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THE CONTACT WEEKLY NEWSPAPER ISSUE - 689, 18 - 24 OCT., 2016 PH: (905) 671 - 4761

Congress on a high in ‘Udta’ Punjab

New Delhi LED by Captain Amarinder Singh, the Congress is poised to emerge as the largest party in Punjab followed by Arvind Kejriwal’s Aam Aadmi Party, delivering the worst-ever blow to the ruling Shiromani Akali Dal-BJP alliance if elections were to be held today in the state battling a chronic drug epidemic, an opinion poll by AxisMy-India for the India Today Group showed. But none of the two leading

players is projected to secure a sweeping majority in the 117-seat assembly. The poll forecast 49 to 55 seats for the Congress, 42 to 46 for the Aam Aadmi Party and 17 to 21 for the SAD-BJP combine. Other smaller groups, according to the poll results, may win three to seven seats together. In terms of share, the Congress has been projected to grab 33 per cent, the AAP 30 per cent and the governing alliance

22 per cent of the total votes. Others will likely get 15 per cent of the vote share, the poll showed. Most of the respondents 76 per cent of them acknowledged drugs as a major problem afflicting Punjab.

Around 80 per cent of them blamed the scourge on the Punjab government and politicians. Hit by a spate of farmer suicides because of crippling debts, more than 65 per cent of participants in the opinion poll expressed dissatisfaction

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CONG-SIDHU PACT ON LAST LEG A SENIOR leader of the Awaaz-ePunjab (AeP) front, led by former BJP leader Navjot Singh Sidhu, has told India Today that their outfit and Congress are in the last round of negotiations on a possible merger ahead of Punjab elections. A decision on the merger of the Sidhuled front with the Congress for Punjab polls is likely within a week. This was concluded in a meeting of the front that took place yesterday at Sidhu’s residence, the AeP leader said on the condition of anonymity. According to top sources, Congress has more or less agreed to the conditions of AeP. “Negotiations are now on the last condition. AeP wants a say in deciding all the 117 tickets in the state, which is being discussed now,” he said. with the state’s crop insurance scheme.

Around 55 per cent voiced similar sentiments with the minimum support price and crop payments. On an average, more than 60 per cent of respondents said they were dissatisfied with the government Continued on page 4

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18 - 24 Oct., 2016

US Hindus at Trump event snub him for ‘un-presidential’ anti-Muslim rhetoric New Jersey It was a one-way conversation on Saturday night. Donald Trump spoke at an event hosted for him by the Republican Hindu Coalition, proclaimed his love for Hindus, India and Indians, and left.

But if he had stayed to hear what some in the audience wanted to say to him, he might have a left a chastened man, or perhaps wiser about the people he loved: They strongly disapproved of his antiMuslim rhetoric.

Most members of the audience interviewed by this reporter while waiting for Trump at the rally said they did not agree with his position on Muslims, and strenuously disapproved of it.

This was noteworthy for an audience that the organisers had hoped, and tried, to rally using regulation stereotypes, such as depicting terrorists as men in Middle Eastern-style dress, speaking with a strange accent in a skit that ended with their death and the singing of the American anthem.

“That’s the most un-presidential thing he has done,” Ari Rangnathan, a Hindu and Republican of 40 years, said about Trump’s anti-Muslim remarks, making no attempt to conceal his distaste.

Rangnathan grew agitated as he spoke: “I am only voting for him because I am one of those people who vote Republican down the ticket, anyone and everyone

fielded by the party.” Trump distressed him. Ramesh Desai, a Democrat who was considering voting Republican and had backed Ohio governor John Kasich before he conceded the race to Trump, is back with his old party, and will vote for Hillary Clinton.

Trump’s position on Muslims was one of the reasons why Desai gave up on the Republican Party.”Why paint the entire community black on account of a few?” he said. “There are a lot of good Muslims.”

His wife, Kiran Desai, agreed, though she said she was willing to give Trump a pass on the 2005 tape that featured him bragging about kissing and groping

women. “Not sure what was the state of his mind then, 11 years ago,” she said.

Trump started out by proposing a temporary ban on Muslims entering the US, seeking to tap a deep sense of insecurity that gripped the country in the aftermath of the San Bernardino terrorist attack in December 2015. He watered it down subsequently as even Republicans protested he had gone too far.

He is now sticking to “extreme vetting” to keep out people from areas of the world affected by terrorism.

But Trump has continued to stoke Islamophobia through muddled messaging and actions, such as the

cringe-worthy public spat with Pakistanidescent Khizr and Ghazala Khan, parents of a Muslim soldier of the US Army killed in Iraq.

Some Hindu Americans such as Shailesh Dave, a New Jersey businessman, did say they agreed with Trump’s efforts to focus attention on terrorism emanating from Muslim-majority countries. “You tell me where else they are coming from?” he asked rhetorically, to make his point.

But even Dave had trouble going the distance with Trump. “It’s not fair to go after the whole community.”

A recent poll found 78% of Indian Americans – an estimated 51% to 81% of whom are said to be Hindus (there is no official faith-based census of Americans, numbers come from polls and surveys) disapproved of Trump’s position on Muslims.

As these numbers suggest, some do indeed support him on this issue, but most Indian Americans, and Hindu Americans, reject it.

Kiran Gandhi, a New Jersey businessman excited by Trump’s business policy, was dismissive of the 2005 tape and allegations of sexual assault against him.

He described this as “propaganda” and said he would vote for the Republican nominee. But even he wasn’t with Trump on Muslims: “I disagree with Trump – not all Muslims are bad.”

No hard fall from this bike Prince-owned Scot eatery & gift shop

THE motorcycle of the future is so safe that riders can cruise without a helmet and never fall off, giving all of the thrills with none of the dangers, according to BMW. The German automaker unveiled its Motorrad Vision Next 100, a sleek, self-balancing prototype the company released as part of its 100th anniversary celebrations.

The zero-emissions bike has selfbalancing wheels designed to stand upright even at a complete stop. “Its self-balancing system will help protect the rider at any time,” said Edgar Heinrich, the design director of BMW’s motorcycle division, who added: “Any late reaction from the driver will trigger and the vehicle will

balance out. “In the future, motorcycle riders will be able to enjoy riding without protective gear.” According to BMW, the ‘flexframe’ extends from the front to the rear wheel of the BMW Motorrad Vision Next 100. This means the bike can be steered without the various joints found on today’s motorcycles. Turning the handlebar adjusts the entire frame, changing the direction of the bike. The bike also rights itself while even stationary, remaining upright when the rider has dismounted. The balancing systems will ensure a particularly agile and dynamic riding experience with even lighter handling. “Motorcycling is about escaping from the everyday: the moment you straddle your bike, you are absolutely free. Your bike is The Great Escape,” said Mr Heinrich.

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London PRINCE Charles has officially opened his own restaurant and gift shop in Scotland — after revealing a chance encounter with a butcher gave him the idea.

Charles and Camilla, known as the Duke and Duchess of Rothesay in Scotland, opened the Highgrove restaurant and shop in Ballater, Aberdeenshire, on Tuesday. The venture, named the Rothesay Rooms, is aimed at attracting visitors to the area after it was ravaged by flooding and providing young people with training in the kitchen. The ‘popup’ initiative in Royal Deeside is intended to breathe new life into the derelict former Co-op and is expected to create up to 15 new jobs for local people. The venture is a part of Charles’ Ballater Flood Appeal, which has raised £160,000 since launching in January. More than 300 homes and 60 businesses in the village were devastated during Storm Frank when the River Dee

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overflowed on December 30. The Prince of Wales told the group that the whole idea for the project stemmed from a comment made by local butcher, Barry Florence, following the floods. He said that during a visit to HM Sheridans, Mr Florence had asked him: “Why don’t you put a Highgrove Shop in Ballater?” Prior to Camilla revealing a plaque to mark the visit, Charles said: “That is what really started this whole idea. “It was entirely due to my going into Sheridan’s butchers to see how they were getting on. “There has

been a lot of effort in the last six months or so since the disastrous floods that did so much damage to poor old Ballater. “I hope this particular restaurant and shop will help to give a little boost to Ballater, particularly in the offseason. Guests at Tuesday night’s opening included private donors who contributed to the flood appeal and local business owners and councillors. Plans were revealed for the Rothesay Rooms in July. Workers managed to complete the building project in just five weeks.

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18 - 24 Oct., 2016

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18 - 24 Oct., 2016

Retaking Mosul, a complex operation in many ways!

Turkey’s president Recep Tayyip Erdogan insisted on Monday that Turkey will take part in the operation to recapture Mosul from the so-called Islamic State (IS or ISIS or ISIL or Daesh): “They say Turkey should not take part in the operation. How can Turkey not take part in the operation when it shares a 350-kilometer border with Iraq and receives all the terror threats from there? We have brothers in Mosul, Arabs, Turkmens and Kurds. If you go further north, we have relatives.”

Turkish troops have been operating since 2014 in the Bashiqa military base in northern Iraq near Mosul, along the border with Turkey. Turkey has an estimated 2,000 troops in Iraq, around 500 of them in Bashiqa training about 1,000-2,000 Sunni Iraqi militia fighters in preparation

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for the Mosul operation. On Thursday of last week, Iraq’s foreign ministry in Baghdad summoned the Turkish ambassador. Iraq said that the Turkish forces in Bashiqa were “occupying forces” and “should be immediately withdrawn.” Turkey refused to withdraw and was able to produce a video of a December 2014 video in which Iraq’s prime minister Haider al-Abadi asked for military, intelligence, arms and training support from Turkey.

Turkey views the Mosul operation as a security threat to Turkey In Thursday’s statement, Erdogan reaffirmed that Turkey will do what is necessary in Mosul and will not take directions from Iraq’s prime minister. Turkish officials are saying that the Mosul operation is a threat to the security of Turkey for several reasons. First, there are 1.2 million civilians in Mosul, and if there’s a humanitarian disaster and they start fleeing, many of them will flee to Turkey. Some of the forces fighting in the Mosul operation are Iran-backed Shia militias known as Hashid Shaabi or Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF). The PMF participated in the recapture of Ramadi and Tikrit from ISIS and in each case conducted bloody atrocities among the Sunni Muslim civilians in those towns.

Turkey’s officials state that they’re not going to permit the PMF to do the same thing in Mosul and risk a wider Sunni-Shia sectarian war. Iraq has responded by promising that the PMF forces will take part in the operation but will not be permitted to enter Mosul itself.

Some of the forces fighting in the Mosul operation are Kurdish Peshmerga militia forces. These are the so-called moderate Kurdish forces, as opposed to the separatist Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) which is internationally recognized as a terrorist group and has conducted numerous terrorist attacks within Turkey.

Turkey demands that Kurdish forces not be permitted to participate in the Mosul operation, just as Turkey’s Operation Euphrates Shield prevented Kurdish forces from expanding their territory in Syria. Iraq has responded by promising that the Kurdish Peshmerga forces will

SUNNY BAINS

take part in the operation, but will not be permitted to enter Mosul itself. As suggested by Erdogan’s statement quoted above, Turkey had a very close and influential relationship with Mosul prior to the ISIS takeover. Erdogan wants to make sure that Turkey regains that influence after Mosul is recaptured.

The concerns are real. The Mosul operation will be led by Iraq’s army (the one that dropped their guns and fled for their lives as ISIS fighters approached Mosul in 2014). The Iraqi force of 30,000 soldiers will have other participants besides the Iraqi army - the US-led

how much of the city will be destroyed, how big the humanitarian disaster will be, and whether new terror groups will fill the vacuum when ISIS is gone. But analysts seem unanimous in believing that the Iraqi force of 30,000, backed by US-coalition airstrikes, will succeed in defeating the 3,000 to 4,500 ISIS militants in Mosul.

The loss of Mosul will be a huge symbolic loss for ISIS. It’s the largest city that ISIS has captured - even larger than Raqqa in Syria. Even more important, it’s the city where ISIS leader Abu Omar al-Baghdadi declared his

coalition, Turkey, Sunni tribes, Kurds, Iran, and Shia militias. These participants have a common objective - to recapture Mosul from ISIS. However, once the recapture is complete, these participants will all have different objectives. In particular, just as Turkey wants to retain its influence in Mosul, the other participants will also want to maximize their own influence. So far, none of these conflicting objectives has influenced the first day of the military operation. But it’s still possible that this situation will cause major problems down the road.

ISIS may be given a chance to escape to Syria Among all the analyst opinions, there seems to be little doubt that the recapture of Mosul will succeed. There are a wide variety of opinions on how long it will take, how many civilians will be killed,

“caliphate.” However, some analysts say that Iraq is hoping that ISIS will flee without fighting. Iraqi forces have been surrounding Mosul and blocking exits from the north, east and south, but they’re leaving a corridor open to the west, hoping that ISIS fighters will take advantage of it and flee to ISIS headquarters in Raqqa in Syria.

