Saturday to mark the one-year anniversary of the disappearance of 43 students in a murky case involving corrupt police that has haunted President Enrique Pena Nieto.Parents and other relatives of the missing led the “March of National Indignation” from an area near the Los Pinos presidential residence, carrying large photos of their loved ones and shouting slogans decrying the official account of their fate.“We came with a thirst for justice. There can be no impunity. Behind the 43 are thousands of disappeared,” Sofia Rojas, a student at the National Autonomous University of Mexico, told AFP.Signs that read “Crime of the State” and “Out with Pena” peppered the crowd as they streamed down the Paseo de la Reforma, the grand boulevard that runs through the center of the Mexican capital. The march will culminate at the historic Zocalo, a
giant square in the ancient heart of the city that is the seat of the government. “We will march with energy. We can’t rest in our search” for the students, Felipe de la Cruz, the spokesman for the families, told AFP. The parents of the missing
a special prosecutor’s office to investigate the more than 20,000 disappearances in the country.But the parents, who handed the president a list of demands, voiced disappointment and vowed to continue pressuring the
students traveled from the violence-wracked southern state of Guerrero earlier this week and completed a 43hour fast in honor of their sons on the eve of the protest.Pena Nieto met with the frustrated parents Thursday for only the second time, insisting that his government had not closed the investigation. “We are on the same side,” Pena Nieto told the parents. “We are searching for the truth together.”The president also ordered the creation of
government.One of their demands was for a special unit within the attorney general’s office to focus solely on the case, under international supervision. The conclusions of the case have been disputed by the parents. Scores of students from the Ayotzinapa rural teachers college in Guerrero traveled to the city of Iguala on September 26, 2014, to commandeer buses to join a commemoration in Mexico City.
Issue - 634 (12)
29 Sep. - 5 Oct. 2015
Spas, night clubs offering sexual services Delhi HC gives protection to NRI transgender “forcibly” brought to India turning Gurgaon into Delhi’s Bangkok NEW DELHI Coming to the rescue of a USbased NRI transgender, Delhi high court has provided her police protection after she alleged she
“deep roots in Uttar Pradesh”, had “activated the state machinery” to deprive her of her “fundamental rights to life, liberty and education” by trying to
was forcibly brought to India by her parents to be reformed and taught to be “a proper girl”. Justice Siddharth Mridul also issued notice to Delhi Police and her parents seeking their reply on her plea seeking protection from harassment, intimidation and coercion by her family. In her plea, the 18-year old has alleged that her father, an “influential businessman” with
coerce her to get married to a man of their choice. She also sought protection for Delhi-based LGBT activists who had helped her reach Delhi, as her parents registered a “false FIR” of kidnapping against them. After a hearing, the court sought the UP resident commissioner’s response on the allegations before October 5, the next date of hearing.The counsel for Delhi
Police has also assured the court that “adequate protection” would be provided to her.The judge directed that the beat constable of the area, where she is staying with some activists, should be sensitised in this regard.The ordeal started four months ago when the girl had a trivial argument with her mother over her hairstyle. When her mother confiscated her mobile phone, she discovered that her daughter had a girlfriend.The petition said the parents first indulged in verbal and physical violence to “fix” her. When that did not work, they brought her to India on the pretext of visiting her ailing grandmother on July 24, to return on August 5.Once here, the parents took away her passport and Green Card and told her that she would stay in India and “learn to be a proper girl”, the plea said.The petition said that in July, the girl, who was studying neurobiology at the University of California, was “forcibly” enrolled at Dayalbagh Educational Institute in Agra and told to “keep her mouth shut” about her gender preference and sexual orientation.
Indian man stabbed over stinky shoes in Italy ROME A 47-year-old Indian man in Italy has sustained serious injuries after his Filipino flatmate stabbed him over his “stinking” shoes.Identified only as AS, is still in a critical condition and the 19year-old jobless attacker has been arrested.He was taken to a hospital here where he underwent surgery and suffered four heart attacks. The man was found by police in a pool of blood at the untidy flat with deep stab
wounds to his chest and an arm, ANSA new agency reported. The Filipino, Micalat, was hiding in the attic and allegedly rinsed the blood off the knife used in the attack.Micalat allegedly attacked after becoming enraged by a pair of shoes belonging to the Indian which he claimed “stank”, according to investigators.Both men are legal residents in Milan and have clean criminal records.
India, US sign USD 3 billion deal for purchase of 22 Apache helicopters and 15 Chinook choppers New Delhi India on Monday signed a nearly USD 3 billion deal for purchase of 22 Apache attack helicopters and 15 Chinook heavy-lift choppers with American aviation gi-
ant Boeing and the US government. The first helicopter is likely to be handed over to India in the next three to four years. "The contract for purchase of 22 Apache and 15 Chinook helicopters were signed here today," Defence Ministry spokesperson Sitanshu Kar said. The contract has a clause to place follow-on orders for 11 more Apaches and seven extra Chinooks. The heli-
copter deal has survived over 10 price validity extensions from the American side with the last one being for a month as desired by India. While the Chinook helicopter deal is a direct one with the US firm, the one for Apache is a hybrid. A part of the Apache deal was signed with Boeing for the helicopter and the other with the US government, under Foreign Military Sales route, for its weapons, radars and electronic warfare suites. Sources said the total cost of the contract will be around USD 3 billion. Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar had last week said that the contract, which will have a 30 per cent offset clause, will bring in business worth about USD 1 billion for the Indian defence industry.
NEW DELHI It is said that in Bangkok, if you throw a stone it is likely to hit a gambler or a brothel goer. In Gurgaon, it is likely to hit a spa goer or a club hopper. Spa centres and night clubs that offer sexual services on
4,000 to Rs 5,000 per night. But 50 per cent of the money goes to the bar,” she reveals. According to her, a majority of the bar girls clinch the deal with customers for sexual services while inside the club. There are over 60 night clubs in Gurgaon
the side are fast turning the Millennium City into the Capital’s Bangkok. These centres and clubs which operate from various malls and luxury hotels in Mehrauli Gurgaon Road (MG Road) specialise in offering sensuous/ erotic massages to clients depending on their financial ability and preference. The sex business kicks off in the night, usually after 9 pm, with club and spa operators deploying touts to solicit potential customers. The conversation begins with negotiation over alcoholic products before moving into ‘hotter’ stuff. Once a customer is inside the bar, a hooker who also doubles up as the bar girl, approaches him with an open bargain ranging from Rs 300 to Rs 500 for 30 minutes. “The money is easy,” says Sweta, a bar girl (name changed) working in Sahara Mall. “We earn Rs
alone, according to excise and taxation department officials. The modus operandi in spas too is similar with women from the Northeast dominating the sector. Thanks to their facial features, they are presented before unsuspecting customers as “Thai girls” to offer “Thai massage” - a popular therapy on the menu of the parlours along with services such as Tuscany, Thai, Burger, body to body, Swiss, Ukrainian and Indian massages. Women from the Northeast are also sought after by customers due to their fair skin and “soft touch”. Though women from other countries are also involved in the business, they are mostly employed at high-end spas. They come to India on shortterm tourist visas, work here and get replaced after a month or two by a new set of girls. For these women, Gurgaon is the new El Dorado.
Declassified files reveal Netaji wanted to speak over radio NEW DELHI “For the last one month a rather strange broadcast is being heard over the radio...The broadcast only says ‘Neta Subhas Chandra transmitter...wanted to speak,” this was written by Netaji’s nephew Amiya Nath Bose in a letter to his brother in 1949 as revealed by one of the secret files on the leader declassified by the West Bengal government. The letter by Amiya Nath Bose, addressed to his brother Sisir Kumar Bose, based at that time in London, on November 18, 1949, said, “We are getting this broadcast on the shortwave near 16mm. The broadcast only says Neta Subhas Chandra Bose transmitter... wanted to speak. This sentence is repeated for hours. We do not quite know where it is coming from because that is not announced”. The letter was intercepted by Kolkata Police’s
intelligence bureau following a government order, according to the declassified files. A secret report submitted by the central intelligence office,
now somewhere in China controlled by the Communist army of China”. Netaji had gone missing in 1945 and some of his family members have rejected
Calcutta to deputy inspector general of police, IB, West Bengal on 25.1.1949 stated, “Sarat Chandra Bose (elder brother of Netaji) inclined to believe from information gathered during his European tour that Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose was alive and that he is
the theory that he had died in a plane crash in Taihoku airport in Taiwan on August 18 that year. The secret files also revealed how snooping was done on Netaji’s family members including Sarat Chandra Bose even after independence by the then government.
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The world’s most
29 Sep. - 5 Oct. 2015
ROMANTIC destinations
Where would you go to propose to your beloved? Surely, not the ice-cream parlour in the neighborhood mall! Paris, San Francisco, London, Vancouver, Granada these are among the most romantic destinations in the world. Let your heart lead you there!
AGRA, INDIA
SCHÖNBRUNN PALACE, VIENNA , AUSTRIA
PARIS, FRANCE
Along the Wien River in Vienna stands Schloss Schönbrunn, a 1,441-room imperial building and grounds that date back to the 16th century. With gardens in glorious blooms and exquisite sculptures, the panoramic palace has inspired lovers, painters, poets and writers. Unsurprisingly, Schönbrunn means “beautiful spring.”
The Eiffel Tower and the Arc de Triomphe, though glorious, have been done to death. The most fascinating location for love to bloom is the heart-achingly picturesque Jardin du Luxembourg, or the Luxembourg Gardens. Great writers such as Balzac, Sartre and Baudelaire have been moved to words here.
Who hasn’t felt romantic at the Taj Mahal? The monument in white marble is a paean to love itself. Arrive early to brush aside the tight security, the blazing heat of the stones under a summer sun, and the throngs of tourists and visit the Taj in spring, when a slight haze still drapes the marble mausoleum at dawn. Pause a moment. The love-cries of sarus cranes echo from the fields across the Yamuna, the chains of elephants clank and the bells of camels chime, and you can travel back in time to the Mughal Empire.
ALHAMBRA, GRANADA, SPAIN
LONDON, GREAT BRITAIN
SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA
The palaces of Alhambra were constructed in the 14th century by the Moorish Muslim dynasty that ruled Granada. The Emirs of Granada were the last Muslim rulers and after the “reconquest” of the region by Catholic Monarchs in 1527, the region remained neglected. Alhambra was rediscovered in the 19th century and restored. Today, Alhambra is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. One of the favored sites of people in love is the dense grove of English elms in theAlameda de laAlhambra, a park full of wildflowers and haunted by the song of nightingales.
Many a romance has been ignited in London, the city on the Thames. A private capsule on the London Eye, the city’s most recognizable modern structure offers, literally, a bird's-eye view of the city. Say the magic words when you're up in the air.
San Francisco has no dearth of heart-stopping destinations: The fog-draped arches of the Golden Gate Bridge, the heights of the all-seeing Coit Tower, an arm-in-arm walk down the Embarcadero, or a hippie evening at Haight-Ashbury. But most romantic of all is the Fine Arts Museum that goes by the name of California Palace of the Legion of Honor. Occupying an elevated part of the city and commanding fantastic views of the Golden Gate Bridge and Lincoln Park Golf Course, the Legion of Honor houses.
VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA, CANADA Breathtaking Vancouver is stacked to the sky with infinitely spellbinding views, a largely salubrious climate (compared to most of Canada) and a dreamy waterfront. In spring, the University of British Columbia’s cherry-blossom-lined avenues are charming. The North Shore of the city offers excellent easy hiking trails around the Lighthouse Park and is highly recommended for you if your idea of romance borders on the outdoorsy.
VERONA, ITALY
Shakespeare, who told one of the most enduring love stories of all time, found inspiration in Verona. This city in northeastern Italy was the location for his tragedy, Romeo and Juliet. Casa di Guiletta (Juliet’s House), with its telltale balcony, is one of the city’s most visited attractions and the shrine of smitten couples. One spoiler, though: it’s a makebelieve story. The story has no connection with the bard, and the balcony was added many years later. But if it is love that brought you to Verona, make time for the city’s many other attractions such as the Arena, the Basilica of St Zeno, and climb the top of the Lamberti tower for great city views.
BOURBON STREET, NEW ORLEANS, USA Overflowing with oomph, the French Quarter of New Orleans has a characteristic allure that smacks you in the face. Rue Bourbon, a historic street and the spine of the district, is the cultural hub of New Orleans. Bars, restaurants and strip clubs, as well as gay nightclubs, line the length of the street. Sandwiched among them are souvenir shops and eateries selling delicious local cuisine. In the daytime, Bourbon Street is sleepy but as night falls, it turns into a whole new animal.
Issue - 634 (14)
29 Sep. - 5 Oct. 2015
Israel’s soaring population Promised Land running out of room? TEL AVIV Israel’s birth rate, the highest in the developed world and once seen as a survival tactic in a hostile
region, could be its undoing unless measures are taken to reverse the trend. The average Israeli woman has three babies in her lifetime, nearly double the fertility rate for the rest of the industrialized countries in the OECD. That, accompanied by heavy Jewish immigration from the former Soviet Union, has seen Israel’s population double in the last 25 years. The birth rate is even higher among Israel’s Arab community and more than double among its ultra-Orthodox Jews, two groups that also have low participation in the workforce, dragging the economy down. Today’s population of 8.4 million is forecast to reach 15.6 million by 2059 and 20.6 million in a high case scenario, meaning the small country could simply run out of room. “Israel is on the road to an ecological, social and quality of life disaster because as the population density rises it becomes more violent, congested and unpleasant to live in
and with absolutely no room for any species other than humans,” said Alon Tal, a professor at BenGurion University’s
Institutes for Desert Research and founder of the Green Movement party. Israel has 352 people per sq km, up from 215 in 1990, and forecast by the Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS) to reach 501-880 in 2059. Excluding the nearly empty Negev desert, which occupies more than half of Israel, population density jumps to 980 people per sq km, just a little below Bangladesh. Perhaps most troubling, activists say, is that there is no national discourse or recognition that a problem exists. On the contrary, government policies are geared to encouraging a high birth rate. The reasons are various, from the biblical command “Be fruitful and multiply” to the death of six million Jews in the Holocaust, to fears of being outnumbered by Arabs. Hysteria “ H i s t o r i c a l l y, I s r a e l i demographic policy was formed by hysteria with regard to fear of an Arab demographic takeover,
fueled by the rhetoric of politicians,” Tal said. The number of Jews in the Holy Land is now roughly equal to the number of Palestinians - each around 6.3 million. In the case of the Palestinians, that includes 1.75 million who are Israeli citizens and 4.55 million in the Gaza Strip, West Bank and East Jerusalem. The occupied territories are also home to half a million Jewish settlers. Palestinian population growth easily outpaces Israel’s, with the average woman in the Palestinian territories having four children. Israeli government policy encourages population growth with benefits such as child allowances, free schooling from the age of three and funding for up to four in vitro fertility treatments a year. It also offers incentives to Jews abroad, and even to Israeli emigrants, to move to Israel, measures needed when Israel was founded in 1948 but perhaps less crucial when the population is surging. “We forecast not to predict disaster but how to see the cliff that is coming up ahead, and there’s a cliff if we don’t change our behavior,” CBS demographer Ari Paltiel said. Often a fast-growing population spurs the economy. But in Israel’s case the growth is in populations where employment rates are lowest. Among both Israeli Arabs and ultra-Orthodox Jews, workforce participation is around 40 percent, far lower than the 61 percent for Israelis overall.
German companies refuse to sell razor-wire for Hungary’s anti-refugee fence London German companies have refused to sell razor-wire to the Hungarian government.Mutanox, a Berlin-based fence company, was approached by representatives of Viktor Orban’s Hungarian government for razor-wire to complete a fence aimed at keeping refugees out of the company. But owner Talat Deger refused the commission, despite knowing it would cost him roughly half a million Euro, claiming the right-wing government was “misusing” the wire. Razor wire, unlike slightly barbed wire, is designed to rip and cling onto human clothing and flesh. It is commonly
referred to in Hungary as ‘Nato wire’. “Hungary is misusing the Nato wire. Orban takes it in his strike
that people could hurt or even die from it,” Deger told the Huffington Post. His products, used mainly by security firms and some branches of the German government, are “not a bad thing if it prevents crime or stops criminals committing further offences.” “But the refugees are anything but criminals. They’re harmless
people who are running for their lives,” he added. Another German firm, which declined to be identified, told Sputnik news it had also refused to make any deliveries to Hungary. “Children, caught in the wire, is a disgrace,” the CEO told reporters. Meanwhile, Hungary’s 109 mile fence continues to extend, with Orban defended the construction along the Croatian and Serbian borders. The Hungarian PM claims the fence is a necessary measure to prevent refugees fleeing violence and instability throughout the world “overrunning” his country (and the rest of Europe).
US drug company to cut 5,000pc price rise
Washington A US drug company that faced a backlash after raising the price of a drug used by Aids patients by over 5,000% has said it will lower the price. Martin Shkreli, the head of Turing Pharmaceuticals, told US media he would drop the price following the outcry, but did not say by how much. Turing Pharmaceuticals acquired the rights to Daraprim in August. It then raised the cost of the drug, which treats a parasitic infection, from $13.50 (£8.70) to $750. Amid criticism from medical groups - one called the cost “unjustifiable” - Mr Shkreli on Monday defended the increase, saying the profits would help research new treatments. He accused critics of not understanding the pharmaceutical industry.
LA calls homelessness an emergency
Los Angeles Los Angeles officials on Tuesday moved to declare the rising problem of homelessness an “emergency” in the city and proposed spending $100 million to provide permanent housing and shelters to help the city’s 26,000 indigent. Mayor Eric Garcetti joined several City Council members in unveiling the plan, which follows an increase in the
city’s homeless population from just under 23,000 two years ago, according to the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority. With a number of luxury residential buildings opening in recent years, especially downtown, some community groups blame gentrification for contributing to the city’s skyrocketing rents and worsening homeless problem.