According to one analyst, ISIS commanders are aware that they’re going to lose the battle, and that many of their forces will be killed, so they may decide to withdraw their best fighters, and leave the newbies behind to fight and be killed. Other analysts aren’t so sure. One of them points out that ISIS fighters fleeing to the west will be easy targets for US airstrikes, so ISIS commanders may feel they have no choice but to stand and fight.

Congress on a high in ‘Udta’ Punjab continued from page 1 over 19 indices, including the drug problem. The poll recorded an antiincumbency level from 61 to 77 per cent in the state, which has been ruled by the SAD-BJP coalition for two successive terms since 2012.

Castes Punjab is home to the highest percentage of Scheduled Caste population amongst all the states in the country. SCs account for around 32 per cent of the state’s total population of 2.7 crore, according to the 2011 census. The poll showed the Congress securing the support of around 35 per cent of SC Sikhs and SC Hindus. Its vote-share among uppercaste Sikhs stood at 30 per cent and among upper-caste Hindus at

38 per cent. Around 35 per cent of OBC Hindus and 29 per cent of OBC Sikhs also threw their weight behind the Congress party, the poll found. Kejriwal’s AAP, the findings showed, had a slight edge among OBC Sikhs, with more than 30 per cent of them backing the Delhi CM’s party. The AAP’s support-base among upper-caste Hindus was found to be standing at 26 per cent followed by 29 per cent among upper-caste Sikhs.

Economic groups Across several income groups, the Congress was found to be the favourite followed by the AAP. Around 35 per cent of respondents in the monthly bracket of ‘10,000- ‘20,000 and above backed the Congress. In the lower income category of up to ‘10,000, as high as 32 per cent

of the participants also favoured Singh’s party. Support for Kejriwal’s AAP in the three economic categories was less than 30 but more than 25 per cent, the poll observed. One-third of Punjab’s farmers and professionals were found to be supporting the Congress. More than 35 per cent of small shopkeepers and labourers also endorsed the same party, according to the poll. The AAP, on the other hand, appeared to be enjoying the support of 37 per cent of students and 34 per cent of the state’s unemployed youth. The incumbent SAD followed the Congress closely in terms of its traditional base among the farming community. The poll showed 30 per cent of Punjab’s farmers still backed the ruling alliance.

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18 - 24 Oct., 2016

HUNK BRICK CARRIER STUNS SOCIAL MEDIA SOMETIMES the most impressive talent comes from the most ordinary people, as one Chinese builder proves. Shi Shenwei, a brick carrier from central China, has stunned the social media with his supertoned body and incredible fitness routine. By filming himself pulling off eye-opening stunts on scaffolding, the 23-year-old man has transformed himself from a construction worker transporting 4,000 bricks a day to an online sensation attracting more than one million screaming fans. Shi, better known as ‘brick carrier Xiao Wei’, is a typical farmto-fame social media star thanks to the quick popularisation of smartphones in rural China. Born in a small village near the city of Daye in Hubei Province, the 5ft 5in man grew up in a family of construction workers,

according to a report by cnhubei.com. Most people from his village, Long Jiaoshan, make a living by constructing fake ancient buildings in big Chinese cities. Internet changed Shi’s life for the first time when he was studying at middle school in his hometown— he became obsessed with online gaming. The muscular man said in an interview with China Youth Daily that he was so addicted to the ‘digital heroin’ that he would play video games non-stop from 8pm to 6am every day in some of his teenage years.Shi said his trademark combination of flips, jumps, and stands were all selftaught, and mostly imitations of videos he had seen online. In China, the major upsurge of internet broadcast apps and the availability of smartphones has led to the discovery of talents like Shi.

Balloon ‘from Pakistan’ Bangladesh executes JMB man for killing judges in 2005 found in Punjab’s Gurdaspur

Dhaka Asadul Islam Arif, a leader of the banned Jamatul Mujahedeen Bangladesh group, has been executed for killing two judges in 2005.

The execution took place on Sunday night in Khulna district

jail in southwestern Bangladesh, police said.

Arif’s body was handed over to his family after the execution, jail superintendent Kamrul Islam said.

Earlier on Sunday, Arif’s family members including his wife, two

daughters and six sisters met him inside the jail where he was held since 2008.

Six top leaders of the JMB, including its founder Shaikh Abdur Rahman were executed in 2007 for the murders of the judges, but Arif continued to be incarcerated.

Arif, who was absconding and was later arrested in 2007, filed a petition with the Supreme Court earlier this year, seeking a review of his conviction.

On August 28, the Supreme Court made a final decision for his execution.

The JMB was founded in 1998

by Shaikh Abdur Rahman, a religious teacher educated in Saudi Arabia.

Gurdaspur A balloon suspected to have come from Pakistan was found in a field in Dera Baba Nanak sector of Punjab on Monday.

The balloon was found in the field of Simarjit Singh in Bhagtana Boharwal along the India-Pak International Border, who informed the police. A police party, jointly led by Dera Baba Nanak DSP Surinder Pal Bansal and SHO Jarnail Singh, visited the spot and took the balloon in its custody.

A slip was found along with the balloon in which the names of

two Pakistani nationals and three mobile numbers were written, police said. Police suspected that the balloon might have been sent by Pakistani peddlers to their Indian counterparts. However, police said they were investigating the matter.

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18 - 24 Oct., 2016

Yuvraj Singh’s mother responds to Bigg Boss contestant’s allegations

New Delhi Few people in the country would have known about 25-year-old Gurgaon-girl Akansha Sharma, till she revealed on TV show, Bigg Boss, on Sunday night that she was married to cricketer Yuvraj Singh’s younger brother, Zorawar.

While speaking about herself on the show, Akansha said that the marriage lasted just four months, after which she decided to walk out of the house. Though she did not divulge too many details, she indirectly accused her motherin-law, Shabnam Singh, of illtreating her and blamed her for the failed marriage.

Talking exclusively to HT City, Shabnam Singh says, “First of all, this matter is sub judice and she (Akansha) is not allowed to speak. It goes under the contempt of court. There’s a special petition I had filed.

Anyone can understand the agenda here and everybody knows it. We are not allowed to speak on this matter.”

Reacting to indirect allegations Akansha made on the show, Shabnam adds, “Somebody has to take the brunt, so it’s fine if it’s me. God bless, is all I can say to her. Let her go on and say what she has to say. Even I have enough to talk and share my side of the story. But I just don’t want to get into any mudslinging. She’s also someone’s daughter and she’s doing what she’s being instructed to. “ Surprised that Akansha has decided to speak up after twoand-a-half years, Shabnam wonders, “She could have done this earlier also but she didn’t.

Just because she has got a platform now, she is saying all this.” “Those who know me well it’s not that I would do something

like that. People must know that we were the ones who first filed the divorce because we had some really strong reasons, so I had to do it. If she had to take any action or say something against any alleged cruelty from my side, she could have done that earlier as well or filed a case back then,” she adds.

Though the divorce is yet to be settled in the court, it has definitely left viewers wondering if Akansha will reveal more secrets about the family. While being introduced on the show, she said she was at the lowest point after this marriage and she wants freedom now. She also stated that she married the family thinking it’s a cricketer’s home, but was disappointed.

She went on to add that she has no complaints against her husband or Yuvraj and she doesn’t want any money from (Yuvraj’s) family.

Meanwhile, Yuvraj is all set to tie the knot with actor Hazel Keech in December this year.

Stating that these reports won’t affect his marriage in any way, Shabnam says, “All these years Yuvraj has taken criticism on himself but taking criticism on his mother is not a very nice thing for a boy. He’s a very sensitive boy. We are used to this and it doesn’t matter. It’s just the past.”

area.

The terrorists ambushed the security personnel when they reached the area, triggering an exchange of fire. Police recovered two kilograms of explosives, three pistols and three Kalashnikov rifles from the dead terrorists.

After the gun battle, the security personnel conducted a search operation late into Sunday night but three accomplices of the dead men managed to escape, officials said. Shahbaz Taseer, who was freed by his abductors in March this year, more than four years after he was kidnapped from Lahore, took to Twitter to respond to media reports that one of his kidnappers had been killed. “Very careless of Pakistani media channels to put my life in danger to break a story that is not true. None of my kidnappers have been killed,” he said. He added, “As a matter of fact I don’t know who they killed but my kidnappers had no link to TTP and no other organisation except the IMU was involved.”

A senior police official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the CTD’s investigation team had identified one of the dead men as Haji Muhammad alias Pathan, who was accused of involvement in the abduction of Taseer.

Washington In a globalised world, US workers are competing with people from India and China for jobs, President Barack Obama said today as he stressed on the need of furthering education past high school to prepare young Americans for such challenges.

“We live in a global economy, and when you graduate, you’re no longer gonna be competing just with somebody here in D C for a great job,” Obama said in his remarks on education at Benjamin Banneker Academic High School in the American capital.

“You’re competing with somebody on the other side of the world, in China or in India, because jobs can go wherever they want because of the internet and because of technology and the best jobs are gonna go to people who are the best educated, whether in India or China or anywhere in the world,” Obama said.

Obama said when he took office almost eight years ago, he knew that the education system was falling short when it came to preparing young people for that

China successfully launches its longest manned space mission Beijing President Xi Jinping on Monday led the country in celebrating the launch of China’s sixth manned space mission Shenzhou-11.

This is China’s longest manned space mission the first time two astronauts from the country will stay in space for 30 days.

“The mission of the orbiting space lab Tiangong-2 and the Shenzhou-11 manned spacecraft marks the first time that Chinese astronauts will stay in orbit for medium term,” Xi said in a message quoted by official Xinhua news agency.

Xi sent the message before he left for China from Goa where he attended the BRICS Summit over the weekend.

“The spacecraft, with male astronauts, Jing Haipeng (50) and Chen Dong (38), on board, was launched at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwest China’s Gobi desert at 7.30 am Beijing Time Monday atop a Long March-2F Y11 carrier rocket,” Xinhua reported.

The report added that the Shenzhou-11 will dock with Tiangong-2, and then the astronauts will enter the space lab. Of the two astronauts, commander Jing Haipeng was a member of the earlier

Shenzhou-7 and Shenzhou-9 missions. For Chen, it is his first space mission. Xi urged staff of the mission to carry on their work to guarantee that China’s designated targets will be realised.

He encouraged them to “constantly break new ground for the manned space programme, so that Chinese people will take bigger steps and march further in space probe, to make new contribution to the building of China into a space power”.

In a separate report, state media said maritime monitoring vessels Yuanwang-5, Yuanwang-6 and Yuanwang-7 have arrived at their designated areas in the Pacific Ocean to track the space journey of Shenzhou-11.

Kidnapper of Pakistan governor’s Americans competing with son among 6 killed in gun battle Indians, Chinese for jobs: Obama

Islamabad Six terrorists, including one who was allegedly involved in kidnapping the son of assassinated governor Salmaan Taseer, were killed during an exchange of fire with security forces, police in Pakistan’s Punjab province said on Monday.

Shahbaz Taseer, the son of the slain Punjab governor, however, rebutted the police claim and said none of his abductors had been killed. The terrorists were killed during a gun battle with personnel of the Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD) at Sheikhupura on Sunday.

According to the media, personnel from intelligence agencies and CTD conducted a raid after getting a tip-off about the presence of terrorists in the

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reality.

“Our public schools had been the envy of the world, but the world caught up and we started getting outpaced when it came to math and science education,” he said.

“African-American, Latino students, in part because of the legacy of discrimination, too often lagged behind our white classmates, something called the achievement gap that by one estimate costs us hundreds of billions of dollars a year,” he added.

“We were behind other developed countries when it came to the number of young people who were getting a higher education. So I said when I first came in office, by 2020, I want us to be number one again. I want us to be number one

across the board. So we got to work, making real changes to improve the chances for all of our young people, from the time they’re born all the way through until they got a career,” he said.

Because of the steps being taken by him, Obama said the good news is, real progress has been made.

“I just want to talk to you about the progress we’ve made because you are the reason we’ve made progress, some outstanding people all across the country,” he added.

“We recently learned that America’s high school graduation rate went up to 83 per cent, which is the highest on record. That’s good news. More African-American and Latino students are graduating than ever before. Right here in DC, in just five years, the graduation the graduation rate in the District of Columbia public schools went from just 53 per cent to 69 per cent,” Obama said.