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Managed to find some laughs in this Kapil Sharma film Cast: Kapil Sharma, Manjari Fadnis, Simran Kaur Mundi, Sai Lokur, Elli Avram, Varun Sharma, Arbaaz Khan, Sharat Saxena, Supriya Pathak, Manoj Joshi Director duo: Abbas Mustan Rating: 2 Stars I have a confession to make: I have never managed to watch a single episode of ‘Comedy Nights With Kapil’. Not one. Not that I haven’t tried, because hey, anything in the interests of consuming highly popular culture. But a few
(and ears) to be able to survive it, and now that I’m done, I’m bound to tell you that not only am I alive still, but I also managed to find some laughs, with Messrs Sharma, Kapil and Varun. It’s not as if the film didn’t try hard to offend me. The plot is as 80’s regressive and outlandish as they come, with Kapil Sharma playing Shiv Ram Kishan, a man with three wives, about to jump into matrimony yet another time. He calls each marriage a ‘haadsa’ (‘accident’), whizzes about fulfilling his husbandly duties, lying through
minutes in, Sharma’s litany of tasteless, loud jabs have been too much for me to handle, and I’ve slunk away, defeated, every single time. So ‘Kis Kisko Pyaar Karoon’, his film debut, was watched strictly in the line of duty. I was fully prepared to shut my eyes
his teeth, and smiling all the way through. Tired old japes about ‘biwis’ and ‘musibat’, and ‘wives’ and ‘tension’ abound : clearly, the plot is strictly from the male point of view, and wants us to feel for the poor fellow who has been saddled with not one but ‘three-three’ ‘problems’,
polygamous or no. The wives’ don’t know they are a threesome ( Manjari Fadnis, Simran Kaur Mundi, Sai Lokur) despite living in the same building. It’s Mumbai silly, no one knows each other. By the time they do, Sharma has had enough time to kiss and soothe each lovely. And make his way towards the true love of his life (Elli Avram), who seems more comfortable dancing in a club rather than in a ‘mangalsutra’-kitchen combo that she is aspiring to. The only reason not to run out of the theatre, screaming, is that Sharma displays a surprising flair for underplaying. He is clearly building on his TV comic persona, but manages to employ more than the standard smirk, which seems to be his only expression on his show, to make his point, and there are places he delivers his lines with smart timing. He nearly makes you believe that under all that yucky creepiness, there is a solid, middle-class helplessness to his Shiv Ram Kishan, and then the plot goes and does him in. Mommy Supriya Pathak, who can be a fine comic, is made to
deliver herself of a moral science lesson about ‘shaadi’ and ‘ghar-baar’, and manages to ruin a bawdy, vulgar comedy that was racketing along. I cringed more at the lecture-
at-the-’mandap’, than in the whole movie which is full of women whose only joy is in getting married, and staying married, regardless of how caddish their man may be. Next time around, be-
cause I’m sure there will be an encore, maybe the offense quotient can be lowered, because low IQ jokes can overwhelm anyone, even comedy kings. Kis kisko ignore karoon?
one long dash through a series of similar landscapes and awefully tiring zombies. Teresa, she of the worried forehead, keeps frowning more and more
with sad eyes, so you know some other kind of trouble is around the horizon. A song suddenly blares into the wilderness, and Thomas and new entrant
Brenda (Salazar) somehow find themselves amidst a party in a psychedelic trance. But make no mistake. Both episodes are irrelevant. Eventually we do
figure out why WCKD (pronounced wicked) and standing in for ‘World In Catastrophe: Killzone Experiment Department’ wants the “immunes”.
Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials Cast: Dylan O’Brien, Ki Hong Lee, Kaya Scodelario, Thomas Brodie-Sangster, Dexter Darden, Rosa Salazar, Giancarlo Esposito Director: Wes Ball Rating: 2 Stars Last Year’s Maze Runner, the first in a trilogy, surprisingly stood out among its company of young-adult dystopian films. Young teens stranded on a grassy plot surrounded by walls and a maze, haunted by creatures and turning on each other, tapped well into the atmosphere of a Lord of the Flies. But then, the teens escaped. Into the
real world. Which is now nothing more than bombed-out buildings, uprooted roads, sandy banks, deserted malls, dust-laden vehicles, and lots and lots of zombies. Since Thomas (O’Brien), Minho (Lee), Teresa (Scodelario), Newt (Brodie-Sangster) and Frypan (Darden) don’t seem to need food anymore, it’s basically the zombies that haunt them. Apart from agents of the organisation that had them trapped in the Maze last time as part of an experiment, and are now hunting them down. Shorn of the tension of being locked in, The Scorch Trials is just
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Swara Bhaskar wins best actress title in China
Swara Bhaskar
Work for farmers’ cause gives me a reason to live says Nana Patekar
Veteran actor Nana Patekar says that his work for the cause of the drought-hit farmers of Maharashtra through his foundation offers him a reason to live, and was important to keep him human. “We had never expected it (response), we had only thought of doing as much we were capable of. The moment has begun and it’s good everyone has started getting involved with it. We’ve got one reason to live because of this cause,” he said at the launch of Mamta Bhatt’s book “Eternal HeroRama”. “This is not an effort of a few people. We’ll be able to do it only when all are going to get involved. The work is nothing outstanding. Someone else is supposed to do it, but we are doing it.
Indian film talent Swara Bhaskar has won the Best Actress award at a film festival in the capital city of Fujian province for playing a mother to a teenager in Ashwiny Iyer Tiwari’s directorial Nil Battey Sannata (The New Classmate). The Raanjhanaa actress won the honour at the second Silk Road International Film Festival, which concluded on Saturday, according to state-owned China Radio International.”Swara is an amazing actress. She had to put on eight kg for the role. She went to Agra and studied the local culture. She had to take up two months of training. She’s not a mother and she plays one in the film. She had to calm down. She even went for meditation and yoga,” Tiwari had told IANS earlier. At the fest, Hong Kong superstar Andy Lau was awarded the
Addiction to online shopping scares Shazahn Padamsee Actress Shazahn Padamsee finds it tough to keep in check her temptation of shopping online. She revealed that she shops online almost every day. “I have this addiction and it’s really bad. I get really scared to open my laptop because I have all these
websites waiting to attack me. So, I have a serious addiction,” Shazahn said here on the sidelines of an event. Shazahn, who has featured in movies like Rocket Singh: Salesman of the Year and Dil Toh Baccha Hai Ji, hasn’t been seen in films of
late. But she says it’s not too long before she will be seen on the big screen again.”Right now, I have two films which are upcoming and a little bit delayed. So I hope that they release soon. One is Solid Patels and one is Siddhartha, which is with Mahesh Bhatt.”
Boldness is all in the mind by Paoli Dam defined depending on the level of education one has attained. “It’s all in the mind. The entire understanding of the reality -whether it is bold or not bold, depends on the education and experience of a particular person,” Paoli told IANS in an exclusive interview. The actress says that education plays a huge role in building a better society for women. “For the society to grow and be bold, it’s important for the education level to be high.
Dusky actress Paoli Dam, who’s playing a bold character in Yaara Silly Silly, says that the concept of boldness is subjective and can be
Best Actor prize for his performance in Saving Mr. Wu.The award of Features Films of 2015 went to three movies, including Saving Mr Wu, Russian movie Puppet Syndrom and Yellow Flowers on the Green Grass from Vietnam.Jackie Chan, the ambassador of the Silk Road Film festival, said that he hopes the Festival can draw attention worldwide and become the Chinese equivalent to the Oscars. “I hope the Silk Road International Film Festival will make progress year by year and draw attention from worldwide. And more and more people from other nations would take part in the festival in the future. Oscar is a very important global award. I hope the Silk Road festival would learn from it and become the ‘Chinese Oscar’“.The Best Animated Film award went to “The Monkey King: Hero is Back” and the Best Documentary Award was bagged by “In the Underground”. The Silk Road film fest has signed cooperative agreements with Busan International Film Festival, Moscow International Film Festival, Hawaii International Film Festival.
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Next Fifty Shades film to start shooting in 2016 says Dakota Johnson Actress Dakota Johnson has revealed the production of the second instalment of the popular Fifty Shades of Grey trilogy will begin sometime in 2016. The 25-year-old actress, who played Anastasia Steele in the first part, revealed the filming date of Fifty Shades Darker on the Ellen DeGeneres show, reported Us magazine. She said the shooting for the second film will begin “sometime in the new year.” The franchise is the adaptation of author EL James’ bestseller series of the same name. James’ husband, Niall Leonard, writes the script with Michael De Luca, Dana Brunetti and James tapped as producers. James Foley has replaced director Sam Taylor-Johnson, who helmed the first part. The second instalment is slated for a US release on February 10, 2017. The first part starred Jamie Dornan opposite Dakota.
Rumer Willis loves spending time with Bruce Willis Rumer Willis, daughter of actors Bruce Willis and Demi Moore, shared that she loves spending time with her father and is very excited to hangout with her family here as she will be here for a while for her play Chicago. The 27-yearold actress relocated to the city from Los Angeles to play Roxie Hart in Chicago and is excited to spend more time with her father, who is starring in the production Misery,and her halfsisters Mabel, 3 and Evelyn, 16 months, reports femalfirst.co.uk. “Honestly, I’m so excited. He’s based here and I’m in L.A., so I don’t get a chance to come and visit with him and my baby sisters that much. So I’m just excited for the opportunity to hang out with them. But we’re both going to be very busy. It’s very cool, though, to share an experience where we’re both doing something for the first time,” E! News quoted her as saying. On her debut last week, Rumer had her whole family, including her mother, Demi, sisters Scout, 24, and Tallulah, 21, and Bruce’s wife Emma, in the audience when she made her debut on stage last week.
Zoe Saldana slams ‘size zero’ pressure Actress Zoe Saldana says there is a lot of pressure among her peers to immediately snap back into post-baby shape and attaining a size-zero figure which is a very misleading message. The 37year-old Guardians of the Galaxy star, who has nine-month-old twins Cy and Bowie with husband Marco Perego, said people are too busy thinking about physical appearance rather than mental health, reported People Magazine “Throughout the years that I’ve been in this business, women that hide in a cave and they don’t come out until they’re a size zero. And that is a very misleading message to send out to women, especially when women here in LA are the skinniest women out there. “And that should concern us. We’re too busy thinking about our appearances and not really thinking about our mental health first as well,” she said. The Avatar actress said women should not be
desperate to get back to their pre-baby figure. “I feel bad for those women that get super desperate and want to bounce back three months after having a baby. “Breastfeed. Stay home. Sleep. Your kid is only three months old... I definitely took a break.
Rachel McAdams to star in Doctor Strange opposite Benedict Cumberbatch
Hollywood actress Rachel McAdams has confirmed
she is to star in Marvel’s Doctor Strange. The 36-
year-old actress - whose previous film credits include The Notebook and Southpaw - had been widely tipped to appear opposite Benedict Cumberbatch in the movie studio’s latest creation. She said: “I am going to go and do Doctor Strange. A Marvel ... a kind of psychedelic Marvel comic with Benedict Cumberbatch. So yeah, I’m really looking forward to that.”
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Some BMW diesel cars exceed 105-yr-old Japanese EU pollution limits by 11 times ‘Bolt’ sets sprint record BERLIN Some diesel cars of highend automaker BMW produce dangerous gases that exceed EU antipollution limits by up to 11 times, German weekly Auto Bild reported Thursday. The claim came as Germany’s powerful car industry was reeling over revelations that auto giant Volkswagen had installed software in up to 11 million cars that could cheat
pollution tests. “Volkswagen is not the only carmaker whose cars produce high levels of
nitrogen oxide,” said the magazine, accusing certain vehicles of the BMW group of the same.
It quoted road tests carried out by the International Council on Clean Transportation (ICCT) which found that BMW’s X3 xDrive equipped with 20d diesel motors produce gas emissions that are 11 times higher than European limits. “All these data show that the problem is not specific to VW,” Peter Mock from ICCT was quoted as saying.
Giraffes ‘hum’ - but only at night VIENNA Lions roar, wolves howl and elephants trumpet. But what do giraffes do to communicate? They “hum”, new research has suggested - and only at night. Unlike other similar species, giraffes were not thought to be strong vocal communicators, producing nothing more profound that an occasional snort or grunt, possibly because of their long necks. But scientists
led by Angela Stoeger at Vienna University made 947 hours of recordings at
three European zoos and found instances of a kind of a humming sound with
a “rich harmonic structure”. Almost all of the humming occurred at night, with even zookeepers saying they have never heard such noises before, the findings published in scientific journal BioMedCentral showed. Further research is needed, but the findings suggested that the “hum” might help members of a giraffe herd stay in touch when they can no longer see each other.
TOKYO Japanese centenarian Hidekichi Miyazaki set a fresh record as the world’s oldest competitive sprinter this week, one day after turning 105, but said he was disappointed at falling short of his own personal best. “I wanted to shave off a few more seconds as I got 36 seconds while training,” Miyazaki, wearing a bright red T-shirt and running shorts, said after completing his heat with a time of 42.22 on Wednesday. His personal record of 34.10, chalked up when he was 103, remains unbeaten for centenarian. Born on Sept. 22, 1910,
Miyazaki was already eight when World War One ended and 34 when Japan was defeated in World War Two. He did not start running until he was in his 90s, since many of the friends with whom he had played the Japanese board game “Go” had passed away, according to Guinness World Records. Miyazaki, known as the “Golden Bolt” for imitating Jamaican Olympic gold medallist Usain Bolt’s famed lightening bolt pose, says he longs for the opportunity to challenge the fastest man in the world, according to Guinness World Records.
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Smoking, drink, obesity may shorten European lives LONDON ‘Alarming’ rates of smoking, alcohol consumption and obesity in Europe could mean the next generation live shorter lives, the World Health Organization (WHO) warned on Wednesday. While Europeans are living longer than ever before, increases in life expectancy
and declines in premature mortality may “flatten off” if the three big lifestyle risk factors are not dealt with, a senior WHO director said. In a report on the region’s health, the WHO said there remain “unacceptably high” differences in life expectancy between countries, with an 11year gap between the highest and lowest. The first study of its kind for three years, the report covers 39 countries including European Union member states as well as former Soviet republics. Levels of premature mortality
from noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) - including cancer, cardiovascular diseases, diabetes and chronic respiratory diseases are decreasing “quickly”, the report said. But levels of alcohol consumption, tobacco use and obesity remain “alarmingly high” and this “could mean
that this progress is not maintained,” it warned. “Europeans live long lives and healthy lives. We are the longest living region in the world,” said Claudia Stein, a senior WHO director for Europe. But “the differences in health status between European countries are... inexplicably wide.” “If rates of smoking and alcohol consumption and obesity do not decline we may risk the gains in life expectancy we have seen - which may mean that the next generation may lead shorter lives than that we do.”
Although rates of smoking and alcohol consumption are declining in many parts of the continent, Europeans still smoke and drink more than people anywhere else in the world, according to the WHO. It estimates that on average 11 litres of pure alcohol are drunk per person each year, while 30 percent of the population uses tobacco. Meanwhile obesity is increasing, with 59 percent of Europe’s population either overweight or obese, ranking only slightly behind the Americas which have the highest rates in the world. The European Health Report 2015 looked at progress made towards the WHO’s “Health 2020” targets. Average life expectancy for men and women ranges from 71 in Belarus, Moldova and Russiato 82 for countries like France, Italy and Spainaccording to figures from 2011. The gap represents a fall of three years since 2009 and Europe is “on track” to exceed targets to reduce premature mortality from NCDs by at least 1.5 percent a year by 2020, the report said. But Stein said that there could be a “flattening off of the curve” affecting the next generation’s life expectancy, if lifestyle risk factors are not addressed.
New Zealand deports would-be ‘climate change refugee’ WELLINGTON New Zealand has deported a Pacific islander who launched a failed bid to become the world’s first climate change refugee, the man’s supporters
he should not be sent back to Kiribati as rising seas threaten to deluge the island nation of 100,000 people, making it unsafe for him and his family. His pastor, reverend
said Thursday. Ioane Teitiota was sent to Kiribati on Wednesday after exhausting all avenues of appeal in his four-year battle to stay in New Zealand. Teitiota, 39, had argued that
Iosefa Suamalie, confirmed Teitiota’s departure after the expatriate Kiribati community’s last-minute pleas were turned down. Suamalie said the future was uncertain for Teitiota’s wife
and three New Zealand-born children, who are expected to follow him to Kiribati next week. “What we’ve been doing is trying to save this family seeking asylum here in New Zealand because of a form of persecution by climate change,” he told Radio New Zealand. “Going back to Kiribati, there is no life, there is no hope. We are sending back the children to a place that is not safe for them.” Low-lying Kiribati suffers from a range of environmental problems that have been linked to climate change, including storm surges, flooding and water contamination. The situation is so dire that Kiribati’s government has bought 2,000 hectares (5,000 acres) of land in Fiji to act as a farm for Kiribati if salt-water pollution means the former British colony can no longer produce crops.
Australian koala ‘Bear Grylls’ survives high-speed car impact
SYDNEY A lucky koala has been nicknamed “Bear Grylls” after sustaining just a few scratches in a high-speed collision with a car at night in southern Australia, the driver and wildlife rescuers said Thursday. The male marsupial became wedged between the car’s bumper and front grilles after it was hit crossing the South Eastern Freeway about 20 kilometres (12 miles) south-east of Adelaide on Tuesday night, said driver Loren Davis. In the darkness with no street lights, a car travelling behind her and another alongside at the speed limit of 100kmh (62mph), Davis saw the native animal in her headlights and hit the brakes but could not avoid hitting it. “I had no choice but to hit the koala without causing three cars to be in an accident,” Davis told AFP. Shaken and upset, the real estate agent said she pulled over but was unable to see the koala and drove back
home in 10 minutes. “Once I got into the garage at home, I turned on the lights and saw... the koala,” she said. “I was really upset. First I thought it was dead... and (my fiancé) ran out and said ‘he’s alive, he’s alive’ because he was moving his head and his arm.” The koala which she later called “Bear Grylls” after the British adventurer and television host - was hanging out of the car front. Anne Bigham, a wildlife volunteer and koala hotline operator for Fauna Rescue of South Australia, said her husband drove to Davis’s home to take the animal to an emergency veterinarian, where it was found to be in “really good condition... other than a couple of little grazes”. “Bear Grylls”, which Bigham said weighed about 11 kilogrammes (24 pounds) and was around four years old, was recovering well and living in her home with seven other rescued koalas, enjoying a diet of fresh eucalyptus leaves.