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Trinity Gay, daughter of Olympic Swimmer dies in Hong Kong harbour race sprinter Tyson Gay fatally shot Lexington The 15-year-old daughter of Olympic sprinter Tyson Gay was fatally shot in the

neck, authorities and the athlete’s agent said and police have arrested a man in connection with the shooting. Trinity Gay died at the University of Kentucky Medical Center, the coroner’s office for Fayette County said in a statement. The athlete’s agent, Mark Wetmore, confirmed in a text message to The Associated Press that Gay’s daughter had died.

Police last evening announced that Dvonta Middlebrooks, 21, was arrested and charged with wanton endangerment and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon. A statement said investigators determined that Middlebrooks was in the parking lot and fired multiple shots at the time of the incident. Another man questioned by police has not been charged.

Lexington police said in a statement that officers went to the parking lot of a restaurant near the University of Kentucky campus in Lexington about 4 a.M. Sunday after witnesses reported an exchange of gunfire between two vehicles.

Officers located one of the

vehicles and stopped two people for questioning, the statement added. Police spokeswoman Brenna

Angel said police don’t believe Trinity Gay was in either of the vehicles involved.Tyson Gay competed in the last three Summer Olympics. He was part of a team that won a silver medal in the 4×100meter relay at the 2012 London Games though that medal was ultimately stripped after Gay tested positive for steroids in 2013. Last summer’s Games in Rio featured another stinging disappointment for Gay, 33, who has battled injuries. He was a member of the American men’s 4×100-meter relay team that finished third in the final before being disqualified for an illegal baton exchange between Mike Rodgers and Justin Gatlin. The team’s appeal was denied, giving Canada the bronze medal. Trinity Gay was a sprinter at Lafayette High in Lexington and finished fourth in the 100 meters and fifth in the 200 meters at the state Class 3A high school track meet in May, records show.She also ran on a 4×200 relay team that finished fourth. Her father, who ran years earlier at Lafayette, still holds the

state record in the 100 set in 2001. Fayette County Public Schools Superintendent Manny Caulk said in a statement that “Our hearts are broken this morning over the loss of Trinity to this tragic and senseless act of violence.

Please join us in keeping the Gay family close in thought and prayer and supporting the students, staff, and families at Lafayette High during this unspeakably difficult time.”

Grief counselors will be at Lafayette High School on Monday for students and staff, Fayette school spokeswoman Lisa Deffendall added in an email.The police statement didn’t identify Trinity Gay by name, saying a juvenile who was struck at the scene was taken by private vehicle to the UK Hospital and later pronounced dead. Police were still searching for the second vehicle, police said, adding they are continuing to investigate. A tweet from Kentucky High School Athletic Association Commissioner Julian Tackett tweeted that he was stunned: “Shocked to hear of death of Trinity Gay. A life of such potential cut so tragically short.

Sympathies to Tyson and entire family.” USA Track and Field also tweeted, “Sending our thoughts & prayers to @TysonLGay & his loved ones as they mourn the tragic & senseless loss of his daughter, Trinity.” And NBA veteran Vince Carter of the Memphis Grizzlies tweeted his sympathy as well: “Many prayers up to @TysonLGay and his family.”

LeT is responsible for deaths of hundreds of innocent lives, says the US Washington Pakistan-based Lashkare-Taiba, which has been designated as a terrorist organisation by the UN, is responsible for the deaths of hundreds of innocent lives, including American citizens, the US has said, even as it refused to comment on recent remarks by the outfit’s leader Hafeez Saeed.“I’m not going to respond to comments that may have been attributed to him (Hafiz Saeed). He’s listed by the UN Security Council 1267 al Qaeda Sanctions Committee for targeted sanctions due to his affiliation with the terrorist group Lashkar-e Taiba (LeT),” State Department

deputy spokesperson Mark Toner said

carrying out the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks, in

on?Thursday.“Both the LeT and Saeed are designated by the US government. The LeT is obviously responsible for the death of hundreds of innocent civilians in terrorist attacks, including a number of American citizens,” Toner said in response to a question.LeT terrorists were involved in

which 166 people were killed and around 300 were injured.Mastermind and LeT operations commander Zaki-ur Rehman Lakhvi is living at an undisclosed location after being released from a Pakistani jail on bail a year ago. Six other suspects are in Adiala Jail, Rawalpindi.

HONG KONG A swimmer drowned Sunday in Hong Kong and another was left in critical condition as they took part in the city’s annual crossharbour swim, which attracts world-class international competitors.

Local media said the man who died was rushed to hospital after being pulled unconscious from the water by a rescue boat.

He was reported to be in his forties.

A woman thought to be in her 60s was separately pulled unconscious from the water and is reported to be in intensive care in hospital.

The 1,500-metre race saw around 3,000 people swim between two piers on opposite sides of Hong Kong’s famous harbour 500 up from the previous year according to reports.

Some local media questioned why only 10 extra lifeguards had been added when the field had expanded so much.

There was a total of 120 lifeguards at the event, broadcaster RTHK reported on its website.

Swimmers are split into racing and recreational groups - both the victims were taking part in the leisure category, which is for slower swimmers, according to reports.

The Hong Kong Amateur Swimming Association, who organised the event, and the title sponsor New

in 2011 after a 30-year break, local media reported.

The decades-long hiatus

World Development issued a statement expressing their “deepest sorrow” over what they called a tragic accident.

“The swimmer was rescued but attempts to resuscitate him failed and he subsequently passed away,” the statement said.

It is the first death in the race since it was resumed

was due to fears over pollution levels in the water.

American swimmer Charles Peterson won the men’s title in just 16 minutes 44 seconds this year.

Rio Olympics 10-kilometre open water gold medallist Sharon van Rouwendaal from the Netherlands took the women’s crown.

Paragliders fill Bali’s skies for new world record ULUWATU: More than 100 multi-coloured paragliders filled the sky over Indonesia’s Bali island Sunday, as they set a new world record for the largest number of gliders flying at the same time.They set off from rugged clifftops in the south of the resort island and flew high into the azure sky, floating over the sea, Hindu temples and red-roofed villages. About 120 paragliders took part, more than the 99 involved in the previous world record, which was also set in Bali in 2009. “The site here is perfect, and the circumstances,” said Frits Brink, from the Federation Aeronautique Internationale (FAI), the governing body for air sports, including paragliding.

Issue - 689 (8)

18 - 24 Oct., 2016

Regulate, don’t ban surrogacy,

UK couples urge India

London Several India-origin couples protested on Saturday against the November 2015 ban in India on surrogacy, complaining they were unable to get their embryos back from clinics in Gujarat and

elsewhere.The Narendra Modi government published a draft bill in August to ban commercial surrogacy for foreign nationals, including holders of Overseas Citizen of India status. The bill has attracted much criticism in India – considered the world’s “surrogacy hub” – and abroad.

Harvey and Sheetal Jassal, who had a daughter through surrogacy at Anand in Gujarat, told Hindustan Times at the Harrow protest: “Our four fertilised embryos are stuck in India, we cannot get them back

due to the ban. Either allow us to use them or have them back so that they can be used elsewhere to complete out family.”

A large number of couples from Britain of various ethnicities have

made the journey to India to have surrogate children over the years.

The industry is said to be worth more than £1.5 billion to the Indian economy, but there is no regulation so far.

The protesters said that their embryos were at various stages in the fertility process.

“Many embryos are still frozen in India and can’t be taken out or used – will they be destroyed?

Many surrogates have been robbed of their chance of a better life and are devastated. Many couples were part way through

US tells Pakistan to delegitimise all terrorist groups in country

Washington The US told Pakistan on Friday to take action to combat and delegitimise all terrorist groups operating on its soil.“We continue to urge Pakistan to take action to combat and delegitimise all terrorist groups operating on its soil,” State Department deputy spokesperson Mark Toner told reporters at his daily news conference.“ Obviously Pakistan has suffered greatly at the hands of terrorists and violent extremists. We want to help Pakistan confront this terrorist threat, but we also want Pakistan also to go after those terrorists who seek and sometimes find safe haven on Pakistan territory,” he said in response to a question.

His remarks come amid

heightened tensions between India and Pakistan following the Uri terror attack in which 19 Indian soldiers were killed and India’s surgical strikes on seven terror launch pads across the LoC on the intervening night of September 28 and 29.Earlier this week, in a clear indication of its support for India’s surgical strikes in PoK, the US said it empathises with the Indian position that it needs to respond militarily to terror threats and dubbed the Uri attack as a “clear case of cross-border terrorism”.The US had also called for greater cooperation and dialogue between India and Pakistan to bring down tensions and said that they should adopt a “conciliatory approach” to resolve their “contentious issues”.

their treatment and had to stop,” said London-based Rekha Patel.

“This is a disastrous situation, and sadly it has come about because the policymakers simply do not understand what surrogacy is and how it works.

Surrogacy is an emotive and misunderstood subject. It needs to be properly debated and understood before a final decision is made.”

The scientific and ethical aspects of surrogacy were not taken into consideration before the ban was imposed, the protesters alleged.

The ban, they said, did not save surrogates from exploitation, but was "robbing" them of hope of a better life.

Harvey Jassal, a London-based civil engineer, said overall it was a difficult journey to have a surrogate child but his experience of having a daughter, Anjali, in 2015 was “completely amazing, lovely”.

However, he regretted that their efforts at completing their family had been frustrated by the ban.

Patel hoped a campaign in India and elsewhere to petition the Modi government to take another look at the ban and the issue will help resolve the situation: “Everyone in the arrangement is happy, so why ban it?”

German cops quiz refugee couple after 40-day-old girl offered on eBay for €5000

Berlin A refugee couple came under the German police scanner after their one-month-old baby was put up for sale on the online auction platform eBay for 5,000 euros ($5,500).Police launched a probe into possible human trafficking after they were tipped off about the advertisement which appeared online for around 30 minutes on Tuesday.The 40-dayold girl has been handed to child protection officers, police from the western city of Duisburg said in a statement.Police raiding the couple’s apartment also took away material potentially serving as evidence.Preliminary

investigations show that the advertisement was put up using the internet connection of the couple, identified by police only as “refugees”.However, police said the internet connection was also in use by other members of the family, adding that the probe was ongoing.Local media reported that several photographs of the black-haired infant were seen in the advertisement, which was titled “40-day-old child named Maria ...for sale”.A spokesman from eBay told national broadcaster ZDF that employees from the company had alerted authorities after noticing the advert on Tuesday.

Indian-origin 'flash crash' trader loses extradition case LONDON A UK court on Friday ordered extradition of an Indian-origin futures trader to the US. He was arrested for his alleged role in the 2010 Wall Street"flash crash" which wiped nearly $1 trillion off the value of US shares in minutes.London-based Navinder Singh Sarao, 37, must now be extradited to the US within 28 days to face charges that he contributed to the May 2010 crash, when the Dow Jones share index in New York briefly fell by more than 1,000 points.

At the High Court, Lord Justice Gross said it was "clear" the court must turn down his application against extradition.

Sarao denies all 22 charges brought against him by US authorities. He faces a maximum sentence of 380 years.American prosecutors allege Sarao made millions of dollars through online trades from his parents' west London home which amounted to market manipulation and caused the 1,000-point fall on the Dow Jones index on May 6, 2010.The 22 charges he faces include fraud and "spoofing" - the practice of buying or selling with the intent to cancel the transaction before execution.He has previously told the court that he was simply "being good at my job".The US Justice Department claims Sarao and his company Nav Sarao Futures Limited made $878,000 of profit from the flash

crash and a total of 26 million pounds illegally over five

6, 2010, temporarily wiping out nearly one trillion dollars in

years.He was arrested by British police on a US warrant in April last year and has been indicted by a US federal grand jury on 22 criminal counts, including wire fraud, commodities fraud, commodity price manipulation and attempted price manipulation.The former bank worker and Brunel University student, who lives and worked out of his parents' home in Hounslow near Heathrow airport, is accused of using an automated trading program to "spoof" markets.During the course of hearings last year, it emerged that he suffers from Asperger's syndrome, a form of autism.The so-called "flash crash" saw the Dow Jones industrial average briefly plunge more than 1,000 points on May

market value.Sarao has already spent four months in prison last year after failing to meet fivemillion-pound bail terms because his assets had been frozen.He was freed in September last year after US authorities agreed he could be released on bail of 50,000 pounds.

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Issue - 689 (9)

18 - 24 Oct., 2016

Indian man convicted over fake airline bomb threat in Geneva

Geneva Swiss authorities have convicted and sentenced to six months in prison an Indian man who staged a false bomb alert involving an Aeroflot passenger plane.The Geneva prosecutor’s office said the Friday ruling for “threats alarming the population” came a day after authorities had evacuated all passengers from

the Moscow-bound plane and police anti-bomb squads took hours to scour it.The office says the man convicted made the threat at an airline counter at Geneva’s Cointrin airport. He was not identified other than as an Indian national born in 1977He was arrested after the incident.

Under questioning, he downplayed the severity of his

threats, the prosecutor’s office said.A spokesman for the prosecutor’s office said the man was not a suspected extremist, but did not elaborate.

Australia charges two teenagers with planning Islamic State-inspired attack

NIA may file chargesheet against JeM chief

New Delhi The National Investigation Agency (NIA) is likely to name Jaish-e-Mohammad chief Maulana Masood Azhar in its chargesheet on the terror attack on the Pathankot airbase.

The chargesheet may also name his brother Abdul Rauf and two handlers, Kashif Jaan and Shahid Latif, who were involved in guiding the four terrorists who targeted the airbase in January.

Sources said India would try to corner Pakistan by all possible means, and the latest move comes soon after China extended its veto on New Delhi’s efforts to get UN to declare a sanction on Azhar.

The investigators are now looking at the legal options for naming the four terrorists in absentia.

Once the chargesheet is filed, officials said, it would add one more push to India’s efforts to corner both Pakistan and the Jaish chief.India has in its possession evidence, including a telephonic conversation between the terrorists and Jaish

handlers and a video of Rauf in which he is seen claiming responsibility for the attack. This video was later removed from the Internet.

Though India provided Pakistani investigators access to Pathankot, Islamabad has so far stonewalled all efforts by India to send its sleuths there for taking the probe forward.

US factor : New Delhi is also using information it received from the United States to confront Pakistan in the Pathankot case.

After the recent surgical strikes by the Indian Army across Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, Azhar asked Pakistan to intensify its efforts in helping terrorists hit India.

In May, the Interpol had issued a fresh red corner notice against Azhar and Rauf in connection with the Pathankot incident.

Azhar already has a notice against him on the attacks on Parliament and the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly, while Rauf has one for the 1999 IC-814 hijacking case.

Sydney Australian police on Thursday charged two 16-year boys with planning an imminent, Islamic State-inspired terror attack.The two teenagers, who were arrested in a western suburb of Sydney on Wednesday, were found to be carrying two knives, though police said the exact target of their alleged plot is unknown.“We did prevent what we would suspect was going to be an attack,” said Catherine Burn, deputy commissioner, New South Wales Police.Australian police said they were aware of the two teenagers before their arrest. Local media reported one of the boys is the son of a man convicted of terror offences.A staunch US ally, Australia has been on heightened alert for attacks by home-grown radicals since 2014, having suffered several “lone wolf” assaults, including a cafe siege in Sydney in which two hostages and the gunman were killed.The country has seen a spate of arrests and charges against radicalised youths and more than 100 people have left Australia for Syria to fight alongside Islamic State.

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Pakistan lifts travel ban on Dawn journalist Cyril Almeida

Islamabad The Pakistan government on Friday lifted a travel ban imposed on journalist Cyril Almeida over a report he wrote about a rift between the civil and military leadership.

The government’s decision followed a meeting between interior minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan and information minister Pervaiz Rashid and representatives of the All Pakistan Newspapers Society and Council of Pakistan Newspaper Editors.The government put Almeida’s name in the Exit Control List (ECL) after he filed a report in the Dawn

newspaper on October 6 about a tense, high-level meeting between civilian and military leaders during which foreign secretary Aizaz Chaudhry reportedly said Pakistan was facing growing international isolation for failing to tackle terrorism.Quoting anonymous sources, the report said civilian officials called for the military not to interfere if law enforcement agencies tried to arrest members of terror groups such as Jaish-eMohammed and Lashkar-eTaiba.Almeida tweeted a photo of an official letter regarding the removal of his name from the ECL.

Germany bomb plot suspect ‘commits suicide’ in prison: Authorities

Berlin A Syrian man arrested on suspicion he had planned a jihadist bomb attack on a Berlin airport was found dead in his cell Wednesday after an apparent suicide, authorities said.Jaber Albakr, 22, who was arrested two days earlier following a tense manhunt after police found explosives in his apartment, was discovered hanged in his jail cell in the eastern city of Leipzig, reported Germany’s Bild daily, national news agency DPA and other media.“Jaber Albakr took his own life in the Leipzig prison hospital,” the regional government in Saxony said in a statement without elaborating.Albakr had narrowly evaded police commandos on Saturday morning but was arrested some 48 hours later, thanks to three compatriots now widely lauded as heroes, who recognised him, tied him up and handed him to police.Germany’s domestic security service had alerted police last Friday that Albakr may be plotting a bomb attack, and police investigators have since said he was thought to have had links with the Islamic State group.Early last Saturday, police closed in on his communist-era flat in the eastern

city of Chemnitz, but he managed to slip away, sparking a weekend-long nationwide manhunt.Police then discovered 1.5 kilos (over three pounds) of TATP, the homemade explosive used by Islamic State jihadists in the Paris and Brussels attacks, in his flat.Investigators said the explosives were “almost ready or even ready for use”, and that he was apparently preparing a “bomb, possibly in the form of a suicide vest”.On the run, Albakr contacted the Syrians, who put him up in their apartment in Leipzig but who then realised he was a wanted terror suspect and turned him in to police.Albakr had offered them money to let him go, they later said.The top-selling Bild daily described the trio as “the Syrian heroes from Leipzig”, while calls have grown to honour and reward them.DPA said Albakr had told the police the three Syrians had been complicit in his attack plans, but it was unclear whether police took that claim seriously.Germany’s domestic intelligence chief HansGeorg Maassen said his service had received information that Albakr “initially wanted to target trains in Germany before finally deciding on one of Berlin’s airports”.

Issue - 689 (10)

Punjabi Sikh parents seek a match for their Canadian born & raised, clean shaven son, 33 yrs. old, 6’-1" tall, handsome, Doctor M.D., completed internal Medicine residency & fellowship (Specialization), now working as a specialist in G.T.A. The girl should be resident Doctor/M.D. or Physician, Born & raised in Canada from Ontario, beautiful atleast 5’-6" tall with family values. Please send your biodata and recent picture to: sm9058@hotmail.com ***682*** Saini Sikh parents invite matrimonial alliance from the GTA for their slim, fair, beautiful, 5’2"/’83 born daughter, born, raised, educated in Canada, Bachelors in Business Management, and employed in the Finance division of a reputable Canadian company.

The boy should be clean shaven, born, raised and educated in Canada & professionally employed.

Please email sub2405@gmail.com or call 416-741-0777 *** 680*** Well settled Press Reporter in Canada, age 50+, 6’ tall, B.Sc., M.A.B.Ed, Post graduate diploma in journalisim, retired as Prinicpal from India, earning good pension, wife expired in 2010.

Looking for a life partner between 45-55, family oriented, must hae Master’s degree, Ph.d or having experience in journalism, prefered Pakistani West Punjabi.

Two daughter’s married and well settled in Canada. Owns property in India. Divorced may also be considred.Please Call : 647-821-7170 ***680*** Hindu Pujabi Khatri parents looking for a suitable match for their daughter, 39 yrs., 5’-5” tall, working as Administrative Manager in a reputed concern in India, widow (Two sons 15 and 12 yrs.) The boy should be Canadian Immigrant/Citizen and family oriented. Parents and two real brothers are very well settled in Milton (Canada) for the last 16 yrs. Caste no bar. PleaseCall : 647-892-6498 Or : 289-878-9285 ***680*** Jat Sikh parents invite a matrimonial alliance for their daughter, 33 yrs. old, 5’-6” tall, Canadian Citizen, Post graduate, employed in one of the reputed banks of Canada, divorced after a brief marriage (no kids). The boy should be Canadian Citizen, Jat Sikh, well educated and professionally employed. Please email recent picture and bio-data to: gill.roop@hotmail.com Or Call : 1-604-615-4316 Or : 1-778-9547274 ***680** Jat Sikh parents invite a matrimonial alliance for their daughter, 29 yrs. old, 5’-6” tall, Diploma in Hair dressing from Australia, beautiful, family oriented from a good family background, living in India and managing Canadian family

18 - 24 Oct., 2016

business in India and Africa, widw (one daughter). The boy should be Canadian/American, Immigrant/Citizen, well educated, settled with family values. Whole family is well settled in Canada.

Respond with family details to:dsahsi@gmail.com Or Call : 1-604-618-5834 ***680*** Well settled Jat Sikh parents seeking professionally qualified Jat Sikh match from U.S.A. or willing to relocate in U.S.A. for their daughter, 36 yrs. old, 5’-6” tall, American Citizen, Graduated, Currently Working as Human Resource Information Systerm “HIRS” Analyst with well known Health Care Organisation in Bay Areas, California. Please send your biodata and recent picture to: wss4279@gmail.com Or Call : 1-408-657-7644 ***680*** Sikh Khatri parents seek a suitable match for their teetotaler, US Citizen son, 28 yrs. old, 5’4’’ tall, master’s degree in engineering from a top US university, working at a private company in New York area. The girl should be family oriented, educated, beautiful, preferably residing in US. Please send your biodata & recent pictures to: chhabra.harjitsingh59@gmail.com or call: 1- 347- 921-1453 *** 680*** Punjabi Brahman Doctor parents seek a suitable match beautiful girl for their son, 28 yrs. old, 6’ tall, doctor in punjab. The girl should be beautiful, preferably from medical line. The boy wants to settle his own business in Ontario. Any upper caste also welcome. Younger brother software engineer is in Ottawa and relatives are well settled in Ontario & Quebec. Please send your bio-data & recent picture to:ishan247@yahoo.co.in or call: or call: 011-91- 91987-2614118 *** 680*** Jat Sikh educated family seek a suitable match for their American citizen daughter, 31 yrs. old (born in 1985), 5'-3" tall, well settled in job. Boy preferred to be in USA or have a work permit.Please send your bio-data & recent picture to: bobby21_52@yahoo.com or call: 1- 209-629-3506 *** 680*** Suitable match for Jassal boy, 26 yrs. old, 5’-10” tall, clean shaven, B.Pharma, Own Business in India. The girl should be Canadian Immigrant or Citizen. Parents Currently in Canada on visitor visa. The boy’s two sisters are well settled in Canada. Caste No Bar. Please Call : 416-540-0080 ***680*** Jat Sikh parents seek a suitable match for their Mangleek son, 25 yrs. old, 5’-10” tall, Canadian Immigrant, Bachelor in IT, well settled. The girl should be Canadian/American, Immigrant/ Citizen, educated with family values atleast 5’-5” tall. First preference goes to Chandigarh,

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Issue - 689 (11)

18 - 24 Oct., 2016

Nawaz Sharif’s days are numbered? Military boys set timer device on elected government The terse statement that came out made it clear that that the powerful ‘corner-plot-walas’ blame the PMO for the leak to Dawn. They said that the article is a breach of national security and termed Cyril Almeida’s information as “false and fabricated.”

However, they did not clarify why a false and fabricated story could endanger national security.

ARMY’S ULTIMATUM SHARIF The army gave the Sharif government five days to find out the source that ‘fed’ the information to Almeida about the crucial October 3 meeting.

Almeida’s report had minute details and it was later backed by the editor of Dawn who said that the facts were checked and rechecked.

During the five days that the Sharif government had to come up with a plausible explanation, the PMO bungled by first putting Almeida on the Exit Control List and then withdrawing it. It fielded Interior Minister Chaudhury Nisar to awkwardly explain its stand.

Meanwhile, almost the entire international public opinion

favoured Almeida and press freedom.

STORY BEHIND THE STORY Whoever planted the information on Dawn wanted it to appear that Nawaz Sharif and his brother Shahbaz Sharif, the chief minister of Punjab province, were knights in shining armour wanting to put terrorists behind bars but it was the army that was preventing it.

As one journalist on a TV show said, “Inki capacity Chotu gang ko pakadne kii hai nahi, yeh kahaan sey Jaish ko pakdenge?

Gullu Butt they couldn’t catch who had one gun, they had to call the army.” The reference is to small time gangsters, who are unafraid of the civilian governments in Pakistan.

The insinuation was that it was preposterous suggestion in the Almeida report that Shahbaz Sharif had the gumption to have said what he did about the army protecting terrorists who Nawaz and Shahbaz wanted to crackdown on.

But TV commentators in Pakistan are now deducing that what actually happened was that

Radhe Maa sparks row, visits Har-ki-Pauri wearing shoes

Haridwar Radhe Maa is again in the news for a wrong reason. The selfstyled god-woman visited Har-kiPauri, a famous ghat on the banks of the Ganga river in Haridwar, wearing sneakers on Saturday night, leaving the local priests furious.Shoes are not allowed at Har-ki-Pauri. But Radhe Maa offered milk to the river as well as prayed at Brahmkund with shoes on.