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Big four knock
India's bid for a permanent seat in the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) gained significant momentum and visibility as G4 leaders - Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff met on Saturday at Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York, the heart of United Nations. Hosted by PM Modi, it's considered as an upgraded summit since its first ministerial meeting in 2004, which lost steam thereafter. In his opening remarks as the Chair of the Summit, Modi said the UNSC must be reformed within a fixed time frame to “include the world's largest democracies, major locomotives of the global economy, and voices from all the major continents”. “I'm delighted that we are meeting again as heads of governments after 10 years. As I had reflected in my letter on the 70th anniversary of UN, we live in a fundamentally different world from the time the world body was born. The number of member states has grown four-fold. Threats to peace and security have become more complex, unpredictable and undefined. In many ways, our lives are becoming globalised, but fault-lines around our identities are growing,” Modi said. Changing times The PM reminded that with changing times, it was important for the world institutions to change too, to remain credible. “Trends in demography, urbanisation and migrations are posing new challenges. Climate change and terrorism are new concerns. Cyber and space are entirely new frontiers of opportunities and challenges. Yet, our institutions, approaches, and often mindsets, reflect the wisdom of the century we have left behind, not the century we live in. This is especially true of the United Nations Security Council,” he said. The G4, which was formed under the initiative of then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, intended to push for the UNSC's
expansion and reforms. Comprising powerful democracies of Japan, Brazil,Germany and India, the group focused on initiating text-based negotiations for a transformed UNSC. The commencement of text-based negotiation has been in progress since 2005. 23 years of push Vikas Swarup, spokesperson for the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA), said, “This was a very important summit as it came in the backdrop of the recent decision of the UN General Assembly to commence text-based negotiations. We have the text for the first time after 23 years and the leaders felt that this was a very important occasion for the international community to mobilise support for the long delayed reforms of the UNSC.” Recalling the long-drawn efforts behind the scenes to push for the UN debate on reforms, India's former representative to the UN Hardeep Puri said the French and the British were the first to state explicit support to the process from 2011 onwards. “They knew it would be most vulnerable if the security council's composition were ever to be changed. So they chose to build consensus lest radical parties found their way,” he said. While the US has always supported the idea of a modest expansion of the UNSC during the last two decades, Russia remained ambivalent and the China harped on the need for consensus. What the G4 nations are now pushing for is authority and finality to the process. This got a much-awaited boost when the UN finally passed a resolution on September 14 that text-based negotiations must commence. For the reformed UNSC to take shape, threestage process needs to be completed. The template resolution to approve in principle that expansion should take place, in what form, categories and numbers will have to be done in the first phase. This will need the support of 28 countries two-thirds majority of the 193 member nations. The G4 joint declaration sets September 2016 as the deadline for completion of the first phase. The second phase will be all about a country-specific resolution as to who gets a ticket and on what criterion. Hardeep said India will have to shed the aversion of fear and should take risks. “There has been precedence. In 1963, similar exercise took place and for the first stage, P5 could not use a veto. It was about one country, one vote. And the permanent members did ratify the resolution,” he said. Finally, public opinion will come into play even as two parallel processes are being negotiated - those with veto being told to minimise its use under a veto restraint agreement and exploring veto possibilities for future UNSC aspirants.
NEW DELHI Former external affairs minister Yashwant Sinha has sharply criticized Prime Minister Narendra Modi's G4 strategy to snag a permanent membership of the UN Security Council,
saying it was mistake to t have persevered with the UPA plan as relying on a broader engagement could have paid more dividends. Decrying the G-4 approach w as “begging” and “demeaning”, Sinha said the
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on unsc door
Noting ‘sea change’ in approach, India supports Sri Lanka’s quest for justice
Going the UPA way on UN seat a mistake says Yashwant high profile G-4 summit will only bring about unity among those opposed to the UNSC reforms. He said India and G-4 countries have negligible chances and the government and media might have created a hype and illusion of India's prospects that are totally “unrealistic”, said a media release of Sinha's interview to India Today TV. The remarks, coming just as the Prime Minister was holding the G-4 discussions in New York, are an embarrassment for the Modi government even though Sinha has been airing his disgruntlement with the government for some time now. In June, the 82-year-old leader remarked that “all those
who are above the age of 75 were declared brain dead on May 26, 2014,” in a reference to BJP's decision to “retire” some of its seniors. As a senior member of the Vajpayee government, Sinha held the finance and external affairs portfolios, and was part of the core decision-making on several strategic issues. He did not contest the 2014 election and his son Jayant Sinha won from Hazaribagh and is currently minister of state for finance. In the interview, Sinha said the Prime Minister should have tried to convince global opinion about India's claims by taking an active, assertive and high profile role in
international political and security issues and in particular the fight against ISIS. Sinha said the government has either not understood the text accepted by the General Assembly in September or is misleading the country when it claims this is a significant document and pointed out that not only is this not a negotiating document but simply a compilation of the views of differing countries. The former minister said that in side letters, three countries have taken stand that go back on bilateral commitments that at least two of them (America and Russia) made to India.
PM Narendra Modi seeks change in decision making Prime Minister Narendra Modi has taken up with UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon the issue of lack of consultation with large troop contributing countries like India on peacekeeping operations. Modi met Ban at the world body's headquarters here yesterday before his address to world leaders at the UN Sustainable Development Summit. The discussions between them focused on peacekeeping, UN Security Council reforms, sustainable development including climate change as well as regional issues, Spokesperson in the Ministry of External Affairs Vikas Swarup told reporters. While assuring Ban that India would continue to be a strong supporter of UN peacekeeping, Modi said there has to be a change in the manner in which decisions were taken about troop contributions to peacekeeping operations. Modi said while India has been the largest contributor to international peacekeeping
operations, it along with other Troop Contributing Countries is not consulted adequately enough before peace keeping operations are authorised. The Secretary-General commended India for its indispensable contribution to UN peacekeeping. Their talks focused on the importance of implementing the Sustainable Development Goals, in particular reference to climate change. Modi told Ban that currently there is a huge trust deficit regarding developed countries which have not yet delivered on the commitments including on climate finance. Modi said the focus should not be on emissions only but nations should also set positive goals and support increasing use of renewable energy, according to Swarup. The Indian leader, who talked about climate justice, noted that the narrative of restrictions, control and pressure was not a positive way of approaching the subject.
Noting a “sea change” in the approach of the new Sri Lankan government over the issue of alleged war crimes during the last phase of the civil war with the LTTE, India has said it supports the quest for justice while being respectful of the country's sovereignty. The issue of human rights and the situation pertaining to the ongoing discussions on UN Human Rights Council came up during a meeting between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena on the sidelines of the UNGA summit on Friday. “As far as India is concerned, we naturally support the quest for justice. At the same time we are respectful of Sri Lanka's sovereignty. We are hopeful that a way will be found where both these points and objectives can be met,” External Affairs Minister spokesman Vikas Swarup said after the meeting. The Sri Lankan Government is “engaging” with the UN Human Rights Council and there is a “sea change” in the approach of the new government in this island nation, he said. When asked about India's position on hybrid court, Swarup said New Delhi would have to look at the final outcome of the draft resolution as he hoped that it would be a consensus and acceptable to the Sri Lankan Government. “Our expectation at this point is that hopefully it will be a consensus resolution which everyone will be able to pass unanimously and it is something which will be acceptable to the Government of Sri Lanka also,” he said.
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein has called for the formation of a hybrid special court, integrating international judges, prosecutors, lawyers and investigators. Sri Lanka has been insisting on a domestic mechanism to probe the matter. Rights groups claim that the Sri Lankan military killed 40,000 civilians in the final months of the three decade-long brutal ethnic conflict with the LTTE that ended in 2009. Swarup said the Lankan government is actively engaging with the Human Rights Council now. “It a sea change from the position that was there earlier. Our position is very clear. We stand for justice and at the same time we are respectful of the Sri Lankan sovereignty issues, to the extent the Sri Lankan Government is comfortable with the formulation that marries the two, we will be comfortable with that,” he said. Complementing the Sri Lankan President on the two elections in the country, Modi said this revealed the deep rooted democratic traditions and the faith that the people of Sri Lanka had in the democracy. There was a discussion on the reconciliation process and President said he expected this to move forward, Swarup said. Issues of developmental project in Sri Lanka came up, he said, adding that India has made a number of new commitments on railway, infrastructure power and housing project. “We expect 46,000 houses to be completed by early next year,” Swarup added.
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Rare grapes flourish with global warming After languishing in the shadow of the Chardonnay and Pinot vines that turn out France’s famed bubbly, four lesser known grapes are getting an unlikely
boost thanks to climate change. Despite their low-profile, Arbane, Petit Meslier, Fromentot and Blanc Vrai are all traditional varietals in this prized region in northeast France and even boast the government-regulated
AOC label that authenticates them as genuine Champagne grapes. But for years they were relegated to the back seat of viniculture following two dramatic episodes that
decimated the vineyards of Champagne — the blight caused by the phylloxera aphid that hit in the late 19th century and wreaked havoc for several years, then later World War I. Instead wine-makers opted for the more consistent quality and
yield of Pinot noir, Meunier and Chardonnay, that have taken centre stage for almost a century. Today, the rarer grapes that take longer to mature are grown on only 0.3 percent
of the 34,000 hectares (84,000 acres) that produce France’s treasured sparkling wine. “If these varietals were forgotten, there’s a reason. It’s true they are fragile and once every five years they just don’t ripen,” admitted Michel Drappier, a
winemaker in the Urville area of Champagne province. But he never gave up and today devotes some of his best land to these “lost” fruits, which he grows organically. “It is my duty to maintain this heritage, to preserve biodiversity and to try to bring the best out of these grapes,” he said. And his efforts are starting to pay off. While farmers in large swathes of the developing world suffer the negative impact of climate change, Drappier says the 2015 harvest of these neglected varietals proved exceptionally good thanks to a scorching summer. “Grapes are a Mediterranean plant, they need warmth and the rise in temperatures due to climate change has had a good impact on the quality of our wines in Champagne,” said Drappier. “That includes our old, more capricious varietals which may now face a brighter future.”
9,000-year-old ritualised decapitation found in Brazil
Researchers have unearthed a 9,000-year-old case of human decapitation in an archaeological site in Brazil. The researchers believe this may be the oldest case of decapitation found in the New World, a name used for the Western Hemisphere, specifically the Americas. The archaeological site of Lapa do Santo, located in eastcentral Brazil, contains evidence of human occupation dating back to around 12,000 years ago. In 2007, researchers found fragments of a buried body, including a cranium, jaw, the first six cervical vertebrae, and two severed hands at the site. The researchers found amputated hands laid over the face of the skull arranged opposite each other and observed vshaped cut marks on the
jaw and sixth cervical vertebra. Andre Strauss from the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Germany and colleagues have dated the remains, named Burial 26, back to approximately 9,000 years ago using accelerator mass spectrometry. Based on strontium analysis comparing the Burial 26’s isotopic signature to other specimens from Lapa do Santo, the researchers suggest Burial 26 was likely a local member of the group. Additionally, the presentation of the remains, lead the researchers to think that this was likely a ritualised decapitation instead of trophy-taking. If this is the case, these remains may demonstrate sophisticated mortuary rituals among hunter-gatherers in the Americas during this time period, researchers said.
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Will Volkswagen scandal tarnish ‘Made in Germany’ image? The “Made in Germany” label has stood for precision and reliability for
psychological issues suffered by the pilot who intentionally flew the plane
countries that have been lectured by Germany for years about the virtues of
decades, but since Volkswagen admitted to cheating on U.S. car emissions tests, many are questioning whether the automaker’s problems could taint the rest of the country. It’s the second serious blow to a major German company’s reputation in six months, following the tragic crash of a Germanwings jet that killed 150 people. Parent company Lufthansa has faced questions over why it failed to identify the
into a French mountain. Will such crises tarnish the hard-won, valuable reputations for quality of other German brands, such as BMW, Daimler or Bosch? Experts say VW’s problems could hurt the economy in the short term due to the company’s sheer size, but that longterm damage to the country is unlikely. That doesn’t mean others won’t try to capitalise. Companies will try to grab market share. And across Europe, people in
financial honesty could be feeling smug. “Not only does this make Germany look bad, I think that Germany has been very good at moralising to the rest of Europe about the financial crisis and other things,” said Michael Hewson, chief market analyst for CMC Markets in London. “Germans have a word for it - ‘schadenfreude’ - and Germany’s getting a big dose of it now,” he said, referring to the German word for taking pleasure at
the misfortune of others. Indeed, Internet memes of VWs covered in clouds of smog were already making the rounds, and media commentators were quick to pounce on the issue. “In Europe, there is a strong dose of schadenfreude...after the Germans, and primarily Chancellor Angela Merkel, have for years been giving lectures others,” wrote Thilo Schaefer for Spain’s La Marea news magazine. Still, in Lufthansa’s case, the airline has not appeared to suffer any serious damage following the March crash. Volkswagen’s case could
the company is expected to name a replacement Friday. The EPA accused VW of installing the so-called “defeat device” in 482,000 cars sold in the U.S. VW later acknowledged that similar software exists in 11 million diesel cars worldwide and set aside 6.5 billion euros ($7.3 billion) to cover the costs of the scandal. It still faces possible criminal investigations and maybe as much as $18 billion in U.S. fines. The final cost could also depend on a host of class action lawsuits being filed by consumers who feel
probity has taken a huge knock - though perhaps the first time that the damage has stemmed directly from a product that was popular with consumers. Volkswagen itself was at the center of an unappetizing scandal less than a decade ago before Winterkorn took over - that resulted in criminal convictions for the company’s then-personnel chief and employee council chief, among others. That case centered on allegations that VW’s influential employee representatives received illegal privileges, including lavish foreign trips involving
prove more costly for the company, though by how much is still unclear. CEO Martin Winterkorn resigned Wednesday and
duped. This is by no means the first time in recent years that a major German company’s reputation for
prostitutes paid for by the company. The probe started after Volkswagen alerted prosecutors to possible wrongdoing.
Argentine family finishes six Whale vomit makes man walking month papal pilgrimage in old VW on beach richer by $16,700
Schooling of the children continued with the help of distance learning programme. It took 194 days and 12 border crossings, but a family
will close the event at a Saturday night festival and celebrate a public Mass the following day. “I think this kind of meeting shares the same spirit we want our
from Argentina on a papal pilgrimage has arrived in Philadelphia after a 13,000mile trip in an old Volkswagen van. It has been the trip of a lifetime for Catire Walker and Noel Zemborain, who quit their respective jobs in food service and marketing to lead their four children on an unforgettable tour of the Americas. Their destination: The World Meeting of Families in Philadelphia, a Vaticansponsored conference designed to strengthen family bonds. Pope Francis
journey to have - to meet other families, to know other families,” Zemborain said. “The (World Meeting) slogan is ‘The Family Fully Alive,’ and that’s how we feel as a family.” They stayed with dozens of host families, did lots of sightseeing and documented the trip online. Memorable encounters include suspicious police in Ecuador who threatened to cut into the van’s roof to check for contraband; celebrating Walker’s 41st birthday in Panama; and
attending Mass with new friends in New Orleans. Although the 1980 van named Francisca broke down a few times, guardian angels always seemed to be on hand to fix it. The hardest part, said Zemborain, was making the decision to go. It not only required using their savings and soliciting donations, but also schooling their children Cala, 12; Dimas, 8; Mia, 5; and Carmin, 3 - with the help of a distance learning program. “There were many things that stopped us, many fears,” Zemborain said. “We decided it was worth it, to take the risk.” Andrea Blanco and her husband William Cardona hosted the clan a couple of weeks ago in their three-bedroom home in Raleigh, North Carolina. Blanco and Cardona, who work for the Diocese of Raleigh’s Hispanic ministry, ran into them again in Philadelphia. Blanco said the family embodies church teachings.
Beachcombers dream of finding treasures as they stroll along sandy beaches, but one dog walker in Wales struck gold as he exercised his pet - and was $16,700 richer as he found whale vomit. His rare find was a 1.1 kg chunk of whale vomit, known as ambergris, and it sparked a frenzy of interest when it came up for sale Friday at an auction house in northern England, reported Xinhua. The whale vomit is used in the perfume industry, making it very valuable and a prized treasure. It is used to enhance the scent or prolong the duration with which a fragrance lasts. The auction house placed an estimate of between $7,600 and $10,600 on the lump of yellow and black ambergris, which was just 20 centimeters in length. About 50 people were in the auction house in Macclesfield when the item came up, and as the estimate was exceeded it came down to two bidders eager to get their hands on
the sale item. Neither of the bidders were in the room, one was a telephone bidder the other was following the sale on the internet. The auctioneers would not disclose details
years. All that is known is the ambergris was found on a beach on the island of Anglesey in North Wales. Ambergris is formed in the digestive system of a sperm whale and is passed
of the telephone bidder, a private collector, who won the race. The finder of the object also decided to keep his identity private, not even prepared to disclose the location of the beach where he made his remarkable find. The auction house had the item checked and estimated that it had been in the sea for about 50
either as vomit or as part of the faeces. Scientists believe it is used to coat irritating objects in the whale’s intestines. Auctioneer Adam Partridge said he was “elated” at the sale, adding: “Somebody brought this smelly waxy rugby ball-shaped lump to us and asked us to sell it for them.
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Curb impatience when the demands made upon you are greater than you can honestly fulfill. Rather than head for the hills, consider delegating some of your work as a way around the problem. Later this week the accent shifts from fun to work as Mars zips into Virgo. The focus zeroes in on job and lifestyle matters.
The Sun dances into Libra this week to light up your zone of health and lifestyle. If you’ve been working hard and pushing yourself lately, this influence can serve as a reminder to take some time out. Consider a spa day, massages, and a little pampering. Mars stirs up your romance sector from Thursday, perhaps making you more determined to impress a certain person.
This week’s Quarter Moon suggests conflicts could arise if one person considers details important while another views them as irrelevant. Embracing both ends of the spectrum can give you a new perspective on things. Later, the Sun lights up your zone of fun, entertainment, and romance. It’s time to kick back and enjoy yourself.
A friend or business partner could be trying to attract your attention. Perhaps some of your plans seem unrealistic or ill thought out and they’re eager to give you some advice. However, Mars jogging into Virgo from Thursday could inspire you to look at things from a more practical viewpoint. Perhaps you’ll see flaws that you hadn’t noticed before.
Monday’s Quarter Moon could cause you to vacillate between practicality and frugality on the one hand and extravagance and generosity on the other. You’ll find the right balance e v e n t u a l l y. Yo u m a y b e m o r e motivated to increase your income once Mars enters your financial zone on Friday.
With Jupiter maintaining its link to Neptune, it helps to keep your feet on the ground. While you're usually very practical, you could get carried away by someone’s sales talk or persuasive tones. If in doubt, ask a friend for their take on things. Later, the Sun’s move into Libra lights up your financial sector, encouraging you to set goals and consider your plans for the coming months.