An organisation of Haridwarbased priests, Yuva Teerth Purohit Mahasabha, has taken strong exception to the incident and said she would not be allowed to visit Har-ki-Pauri in future.“Nobody enters Har-kiPauri with shoes on. Even

President Pranab Mukherjee during his recent visit followed the rituals. Radhe Maa has hurt Hindu sentiments,” said Ujjawal Pundit, president of the mahasabha.Wearing a red dress and red sneakers, Radhe Maa reached Har-ki-Pauri and later swayed to the tunes of devotional songs sung in her praise. “I am not God or saint. I am simply Radhe Maa. People should first respect their parents,” she said.Radhe Maa, who often remains in the news for wrong reasons, was declared Mahamandleshwar, a top post in the hierarchy of sadhus by Juna Akhara during the 2010 Mahakumbh. She was later removed owing to controversy.

Sakshi Malik gets engaged to wrestler boyfriend Satyawart Kadian New Delhi: Rio Olympic medallist Sakshi Malik on Sunday got engaged to wrestler boyfriend Satyawart Kadian at her residence in Rohtak. The 24-year-old wrestler had earlier spoken about Satyawart in the media. “It was a private function. Only the families of the to-be bride and groom attended the event and it went very well,” Satyawart’s father Arjuna Awardee Satyavan Pehelwan said. Satyawart, 22, is two years younger to Sakshi and trains at his father’s akhada in Rohtak. He won his first bronze medal at the 2010 Youth Olympics.

The two were said to have fallen in love during wrestling tournaments.

About Satyawart, Olympic bronze medallist Sakshi had earlier said, “He is very supportive and thinks of my dreams as his own.”

after the success of Zarb-e-Azb, the military offensive against the Taliban in North Waziristan, and similar crackdown in Sindh, the army was keen to move into the Punjab province.

PUNJAB AND IMAGE BUILDING The Sharif brothers have been incharge in the province for seven to eight years. This region is crawling with ‘non-state actors’ and has brought infamy to Pakistan. A Seek and Destroy operation in Punjab would bring laurels to whoever undertakes the mission.

If Pakistan Army Chief General Raheel Sharif was planning to launch this soon, clearly he had no plans to leave the mission in two months for somebody else to handle. The elaborate public relations campaign to boost the Army Chief’s image did not indicate that Sharif would go anytime soon.

Also, Nawaz Sharif is over anxious on choosing his man as the next Chief of Army Staff. That has always been a thing with Nawaz. He messed up in choosing Pervez Musharraf. He

would want an Army Chief, who stays in the barracks and is not seen as the ‘Upholder of National Prestige’.

PANAMA LEAKS CLOUD Nawaz Sharif’s family is under the Panama leaks cloud. The family believes that the continuous leaks originate from GHQ. In Pakistan, everything is a conspiracy. Then there is Imran Khan threatening a massive dharna from October 30. He has said that anybody but Sharif is acceptable to him.

That has led to rumours whether Shahbaz Sharif is a contender as he is the only senior family member whose name doesn’t figure in Panama papers. But not to be outdone, there are those who say Shahbaz’s mother-inlaw figures in the list and that is being touted by some elements

in the media cell close to the PMO. SHARIF VERSUS SHARIF Islamabad is now bracing itself for the inevitable. There was a gossamer coup of 2014 where Raheel Sharif took charge of foreign policy and security matters but left the rest to Nawaz. But now the distance between PMO and GHQ is too vast to be bridged. Raheel Sharif retires on November 30 and speculations were rife whether he would get an extension or fade away into the sunset. But the fact is that a General is a General till the day he superannuates.

Especially so in Pakistan.

Nawaz Sharif probably miscalculated that Raheel was a lame duck. If anything Raheel is now a wounded tiger, a dangerous beast.

General Raheel Sharif to be elevated as Field Marshal?

Islamabad A proposal to elevate Pakistan’s Army chief General Raheel Sharif to the rank of Field Marshal has reached the Islamabad High Court, weeks ahead of his retirement from the powerful post.

A lawyer has sought the high court’s help to elevate Gen Raheel, 60, to the rank of Field Marshal in the greater national interest by taking into consideration his “exemplary services and sacrifices rendered for the nation,” The Express Tribune reported today. In the appeal submitted yesterday, Sardar Adnan Saleem, through his counsel, said that such an elevation is an emergent need in the present circumstances.

Saleem has made the federation through the cabinet division secretary, the prime minister through the secretary of the PM Secretariat and defence ministry secretary respondents in the petition, the report said. The counsel said that the army chief should be promoted to the rank of Field Marshal for rendering services to protect national security and safeguarding the frontiers of Pakistan in accordance with the National Action Plan (NAP) and for successful completion of the anti-terror campaign ‘Zarb-eAzab’ in an effective and efficient manner.

Gen Sharif had earlier promised to bow out at the end of his term in November this year. Sharif, currently serving as the 15th Chief of Army Staff of the Pakistan Army, was appointed by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on

November 29, 2013 for a threeyear term. “I don’t believe in extension and will retire on the due date,” Sharif had said in January this year amidst

the COAS needs national appreciation, award and recognition.

The petition said that the COAS should be elevated to the highest

growing speculation about an extension in his tenure. If Sharif hangs up his boots on November 30, he would be the first army chief to retire on time in two decades. His predecessors Gen Ashfaq Parvez Kayani and Gen Pervez Musharraf got extensions, while Gen Jehangir Karamat was sent home prematurely.

While calling him a “trailblazer”, the petitioner’s lawyers said that Gen Raheel provided visionary leadership to the people as well as the security forces. “The exemplary, outstanding and professional performance during peace and war time with total dedication and devotion by attaining the highest standards and mastery in battlefield,” he said adding that

level of military hierarchy for rendering his services for the nation and humanity at a larger scale in an extraordinary, exemplary and selfless manner.

The petition has urged the court to direct the respondents to elevate Gen Raheel to the rank of field marshal for leading from the front on different fronts.

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UK, India confirm Theresa May’s visit in November London Prime Minister Theresa May will embark on a three-day trip to India on November 6 in her first bilateral visit outside the European Union since assuming office in the wake of the June 23 Brexit vote, it was officially confirmed in London and New Delhi on Sunday.

A statement from the Ministry of External Affairs said the visit was “at the invitation of Prime Minister Narendra Modi”. The two prime ministers will inaugurate the Indo-UK Tech Summit in New Delhi scheduled on November 79.

Trade is on top of the British agenda for the visit as May prepares the country for a future outside the European Union, in which an economically resurgent India is expected to play a significant role. Her delegation will include several business leaders, Downing Street said.

May, who met Modi during the G20 summit in Hangzhou, said: “As we leave the European Union, we have the chance to

forge a new global role for the UK - to look beyond our continent and towards the economic and diplomatic opportunities in the wider world.”

reviewing the progress of deals worth 9 billion pounds signed during Modi’s November, 2015 visit to London.

May added: “The relationships

“I am determined to capitalise on those opportunities, and as we embark on the trade mission to India, we will send the message that the UK will be the most passionate, most consistent, and most convincing advocate for free trade.”

Besides New Delhi, May is likely to visit another city during her trip. Several business deals are expected to be signed, besides

between our two countries are strong, and the Indian diaspora plays a vital role in our national life. In my talks with Prime Minister Modi, I want to build on our relationship for the benefit of both our countries, generating jobs and wealth and maintaining cooperation on defence and security.”

During the visit, the Indian side is likely to raise the issue of new

Thai woman charged with royal slur after mob action

BANGKOK Thai police on Sunday charged a woman with royal defamation after a mob demanded action over a Facebook post allegedly smearing the “heir and regent”, as the country mourns King Bhumibol Adulyadej.

Thailand has one of the world’s harshest lese majeste laws, with jail terms of up to 15 years for each count of defaming or insulting the king, queen, heir or regent.The woman, who has not been named, was accused of posting a derogatory statement on Facebook on Friday, according to Thewes Pleumsud of Bo Pud police in the southeastern island of Koh Samui.“She did not post against the late King - it involved the heir and the regent,” he said, referring to Crown Prince Maha Vajiralongkorn, and the 96-yearold Prem Tinsulanonda who in a surprise move became temporary regent on Friday.

He declined to give further details since doing so could violate the catch-all law.

Prem, a former prime minister and Bhumibol’s Privy Council head, will act as regent until the Crown Prince formally ascends the throne.

An angry mob descended on Bo Pud police station on Sunday demanding the woman be

charged.

The crowd hurled insults at the woman, according to videos widely shared on Facebook.

Police said she was charged and then publicly prostrated herself in apology before a portrait of the king, who died on Thursday aged 88 - prompting a wave of grief across the nation.

Two other similar cases since the king’s death - in which angry crowds urged punishment for alleged royal defamation on social media - have raised fears of mob action.

Domestic and foreign media outlets based in the country routinely self-censor to avoid falling foul of the broadly worded law, while social opprobrium follows those perceived to have overstepped the mark.

Critics say the law - known as ‘112’ after its criminal code - has encouraged witch hunts by the public, with police and courts obliged to investigate all accusations.

The law prevents all but the most cursory public discussion of Thailand’s monarchy, or reporting or debate on the issue.

Cases have surged since royalist generals ousted a civilian government from power in 2014.

The generals have vowed to defend the monarchy from criticism.

immigration curbs on non-EU students and professionals, plans for which were announced at the ruling Conservative party conference in Birmingham last week.

There is growing demand in Britain that the two-year pilot for easier and cheaper visa currently running in China should be extended to India, which may be one of the announcements during the visit.

During her visit, May will also be expected to expound on Pakistan’s export of terrorism to India. After the recent criticism of Pakistan by the US in the wake of the Uri attack, a similar statement from another permanent member of the UN?Security Council like Britain is likely.

International Trade Secretary Liam Fox will join the visit and attend the Joint Economic and Trade Committee meeting.

Unlike in the past, the prime minister’s delegation this time will include representatives of a range of small and medium

enterprises, Downing Street added.

May said: “In the past, the focus of trade delegations has been big businesses, but I want to take a new approach that recognises the full range of British business.

So this time we will be focussing on small and medium sized businesses – and, importantly, the delegation will include representation from every region of the UK.” Her delegation will consist predominantly of SMEs, including Geolang, an innovative cyber security company based in Cardiff, Torftech, a creative energy company based in the South-East, and Telensa, a company focussed on smart city solutions based in Cambridge.

May previously visited Hyderabad as Home secretary in November 2012 to address top officers in the National Police Academy, and mentioned how the lessons from the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks were incorporated into Britain’s security forces.

Russian academics fight back against plagiarism MOSCOW A dissertation council reviewing work on the mediaeval era is not normally national news, but Russia was abuzz this month when historians convened to pass judgement: was the culture minister a fraud?

Vladimir Medinsky’s history dissertation focusing on foreign opinions about mediaeval Russia had long irritated local historians.

They insisted it was a botched job with no academic merit and should never have been approved. This year they finally lodged a request to have his degree revoked.

The scandal over the minister’s dissertation is just the latest example of Russian intellectuals fighting back against what they see as rampant fraud in academia and the devaluing of serious research under President Vladimir Putin’s conservative rule.

“Medinsky’s dissertation is scandalous, a real parody,” said Ivan Babitsky, an activist with Dissernet, a group of researchers exposing dissertation fraud who helped two history professors lodge a formal complaint.

The complaint, which said that Medinsky’s work “cannot in principle be considered historical research” prompted the education minister to send the dissertation for review.

Among the glaring errors in the work, Medinsky - who states up front that the merit of a historical fact should be determined by whether it is in Russian national interests - implies that Catholicism is not a part of Christianity and does not appear to know that Denmark is in

Scandinavia. Prior to his 2011 dissertation, the 46-year-old minister, who also holds a PhD

in political science, did not publish academic articles on other historical subjects, nor has he published anything since, Babitsky said.

Appointed in 2012, Medinsky has supported a singularly nationalist view of Russian history that chimes with the mood being fostered under Putin.

He clashed with the chief of the Russian State Archive last year to defend a World War II story about the Panfilov 28, a legendary regiment defending Moscow, which the archive exposed as a Soviet propagandist myth invented by reporters.That battle ended with the archive chief Pyotr Mironenko stepping down from his post.

Medinsky has called people who question the Panfilov 28 story “scum”.Medinsky has so far come out on top in the dissertation debacle: the review of the work was first delayed, then put on hold by the government’s degree verification committee.Historians in Russia fed up with “politically-motivated attacks” and “incorrect and downright obscurantist publications” established in 2014 the Free History Society to build solidarity among professionals.