If your social calendar has been overbooked, the cosmos is encouraging you to turn to quieter and perhaps more spiritual pursuits. It’s a chance to reflect on your thoughts and feelings and get acquainted with your heart’s desires. Mars may have the effect of stirring up your psyche from Thursday, encouraging vivid dreams, inspired ideas, and intuitive hunches.
Networking is a good way to boost business and get ahead. Jupiter’s presence in your social sector is certainly encouraging you to move in new circles and enjoy meeting other people. However, you might need to strike more of a balance between work and rest as the Sun jogs into Libra and your spiritual zone.
The unexpected words or actions of someone you care about could leave you unsettled, but any hard feelings won’t last. Unfortunately, an intense attraction may not last either! Certain tensions could put you on the spot, but as the Sun dances into Libra on Wednesday you’ll begin to find your social equilibrium. Mars encourages you to get a move on regarding a key goal or plan.
Strong desires enhance your feelings for someone who may be related to the past. A sudden burst of excitement can encourage a secret meeting or bring them swiftly into your social circle. However, the intensity you feel could later ease, allowing things to simmer along nicely. Your career sector lights up as the Sun dances in midweek.
Finances continue to flourish, although you’ll need to keep your feet on the ground early in the week. Don’t be swayed by ideas that may be a little impractical. You’ll be ready to go exploring as the Sun dances into Libra and your travel sector. If you haven’t yet booked a vacation, maybe you should look into it.
Your social life and relationships continue to look buoyant and upbeat, which is bound to put a smile on your face. However, as Jupiter links with Neptune early on, don’t take everyone at face value. If you find it difficult to understand where someone is coming from, ask a friend for advice. You’ll also find business matters and shared resources come into focus from midweek.
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Technology Facebook retools, rebrands Twitter launches new Internet.Org as Free Basics feature ‘Video App Card’ Social networking giant Facebook is rebranding its Internet.Org programme, which was in the midst of a controversy over alleged violation of Net neutrality, to ‘Free Basics’. Armed with more services and stronger security measures, the rebranding will help Facebook distinguish the free basic Internet offering from the large number of activities the USbased company is pursuing to help get new users online across the globe. The announcement comes days before Prime Minister Narendra Modi is set to visit Facebook’s campus in California on September 27. “We’re making this change to better distinguish the Internet.Org initiative from the programmes and services that Facebook provides, including Free Basics. Anyone currently using the app will be able to continue using the
Android app though it will now be called Free Basics by Facebook in Google Play. And the mobile Web version, which will redirect from the previous URL, can be accessed at Freebasics.Com,” Internet.Org VicePresident Chris Daniels told PTI.
He added that more than one billion people have access to Internet.Org’s free basic services across Asia, Africa and Latin America today. Launched last year, the programme has more than a dozen mobile operators on board across 17 countries offering basic Internet services without
data charges to over a billion people. The programme aims to provide people with access to free basic services through Internet.Org to help them discover the value of the Internet. “Internet.Org is working well. The programme has made an impact on
people’s lives by providing free health, education, and economic information. For example, SmartBusiness, a Website that helps people learn to launch and run a business, now sees 5x more daily searches within their service since the launch in South Africa in July. This means that more people are getting
How few ‘likes’ on Facebook can sway potential voters A new study has revealed that comments about candidates on Facebookhave impact on potential voters. When Facebook users see
University of Delaware researchers. That influence occurred even though the research participants weren’t Facebook friends or even
favorable comments on the social media site about a political candidate, those opinions positively influence their own views of the politician, while unfavorable comments have a negative effect, according to the
acquaintances of the commenters. In fact, the commenters like the candidate himself didn’t even exist. The research team, consisting of faculty and students from the departments of Communication and of
Political Science and International Relations, created a Facebook page for a fictitious candidate using general and nonpartisan “information” about him. Delawareans selected as a test group were sent an online survey, asking them to look at the page and then rate their impressions of the candidate. Some of the recipients saw a page with two fictitious supportive comments, while others saw two challenging comments. The research found that those who saw positive comments or “likes” had a more favorable perception of the candidate and were more likely to support him, while those who saw the negative comments had more unfavorable perceptions.
access to important economic information,” he said. India has over 8 lakh users of the Internet.Org initiative that has been in the thick of the Net neutrality debate. As part of the global initiative, Facebook had partnered with telecom major Reliance Comm-unications to offer free access to over 30 Websites without data charges to users in India. Facebook faced criticism for launching the platform as it is seen violating the principle of Net neutrality, which is against any priority being accorded to an entity in the Internet traffic flow because of payments to service providers such as telecom companies. Following a walkout by many of its publisher partners in India, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg had come out in defence of the programme, saying it did not block or throttle services and is not in conflict with Net neutrality. Daniels said the company has been in discussions with stakeholders to present its view on the issue.
The popular micro-blogging and networking site Twitter on Friday launched a new feature called ‘Video App Card’. Twitter’s new feature will allow the app makers to advertise their products via a video on the site. Ivan Santana, product manager at Twitter, in a blog post says “Starting today, advertisers can now use the power of video to promote their mobile apps on Twitter’’. The Video App Card will show people a preview of the app, resulting in a more educated and more qualified user joining as a subscriber, according to the San Francisoheadquartered company. “In beta, we saw that this highly engaging format helped some advertisers nearly triple their conversion rate from app
click to install,” Santana said. He further added that the new feature autoplays in timelines, giving the app maker an opportunity to engage their audience with attention-grabbing content at all points throughout their day. The company is offering its entire suite of targeting tools, including interest, keyword, device, location, and tailored audiences to ensure that the app maker reaches people most likely to be interested in their app, at just the right time. Nearly, 82 percent of users watch videos on Twitter, and 90 percent of video views are on mobile devices, as per Twitter’s research. The new feature will surely please the advertiser but likely to annoy some users as it will autoplay on your Twitter’s timelines.
Instagram beats Twitter with over 400 million users Popular photo-sharing website Instagram has zoomed past the microblogging site Twitter with over 400 million users. The Facebook-owned site has acquired 100 million new users in the past nine months, while Twitter currently has 316 million monthly active users. As reported in Forbes, more than 75 percent of Instagram million users live outside the US. “When Instagram was launched nearly five years ago, 400 million seemed like a distant dream,” Facebook said in a blog post. “Now, we continue to strive to improve Instagram? helping you experience the world through images and
connect with others through shared passions,” the post added. More than half of Instagram’s new members live in Europe, Asia, Brazil,
eMarketer, Instagram’s ad revenue will reach about $1.5 billion in 2016 and $2.8 billion in 2017. According to estimates, Instagram’s
Japan and Indonesia. More than 80 million photos are shared on the service every day, up from 70 million in June. According to the global research firm
global ad revenue will be $600 million this year. Instagram has recently improved its ad offerings after testing ads on its platform for the first time.
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Apple’s App Store infected in China Beijing Apple has said it is taking steps to remove malicious code added to a number of apps commonly used on iPhones and iPads in China. It is thought to be the first large-scale attack on Apple’s App Store. The
dubbed XcodeGhost said the perpetrators would also be able to send fake alerts to infected devices to trick their owners into revealing information. It added they could also read and alter information in
hackers created a counterfeit version of Apple’s software for building iOS apps, which they persuaded developers to download. Apps compiled using the tool allow the attackers to steal data about users and send it to servers they control. Cybersecurity firm Palo Alto Networks - which has analysed the malware
compromised devices’ clipboards, which would potentially allow them to see logins copied to and from password management tools. Infected applications includes Tencent’s hugely popular WeChat app, NetEase’s music downloading app and Didi Kuaidi’s Uber-like car hailing app. Some of the
affected apps - including the business card scanner CamCard - are also available outside China. “We’ve removed the apps from the App Store that we know have been created with this counterfeit software,” said Apple spokeswoman Christine Monaghan. “We are working with the developers to make sure they’re using the proper version of Xcode to rebuild their apps,” said Christine Monaghan. On its official WeChat blog, Tencent said the security issue affected an older version of its app WeChat 6.2.5 and that newer versions were not affected. It added that an initial investigation showed that no data theft or leakage of user information had occurred. The company goes to great lengths, and great expense, to sift through each and every submission to the store. Staff check for quality, usability and, above all else, security.
Architect Zaha Hadid first woman to win top UK prize LONDON Zaha Hadid became the first woman to scoop a top British architecture prize on Thursday but afterwards cut short a testy BBC prime time radio interview. Previous winners of the Royal Gold Medal from the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) include Frank Gehry, Norman Foster and Frank Lloyd Wright. “I am very proud to be awarded the Royal Gold Medal, in particular to be the first woman to receive the honour in her own right,” she said in a statement. “We now see more established female architects all the time. That doesn’t mean it’s easy. Sometimes the challenges are immense,” she said. After her win was announced, the architect cut short an interview on Britain’s flagship radio morning news programme Today after a tense exchange with her interviewer. Hadid referred to her failed bid to build Tokyo’s 2020 Olympics stadium as a “scandal”, adding: “I pulled out because we had no
contractor to go with”. That decision was announced this week by her Japanese business partner, two weeks after they said they would propose a new design for the arena. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe had pulled the plug on
Hadid responded: “Let’s stop this conversation right now. I don’t want to carry on.” Hadid is best known for buildings including the Guangzhou Opera House in China, the Vitra Fire Station in Germany and the Cardiff Bay Opera House in Wales.
Hadid’s initial winning design due to its eyewatering $2 billion (1.8 billion euro) price tag. Hadid was interrupted by her BBC interviewer Sarah Montague as she was explaining the controversy and snapped saying: “Don’t ask me a question when you can’t let me finish it.” When Montague asked about the “soaring costs” of the Tokyo stadium,
She opened her own practice in London in 1979 and in 2004 she became the first female recipient of the Pritzker, considered the equivalent of the Nobel prize for architecture. “Zaha Hadid is a formidable and globally influential force in architecture,” RIBA president Jane Duncan Said, describing her work as “highly experimental, rigorous and exacting”.
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For US, India sole option for UNSC seat
ISLAMABAD India is the only option from Asia, especially in the eyes of the US, for permanent membership at the UN Security Council “no matter how unfortunate this is for Pakistan”, a Pakistani daily said on Friday. Describing the US and India as the new dynamic duo, an editorial in the Nation said they are “a terrifying combination”.The US has reaffirmed its support to India for a permanent seat on the UN Security Council (UNSC). Even though both countries have disagreed over the UN Security Council reforms, the US has made it clear that it is committed to India’s inclusion as a permanent member of the Security Council.“A number of members, including permanent members, have voiced strong disagreements. Pakistan, a member of the Uniting for Consensus group of countries which opposes any additional permanent members on the Security Council, told the 193member Assembly that the document was partial and
incomplete. It could not be the basis for a negotiated solution,” it said.With the successful conduct of the maiden strategic and commercial dialogue between India and the US, the stage is set for Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s third summit with President Barack Obama on September 28.“The United States also reiterated its support for India’s membership in four major global nonproliferation export control regimes, including the Nuclear Suppliers Group,” said the daily. “Pakistan should be worried.”
“Their joint declaration has identified terrorism as a profound threat to global peace and security...They have pointed out ‘the threat posed by entities such as Al Qaeda and its affiliates, Lashkar-e-Taiba, Jaishe-Mohammad, D Company, and the Haqqani Network, and other regional groups that seek to undermine stability in South Asia’,” the editorial noted. It went on to say that India now has a powerful ally, and “reason to remind us to provide justice for whatever wrong they think we have committed”.“Both countries have already jointly urged Pakistan to ‘bring to justice the perpetrators of the 2008 Mumbai attack’. Modi won’t stop at this.”The editorial said that China and Russia, as permanent members, can and probably will provide balance to the US and Indian ambition.“However, for the global community, better representation is why the UNSC permanent membership needed to be expanded in the first place. Asia has two permanent member countries; hardly representative of the gigantic continent. South Am.
Sikhs, Patels protest against Modi at UN headquarters
New Delhi A group of Sikhs and the Patidar community supporters have demonstrated outside the UN headquarters, coinciding with Prime Minister Narendra Modi‘s speech on Sustainable Development at a special UN summit. Under the banner of Sikhs for Justice, over 200 Sikhs, alleging human rights violations in Punjab, demanded referendum in 2020 for a separate Khalistan. The protesters, raising anti-India and anti-Modi slogans, urged the world body to take
Breaking caste barriers, Tirupati to train Dalits as priests New Delhi Late social reformer E.V Ramasamy ‘Periyar’ and later on Dravid Munetra Kazhagam leader M.Karaunanidhi pioneered the cause of eradicating exclusivity with priestly functions in temples across Tamil Nadu. The independent trust, Tirupati Tirumala Devasthanam which administers the Tirumala Venkateshwara temple at
Tirupati has now followed suit with its decision to train Dalits as priests. Nearly 200 people from backward communities will be given rigorous training for three months on daily vedic rituals and practices. The first batch of trainees will be selected form the Chitoor and West Godavari districts. This is the first time the world’s richest temple is offering a certificate course of this nature.The
traditional temple rituals called Agamas has three parts. The first part includes practices which only the traditional priest are allowed to perform. The other two parts include common rituals which even the general public may perform. The first batch of priests will be trained in the ‘Smartha’ tradition which is the common everyday ritual. After the course completion the TTD will not employ the youth.
steps to meet their demand.“There is massive violations against minorities, in particular against Christians, Sikhs and Muslims,” SFJ leader Bakhshish Singh Sandhu claimed on Friday.Side by side in a separate enclosure were a few dozen members of the Patidar community from Gujarat who are living in different parts of the country. “We want justice from police brutalities. As many as 4,000 youths are still in police custody. There has been police brutality against innocent people. So far no action has been taken against the police officials responsible for this,” one Anil Patel claimed.The protesters were sporting caps of Sardar Patel Group from Gujarat, which is leading the movement for reservations for the Patel community in the State. Meanwhile, a few enclosures later at the UN headquarters, another group of Patels under the banner of Indian Diamond and Gemstone Industry of New York held a welcome rally for Modi.
PM signs tricolour to be gifted to Obama: After Rupert Murdoch describes time sparking outrage, Modi govt takes signed flag back spent with PM Modi ‘great hour’
New York Prime Minister Narendra Modi has sparked a controversy by autographing an Indian flag to be gifted to the US President, Barack Obama, by celebrity chef Vikas Khanna, evoking sharp reactions over the alleged violation of the flag code.Social media was abuzz with the issue of Modi signing on the tricolour which Khanna said he will hand over to Obama. Khanna had prepared the menu for the Prime Minister’s dinner with Fortune 500 CEOs on Thursday night. Violation of flag code? The chef also displayed the signed flag to the media, which was later taken away by officials after the controversy erupted to
check whether there was any violation of the flag code. The Indian Flag Code, 2002, states that putting any kind of inscription upon the Indian national flag is construed as disrespect to the flag. It also states that lettering of any kind shall not be put on the tricolour. Opposition speak On being asked whether the Prime Minister’s action of signing on a national flag was an offence under IPC, Congress’ chief spokesman Randeep Surjewala said in New Delhi, “We are not petty like BJP. We respect the office of the PM”.At the same time, he said that the Prime Minister must look within and take corrective action as respect
for the national flag is the responsibility of 125 crore people, more so for the PM. “However high you may be, the national flag is above you, you should understand this,” Surjewala said.Congress leader Manish Tewari tweeted, “Has PM read Para 2.1 sub para 6& Para 3.28 of Flag Code 2002 that states lettering on National Flag is misuse. 3 yrs jail under PINH Act 2003.” Prime Minister told the chef that he had done him proud by preparing an elaborate menu for his guests.BJP also used the issue to take a dig at Congress top brass, alleging the party was trying to “cover up” their “absence” due to their “holidaying” abroad by its “petty and narrow” criticism of Modi. “Congress is becoming pettier by raising such issues and raking up a controversy where none exists,” BJP spokesperson G V L Narasimha Rao said. Indian flag code The Indian Flag Code, 2002, states that putting any kind of inscription upon the Indian national flag is construed as disrespect to the flag. It also states that lettering of any kind shall not be put on the tricolour.
New York Media baron Rupert Murdoch on Friday described the time spent with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi as a “great hour” during which they discussed role the media and entertainment industry can play in the development and generation of employment opportunities in India.“Great hour with Indian PM Modi. Best leader with best policies since independence, but massive task to achieve in most complex nation,” the 84-year-old business magnate said in a tweet. Great hour with Indian PM Modi. Best leader with best policies since independence, but massive task to achieve in most
complex nation.Modi on Thursday held a meeting with the top leaders of media and entertainment sector. The role that the media and entertainment industry can play in development and generation of employment opportunities in India was discussed during the meeting. The CEOs, who attended the meeting included News Corp’s Murdoch, Sony Entertainment’s Michael Lynton, and Discovery Communications’ David Zaslav. They said they were enthusiastic about the digital transformation that is taking place in India through the ‘Digital India’ initiative, an official statement said.
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No Choice But to ‘Internationalise’ Kashmir Issue: Pakistan Journalist Senior Pakistani journalist Wajahat Khan has said that Islamabad has been left with no option but to ‘internationalise’ the issue of Kashmir in the absence and failure of a bilateral effort by India. “When bilateralism fails, which has happened in the last year and a half since Mr. Modi’s Government has taken over and produced new and redundant redlines in this 21 year-old peace process, multilateralism kick in. Pakistan has no other choice but to internationalise the issue.