Dissernet co-founder Andrei Rostovtsev said researchers from different fields are also coming together to fight dissertation plagiarism, a phenomenon eroding the social sciences on a massive scale.

Fake dissertations, produced by copy-pasting existing texts and merely switching a few introductory pages, are common, with hundreds of people receiving doctoral degrees from corrupt dissertation councils and then taking posts in their respective fields. Areas particularly tarnished by fraudulent dissertations are economics, education, medicine and law - and the problem is widespread among officials who look to bolster their credentials with degrees.“The fake dissertation picture is a mirror of our reality,” Rostovtsev said, referring to broader widespread corruption in society that haunts Russia.A randomly-selected economics dissertation has a five percent chance of being copypasted work, according to Dissernet research.Among lawmakers in the Russian Duma, the likelihood is 41 percent.Fake dissertations are not an exclusively Russian problem, but “what matters is how the system reacts,” Rostovtsev said.

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Islamic State executes 58 ‘rebels who plotted’ handover of Mosul to Iraq forces Baghdad Islamic State has crushed a rebellion plot in Mosul, led by one of the group’s commanders who aimed to switch sides and help deliver the caliphate’s Iraqi capital to government forces, residents and Iraqi security officials said.Islamic State (IS) executed 58 people suspected of taking part in the plot after it was uncovered last week.

Residents, who spoke to Reuters from some of the few locations in the city that have phone service, said the plotters were killed by drowning and their bodies were buried in a mass grave in a wasteland on the outskirts of the city.Among them was a local aide of IS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, who led the plotters, according to matching accounts given by five residents,

by Hisham al-Hashimi, an expert on IS affairs that advises the government in Baghdad and by colonel Ahmed al-Taie, from Mosul’s Nineveh province Operation Command’s military intelligence.Reuters is not publishing the name of the plot

leader to avoid increasing the safety risk for his family, nor the identities of those inside the city who spoke about the plot.The aim of the plotters was to undermine Islamic State’s defence of Mosul in the upcoming fight, expected to be the biggest battle in Iraq since the 2003 US-led invasion.Mosul is the last major stronghold of Islamic State in Iraq. With a prewar population of around 2 million, it is at least five times the size of any other city Islamic State has controlled. Iraqi officials say a massive ground assault could begin this month, backed by US air power, Kurdish security forces and Shia and Sunni irregular units.A successful offensive would effectively destroy the Iraqi half of the caliphate that the group declared when it swept through northern Iraq in 2014. But the United Nations says it could also create the biggest humanitarian crisis in the world, in a worst case scenario uprooting one million people.Islamic State fighters are dug in to defend the city, and

have a history of using civilians as human shields when defending territory.According to Hashimi, the dissidents were arrested after one of them was caught with a message on his phone mentioning a transfer of weapons. He confessed during interrogation that weapons were being hidden in three locations, to be used in a rebellion to support the Iraqi army when it closes in on Mosul.IS raided the three houses used to hide the weapons on October 4, Hashimi said.“Those were Daesh members who turned against the group in Mosul,” said Iraqi Counter-terrorism Service spokesperson Sabah al-Numani in Baghdad, using an Arabic acronym for Islamic State. “This is a clear sign that the terrorist organisation has started to lose support not only from the population, but even from its own members.”A spokesman for the US-led military coalition which conducts air strikes on Islamic State targets in Syria and Iraq was unable to confirm or deny the accounts of the thwarted plot.Signs of cracks inside the “caliphate” appeared this year as

the ultra-hardline Sunni group was forced out of half the territory it overran two years ago in northern and western Iraq.Some people in Mosul have been expressing their refusal of IS’s harsh rules by spray-painting the letter M, for the Arabic word that means resistance, on city walls, or “wanted” on houses of its militants. Such activity is punished by death.Numani said his service has succeeded in the past two months in opening contact channels with “operatives” who began communicating intelligence that helped conduct air strikes on the insurgents’ command centres and locations in Mosul.A list with the names of the 58 executed plotters was given to a hospital to inform their families but their bodies were not returned, the residents said.“Some of the executed relatives sent old

women to ask about the bodies.

Daesh rebuked them and told them no bodies, no graves, those traitors are apostates and it is forbidden to bury them in Muslim cemeteries,” said one resident whose relative was among those executed.“After the failed coup, Daesh withdrew the special identity cards it issued for its local commanders, to prevent them from fleeing Mosul with their families,” Colonel al-Taie said.A Mosul resident said Islamic State had appointed a new official, Muhsin Abdul Kareem Oghlu, a leader of a sniper unit with a reputation as a die-hard, to assist its governor of Mosul, Ahmed Khalaf Agab al-Jabouri, in keeping control.Islamic State militants have placed booby traps across the city of Mosul, dug tunnels and recruited children as spies in anticipation of the offensive.

and military top brass that yesterday issued forth a statement on the violation of

either the right or the ability or the monopoly to declare what Pakistan’s ‘national interest’

‘universally acknowledged principles of reporting on national security issues’, the editorial said.“The report by Mr Almeida has been called ‘fabricated’, and ‘speculative reporting’.

But the government and military top brass in yesterday’s meeting delivered no explanation for why government MNA’s are protesting the visible presence of banned outfits in Pakistan.

Or why possible action against Masood Azhar, or Hafiz Saeed is a danger to ‘national security’. Or why Pakistan faces increasing isolation?

We’re all earsm.“Instead, how dare the government and military top brass lecture the press on how to do their job.

How dare they treat a feted reporter like a criminal. And how dare they imply that they have

is,” it said. “And for Mr Almeida, nothing but solidarity. More power to you, and to your pen.

The press stands with you,” it added.In an editorial, Dawn said it continues to stand-by Almeida’s story and has rejected allegations of “vested interest and false reporting”.The Karachi Press Club has also demanded that the travel ban on Almeida be lifted.

Most foreign students return home, says new UK study Pak newspaper questions govt’s inaction against Masood Azhar, Hafiz Saeed

London The basis of Britain’s crackdown on foreign students in recent years was put into question after a government study described as “secret” reportedly revealed that the number of overstaying students is far lower than previously estimated. Only 1% of international students – about 1,500 – break the terms of their visa by refusing to leave Britain after their course ends, according to the study, The Times reported on Thursday. The Home Office said it did not recognize the 1% figure.As home secretary, Prime Minister Theresa May had launched a crackdown on international students, including closing the two-year post-study work visa that was popular among self-financing students from India and other nonEuropean Union countries.The Times reported the research threatened to undermine May’s case for a crackdown on foreign student recruitment and called into question past estimates that put the figure of overstaying students far higher.“Official statistics have been used to suggest that tens of thousands of foreign students ‘vanish’ each

year after finishing their degrees, but the latest study would suggest that the true figure is 1,500,” it said.“The Home Office, which commissioned the analysis, disputed that it was conclusive and said that the work was ‘not completed’. It has refused to share the study with other Whitehall ministries and rebuffed requests from The Times to release it, including under the Freedom of Information Act,” the report added.The newspaper quoted an unnamed Whitehall source as saying the study showed that the proportion of non-EU students at British universities, who remained beyond their permitted date, was very small. Some switch to other visa categories after completing courses.The report said home secretary Amber Rudd tried to have international students removed from net migration figures, enabling them to avoid the crackdown on migrants, but was overruled by May.Rudd announced new plans to curb student numbers from non-EU countries last week at the Conservative Party conference in Birmingham, sparking a chorus of concern among stakeholders

Islamabad A leading Pakistani daily on Wednesday asked the civilian and military establishment why action against JeM chief Masood Azhar and JuD’s Hafiz Saeed was “danger” to the country’s national security.The strong editorial in The Nation, considered close to the government and military establishment, came as a prominent journalist, Cyril Almeida, of Dawn was banned from leaving Pakistan because of his front-page report on a rift between the military and the civilian government over the military’s covert support to militant groups like the Haqqani network, Taliban and the LeT.The editorial titled ‘How to Lose Friends And Alienate People’ said the government and the military instead of taking actions against Azhar and Saeed was lecturing the press.Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) leader and Pathankot terror attack mastermind Azhar and Jamaat-ud-Dawah (JuD) chief Saeed, the mastermind of the 2008 Mumbai attacks, roam freely in Pakistan and are believed to have the protection of the military.The daily said in its editorial that it was a “disturbing day when civilian and military top leadership meet to lecture the media on how to do their job.” “Apparently a barrage of online abuse, and three official denials were not enough to assuage tempers riled after Mr Almeida’s exclusive story in Dawn, detailing an unusual exchange between the very same civilian

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18 - 24 Oct., 2016

Arnab Goswami to be provided Y-category security, Pak school chain bans Punjabi Pakistan-based terror group issued threats language, terms it ‘foul’ New Delhi Primetime news anchor Arnab Goswami has reportedly been issued threats by Pakistan-based terror groups. In view of the threat being posed to him,

Goswami has seemingly came under terror radar due the nationalistic stance he takes during his primetime shows.

Goswami has extensively lambasted Pakistan for

Centre has decided to provide Arnab Goswami with Y-category security.

Goswami would now be guarded by 20 armed guards round the clock.

The Times Now editor-inchief is not the first journalist to be accorded with security status.

Earlier, Zee News anchor Sudhir Choudhary was also provided with Xcategory security (4 guards). Apart from him, Samachar Plus reporter Umesh Kumar and Punjab Kesari’s Ashwini Kumar Chopra were given Ycategory status.

Goswami’s security is likely to be managed by Mumbai Police, since he largely remains in the city.

offering covert support to the terror groups. Media critics claims that Times Now has been the most active in its reportage in the aftermath of Uri attacks, and has took an absolute pro-establishment editorial stand. “Goswami is being given security on the basis of a threat-perception analysis by the IB. We will go by the IB recommendation. He faces threats from Pakistanbased terrorist groups due to his comments against them on Times Now,” a Home Ministry official was quoted as saying by Hindustan Times. In the list prepared by Centre, a total of 450 people are included in the Y-category

security. While 125 of them are provided the security cover due to the constitutional post held by them, the remaining 275 are being protected due to the threats they have received. The security provided to Arnab Goswami would allow his detractors to further label the pro-Narendra Modi tag against him. Media analysts claim that Arnab has lately been supportive of BJP on various issues.

Meanwhile, he has also irked up a section of Muslim community due to his relentless campaign against Salafi preacher Dr Zakir Naik and constant debates on Triple Talaq, Uniform Civil Code. His stand on Kashmir issue has also agitated a section of left-leaning commentators, who have accused Goswami of betraying the basic ethics of journalism. Goswami had also been attacked by Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal. His party members have accused Arnab of being biased against AAP, blowing matters against it out of proportion. Kejriwal was among the first of the politicians to question the manner in which Goswami conducted the interview with Narendra Modi.

Inspired by TV serial, woman, boyfriend kidnap 4-year-old cousin for ransom

Jodhpur Inspired by a TV crime serial, a woman along with her boyfriend on Sunday kidnapped her 4-year-old cousin brother for ransom in a bid to lead lavish life, said police after rescuing the boy within hours.

Purnisha, 22, her boyfriend Mayank Mehta and his friend Mayank Sindal have been arrested for kidnapping Yug Bhandari for a ransom of Rs 50 lakh in Mansarovar Colony here, said DCP (West) Sameer Kumar Singh.

Purnisha lured Yug out of

the house promising him a motorcycle ride around 3.30 pm and along with Mehta and Sindal, who were waiting for her, kidnapped him, he said.

“The case was solved within four hours of the victim’s father, Ritesh, informing the police of the ransom call. Teams from four police stations were pressed into the case. The case was solved on the basis of call records and interrogation of the family,” he said, adding the boy was rescued from Mahamandir locality later

in the evening.The couple wanted to lead a lavish life with the ransom money and accepted that their plan was inspired by a case shown in TV crime serial, he added.“The plan was hatched after Purnisha came to know that her maternal uncle Ritesh, a businessman, had received a huge cash payment,” he said.The SP said, “Mehta and Sindal, who are engineering students, said that one Bharat was also party to the plan.”“We will soon arrest Bharat,” he added.

Lahore A group of private schools in Pakistan owned by former foreign minister Khurshid Mahmood Kasuri has banned Punjabi within and outside the campus after terming it a “foul language”, drawing flak from millions of people.

The Beaconhouse School System (BSS) has recently issued a notification to parents, declaring Punjabi a ‘foul language’ for the children as well as parents.

“Foul language is not allowed within and outside the school premises, in the morning, during the school hours, and after home time,” the fifth point of the notification reads.

The notice explains the definition of ‘foul language’ as, “Foul language includes taunts, abuses, Punjabi and the hate speech”.

A number of parents, prominent Punjabi language activists and literary organisations have demanded the school administration to immediately withdraw the notification and tender apology to those having Punjabi their mother language.

Punjabi scholar and columnist Mushtaq Soofi said he had seen the

1973 Constitution allows the federating units to impart formal primary

notification on social media and found it “disgracing to millions of Punjabis who are living in Pakistan and Indian Punjab and also the Punjabi diaspora living across the globe”.

Professor Dr Saeed Bhutta of the Punjab University’s Oriental College said, “The Punjabi language has an age-old history starting off from Baba Farid to Khwaja Farid.

The school administration’s step is a disgrace and ignorance of a certain class towards Punjabi heritage”.

“Speaking the mother language is a guaranteed constitutional right. The

learning in mother tongue,” Bhutta said.

Some parents said the government should take notice of ‘demeaning a language which has been used by the saints over the last many centuries’.

“This means that our children should not speak to their grandparents only because their language is Punjabi,” says Haleema whose daughter is studying in Grade-II in Beacon House School in Lahore.

Owned by Kasuri, BSS is a group of private academic institutions located in 30 cities in Pakistan.

Issue 689 (15)

18 - 24 Oct., 2016

FOR SERIES FANS

TOM Hanks is back doing what he has lucratively done best in his three-and-half decade career as a Hollywood star. He is back playing Dan Brown’s Robert Langdon.

Although it clearly looks like the years have caught on since The Da Vinci Code, the act is still a sureshot winner for the star, as well as addicted fans. Strictly from the Indian view, there is Irrfan too. Although a Langdon adventure by Brown is meant to be a Tom Hanks show, apna Irrfan gets a significant slice of all that goes on here. His act may not match the quality of Life Of Pi or Slumdog Millionaire, but his Inferno outing should profit Irrfan the same way as last year’s Jurassic World did. After this, he can proudly claim to be Bollywood’s most famous export in Hollywood (for now). Inferno sets up a familiar Dan Brown adventure, riddled in symbols, clues, mystery and action-packed drama. The mood, as always, is ‘on the run’ in Robert Langdon sagas. Like the earlier Dan Brown books translated onto the screen, Hanks as Langdon gets a pretty partner in this one, too. David Koepp’s

INTERVIEW Aarti Chhabria

by Vinayak Chakravorty

Vinayak Chakravorty By

Inferno Cast: Tom Hanks, Felicity Jones, Irrfan Khan, Omar Sy, Ben Foster, Sidse Babett Knudsen, Ana Ularu Direction: Ron Howard

screenplay based on Brown’s 2013 novel of the same name hits the ground running. Hanks as Langdon wakes up in a hospital in Italy with no clue as to how he reached there. Amid bouts of amnesia, the last recall that Langdon manages is being in his hometown in the US. The situation goes out of control very

soon as Langdon realises someone could be trying to kill him in the hospital. He teams up with Sienna Brooks (Felicity Jones), a doctor who gets embroiled in his chase and who, he hopes, will help recover his memory.

The action in Inferno begins within the first five minutes, but the build-up that follows is patchy. It all is meant to lead to a sinister climax involving a genius villain who wants to unleash a deadly virus all over the world, to realise what eventually appears a sick motive. In his third film as director of the Robert Langdon adventures after The Da Vinci Code and Angels & Demons, Ron Howard knows all the tricks that work with the addicts. He does enough to score with hardcore Langdon fans and not much else.

Howard tries serving a familiar a mix of quaint history and grim reality. Inferno, however, is closer to The Da Vinci Code than Angels & Demons, in the sense that it struggles to find a balance between fact, fiction, suspense and drama. The expected inferno of thrills is missing.

‘I always need to be up in my game’ SHE wants her 30 minutes of fame, literally.

Aarti Chhabria has just made a half-hour short film, and is excited about the effort.

More than a directorial debut, the film, she says, marks “a new beginning in life”.

“Acting is my first love. It comes to me naturally. Filmmaking is an acquired passion. I moved into it,” says Aarti, who is perhaps best recalled as the ditsy, mafia don-loving, dentist’s assistant in the 2002 Awara Paagal Deewana, where she was paired opposite Akshay Kumar. Aarti’s selfproduced short film is titled Mumbai Varanasi Express. Its 30-minute runtime narrates the story of Krishnakant

Jhunjhunwala, (played by Darshan Jariwala), a rich man who achieves all at the cost of his health. He then decides to walk away into oblivion, to Varanasi, to find the deeper meaning of life. “I was always sure I wanted Darshanji for the role. I like him as an actor,” says Aarti. About not casting herself, she clarifies: “I am not in my film because the script did not need me. It needed a Gujarati tycoon and a rickshawaala.” The obvious question troubling her now is finding release. “The producer has to benefit. Yet, there are not enough avenues to take these efforts to the audience. I have a theory. We could

club short films together to give them a full feature runtime and that could be one way of releasing them. Short film festivals are also a great idea,” she says. Talk veers to acting, her first love. “This is a great time to be a heroine in Hindi films.

I would love to do a Queen or a Neerja! I was hardly 18 when I started out. I would love to return but honestly newer actresses will always get the roles.

Seeing all these new faces is great, though.” Meanwhile, she will continue writing new script and gearing up for a feature debut as director. “I always need to be up in my game,” she concludes.

Issue 689 (16)

18 - 24 Oct., 2016

Alia Bhatt dons DJ’s hat for cameo in Karan Johar’s ADHM Karan Johar is known for delivering excellently star studded productions in Bollywood and the audience will very soon witness another similar treat from the much loved director’s upcoming film Ae Dil Hai Mushkil.

KJo’s favourite girl Alia Bhatt also has a cameo in the movie. The Udta Punjab star plays a DJ in a song.

In an interview with Rajeev Masand, Karan confirmed this saying, “She [Alia] has done a cameo in the film.

She is playing a DJ in the very song that we are in (The Breakup Song),” reports Pinkvilla.

“We had a part for the DJ, so there was a link. It was always a part in the script. If somebody has gotta do it, then why not someone whom I love,” he revealed.

ADHM, which stars Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, Ranbir Kapoor and Anushka Sharma in the lead, also boasts of cameos by Shah Rukh Khan, Fawad Khan, Imran Abbas and Lisa Haydon.

On a related note, the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) and the Cinema Owners and Exhibitors Association of India’s (COEAI) had earlier demanded KJo to stall the release of the movie owing to the ban on Pakistani artistes in the wake of the Uri terror attack.

However, recent reports confirm that Ae Dil Hai Mushkil has been cleared by the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) and will stick to its original release date.

Audience is now more open to Befikre: Ranveer Singh is extremely regional cinema: Radhika Apte comfortable with nudity

Actor Radhika Apte, who has to her credit both Bollywood and Marathi films, says that there’s no difference in audiences, and that they’ve become receptive to all kinds of cinema now. “Hindi and Marathi artists are bridging the language gap. A lot of people have started watching regional cinema, and even Bollywood

filmmakers are remaking these films. There is more awareness among viewers about films of other languages and they are open to watching films, which aren’t typical Bollywood,” says Apte, who has done Marathi films such as Samaantar (2009), Tukaram (2012) and Lai Bhaari (2014).

With her latest release,

I have not had a release for a year and a half. I sat at home: Arjun Rampal

Arjun Rampal, who is back after a brief hiatus, believes in being selective about the films he takes up. He will next be seen in Rock On 2, Kahaani 2, and Aankhen 2. Here, the actor talks about how he handles success and failure.

Are you selective about the movies you sign?

I am extremely selective.

I have not had a release for a year and a half. I sat at home. But that was the choice I made. The subject should intrigue me. Even if I don’t sign every film that comes my way, doing so gives me the time to choose the right subject.

How long does it take for you to get over a film’s failure?

It depends on how badly you have been hit. It’s like you are in a boxing ring, and someone punches you. But it also depends on the punch; if it is like the Mike Tyson (boxer) punch, then it takes that much time to recover. And if it is a knock-out punch, then you fall. But what matters is how fast you get up, and get back.

Parched, the actor was seen at various international film festivals, but funnily enough, it’s not the festivals themselves that hold her interest. “I don’t take so much interest in film festivals, but I am fascinated by them because you get to meet so many people and there are such wonderful films being made. It always feels nice when people watch your work and give their feedback,” she adds.

In a recent interview with a daily, Ranveer Singh confessed that he has no problem with nudity and is extremely comfortable in his skin. The 31-year-old was asked if he found it awkward shooting a particular ‘Befikre’ scene in briefs to which he confessed, “I have no problem with nudity. I am not an exhibitionist, I am extremely comfortable in my skin.”

The Bajirao Mastani star impressed the audience with a stunning performance in the recently released trailer of Befikre opposite Vaani Kapoor. The trailer shows Ranveer kissing Vaani and flaunting his body while walking in just a red brief and a cowboy hat. “People say ‘actors nange hote hai’ but that doesn’t mean they are literally naked. It means when an actor is performing it is completely convincing, but they are acting, they don’t really feel it,” he said.

Ranveer also said that he

had a point to make wearing that brief in Befikre. “My wearing the speedo is just the physical aspect of it and it means very little as opposed to what I am actually putting out there. I am naked to another level and it has more to do with my soul. If you wear your soul, you can’t be more naked than that,” he reasoned.

I’m the only top actress who has done B-grade films: Kangana

Kangana Ranaut says for her, success doesn’t come with any kind of pressure as she feels that failure doesn’t reflect anybody’s credibility as an artiste.

She also said that she doesn’t pick a project thinking that it will elevate her position in the industry.

“I haven’t set any standards that I have to do this work or this is where I have to go. I don’t put that kind of pressure on myself.

What I tell myself is that I will continue (on the path). I think I am the only top actress probably who has done Bgrade films,” said Kangana.

She added, “I don’t see that

a certain project can ascend to a certain position. You can be giving flops and still be a very valuable artiste and that is the case with me.”

Coming from a village near Manali, Kangana entered tinsel town with no starry connection, and went ahead to make a place for herself in Bollywood.

She proved her talent and versatility with films like Gangster, Woh Lamhe, Life In A... Metro, Tanu Weds Manu and Fashion. There were setbacks as well with films like Game, Rascals and Katti Batti. But she came back in the game with the release of Queen which she followed up with a double blast via Tanu Weds Manu Returns. The actor is busy shooting for Hansal Mehta’s Simran.

According to reports, Kangana will be seen as a 30-year-old divorcee in the movie, for which she is currently shooting in Atlanta, US.

Issue 689 (17)

18 - 24 Oct., 2016

In a first since becoming a US citizen, Arnold won’t vote Republican Trump

Actor Arnold Schwarzenegger says he will not vote for Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump in the presidential election.

Schwarzenegger has joined the growing list of prominent Republicans who are denouncing Trump after he was caught making lewd remarks about women in a 2005 video that got leaked on Friday.

Schwarzenegger did not specifically use Trump’s name in his statement, released on Twitter on Saturday, but explicitly said he would not vote for the Republican candidate for President, reports dailymail.co.uk.

The former Governor

A guy got a tattoo of my face on his lower back. That was weird: Kevin Hart Actor Kevin Hart didn’t know how to react when a fan revealed he had had his face tattooed on his back.

The 37-year-old star was unsure of how to react when his fan revealed the permanent tribute he’d had etched on his body, but felt he ought to thank him for his devotion, reported Us magazine. “A guy got a tattoo of my face on his

lower back. That was weird. I was like, ‘I don’t know what you did that for, sir. I don’t know why it’s there. I don’t really know what I’m supposed to do after seeing that. I guess thank you.’ Kevin was left embarrassed at one of his first big stand-up comedy shows when he split his trousers - and didn’t realise until an audience member passed him a note. “When I first started performing in theaters, I was performing in Washington, DC. I had on some cool nylon sweatpants. I was telling a joke, jumped in the air, landed and ripped my pants in the front.

of California said it would be the first time since he became an American citizen in 1983 that he would not be casting a ballot for the GOP. The statement read: “For the first time since I became a citizen in 1983, I will not vote for the Republican candidate for President. Like many Americans, I’ve been conflicted by this election.

I still haven’t made up my mind about how exactly I will vote next month. “I have been a proud Republican since I moved to America in 1968 and I heard Nixon’s words about getting the government off our backs, free trade, and defending our liberty with a strong military. That day I joined the party of Abraham Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt, and Ronald Reagan.”

Schwarzenegger said he was proud to call himself a Republican, but added that he was more proud to hold the label of ‘American’.

Peter-Gwen forever!

Emma Stone says she still loves Andrew Garfield La La Land star Emma Stone says she still has love for ex-boyfriend and actor Andrew Garfield, whom she dated for four years before splitting in 2015. When asked to describe Garfield, Stone told Vogue in an interview, “(He is) someone I still love very much.”