Because there is no talking, then the walking has to be done in New York,” Khan told ANI here. The Pakistani journalist also spoke about how Pakistan has been relentless and open in its attempts to talk with the All Parties Hurriyat Conference leaders. “The APHC is probably the best face for any country to deal with the reality of Kashmiri separatism. Nobody wants to talk to terrorists but the All Parties Hurriyat Conference are non-violent. It was in this spirit
that the Government of India had allowed successive Pakistani regimes, governments, officers and presidents to engage with the APHC for 21 years,” Khan said.He also accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of changing the rules since he assumed office and said that he was responsible for the ‘breakdown of talks’ and ‘relationships going south’. Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif is scheduled to address the Sustainable Development Summit hosted by UN Secretary
India turns to Israel for armed drones as Pakistan, China build fleets India has accelerated plans to buy drones from Israel that can be armed, defence sources said, allowing the military to
carry out strikes overseas with less risk to personnel. The news comes weeks after long-time rival Pakistan first reported using a home-made drone in combat when it attacked militants on its soil, raising the prospect of a new front in the nuclear-armed neighbours’ standoff over Kashmir that has twice spilled into war. The plan to acquire Israeli Herons was first conceived three years ago, but in January the military wrote to the government asking for speedy delivery, the sources said, as Pakistan and China develop their own drone warfare capabilities.India has already deployed Israeli unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) along the rugged mountains of Kashmir for surveillance, as well as on the disputed border with China where the two armies have faced off
against each other. In September, the Indian government approved the air force’s request to acquire 10
Heron TP drones from Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) that can be fitted with weapons to engage targets on the ground, an air force official with knowledge of the matter said. He added that he expected the agreement to be inked soon. The Indian Defence Ministry declined to comment. The plan to buy Herons in a deal estimated at $400 million would open the option of covert crossborder strikes. Currently the two armies exchange fire across the de facto Kashmir border at times of tension, but do not cross the Line of Control (LoC) by land or air.“It’s risky, but armed UAVs can be used for counter insurgency operations internally as well across the borders; sneak attacks on terrorist hideouts in mountainous terrain,
perhaps,” said an army officer in the defence planning staff. “Deep-strike capability” Gurmeet Kanwal, a former head of the government-funded Centre for Land Warfare Studies in New Delhi, said the armed Herons due to enter Indian service by late 2016 will give the air force deep-strike capability. The United States has carried out hundreds of drone strikes inside Pakistan, targeting al Qaeda and other militants in its northwest. Pakistan has allowed such targeted killings, even though it complains about them in public. Indian drones, in contrast, face being shot down as soon as they show up on Pakistani radars, the army officer and Kanwal said.Deniability would be essential in any use of armed drones by India and Pakistan across their bitterly contested border, said Pervez Hoodbhoy, a leading weapons proliferation expert in Pakistan. “It is likely that drones would be used in a surreptitious mode close to the LoC, far away from populated areas,” he said. In July, the Pakistan army said it had shot down a small Indian spy drone in Kashmir. India did not comment. Michael Kugelman, South Asia specialist at the Washington D.C.-based Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, said the arrival of lethal drones in the region could heighten mutual suspicion at a time when ties are strained.
General Ban Ki-moon on September 27.Sharif will address the annual debate of the UNGA on September 30, a day
before External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj addresses the gathering of world leaders on October 1.
Give up eating cow meat, be good human being, says RSS leader Indresh Kumar “Bakri in Arabic means ‘Gai’ in Hindi and cow in English. Nabie-Kareem (the Prophet) had said that cow’s milk is for your good, ghee is medicine, but cow meat is disease,” said RSS leader Indresh Kumar, in his message to the “Muslim brethren” on the day of Bakra Eid, urging them to give up eating cow meat.The RSS leader’s message, which he conveyed through media at the Eid celebrations at BJP leader Shahnawaz Hussain’s residence, came a few days after the Muslim Rashtriya Manch (MRM), a minority body backed by the RSS, announced that it will felicitate Muslims who own or rear cows and asked them to take a pledge against cow slaughter.According to him, if Muslims continue to eat cow meat, it will be like those diabetic patients who continue to eat Rasgullas (sweet). “Do not be radical Muslims; be good human beings,” he advised.The RSS leader also distributed CDs and a booklet, Gai aur Islam (Cow and Islam), a compilation of articles by several Muslim clerics, highlighting the importance of cow in their religion. According to the booklet, almost all the Muslim rulers had been “sensitive” to cows and its protection mainly
because cow and its progeny were the foundation of agriculture and financial system. It is also because the Hindus in Bharat had treated cow as their
mother. In the Vedas, cow is called the mother of the earth and the Muslim rulers understood it very well that they could not just rule the country with swords; they had to respect the tradition and culture in the region, the booklet says.The booklet further says while emperor Akbar and Bahadur Shah Zafar had issued orders against killing of cows in order to maintain peace, a number of foreign travellers, including Francois Bernier, have mentioned that slaughtering cow was a crime in the country. The book also cites poems of Islamic writers to drive home the point.The MRM has been doing a signature campaign in 23 places in the country, seeking a complete ban on cow slaughter. The booklet claims that of the total 1,75,63,227 signatures, 3,22,969 were by Muslims. Around 60,000 Christians also signed in favour of the ban, it says.
Ramachandrapura Mutt rape case: Chargesheet filed against seer Nearly 13 months after it began a probe into the allegations of sexual harassment against Raghaveshwara Bharati, the head pontiff of the Sri Ramachandrapura Mutt in Karnataka, the police Saturday filed charges of rape against him. The chargesheet was filed in a case registered against the seer by a 45-year-old Rama Katha singer, who was formerly attached to the Mutt. The singer alleged that she was raped several times by Raghaveshwara Bharati during ‘Rama Katha’ performance
tours around the country. Inspector General of Police K V Sharathchandra said the chargesheet was submitted at the court of Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate (ACMM) on Saturday. Police said the chargesheet is based on forensic evidence and material facts collected by investigators. The DNA obtained from the garments of the victim matched that of the pontiff, officials said. Police have also cited the cell phone tower locations of the accused and the victim to establish that the pontiff and the singer were at a common
location on the days when the alleged rape is reported to have occurred. The CID has listed 151 witnesses, including police personnel, forensic experts and others in the chargesheet. The rape case was registered at the Banashankari police station in Bengaluru on August 26, 2014 by the victim’s daughter after the victim and her husband were detained by the police in Uttara Kannada following a complaint of threats and blackmail filed by a supporter of the pontiff. The rape case was later handed over to the CID. The CID team visited several
places in nine districts in Karnataka and places in Kolkata, Jodhpur and Mumbai to collect evidence. The pontiff will be prosecuted under Indian Penal
Code sections 376 (2)(f)(n) (rape) and 508 (an act caused by inducing a person to believe that she will be rendered an object of divine displeasure).
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Man brutally kills wife for Netaji’s daughter asks PM to release files over death mystery refusing to have sex with him
Kolkata Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose’s daughter has appealed to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to declassify files with the Centre so that the mystery surrounding his disappearance over 70 years ago is solved. Recently, when West Bengal government released 64 secret files on Netaji, 72-year-old Anita Bose Pfaff said she was yet to receive copies of the documents. “I am, therefore, not aware of their content, especially not of any information about his death.”She also said, “I would appeal to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to declassify the files that are with the Centre.” “As a scholar, I certainly believe that all the old files which have been kept closed beyond thirty
years should be declassified. As a daughter, I certainly also demand that those on my father be declassified,” Anita said in an email interview with PTI, joining the growing chorus for release of the Netaji files held by central government departments. Members of the Bose family, West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee and many others have been demanding declassification of the Netaji files by the Centre. Asked whether she would appeal to the British, Russian and Japan governments to declassify the files they have on Netaji, Anita said, “It would be helpful, if the Indian government appealed to those other governments to make files available for study. Some countries have a ‘right to information’. However, as long as
Nalanda varsity gets $1 million from Indian-origin couple NEW DELHI Nalanda University, an international centre of learning coming up in Bihar, on Tuesday received a personal endowment of $1 million from an Indian-origin couple to support a professorial chair in the School of Historical
Studies. The endowment was made by Rajasthan-born Rajendra Joshi, who is now a Swiss citizen, and his wife Ursula Joshi. The symbolic cheque was handed over by Ursula Joshi to Nalanda vicechancellor Gopa Sabharwal at a function held on Tuesday at the India International Centre. Nalanda University has also received endowments from countries like Australia, China, Singapore, Laos and Thailand. It has also received endowments in the form of books from individual donors. Sabharwal in her remarks said the endowment was valuable for the university in these formative years. “We are specially thankful that the Joshis despite their background in
pharmaceuticals decided to support the School of Historical Studies to acknowledge the importance of this discipline in the present age. At a time when history and indeed the liberal arts need a lot of support a gesture like this is immensely valuable.” Rajendra Joshi founded a pharmaceutical company Fumapharm with other partners in Switzerland and is credited with development of highly effective drugs for the treatment of psoriasis and multiple sclerosis. Fumapharm was bought over by US-based company Biogen Idec and the drug that Joshi developed, now a very successful medicine globally, is marketed as Tecfidera. Ursula Joshi said Nalanda University was one of the oldest universities of the world, and the couple wanted to contribute in revival of the prestigious institution particularly by supporting a Professorial Chair in the School of Historical Studies. Nalanda University based in Rajgir, Bihar was established by an act of Parliament in 2010 and is designated as an “Institution of National Importance”. Nalanda is supported by several East Asia Summit countries. The university admitted its first batch of students in the School of Ecology and Environment Studies and the School of Historical Studies in 2014.
the Indian government has not declassified their files, they are in a poor position to ask others.” Anita, a noted economist based in Germany, also demanded that DNA test of the ashes believed to be that of Netaji -- kept at Japan’s Renkoji temple be carried out in order to settle the mystery surrounding his death in an air crash. Noting that she believed her father died in the air crash in Taihoku airport in Taiwan in August in 1945 “until proved otherwise”, she said the ashes hold key to unravelling the mystery. “I certainly would like the ‘mystery’ settled. An agreement between Indian and Japanese governments to a DNA-test of the remains at Renkoji temple would certainly be helpful,” she said. “Moreover I wish the Indian public would concern themselves more with his life and his achievements from which there is much to be learned than with his death!” she said.She alleged that successive Congress governments had neglected the contributions made by Bose and his Indian National Army (INA). “The Congress governments have by and large neglected Netaji and INA’s contributions. The (Mukherjee) Commission did get a lot of time, some resources, though seems to have gotten little support,” Anita said.
NEW DELHI A man allegedly murdered his wife of 15 years after she refused to have sex with him in Bareilly’s Nariyawal village, police said. The accused sat beside the body and drank liquor for over six hours until police reached the spot and arrested him. According to police, Rajiv Sharma killed his wife Meenu Sharma in a fit of rage. The duo have a 10-year-old son. The incident was reported by the elder sister of the deceased who lives in the same locality. “When we reached the spot we found the deceased’s body lying in a pool of blood with the accused sitting next to it, on the bed,” said CO Santosh Kumar. The officers also had a tough time persuading Rajiv to open the main gate of his house. “There were no external injuries on the body but there was a lot of blood,” said SO Rajbeer
Singh. According to police, Rajiv took responsibility of the crime and told the police that he “inserted his right forearm in his wife’s private parts which resulted in her death”. “He has said so but we are awaiting the post-mortem report to ascertain the exact cause of death,” said the investigating officer. According to sources, Rajiv is in the state of paranoia, claiming that his wife “has gone to visit somebody in the city (Bareilly)”. After keeping him at the Bithri police station overnight, police presented Rajiv in the lower court on Saturday. “The court has ordered a remand of 14 days,” informed Singh.Mangli Prasad, who lives on rent in the same house as the couple’s, said, “I was sleeping when the incident happened. They used to fight a lot. Apart from that I don’t know anything.”
Indian charged over slashing an Indian-origin man in Singapore SINGAPORE An Indian national, along with six other Indian-origin persons, were on Wednesday charged in a Singaporean court over the slashing of a 52-year-old compatriot, permanently disfiguring his face, a media report said on Wednesday. Indian national Koleth Abdul Nasir, 41, had allegedly threatened Indian-origin Singaporean, Liakath Ali, with injury, by saying “Last time we should do you but you escaped; but this time round, we will do you, you watch out.” Between August 22 and August 26, three others including
Singaporean-Indian Anwer Ambiya Kadir Maideen, Zackeer Abbass Khan and Koleth Navas, had conspired to cause grievous hurt to Liakath, the court heard. On August 26, another three Singaporean-Indian suspects, Joel Giritharan Surainthiran, Joshua Navindran Surainthiran and Ramge Visvanathan had
allegedly slashed Liakath with a knife and caused his face to be permanently disfigured. Police said the men, aged between 23 and 46, face a case of voluntarily causing grievous hurt with dangerous weapons. Preliminary investigations showed the dispute arose from a business rivalry dispute, said Police. Those found guilty for voluntarily causing grievous hurt or abetting the offence face up to 15 years’ jail term, and could also be fined or caned. For criminal intimidation to cause death or grievous hurt, Koleth Abdul Nasir faces up to seven years’ jail.
Indian doctor under probe over cancer treatment in Britain LONDON An Indian-origin doctor in Britain has been suspended and is facing an investigation over the treatment he gave to cancer patients, a media report said. Arackal Manu Nair was suspended from his post as consultant urologist at Solihull Hospital and “ceased working” at Spire Parkway Hospital in April 2014 when colleagues voiced suspicions to the hospital administration about his surgery, the Solihull Observer reported on Wednesday.Nair, who since his suspension has resigned from his post at the Heart of England NHS
Trust, is under investigation by the General Medical Council for
his treatment of 170 radical prostatectomy patients at Solihull Hospital and his treatment of patients at the Spire Healthcare group, the daily added.A radical prostatectomy is a common surgical procedure to remove the prostate gland where
patients are diagnosed with prostate cancer.“Following concerns regarding the clinical practice of consultant urologist Arackal Manu Nair, the trust, working with its independent sector partners Spire Parkway and BMI The Priory, requested a team from the Royal College of Surgeons to review his surgical practices in the NHS and independent sector,” said Andrew Catto, executive medical director and deputy CEO at the Heart of England NHS Trust.The General Medical Council confirmed that Nair was under investigation for fitness to practice.
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Pakistan gives death sentence to nine terrorists ISLAMABAD Pakistan has approved the death sentence of nine terrorists involved in various activities, a media report said. According to Inter-Services Public Relations statement, Pakistan army chief general Raheel Sharif on Monday confirmed the death sentences of nine terrorists involved in the killing of civilians and security personnel, Dawn online reported. The statement said, terrorists were involved in the killing of Major General Sanaullah, General Officer Commanding for Malakand division, and Lt Col Tauseef Ahmed during an attack on the military convoy in Swat. The Tehreek-iTaliban Pakistan (TTP) had claimed responsibility for the attack.Pilots write to airline claiming fatigue levels are risking safety Cathay Pacific’s pilots have written to the airline warning that they believe flight safety is under threat as pilots are over-worked and exhausted. The airline strongly denies the claims and says safety is its “number one priority”. In a frank letter to the Hong Kong-based carrier, published in full by the South China Morning Post, the pilots refer to what they claim is the “elephant in the room, fatigue” and ask
“is safety still our priority?”. In response, the airline, established in 1946, has said that it has measures in place to manage issues such as fatigue. The carrier has never had an accident in
which a plane has been written off as beyond repair. The letter, sent to Cathay Pacific’s director of flight operations last month claims “long-term fatigue levels” are being endured by its pilots. It claims pilots routinely work overtime and reach their maximum legal annual hours limit, at which point they cannot be used and have to be removed from rosters. The letter also claims there are increased sickness rates, full annual leave is not being granted to all crew, that experience levels at the airline have dropped, “flights are constantly being cancelled
due to lack of crews”, and that the airline is proposing to reduce crew levels by 30 per cent for “efficiency opportunities”. “Currently, we have a tired and wornout aircrew body,” the letter said. “This is manifesting itself in correspondingly increased sickness rates and, regrettably, a recent fatigue-related incident.” It added: “We are... acutely aware that increasing fatigue levels coupled with decreasing experience levels could dangerously affect safety within the airline if actions are not taken now to change course.” The Sunday Morning Post received a letter from a Cathay Pacific spokeswoman, responding to the concerns raised by the pilots. She confirmed that the airline had “received a letter from a number of our check and training captains in which they expressed some concerns” and that it was looking into the concerns and engaging with its pilots directly. She said matters to do with safety received the company’s “utmost attention” and that “safety of passengers and crew is the number one priority of Cathay Pacific”. “We do have measures in place to manage any issues identified, such as fatigue,” the spokeswoman said.
Pakistan delays hanging of paraplegic convict ISLAMABAD Pakistan on Tuesday postponed the execution of the country’s first known paraplegic on death-row, about an hour before he was to be hanged, official said. The man’s family welcomed the development with relief and urged authorities to spare his life on medical grounds. The day before, Pakistan’s supreme court refused to halt the execution of 43-year-old Abdul Basit, who has been paralyzed from the waist down since contracting meningitis in prison in 2010 and uses a wheelchair. Basit has been on death row since 2009, convicted of murdering a man in a financial dispute in Punjab province. According to prison official Mohammad Safdar, a magistrate made the decision to postpone the death sentence after talking to Basit early Tuesday. The hanging was initially scheduled for just before dawn. There were no further details on the postponement and it was unclear if another date for the executions was set. Under Pakistani law, authorities can delay executions on medical grounds but a convict can only be pardoned by the country’s president. There was no immediate statement from President Mamnoon Hussain. Basit’s family members were waiting outside the high-security prison in the city of Faisalabad in
Jihadis execute 10 men accused of homosexuality in Syria Damascus An online video showing 10 men being executed by jihadis in Syria after they were accused of homosexuality has emerged according to media reports on Tuesday. The video shows six victims kneeling and surrounded by a group of masked gunmen in al-Rastan region, EFE news reported.According to the Syrian Observatory for
Human Rights (SOHR), one of the masked men read a statement explaining that the defendants had been
sentenced to death by the “Supreme Court of Homs and its outskirts” after confessing to committing homosexual acts and drug
addiction.Then the six men were shot by their executioners.The SOHR explained that a seventh man was executed on the same charges in the area of al-Zafarana in the north of Homs province.SOHR said that in northern Aleppo, three other suspected homosexuals, which included a child, were killed after being convicted by a “court” established by jihadis in the area.
France announces first air strikes on Islamic State in Syria PARIS France has fired its first airstrikes in Syria as it expands military operations against Islamic State extremists, President Francois Hollande’s office announced today. The office said that “France has hit Syria” based on information from French reconnaissance flights sent earlier this month. It didn’t provide any further details. France has been firing airstrikes on IS extremists in Iraq as part
of the US-led coalition since last year, but had resisted
airstrikes in Syria because it didn’t want to strengthen
President Bashar Assad. Hollande announced a change in strategy earlier this month because of growing concern about the Syrian refugee crisis. The president’s office argued Sunday that it was a question of national defense, as France has been attacked and threatened by extremists claiming ties to IS. Hollande, heading to the UN General Assembly, also stressed the importance of seeking a political solution for Syria.
eastern Punjab province for the sentence to be carried out so they could take the body for burial. His sister, Shugufta Sultana, said they were “terrified and nervous”. “We were waiting
violated “both the prison’s own rules and Pakistan’s ban on cruel and unusual punishment”. Earlier, Amnesty International also urged Pakistan to halt Basit’s execution and
for bad news but God gave a new life to my brother and his execution was postponed,” she told Associated Press over the phone from Faisalabad. Basit’s lawyers and the rights group “Reprieve” had petitioned Pakistan’s top court to halt the execution, arguing that hanging him would constitute cruel and inhuman punishment. On Tuesday, Reprieve’s caseworker Kate Higham also welcomed the postponement, saying the execution would have
called for a moratorium on all executions in the country. According to the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, authorities have hanged 236 people since lifting a 2008 moratorium on executions in December, after a deadly Taliban attack on a school in the northwestern city of Peshawar killed 150 people, mostly children. However, only one in 10 of the 236 prisoners executed since then have been convicted of a terror attack.
Senior Pakistani journalist shot dead by gunmen Karachi A senior Pakistani journalist was shot dead on Wednesday by unidentified gunmen outside his house here, a day after an employee of a leading media house was killed in the city in the latest attack on media persons in the country. Aftab Alam (42), who had been associated with different channels including Geo News and Samaa TV, was reversing his car in the city’s North Sector C area after dropping his children at home when he was targeted by two gunmen on a motorbike. Aftab who received multiple bullet wounds on his head, neck and chest, was rushed to Abbasi Shaheed hospital where doctors declared him dead. “It appears to be a case of target killing,” a senior police official Munir Sheikh said. It was the second incident in two days when the media persons were targeted by unidentified shooters on motorcycles. Last night, a news van of Pakistan’s biggest media group, Geo Television Network came under fire by three unidentified gunmen in the
Bahadurabad area in which a senior technical engineer was killed while the driver was injured. The engineer, Arshad Ali Jaffri, died after being shot nine times in his upper body while driver Anis
Chohan was injured and shifted to a private hospital. The assailants fled the scene on motorcycles after opening fire. Sindh Home Minister Sohail Anwar Khan Siyal has asked senior police officials to immediately arrest the suspects. The two new incidents have revived bitter memories of last year’s incident in the North Nazimabad area when two employees of the Express media group were gunned down while they sitting inside their news van. One of Geo’s leading anchors Hamid Mir was also attacked last year in the southern Pakistani port city of Karachi.
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US man disembowels woman for Smartphone that floats ‘uttering wrong name during sex’
Washington A man has been charged with first degree murder after telling police he disembowelled his girlfriend. It has been reported that 24-year-old Fidel Lopez became angry when his girlfriend, Maria Nemeth, allegedly said her ex-husband’s name while the pair were having sex in a closet in an apartment in Sunrise, Florida. In the early hours of Saturday morning, Mr Lopez called the emergency services and said Ms Nemeth, 31, was having trouble breathing, CBS Miami reported. The pair had lived together for around a week.Police and paramedics arrived to find Ms Nemeth in a pool of blood on the bathroom floor. They pronounced her dead at the scene.Officers also found bloody tissue inside a closet and half a bottle of tequila in the kitchen. Mr Lopez initially told police that Ms
Nemeth had been drinking and went to the bathroom and vomited after the pair hand engaged in rough sex. But Mr Lopez changed his story upon further questioning. According to a police report seen by NBC Miami, Lopez told officers he flew into a rage and broke objects around the apartment after Ms Nemeth allegedly said her exhusband’s name during sex. Telling police he became a “monster”, Mr Lopez said he began to insert objects into Ms Nemeth, who was unconscious, and ripped out some of her intestinal tissue. After failing to revive his girlfriend by splashing water on her face, he called the emergency services. Lopez is facing a first-degree murder charge and will not be released on bail. Neighbour Dan Carter said Ms Nemeth was a “very gentle, very private” person.
California More than 82 millions phones are damaged each year after being dropped down the toilet, into swimming pools or lost at the beach. A number of waterproof handsets have been released to solve this problem, but Comet takes it to the next level. Not only is the Android handset IPx7 water-resistant, it has been designed to float meaning owners don’t have to fish it out from the bottom of the sea, or stick their hand into a toilet basin. Comet was designed by California-based Prashanth Raj Urs who has launched an Indiegogo campaign to fund production of the device. Other features include 4GB of RAM, a Qualcomm Snapdragon 810, 2GHZ octa-core Processor and a 2800 mAh battery said to last a ‘full day of work, party and excitement.’ While a ‘mood recogniser’ uses biometric sensors to detect a person’s body temperature to gauge how happy they are. The LED lights will then display different colours to suit these different moods. The Indiegogo campaign doesn’t reveal any details about how the device is made buoyant and MailOnline has contacted the designer for more information. ‘Comet floats on water and will resist water like no other smartphone,’ explained the campaign. ‘We designed Comet for the fashion forwards. ’A smartphone that truly
transcends time and style with its unique design and features.’
$279 for a 32GB handset, and the first devices are expected
Comet additionally features an encryption tool called Qlock. The campaign describes it as ‘military grade encryption to protect your privacy when you call or text your friends who also uses a Comet smartphone.’ It is designed to shield calls and texts between Comet handsets to make it difficult for anyone to track or spy on users. Early Bird prices for the phone start at
to ship to campaign backers in April. A 64GB model is available for $289. After the first batch is released, the recommended retail price will go up to $399 for the 32GB version and $469 for 64GB. Both models are available in black, white and gold. Mr Urs is hoping to raise $100,000 and the campaign has currently received more than $13,300 with 39 days left to go.
Darwin’s letter on Bible and God fetches $197,000
Early Apple computer fails to sell New York An Apple 1 motherboard, a 79year-old TV and the only surviving processor of the last supercomputer designed by Seymour Cray have been auctioned at a vintage tech sale in New York.However, neither the Apple 1 nor the rare antique television were sold. Apple 1 computers are usually valuable collectables. Made in 1976, there are now only about 50 left in the world. At a similar sale last year, one fetched $365,000 (£237,000). And in 2013, another attracted a $905,000 bid.The Apple 1 at Monday’s vintage tech sale had a starting price of $300,000. The Cray-4 processor sold for $37,500. The 1936 Baird television set may not work and delivers a huge electrical charge
of 5000 volts. But auctioneer Bonhams had forecast that it could fetch between $20,000 (£13,000) and $30,000.He was working on the Cray-4 model when his company went bankrupt in 1995, and the following year he died in a traffic accident. The processor, with serial number 001, was listed with an expected price tag of $50,000 - $80,000. Other lots included an early German Enigma machine, handwritten paperwork by Albert Einstein and
Pope calls for global abolition of death penalty WASHINGTON Pope Francis on Thursday called for the global abolition of the death penalty before lawmakers in the United States, where capital punishment is still practiced in several states.“The Golden Rule also reminds us of our responsibility to protect and defend human life at every stage of its development,” Francis said in his speech to Congress.“This
conviction has led me, from the beginning of my ministry, to advocate at different levels for the global abolition of the death penalty. I am convinced that this way is the best, since every life is sacred,” he added.“I also offer encouragement to all those who are convinced that a just and necessary punishment must never exclude the dimension of hope and the goal of rehabilitation.”
a 19th Century telegraph sending and receiving set used by spies during the US Civil War.CCS analyst and mobile phone collector Ben Wood said: “During a period of birth, amazing things happen. These devices become almost curiosities which shape an industry. “Their scarcity is always going to bring inflation in terms of the value of these devices. “You can go right back to the evolution of technology lots of people are collecting typewriters.” Mr Wood, who has a collection of more than 1,000 mobile handsets dating back to 1982, added that despite their comparatively limited performance, collectors do still tend to prefer working models.
New York A handwritten letter in which English naturalist Charles Darwin confesses that he does not believe in Bible as a divine revelation or Jesus Christ as the son of God has fetched a whopping $197,000 at an auction here.The letter which went under the hammer at Bonhams on September 21 sold for $197,000 more than twice its estimate of $90,000. The subject of Darwin’s religiosity had long been a cause of vehement debate.Darwin himself largely refrained from public comment, probably to respect the feelings of his friends
and family.Darwin’s letter is a reply to a young barrister named Francis McDermott. McDermott wrote to Darwin on November 23, 1880, with an unusual request. “If I am to have pleasure in reading your books I must feel that at the end I shall not have lost my faith in the New Testament,” he wrote. “My reason in writing to you therefore is to ask you to give me a Yes or No to the question Do you believe in the New Testament...” McDermott wrote. McDermott continues by promising not to publicise Darwin’s reply in the “theological papers”.
Belgian scientists look for biofuel clues in panda poo BRUGELETTE Belgian researchers are examining the excrement of giant pandas to try to understand how they can digest tough bamboo, hoping for clues on how to develop new generations of biofuel. The genetic make-up of endangered pandas is that of a carnivore but the animals have adapted to a diet consisting almost exclusively of bamboo. While a few scientific studies have looked into the digestive tract of the panda, the researchers say their study is the first to focus
on the microorganisms in the animal’s gut. “We can look for new enzymes which could be used to degrade tough biomass,” said Korneel Rabaey, professor for biochemical and microbial
technology at Ghent University, standing outside the giant panda enclosure at the Pairi Daiza zoo in Belgium. The results of the study may point to new, cheaper, ways to produce so-called second generation biofuels made from plants and biomass not destined for consumption such as corn stalks. Six-year-old panda Xing Hui, whose name means sparkling star, and his female partner Hao Hao, meaning kind, paid little attention to the scientists collecting their droppings on Monday.
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Coffee has secret trick to stop sleep Cambridge A cup of coffee in the evening may be keeping you awake for
more reasons than you realise, scientists say. Their study, in Science Translation Medicine, showed caffeine was more than just a stimulant and actually slowed down the body’s internal clock. A double espresso three
hours before bedtime delayed the production of the sleep hormone melatonin by about 40
minutes, making it harder to nod off. Experts said our own actions had a huge influence on sleep and the body clock. One of the researchers, Dr John O’Neill, from the Medical Research Council’s Laboratory of
US Court Orders Mediation Over Indian Couple’s Autistic Son
Washington A court in the US state of California has ordered the Indianorigin parents of a boy with autism and their neighbours into mediation, after a lawsuit was filed against the Indian couple alleging that their son was a “public nuisance”, a media report said.A Santa Clara county judge handed down the order to defendants Vidyut Gopal, Parul Agrawal and complainants Kumaran Santhanam, his wife Bindu, as well as Robert and Marci Flowers in view of the negative precedent the case might set for families of children who have developmental disabilities, Eyewitness News reported yesterday.“With great reluctance, we had to file this lawsuit because we had to
protect the safety of all of the children in the neighbourhood,” Mr Santhanam was quoted as saying.Last year, Mr Gopal and Ms Agrawal were slapped with a lawsuit by their next-door neighbours that claimed the couple did not do enough to prevent their autistic son from assaulting their children, as well as other people in their neighbourhood in Sunnyvale, one of the major cities that make up Silicon Valley.“My hope is that when we meet with the defendants, that we can finally at long last come up with a workable solution for both parties,” said Mr Robert Flowers.Mr Gopal is an engineer at a Silicon Valley company, while Ms Agrawal is a research scientist at NASA Ames Research Centre.
Molecular Biology in Cambridge, told the BBC News website: “If you’re tired and having a coffee at night to stay awake, then that is a bad idea, you’ll find it harder to go to sleep and get enough sleep.”In his half of the study, cells grown in a dish were exposed to caffeine to work out how it changed their ability to keep time. It showed the drug was able to alter the chemical clocks ticking away in every cell of the human body. Meanwhile, five people at the University of Colorado Boulder, in the US, were locked in a sleep laboratory for 50 days. And as light exposure is the main way we normally control our body clock, they spent most of their incarceration in very dim light. In a series of experiments over the month and a half, the scientists showed that an evening dose of caffeine slowed the body clock by 40 minutes. It had roughly half the impact of three hours of bright light at bedtime.
Facebook can recognise users’ faces California Facebook has technology capable of recognising its users’ faces in photos. Now a patent suggests the social network could identify people’s cameras, to work out which device was used to take a picture. Facebook says the technology could be used to suggest new friends and events, but also to identify fake accounts, for example. The patent, filed by the Californian company in January, suggests it could identify a camera based on physical characteristics, including lens scratches, to create a camera ‘fingerprint’. It could then use that fingerprint to identify any picture taken by that camera and therefore a user that owns it. Combined with
other pieces of information such as location data and facial recognition, which is used in the US but not in Europe, it could recognise photos taken by a user if they are uploaded to
someone else’s account. The patent says: ‘A camera signature comprises features extracted from images that characterize the camera used for capturing the image, for example, faulty pixel positions in the camera and metadata available in files storing the images.
Delaware police shoot black man in wheelchair Washington Jeremy McDole, a 28-year-old black man in a wheelchair, was shot dead by Wilmington police officers around 3 p.m. on Wednesday. The fatal shooting was “an execution,” a relative said on Thursday, but authorities described a different scenario, saying the man had a handgun when officers shot him to death. Police said in a brief statement that officers responded to a call from a man who had a possible self-inflicted gunshot wound. The shooting took place at some point after that. The race of the officers involved was not immediately released. Police
treatment of black men has become a major issue in the U.S. after killings in Ferguson, Missouri, New York City and elsewhere. McDole’s uncle, Eugene Smith, was standing with a crowd of about a couple
dozen people who gathered on Thursday at the scene of the shooting. “It was an execution. That’s what it was. I don’t care if he was black, white, whatever.” Smith said he was with his nephew about 15 minutes before the shooting. “I didn’t see no gun. He had a book bag, but I never seen a gun,” he said. A .40-caliber shell casing was found in the grass about 15 feet from where McDole was shot. The Delaware Department of Justice’s Office of Civil Rights and Public Trust is investigating the shooting and will determine if the officers acted within the law.
Man shot dead after pointing ‘finger gun’ Washington A man was shot dead after pointing his finger as if it was a gun at a police officer who was chasing him for trying to obtain cough syrup with a fake prescription, police in Maryland said on Thursday. Baltimore County police said 19-year-old Keith McLeod was shot three times in Reisterstown after “reaching around to the small of his back and abruptly whipping his hand around and pointing it toward the officer, as if with a weapon”. Police said in a statement that the shooting on Wednesday was recorded on
surveillance footage from a nearby business, which shows that after falling to the ground he “refuses to comply and
keeps reaching into his waistband, as if for a weapon”. Witnesses reported the officer told the man to stop, police said.
Zuckerberg, Gates make bid for universal Internet access UNITED NATIONS Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and Microsoft billionaire Bill Gates on Saturday threw their weight behind the goal of bringing Internet access to everyone in the world by 2020. The pledge comes amid a United Nations effort to eradicate extreme poverty by 2030, a goal set on Friday during a special summit at the global body. The Internet became commonplace in developed countries in the 1990s, but UN officials estimate that half the world does not have reliable ac-
cess - especially women and girls, whose education is vital to development. "When people have access to the tools and knowledge of the Internet, they have access to opportunities that make life better for all of us," said a declaration signed by Zuckerberg and Bill and Melinda Gates, who have devoted their wealth to philanthropy. "The Internet belongs to everyone. It should be accessible by everyone," the declaration said. Zuckerberg, swapping his trademark hoodie for a
suit and tie as he appeared at the United Nations, said that for ev-
ery 10 people connected to the Internet, one is lifted out of poverty. "The Internet is more than just a network of machines; it is the key driver of social and economic progress in our time," Zuckerberg told a luncheon at the UN headquarters attended by German Chancellor Angela Merkel. The 31-year-old entrepreneur pointed to the role of the Internet in empowering otherwise voiceless people in places such as Syria, where civil war is producing a refugee exo-
dus. "A 'like' or a post won't stop a tank or a bullet, but when people are connected, we have the chance to build a common global community with a shared understanding - and that's a powerful force," he said. He estimated that spreading the Internet could also bring affordable education to 600 million children who would otherwise go unschooled. Other signatories included Jimmy Wales, co-founder of free online encyclopedia Wikipedia, and U2 frontman Bono on behalf of his One anti-poverty campaign.
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Brain-computer link enables paralysed US man to walk LOS ANGELES A brain-to-computer technology that can translate thoughts into leg movements has enabled a man paralysed from the waist down by a spinal cord injury to become the first such patient to walk without the use of robotics, doctors in Southern California reported on Wednesday. The slow, halting first steps of the 28-year-old paraplegic were documented in a preliminary study published in the Britishbased Journal of NeuroEngineering and Rehabilitation, along with a YouTube video. The feat was accomplished using a system allowing the brain to bypass the injured spinal cord and instead send messages through a computer algorithm to electrodes placed around the patient’s knees to trigger controlled leg muscle movements. Researchers at the University of California, Irvine, say the outcome marks a promising but incremental achievement in the
development of brain-computer interfaces that may one day help stroke and spinal injury victims regain some mobility. Dr. An Do, a study co-author, said clinical applications were many years away. Results of the UC Irvine research still need to be replicated in other patients and greatly refined. Nevertheless, the study proved it possible “to restore intuitive, brain-controlled walking after a complete spinal cord injury,” said biomedical engineer Zoran Nenadic, who led the research. The steps taken a year ago by the experiment’s subject, former graduate student Adam Fritz, who injured his back in a motorcycle accident, appear modest as seen in the video. Fritz propelled himself over a distance of 3.6 meters (11.8 feet) across the floor of UC Irvine’s iMove Lab, though his weight was partially supported by an overhead suspension harness and a walker he grasped to keep his body upright, researchers said.
The weight support was necessary because the patient lacked any sensation in his legs or feet, Do explained. Still, the experiment built on earlier UC Irvine studies in which brain signals were transmitted to a robotic prosthesis attached to the patient’s legs to produce movement, Do said. In previous research by other scientists, a brain-computer interface has been used to allow paralysed patients to grasp a cup of coffee with a robotic arm and raise the beverage to their mouths. The latest study, which began about five years after Fritz became paralysed, involved months of mental training in which he practiced thinking about walking to produce necessary leg-moving brain waves. Those signals were then picked up by an electroencephalogram (EEG) he wore as a cap and were transmitted to a computer for processing by a special algorithm that could isolate the messages related only to leg motion and
convert them to signals that would stimulate the patient’s muscles to walk.The scientists and patient first practiced with a virtual-reality-like video game in which Fritz was trained to control a walking avatar. He also underwent extensive physical rehab to strengthen his muscles.Fritz next practiced walking in the actual lab while suspended slightly above the
floor. On his 20th outing, he finally took his first real steps on the ground.Researchers hope to refine the technology by miniaturizing the EEG component enough to be implanted inside the patient’s skull or brain, allowing for clearer reception of the neural messages and perhaps the delivery of pressure sensation from sensors in the foot back to the brain.
Pope urges US action Indian-origin man hatched plan on climate change to rob own gas station in US WASHINGTON Pope Francis on Wednesday urged the United States to help tackle climate change at a “critical moment of history” and
called on Americans to build a truly tolerant and inclusive society. In a speech on the White House South Lawn, the Argentine pontiff lauded President Barack Obama’s efforts to reduce air pollution. “It seems clear to me also that climate change is a problem which can no longer be left to a future generation. When it comes to the care of our common home, we are living at a critical moment of history,” the pope said at a welcoming ceremony for his first visit to the United States. The pope also invoked America’s best known civil rights leader, the late Rev. Martin Luther King, to make his point on the environment. About 15,000 people who gathered in bright sunshine on the South Lawn watched Obama greet the 78-year-old pope, who departed from his usual practice and addressed the crowd in English. A frequent critic of the damage caused to the world’s poor and the environment by capitalism’s excesses, Francis this year released a papal document, or encyclical, demanding swift action on climate change. Obama, whose
plans for a climate change bill were thwarted in Congress early in his presidency, said he shared the pope’s concerns about the environment. “Holy Father, you remind us that we have a sacred obligation to protect our planet God’s magnificent gift to us. We support your call to all world leaders to support the communities most vulnerable to a changing climate and to come together to preserve our precious world for future generations,” Obama said. Francis and Obama were to hold talks in the White House after the ceremony. Both men see eye-to-eye on issues like climate change and defense of the poor but hold different views on abortion rights and gay marriage. The pope paraphrased King’s 1963 “I Have A Dream” speech, saying that the world has “defaulted on a promissory note” to the planet and millions of marginalized people. “American Catholics are committed to building a society which is truly tolerant and inclusive, to safeguarding the rights of individuals and communities, and to rejecting every form of unjust discrimination,” he said. Francis gave his support to traditional marriage in his remarks, pointing out that he will travel to Philadelphia later in his six-day visit to the United States for a meeting of Catholics “to celebrate and support the institutions of marriage and the family.” After the White House meeting, Francis will parade through downtown Washington before a crowd expected to reach tens of thousands.
NEW YORK An Indian-origin owner of a gas station in the US has been charged with planning a robbery in his business by hiring a man for US $1,500 and asking him to use a toy gun.Pareshbhai R Patel, 40, asked another man to use a toy gun to rob his Shell gas station in Sandwich Town in Massachusetts in exchange for US $1,500. Police thwarted his robbery-for-hire plot, which was supposed to happen within the next few days, by secretly recording him, the Daily Chronicle reported on Thursday citing court records.Patel is charged with solicitation to commit an armed robbery and solicitation to commit an aggravated robbery. The most serious charge, solicitation to commit an armed robbery, is punishable by four to 15 years
in prison.He was released from DeKalb County Jail on Thursday after posting US $5,000 bail.Specific details of the crime, including when it would happen, what would be said, and how the individual would be paid, were recorded using special
equipment.Patel admitted to planning the robbery during questioning by police, according to the court records. He is scheduled to appear in court on October 27. It is yet not clear why Patel hatched the plan for robbery at his own gas station.
Facebook dealt blow in privacy fight
Washington A privacy campaigner has scored a legal victory that could bolster his attempts to prevent Facebook from being able to pass EU citizens’ data to the
US authorities. An opinion issued by the European Court of Justice says that current data-sharing rules between the 28-nation bloc and the US are “invalid”.
The decision could affect other tech firms’ abilities to send Europeans’ information to US data centres. However, it is not a final judgement. Although the EU’s highest court tends to follow the opinions of its legal adviser, the 15 judges involved have yet to issue a conclusive ruling of their own on the matter. Even so, Max Schrems - the activist who prompted the case - suggests there could be far-reaching consequences. “Companies that participate in US mass surveillance and provide, for example, cloud services within the EU and rely on data centres in the US may now have to invest in secure data centres within the European Union,” he said. “This could be a major issue for Apple.
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U.S.-trained Syria rebels hand equipment to al-Qaeda group
Islamabad Syrian rebels trained by the U.S. gave some of their equipment to the al Qaeda-linked Nusra Front in exchange for safe passage, a U.S. military spokesman has said, the latest blow to a troubled U.S. effort to train local partners to fight Islamic State militants. The rebels surrendered six pickup trucks and some ammunition, or about one-quarter of their issued equipment, to a suspected Nusra intermediary on September 21-22 in exchange for safe passage, said Colonel Patrick Ryder, a spokesman for U.S. Central Command, in a statement. “If accurate, the report of NSF members providing equipment to al Nusra Front is very concerning and a violation of Syria train and equip programme guidelines,” Mr. Ryder said, using an acronym for the rebels, called the
New Syrian Forces. U.S. Central Command, which oversees U.S. military operations in West Asia, was told of the equipment surrender around 1 p.m. on Friday, Mr. Ryder said. Earlier on Friday, Mr. Ryder had said all weapons and equipment issued to the rebels remained under their control. The news was the most recent sign of trouble in a fledgling military effort to train fighters to take on the Islamic State militant group in Syria, where a four-anda-half -year civil war has killed about 250,000 people and caused nearly half of Syria’s prewar population of 23 million to flee. A top U.S. general told Congress last week that only a handful of the rebels are still fighting in Syria, though U.S. military officials said this week that dozens more have since joined them.
Were IS militants behind blast on Abdulla Yameen’s boat?
NEW DELHI The explosion aboard Maldivian President Abdulla Yameen’s speedboat on Monday is likely to set off a debate within the archipelago nation on whether it was the handiwork of radicalized elements sympathetic to IS or, as Yameen may himself suspect, an act of “black magic” practised by opponents. The cause of the explosion is not yet known and the Maldivian military authorities are conducting investigations. However, India, concerned over the growing footprint of Islamic State (IS) in a country located in close proximity , is viewing the attack in the context of a YouTube video posted on September 1, showing three masked men threatening to kill President Yameen and vice-president Ahmed Adeeb if their demands for release of conservative Adhaalath Party leader
Sheikh Imran and withdrawal of the new anti-terror Bill were not met. The three minute-video, which carried IS logo, had triggered speculation that it was released by the global terror outfit that has been drawing youths from all over the world, including Maldives. The authenticity of the video is being verified, but Indian agencies believe Monday’s explosion, in which the President escaped unhurt, has brought to the fore the “fault-lines in the country’s security apparatus, law and order situation and political turmoil seen for most part of this year.” Incidentally , with President Yameen reportedly consumed by fears of his opponents resorting to “black magic” against him, the agencies here feel he may well blame the explosion on practitioners of the occult.
Saudi Arabia: Teen IS loyalist who killed cousin dies in shootout Cairo Saudi Arabian security forces killed an 18-year-old Islamic State loyalist and arrested his brother after they allegedly killed their cousin, a soldier, and three other people, the state-run news agency said on Saturday. Saudi forces launched a manhunt after a video emerged showing an IS loyalist shooting and killing a man with his hands bound in the desert, the Saudi Press Agency said, citing the interior ministry’s security spokesperson.The individual who was shot dead was a member of the armed forces, lured to the desert by his cousins on Thursday, the first day of the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha, SPA said. The two brothers killed two other citizens and a corporal, it said.Security forces aided by aircraft tracked the brothers to a mountainous area. When asked to surrender, the two men
opened fire. Eighteen-year-old Abdul-Aziz Radi Ayash al-Anzi was killed in the ensuing gunfight, and his brother, 21year-old Saad Radi Ayash al-Anzi was wounded and arrested. A soldier was killed in the operation, according to SPA. IS loyalists have carried out a string of attacks in Saudi Arabia in recent months targeting security forces and the Shiite minority. The extremist group
views the Saudi royal family as illegitimate and has called for its overthrow.On August 6, a suicide bomber attacked a mosque inside a police compound in the southwestern city of Abha, killing 15 people in the deadliest attack on the kingdom’s security forces in years. Eleven of the dead belonged to an elite counterterrorism unit whose tasks include protecting the haj pilgrimage.
Osama bin Laden had prior knowledge of 2008 Mumbai attacks Islamabad Al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden had prior information of the 2008 terror attack at Mumbai, a new book has said.The book ‘Pakistan’s secret war on AlQaeda’ said that bin Laden had prior knowledge of the 2008 Mumbai attack.“He wanted to establish an Al Qaeda state in Pakistan following the breakout of full-scale war between the two
nuclear armed neighbours,”
reported Dawn, citing the book.The revelations were made in the book authored by Azaz
Syed, an investigative journalist and a former correspondent for DawnNews.As many as 166 people were killed in the November 26-28 Mumbai terror attack mounted by 10 gunmen from Pakistan who sneaked into India and let loose a reign of terror.One of them, Ajmal Kasab, was caught alive, tried, sentenced to death and executed later.
Taliban Fighters Capture Kunduz City as Afghan Forces Retreat KABUL Afghanistan After months of besieging the northern Afghan provincial capital of Kunduz, Taliban fighters took over the city on Monday just hours after advancing, officials said, as government security forces fully retreated to the city’s outlying airport. The Taliban’s sudden victory, after what had appeared to be a stalemate through the summer, gave the insurgents a military and political prize the capture of a major Afghan city that had eluded them since 2001. And it presented the government of President Ashraf Ghani, which has been alarmed about insurgent advances in the surrounding province for a year, with a demoralizing setback less than a year after the formal end of the NATO combat mission in Afghanistan. Afghan officials vowed that a counterattack was coming, as commando forces were said to be flowing by air and road to Kunduz. But by nightfall, the city itself belonged to the Taliban. Their white flag was flying over several public areas of Kunduz, residents said. Announcing their victory, the Taliban issued a statement saying that the group
“has no intention” of looting or carrying out extrajudicial killings. But witness accounts and videos posted to social media showed some scenes of chaos. The insurgents had set fire to police buildings, and witnesses reported that jewelry shops were being looted, though by whom was unclear. The Taliban also appeared to have freed hundreds
the government. The Taliban’s largest victory in years came just over a week before the American commander in Afghanistan, Gen. John F. Campbell, is expected to return to Washington to testify before Congress about the course of the war and what America’s continued involvement should be. Some 10,000 American troops are in the country,
of inmates from the city’s prison. One video showed a crowd gathered around the city’s main traffic circle, responding to the chants of a Taliban fighter. “Death to America! Death to the slaves of America!” the fighter shouted into a megaphone, as the crowd responded: “Death to Mir Alam! Death to Nabi Gechi!” Both of those men are local militia commanders fighting on the side of
many of them focused on training or advising the Afghan forces, and the White House has not yet decided whether to keep a force of that number here for another year or begin pulling them from the country in the coming months. For some soldiers of the First Battalion, 87th Infantry, returning after their yearlong deployment to Afghanistan was the beginning of new difficulties.
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I always ask MS Dhoni, how is he so cool says Plessis Sourav Ganguly to propose Chennai Super Kings’ future in the Indian Premier League may be uncertain after a two-year suspension but South Africa’s Twenty20 captain Faf du Plessis feels five seasons under ‘Captain Cool’ Mahendra Singh Dhoni in the IPL transformed him as a cricketer. “I always ask him (Dhoni), how is he so cool. I can say two things about Dhoni. I have been fortunate to have played under him and I have huge amount of respect for him. Secondly I know what he brings to the table. He is a calm captain and knows how to handle pressure situations. You can learn to be your own
man,” Du Plessis said as he spoke about the kind of influence that the Indian limited overs captain has had on him during his time
Whether it is CSK opener Mike Hussey offering tips to the boys on how to play Ravichandran Ashwin’s ‘Carrom ball’ or former pac-
at the Chennai Super Kings. In fact, the South African team has a ‘Mini CSK’ unit with Du Plessis himself in charge of the side.
ers Chris Morris and Albie Morkel chipping in with their inputs on what length to bowl to Suresh Raina at death overs, Du Plessis will certainly rely on the
Platini no longer odds-on favourite to succeed Blatter at FIFA Bookmakers have lengthened the odds that European football boss Michel Platini will succeed Sepp Blatter as head of the sport’s global governing body FIFA, after Swiss prosecutors said they were investigating Blatter over a payment to Platini. Blatter, head of FIFA since 1998, is due to step down in February as U.S. and Swiss authorities investigate alleged corruption at the organisation in a scandal that has rocked the sport and upset its commercial sponsors. Platini, a former French midfielder and head of European soccer body UEFA since 2007, had been odds-on favourite to be elected to succeed Blatter, meaning he was seen as likelier to get the job than not. However, bookmaker William Hill said it had lengthened its odds on Platini getting the job to 11/10 from 1/3. Instead of being three times as likely to become FIFA president as not, Platini was now likelier than not to lose out. “He is no longer odds-on favourite,” said William Hill spokesman Joe Crilly. Prince Ali Bin Al Hussein is the new favourite According to Ladbrokes, another British bookmaker, the new oddson favourite is Prince Ali
Bin Al Hussein, brother of Jordan’s King Abdullah. Ladbrokes was now quoting him at 4/7, suggesting
a 64 percent chance that Prince Ali will win the job, up from just a 25 percent chance last week.
successful ‘CSK Model’ to get past Dhoni and Co. “I can only speak from personal point of view that IPL has only helped change my game tremendously. I have learnt a lot about batting under these conditions. I have been fortunate to have a good leadership, in terms of my understanding of captaincy,” Du Plessis spoke about his time in the IPL playing for the Chennai Super Kings. “It has helped a lot to play under Dhoni and Brendon McCullum. Personally, I learnt hell of a lot from MS. One of the reasons that South Africans are good travellers because of the likes of Chris Morris have also played IPL. We can sit back and look at those performances,” said the T20 captain. Former Australian batsman Hussey has also been a part of the South African support staff during the ICC World Cup in Australia and New Zealand and Du Plessis feels that it will only help youngsters to learn from the dogged left hander. “I have played a lot of cricket with Michael in Chennai as well. He is a good guy to have as he has played a lot of cricket. For young batters, he is the best guy to learn from is ‘Mr Cricket’.
Shashank Manohar’s name? The die has been cast, and if things go as per script, Sourav Ganguly will not only attend the ensuing Special General Meeting (SGM) of the BCCI as the new president of the Cricket Association of Bengal (CAB) but also propose Shashank Manohar’s candidature from East Zone for the cricket Board’s top post. Unlike at the March AGM, where the Pawar group had failed to find sufficient backing from East Zone, Manohar will have several options to choose from -CAB, NCC, Tripura and Jharkhand --when he files his nomination papers for BCCI president’s post. It has been reliably learnt that Ganguly is Manohar’s first choice in this regard. Ganguly and Manohar have come a long way since their spat over the pitch in the run-up to the Nagpur Test against Australia in 2004. Manohar was at the helm of the Vidarbha Cricket Association (VCA) at that time and the local curator had produced a green top for the third Test which angered skipper Ganguly.The Indian captain’s plea to shave off the grass was ig-
nored and he didn’t play the match citing illness. Australia won the Test by 342 runs in four days to take an unbeatable 2-0 lead in the 4-match series that they eventually won 21. All that, however, is water under the bridge. Over the years, Ganguly and
Manohar have not only mended fences but also developed a healthy respect for each other. Ganguly, in fact, played his farewell Test in Nagpur in 2008 against Australia. And now, exactly 11 years after their infamous standoff, an incredible twist of fate will see both Manohar and Ganguly succeed Jagmohan Dalmiya at BCCI and CAB, respectively. Manohar was among the first to congratulate Ganguly after West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee announced on Wednesday that the Bengal stalwart would succeed Dalmiya at the CAB.
Playing in India goes beyond my contract says Roberto Carlos The Brazilians have come here for the development of Indian football and not just to honour their contracts, insisted the legendary Roberto Carlos, who is marquee player of the ISL franchise Delhi Dynamos FC. Carlos, who was here at an ASSSOCHAM event overseeing the agreement signed between BRICS Football cup and Delhi Dynamos to be their sixth official football team partner, said that he did follow the ISL last year and could see the talent in the Indian players. Though he believes that the players still have to develop a lot. “I want the national squad of Indian football team to get the benefit out of it. I
believe within one or two years Indian players will witness an evolution like never before. Our goal will be to make sure that the players play for win. You’ll see the same with Delhi Dynamos this year. “There are 18, and including me, 19 players from Brazil who’ll be playing in the Indian Super league. We are here for a reason, and the reason is not limited to our contract. We are here for development of football in India,” said Carlos. On asking the quadragenarian about how serious is his finger injury and whether he’ll limit his role to coaching alone in the ISL. The otherwise shy player was quick to reply,
and said, “The injury is on my hand and not on feet. I
the ball. President of Delhi Dyna-
am here to play and will give my best both as a player and a coach.” The event also witnessed a formal agreement between BRICS Football cup and Nivia sports, who will be the official supplier of
mos Prashant Agarwal also present on the occasion talking on the partnership with BRICS Football Cup said, “The partnership will not only promote better football interaction among BRICS youths but
will also bring together people from different cultures.” The agreements were signed in the presence of Ambassador of Brazil in India H.E Tovar da Silva Nunes, who sees the BRICS Football Cup as “going to streets and let people know what BRICS is”. Others present in the event were Nikhil Sawhney, Chairman of ASSOCHAM National Council on Sports & Sports Infrastructure and Kushal Das, General Secretary All India Football Federation (AIFF). The BRICS Football Cup is an under 17 tournament that will be played between the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) nations.
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‘Impertinent’ John Lennon’s school detention record goes on sale Records from John Lennon’s school days suggest there may be more than a grain of autobiographical truth in “Getting Better”, the Beatles song that includes the line “I used to
get mad at my school, the teachers that taught me weren’t cool”. Auction house Sotheby’s said on Wednesday it would be offering a lined sheet, torn from a 1950s school notebook, listing the 15year-old Lennon’s detentions for such transgressions as “impertinence” and “not wearing school cap”. Sotheby’s said the sheet,
listing 29 detentions imposed on Lennon between September 1955 and July 1956 at Quarry Bank High School in Liverpool, was rescued from a bonfire of old school records by an eagle-eyed
member of staff in the 1970s. “The frequent entries on this sheet from six different teachers reveal that John Lennon’s rebellious nature and irreverence were well established traits of his character even at the age of 15,” Sotheby’s said in a news release. On one day, Sept. 12, 1955, Lennon received five detentions from two teachers for a
range of offences from “no hwk” (homework) to “talk after two warnings” and “further talk”. That is perhaps no surprise from a man whose provocative quips would later make world headlines, such as the furore caused in 1966 by his remark that the Beatles were now more popular than Jesus Christ. While the school detention sheet does not record what impertinent things Lennon said to his teachers, it leaves no doubt that the future Beatle was a handful in the classroom. Other listed misbehaviour includes “silly conduct”, “groaning at me”, “foolish remarks”, “very late” and “nuisance in class”, mentioned four times. The document will be on public exhibition at Sotheby’s in London from Sept. 24-28 and will be offered for sale on Sept. 29, with a price estimate of 2,000-3,000 pounds ($3,060-4,590), as part of a “rock and pop” sale.
Key suspects taken to Bangkok bombing site for re-enactment Police in Thailand led two suspects to the scene of last month’s Bangkok bomb blast for a reenactment of their alleged crimes on Saturday, a day after police said one of the men was responsible for planting the bomb that killed 20 people. Police escorted the two men to the shrine and a nearby shopping mall in Bangkok. The men, handcuffed and wearing body armour, walked through the reenactment, while bystanders were kept at a distance. National police spokesman Prawut Thawornsiri said on Friday one of the two men was the
same yellow-shirted man seen in security footage placing a backpack at the shrine moments before the blast. Mr. Prawut told reporters at the shrine on Saturday that the first
arrested suspect, who has been referred to both as Bilal Mohammed and Adem Karadag, the name on a Turkish passport he holds, was responsible for the bombing.
Saudi prince arrested on sex crime charge at Los Angeles mansion A Saudi prince has been arrested on charges of trying to force a worker at a Beverly Hills estate to perform oral sex, Los Angeles police said on Thursday. Majed Abdulaziz Al-Saud, 28, was arrested on Wednesday and was
released on $300,000 bond the next day,
according to police and online jail records. The Los Angeles Police Department’s special consul division said the prince does not have diplomatic immunity, according to the Los Angeles Times and KCBS-TV.
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Health Improve your work habits; know what you’re doing wrong! Have you ever felt so tired after work that you just want to jump in bed and go off to sleep? Early morning shifts, long working hours at office can stress you out
and eventually take a toll on your health. Your energy gets drained and fatigue gets the best of you. But are you sure you’re not doing anything else at work that results in your energy becoming lower than the temperature at the North pole? That got you thinking, didn’t it? This doesn’t refer to any physical activity but your habitual activity at work.
Yes, it’s not only the long working hours that drain all your energy, but a number of workplace habits could be accountable for taking a toll on your health.
The worst thing is that we don’t even realize that we are doing them in the first place. So, to make you aware of what you’re probably doing wrong, we list a few work habits that are common among everyone and which you do absent-mindedly. 1. Skipping breakfast: Okay, so this is one thing that you have to ensure before your leave for work or after your reach your office. You may be able to
Know why sugarcane juice is good for health! We all love to have sugarcane juice to quench our thirst in the hot summer season. It is also one of the healthy drinks. Though it is very popular in India during the hot summer season, many didnt know about the benefits of the juice. So, lets take a look at some of the health benefits of the juice, which we must know. Prevents heart disease: Fresh cane juice is beneficial for health. The juice prevents heart diseases and strokes because it decreases the bad cholesterol level and triglycerides in the body. Good for digestion: Sugarcane juice is a good drink for digestion due to
high potassium content in it. It also helps to keep the digestive system in good shape and prevents stomach infections.
Boosts energy: One should include sugarcane juice in their daily diet especially during summers because it is a good source of glucose which helps in rehydrating the body.
easily breeze through the morning with just a cup of tea or juice but research has shown that eating breakfast not only kick starts your metabolism but
also increases your energy. 2. Drinking water: It’s been repeatedly told by experts and we all are
aware of the importance of drinking plenty of water throughout day, but, it’s quite possible that you’re not consuming enough
water. Sipping on water during the day not only reduces headaches but it also hikes your energy. Moreover, drinking a good amount of water water is good for skin and also increases brainpower. 3. Face in hand syndrome: This is probably everyone’s habit while working. Supporting your face in the cup of your palm by leaning your arm on the desk. The comfort factor is understandable, but by doing this, you’re compromising on the hygiene. Touching your face so often may interfere with hygiene and skin. It may spread bacteria causing breakouts or other skin conditions. 4. Hunching over: Playing the posture games, are we? Your
posture during work has a lot to tell you if your energy gets drained easily and if you suffer from confidence issues.
Drink bitter gourd Health benefits of juice mulberry! for good health!
Bitter gourd is a popular veggie and better known for its bitter taste. But have you ever thought of drinking its juice? Well, many would make faces while taking the name but one should have this bitter drink as it is full of essential nutrients and medicinal values. Here are some health
benefits of the bitter juice: Good for digestion: Bitter gourd juice is good for digestion as it increases the production of enzymes. Regular consumption of this bitter juice helps you get rid of constipation. Prevents diabetes: Though bitter gourd has
many health benefits, it is mainly consumed for triggering the blood sugar level. Regular consumption of bitter gourd juice helps to prevent the rise of blood sugar levels. Helps weight loss: For those who wants to shed those extra fat start having bitter gourd juice. The juice helps you reduce weight because of its high fibre, low carbohydrates and calories content in it. Good for skin: Bitter gourd juice is good for skin as it helps to remove the fine lines from the upper surface of the skin. This juice also helps to prevents premature ageing. Even though the juice of bitter gourd is bitter in taste, one should include it in their daily diet to prevent from many diseases.
Dizziness after standing may signal brain diseases! If you often feel dizzy, faint or light-headed after getting up, these symptoms could indicate greater risk of developing brain disease such as Parkinson’s or dementia, and even an increased risk of death, warns a new study. Feeling dizzy after standing due to a sudden drop in blood pressure can be a minor problem due to medication use or dehydration. But when it happens often, it can be a sign of a more serious condition called orthostatic hypotension, which is defined as a drop in blood pressure within three minutes of sitting or
standing. Our study looked at delayed orthostatic hypotension, when the drop
Boston. Our findings suggest that more than half of people with the
in blood pressure happens more than three minutes after standing or sitting up,” said study author Christopher Gibbons from Harvard Medical School in
delayed form of this condition will go on to develop the more serious form of this disease,” Gibbons noted. For the study, researchers
reviewed the medical records of 165 people with an average age of 59 who completed nervous system testing and were followed for 10 years. Of those, 48 were diagnosed with delayed orthostatic hypotension, 42 had orthostatic hypotension and 75 did not have either condition. The study found that over 10 years, 54 percent of participants with delayed orthostatic hypotension progressed to orthostatic hypotension and 31 percent developed a degenerative brain disease such as Parkinson’s or dementia with Lewy bodies.
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Emotional eater? Make your comfort food healthy! When you experience stressful moments, or times that spell turmoil,
when no one understands what you’re going through and you just want to give up on yourself. Whom do you turn to? Why, food of course! Everyone has their kind of comfort food. Food that consoles them, makes them comfortable with the situation they are facing and at the same time, helps them cope with it. Yes. It’s true and it’s old news that people resort to emotional eating in times of distress. Whether you’re happy, sad, angry, upset, frustrated, even indifferent – there is a special food for all occasions, irrespective
of the health factor. For some people, ice cream is their go-to food,
while some find solace in fast food like burgers and pizza’s. Comfort foods are those that people want to revel in as it gives them a homely nostalgic satisfaction. Today, we point out some of the most popular comfort foods, along with telling you about the way they work at the chemical or energy level in your body. You probably may not have bargained to be faced with these facts when indulging in your favourite foods all these years. 1. Potatoes: Potatoes are the staple diet of most countries in
Europe and North America as well as most parts of India. While indulging in comfort foods, people tend to forget the calories they are consuming or about to consume. A 150 gram average serving of potato contains 23 grams of carbohydrates. The healthiest way to have potatoes is to have it baked, boiled or mashed, along with some chutney for taste. 2. Chocolates: Chocolate is a food for celebration across the
presented, not to forget the ads that go amok in extensively promoting its greatness. The fact is that it is one of the most addictive food items containing sugar, cocoa and dairy combined. The fat content of low fat chocolate is between 10 and 15 percent, while that of carbohydrate is 45 and 60 percent. High fat variety has the same carbcontent but fat is up to 25 percent. 3. Bread: You probably feel completely at ease when you sink your teeth into that toasty, or took a bite
world. Happy, sad or angry, one can never say no to chocolate. A lot of this has got to do with the alluring package in which it is
of the chapati. But do consider this. Wheat actually contains an addictive substance called opioid.
Top five home remedies for dry cough Having a cough can be so annoying – whether it’s a dry cough or a wet one. A dry cough is a type of cough that doesn’t produce any sputum or phlegm. It can be caused by allergies and dusty environments. A random tickle at the back of your throat can also result in dry dough. A dry cough is like - you feel as if something’s got stuck in the throat but you can’t get it out even with continuous coughing. On the other hand, a wet cough is one in which you produce phlegm or mucous. It can be due to viral infections, bronchitis, pneumonia, smoking, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), etc. Below are a few home remedies to get rid of that irritating dry cough: Gargle - One of the most common remedies is to gargle with warm salt water. Salt water can help ease the discomfort cause by a cough. It will also help treat sore throat through osmosis. Honey – An excellent alternative remedy to treat cough and can be used by both adults and children
alike. However, children below 2 years of age shouldn’t be given due to the risk of botulism. Honey has analgesic properties that eliminate
the mucus and soothes your throat. Honey also has strong anti-oxidant and anti-microbial properties, which are effective for relieving sore throat. Honey can be taken by mixing it in warm milk or water. Ginger – It is one of the best natural cures for a cough. Ginger has antiinflammatory properties and helps soothe irritation caused by sore throat. Cut fresh ginger into small pieces, crush it if you like. Add it to a cup of water and bring to a boil. Drink it once it’s cooled. Try drinking
this herbal solution for at least thrice a day for relief from non-stop coughing, sore throat and even congestion. Turmeric - Turmeric has a therapeutic effect on coughs. Due to its high curcumin content, turmeric is quite effective in treating viral infections like cough and cold. Curcumin has powerful antiinflammatory effects and is a very strong antioxidant. Add one teaspoon each of fine turmeric powder and black pepper to a cup of boiling water. Boil this for about two to three minutes or until it comes down to half. You can add a little honey to this solution and take it thrice a day for a quick relief from dry cough. Garlic - Garlic can be on eof the best herbal cures for coughs. The active compound allicin in garlic has anti-microbial, antibacterial, and anti-viral properties. Allicin, which is responsible for the pungent odor of garlic, has a number of health benefits. It also boosts the immunity system.
Beware! Stop binging on chocolates
Who doesn’t like chocolates? Everyone loves to satisfy their sweet tooth with a delicious bar of chocolate. Although, everyone loves to indulge in chocobars once in a while, but do you know it can harm you too? Like excess of everything is bad, let’s take a look at some harmful effects of chocolates, which you must know. Here are some side effects of chocolates: Weight gain: Watch out while you eat chocolates because it contains a lot of calories which will lead to weight gain. Milk chocolate has 152 calories per ounce, while dark chocolate has around 170 calories per ounce. The regular-sized chocolate bar is 1.5 ounces, so consuming the whole
bar means taking 228 to 255 calories. Added sugar in the chocolate contains extra calories that are stored as fat in the body. Heart disease: Excessive consumption of chocolates may promote weight gain which will increase the risk of heart disease. The additional sugar in it also contains lots of calories which results in heart ailment. When you eat a bar of chocolate, try walking for at least 30 minutes to burn those extra calories. Diabetes: As chocolate is very sweet and contains added sugar or refined carbohydrates that can cause spikes in blood sugar and make the body resistant to insulin over time which may lead to Type 2 diabetes.
Beware! Plastic chemical can curtail sperms’ speed
Men please take note! High exposure to a common plastic chemical found in wallpapers, sandals, nail polish, perfume, floors and carpets in our daily life can hamper sperms’ speed, leading to reduced chances of having children. According to researchers from Lund University in Sweden, men with higher exposure to the substance DEHP- a socalled phthalate- have lower sperm motility and may, therefore, experience more difficulties conceiving children. Phthalates is an umbrella term for a group of substances based on phthalic acid, some of which are suspected to be
endocrine disruptors. Since phthalate molecules leak out of plastics, we are exposed to it daily and absorb the chemicals through food, drink, skin contact and inhalation. Researchers studied metabolite levels of the phthalate DEHP (diethylhexyl phthalate) in urine as an indicator of exposure, as well as the semen quality of 300 men between the ages of 18 and 20. “The results show that higher the metabolite levels the men had, the lower their sperm motility was”, said Jonatan Axelsson, Researcher at Department of Laboratory Medicine in a university statement. Ph-
thalate levels can be measured by a simple urine sample. For one quarter of men with the lowest levels of exposure, 57 percent of the sperm cells were moving forward, compared to 46 percent for the quarter of the men with the highest levels of exposure. Men with fertility problems often have reduced semen quality, including sperm motility, which may be caused by many different things. The findings indicate that the more exposed one is to DEHP, the smaller the chances are of having children. DEHP is already on the European Union’s list of substances with particularly hazardous properties.
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FRENCH TOAST Ingredients: 2 cups heavy cream 1/4 cup plus 2 Tbsp. granulated sugar 1 tsp. vanilla extract 1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon 8 large egg yolks 1 brioche or challah loaf (12 oz.), cut into 1-inch thick slices 8 tbsp. unsalted butter Confectioners’ sugar, to garnish Instructions: In a large bowl, whisk the cream with the sugar, vanilla, cinnamon, and egg yolks until the custard is smooth. Place 2 slices brioche in the custard, holding them in the custard for 20 seconds a side to ensure they are completely soaked through. In a large nonstick skillet or electric griddle, melt 2 tablespoons butter over medium-high heat. Remove the bread from the custard, add to the pan, and
CHOCOLATE CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES
cook, flipping once, until golden brown, 4 to 5 minutes. Transfer the pain perdu to a serving platter and repeat with the remaining butter, brioche, and custard. Dust the pain perdu with confectioners’ sugar before serving.
Ingredients: 2 cups flour 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder 1 tsp. baking soda 1 tsp. kosher salt 1 cup unsalted butter, softened 1 cup granulated sugar 1/2 cup packed light brown sugar 2 eggs 1 tsp. vanilla extract 2 cups chocolate chips (mixture of semi-sweet, milk, and white) Instructions: Whisk together flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt in a bowl; set aside. In a large bowl, beat butter and sugars on medium speed of a hand mixer until fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add eggs one
cook 5 minutes. Add garlic and cook 1 minute longer; whisk in flour and cook for 30 seconds. While whisking, pour in milk and continue to cook until sauce is thick, about 3 minutes. Stir in tomatoes and cilantro and reduce heat to mediumlow. Slowly add in cheeses, 1/2 cup at a time, until it has completely melted. Stir in sour cream and salt and serve with tortilla chips.
Ingredients: 4 cups semolina 1 tsp. baking powder 1/4 tsp. fine sea salt 2 1/2 cups superfine sugar 1/4 cup coconut oil 8 tbsp. unsalted butter, softened, plus more for greasing 4 eggs 1 (13 1/2-oz.) can coconut milk 1/4 cup cream of coconut 1 1/2 tsp. rosewater 1 cup unsweetened shredded coconut Instructions: Line a 8-by-8–inch square cake pan with parchment paper; grease with butter, then set aside. Whisk flour, baking powder, and salt in a bowl; in a large bowl, beat sugar, coconut oil, and butter on medium speed of a hand mixer until fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add eggs one at a time,
CHILE CON QUESO Ingredients: 2 tbsp. unsalted butter 2 serrano chiles, stemmed and seeded, then diced 1 jalapeño, stemmed and seeded, then diced 1/2 medium yellow onion, diced 2 cloves garlic, finely chopped 2 tbsp. flour 1 cup milk 1 cup canned diced tomatoes, with juice 1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro 3 cups grated cheddar cheese (about 12 oz.), 3 cups Monterey Jack cheese (about 12 ounces) 1/2 cup sour cream Kosher salt Tortilla chips, for serving Instructions: Melt butter in a medium saucepan over medium heat; add chiles and onion and
at a time, beating well after each addition until smooth; beat in vanilla. Add dry ingredients, and beat until just combined; stir in chocolate chips. Roll cookies into 4-ounce balls and place on a parchment paper-lined baking sheet about 4-inches apart. Refrigerate for 4 hours or up to overnight. Heat oven to 350°. Bake cookies, rotating once halfway through, about 15 minutes. Cool slightly before serving.
GOAN COCONUT CAKE
WATERMELON-BASIL COCKTAIL
PINEAPPLE AND PORK TERIYAKI SKEWERS
Ingredients: 1/2 oz. fresh lime juice 1/2 oz. simple syrup 4 (1-inch) cubes yellow watermelon flesh 4 fresh basil leaves 2 oz. tequila 1/2 oz. yellow Chartreuse Instructions: In a cocktail shaker, combine the lime juice and zest with the syrup, watermelon, and 3 basil leaves. Using a muddler, crush the ingredients and then add the tequila, yellow chartreuse, and ice. Cover and shake vigorously for 15 seconds, and then strain into a collins glass filled with ice. Garnish the cocktail with the remaining basil leaf before serving.
Ingredients: 7 tbsp. dark soy sauce 7 tbsp. mirin 7 tbsp. sake 1 tbsp. sugar 1 1/2 lb. pork tenderloin, trimmed and cut into 1 1/2-inch pieces 1/2 pineapple (about 12 oz.), peeled and cut into 1-inch cubes 1/2 small red onion, cut into 1-inch pieces 2 tbsp. olive oil Thinly sliced scallions, to garnish Instructions: In a small saucepan, combine the soy sauce with the mirin, sake, and sugar. Bring to a boil over medium heat and cook until the sugar dissolves, about 3 minutes. Remove from the heat and let the teriyaki sauce cool completely. In
beating after each addition until smooth. Add half the coconut milk and cream of coconut, then half the dry ingredients, and beat until just combined; add in remaining coconut milk and cream of coconut, plus the rosewater, mixing well to combine. Add remaining dry ingredients and mix well; fold in shredded coconut, then pour batter evenly into prepared pan. Cover with plastic wrap, then refrigerate overnight. The next day, heat oven to 350°. Unwrap cake, then bake, turning halfway through, until golden brown, about 90 minutes. Cool cake completely before cutting and serving.
a medium bowl, toss the pork with 1 cup of the teriyaki sauce and then refrigerate for at least 2 hours. Light a grill. Thread pieces of pork with pieces of pineapple and onion onto wooden skewers, and then brush all the skewers with the olive oil. Grill the skewers, turning as needed and basting with remaining teriyaki sauce, until cooked through, 12 to 15 minutes. Transfer the skewers to a serving platter and let rest for 5 to 10 minutes. Sprinkle the skewers with scallions before serving.
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