The pair began dating while working together on The Amazing Spider-Man and have remained friends after the break-up.

Back in August, the two exes were spotted

reuniting in London. They looked happy as they chatted and walked next to each other around the city’s Covent Garden.

Stone talked about him and various other things in a new interview with Vogue.

Gracing the magazine’s cover for its November issue, the 27-year-old rocks short hair and shows of her freckles as she wears minimal makeup while baring her midriff in a long-sleeved, blueand-white crop-top.

Shia LaBeouf live streamed his Elvis-themed Vegas wedding

Transformers actor Shia LaBeouf, known for quirky stunts in the name of art, on Monday live streamed his wedding to actress Mia Goth in a ceremony officiated by an Elvis Presley impersonator.

The unconventional wedding was live streamed by celebrity website TMZ, which reported that it was performed at the Viva Las Vegas Wedding Chapel, which hosts Elvis-themed weddings.

Representatives for both actors did not respond to Reuters for comment.

British actor Goth, 23, who met LaBeouf, 30, while

they filmed Lars Von Trier’s 2013 film Nymphomaniac, wore a simple white dress with a veil. LaBeouf opted for a suit paired with sneakers.

An Elvis impersonator wearing a black rhinestone-studded jumpsuit and sunglasses

officiated the short ceremony, quipping “This is a great trip to Vegas” as the pair exchanged rings and vows. “Mia, Shia, do you both agree to be each other’s hound dogs? Not to wear your blue suede shoes in the rain, to always be each other’s

teddy bear and to give each other a hunk, a hunk of burning love?,” the impersonator asked, using lyrics from some of Presley’s most famous songs. The ceremony ended with the couple’s first kiss as newlyweds while Bruce Springsteen’s Hungry Heart played in the background. LaBeouf, who rose to fame as a fasttalking child star in the Disney Channel comedy Even Stevens and became a franchise leading man with the Transformers films, has transitioned into more artistic fare, such as this year’s indie film American Honey.

Everyone thinks Jackie is going to get Robert Downey Jr relationship was like Natalie Portman her second Oscar parenting a child: Sarah Jessica Parker

Natalie Portman is drumming up Oscar buzz in her latest role as the iconic Jacqueline Kennedy in the new movie Jackie which was shown

as part of the New York Film Festival this week.

Portman, 35, already a best actress Oscar winner for the 2010 ballet film Black Swan, plays

Kennedy in the days immediately after the 1963 assassination of her husband, U.S. President John F. Kennedy.

Battling conflicting emotions of grief, anger and loss of faith, Portman’s performance is seen by awards watchers as a leading contender in the Hollywood awards season that ends with the annual Oscar ceremony in February. And judging by the response the trailer is getting, it might just happen.

Actress Sarah Jessica Parker has opened up about her seven year relationship with actor Robert Downey Jr, saying dating the Iron Man star was similar to parenting a child. The couple dated in the late eighties, when Downey Jr was dealing with drug and alcohol addiction and Parker says the experience of caring for her boyfriend at the time helped her prepare for parenting, reported People magazine.

“It taught me how I love. And what’s the difference between loving and taking care of people and what’s necessary and what grown-ups should and shouldn’t do for one other,” Parker, 51, said.

“And maybe it taught me a little bit

about being a parent, too, because the things that I ended up caring about and the way I cared for Downey, were things that might be more suitable for a parent.

Parker and Downey Jr, 51, began dating in 1984 after meeting on the set of Firstborn. They split in 1991 due to Downey’s addiction problems.

Issue 689 (18)

18 - 24 Oct., 2016

Intruder shot at Miranda Kerr’s home

MIRANDA Kerr’s security guard has been stabbed in the eye trying to fight off an intruder at her Malibu residence. The man was attacked by an intruder trying to climb a fence to gain access to the property, where the model lives with her fiveyear-old son Flynn, at 11.10 am on Friday. Her security guard shot the intruder several times including once in the head.

Both are receiving treatment in a Los Angeles hospital. The security guard was airlifted from the scene by the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department. A vehicle that appeared to have bullet holes through the windscreen was later towed away from the scene. The security guard was stabbed below the eye but was seen walking on to the LA County

Sheriff’s Department chopper unaided after the attack. He shot the intruder four times, LA County Sheriff’s Office told DailyMail.com on Friday afternoon. “Deputies responded to a shots fired call in Malibu.

They discovered a security guard had been involved in a physical altercation with an intruder. “The guard was stabbed in the facial injury and he had minor injuries. He produced a handgun and shot the intruder three to four times in the face and torso. “Neither the guard nor the intruder has life threatening injuries,” said a police spokesman. Police could not confirm whether there was anyone else in the property at the time. The intruder, the spokesman added, will face charges. Australian morning show Sunrise reports that the man may have been homeless. The Special Enforcement Bureau of Los Angeles County Sheriff’s

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Looking For A Job? Call: 647-708-2641

Department shared a photograph as the guard was transported to hospital by air ambulance The intruder was airlifted separately to a trauma center. Kerr, 33, was not home when Friday’s disturbance occurred. Her fiancé, Snapchat CEO Evan Spiegel, recently purchased a sprawling mansion for the pair in Brentwood, Los Angeles. Earlier this year, she invited Harper’s Bazaar

Australia into her 1960s ranch in northern Malibu. The Australian model bought the property in 2014 following her split from ex-husband Orlando Bloom. It comes just a week after Kim Kardashian was held at gunpoint and robbed in her luxury apartment in Paris. Kerr was also in the city at the time to attend Paris Fashion Week.

Her representatives did not comment on the incident on Friday. She has been silent on social media for a week but was spotted leaving Soho House in Malibu on Sunday with friends.

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Issue 689 (19)

18 - 24 Oct., 2016

ISIS savages stone ‘adulterers’ to death Baying crowd of women and kids watch on

KNEELING blindfolded in front of a baying crowd of men and children, ISIS prisoners are brutally stoned to death - after being accused of adultery.

Sickening photos show victims being pelted with heavy rocks near the city of Abu Kamal in eastern Syria, close to the border with Iraq. Hundreds of people, including young children, watch in the town square as fanatics carry out the

medieval-style executions. The terror group had reportedly accused the men of adultery and sentenced them to death.

Pictures show extremists reading out the charges over a loud speaker before the men are led to their fate. One, wearing dark trousers and a white top, is handcuffed and blindfolded before being forced to kneel on a carpet.

Moments later, executioners inflict gruesome injuries on his

head and body by hurling rocks at him. The other, dressed all in white, does not appear to be blindfolded or have his hands tied. Pictures show his dead body after being stoned. It is not the first time ISIS have used the brutal execution technique.

In June, pictures emerged showing four married men being stoned to death over the same adultery charge. The images showed blindfolded

Duterte hailed for cruel war against drugs

MORE gruesome photographs of Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte’s bloody crackdown on drugs have emerged, as the acid-tongued leader rides high in opinion polls and introduces a nationwide ban on smoking.

The photos show drug suspects packed inside police holding cells, a body dumped in a canal and a candle-lit vigil on a roadside in Manila, the country’s capital. The drug war, Duterte’s signature policy popular among Filipinos who elected him in May by a huge margin, has killed more than 3,600 people since June 30, with 1,377 shot by police in operations. Activists believe the rest were mostly vigilante killings. The United Nations, the European Union, the United

States and international human rights groups have all raised concern over alleged extrajudicial killings. But Duterte, who is known as ‘The Punisher’, is rating well with Filipinos, according to two recent opinion polls. The president was rated ‘very good’, with a net satisfaction rating of 64 per cent

in a Social Weather Stations Poll on Thursday last week.

Only 11 per cent of 1,200 people polled were not satisfied with Duterte. In a separate poll the following day, 84 per cent of Filipinos said they supported the drug crackdown although most felt it important to arrest suspects alive. Duterte has dismissed the international protestations often in foulmouthed tirades as meddling in what he says are internal affairs. The firebrand politician, not content with just stamping out hard drugs, has also recently introduced a nationwide smoking ban. The national restrictions will be along the same lines as those set in Duterte’s old municipality of Davao no smoking in public places, either indoor or outdoor.

prisoners praying on the floor next to a pile of rocks before they were killed under the terror group’s warped interpretation of sharia law. They too were

surrounded by a huge crowd including children who gathered for the chilling spectacle, believed to be somewhere near the Tigris river.

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Issue 689 (22)

18 - 24 Oct., 2016

Rock art sites in Uttar Pradesh are not just luring academics but also tourists ROCK art in Uttar Pradesh is one major crowd puller. A number of people have contributed to the discovery and study of rock art in the state and due to their consistent efforts, painted rock shelters and their details are known from districts Chandauli, Sonbhadra, Mirzapur, Allahabad, Chitrakoot and Banda in northern Vindhyas and around Fatehpur Sikri and Agra in the Aravalli ranges. Some of the rock art

Lakhma caves (near Baghma).

KAIMUR WILDLIFE SANCTUARY Thirteen kilometres from Robertsganj, spread over an area of 500 sq km, the sanctuary has a variety of wildlife. The Mukha waterfall is a tourist attraction. Other excursions include Jaunpur, Allahabad and the Vindham and Chachai falls. SALKHAN FOSSIL PARK, SONBHADRA About 15 km from Robertsganj

EXPLORE ROCK ART HUB IN UP sites in Chandauli, Mirzapur and Sonbhadra districts are attractive tourist destinations as well.

These sites are ideally located close to popular tourist destinations like Varanasi and Allahabad. The district headquarters of Robertsganj in Sonbhadra district, 90 km from Varanasi, is an ideal place to visit these cave and rock shelters as well as the Fossil Park in Salkhan and the Kaimur wildlife Sanctuary. ROCK PAINTINGS IN MIRZAPUR & SONBHADRA The Vindhya and the Kaimur ranges have at least 250 rock art sites spread across them. The rock paintings range from the mesolithic to the chalcolithic ages.

Among important rock painting sites found in the region are the Panchmukhi Rock Shelters (8 km from Robertsganj), Kauva Khoh Rock Shelters (near Churk), Lakhania Rock Shelters (22 km from Robertsganj) and

on Chopan Road, this is the oldest botanical fossil found in the world. The tree fossils, which are covering 25 hectares of park, date back to meso-protcrozoic period. They are said to be about 1,400 million years old.

The types of fossils found in the area are algae and Stromotolities. The park is three times larger than the Yellow Stone Park of America. OTHER DESTINATIONS Ghurhupur rock shelters are about 60 km to the east of Chakia in the northern scarp of the Kaimur hills

on the border of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. A steep climb leads to the rock shelters. Inside the shelters are the ancient paintings and inscriptions painted on their walls and ceilings. Some of them are related with Buddhist motifs.

Further east, on another hill in one of the rock shelters, an inscription identified as minor rock edict of Ashoka has been discovered recently. Between this shelter and Nindaur is a circular structure made of square stone blocks which is supposed

to be representing an ancient Buddhist stupa. In Chakia are the painted rock shelters of the Ama Chuan (a waterfall). Close by are Malhar and Phakkada Baba on the right bank of the Karamnasa river, ancient sites for iron production. In Karamnasa river,

crocodiles abound in its green waters. On a lucky day leopards, bears and wild pigs can be spotted. The Musa Khand dam and the celebrated waterfalls of Latifshah, Rajdari and Chandraprabha are not far away from Chakia.

The first ever virtual cruise experience Enjoy a glimpse of what cruising holds with a VR app launched by TIRUN

THOUGH the cruise holdiay bug has bitten the Indian traveller, there still are a lot of apprehensions about spending as long as a week on sea.

“Will I get sea sick? Will there be enough open space? Is it child-friendly?”— Indians are asking all sorts of questions.

To answer all these by giving a firsthand experience of the trip, TIRUN, the India representative of Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd, has launched a virtual reality application which allows users to virtually travel on a cruise through their smartphones. The app, TIRUN VR, available on Android and Apple, offers tours of Royal Caribbean cruise ships, letting potential guests embark on virtual walkthroughs of staterooms, liner decks and

much more. “It replicates the onboard experience and makes the cruise experience familiar to Indian travellers, especially those from tier II and III cities,” says Varun Chadha, Chief Operating Officer of TIRUN. The app is also aimed at being beneficial in the B2B realm, as trade partners can now market packages more easily, with potential guests being able to get tangible glimpses of the vacation they plan to book. The rates start from $150 per person per night, all inclusive.

Currently, the app takes a peek into just one of the ships of TIRUN and they plan to launch more. The firm plans to hold seminar, walkins and other such events to popularise the app.

Issue 689 (23)

18 - 24 Oct., 2016

Issue 689 (24)

18 - 24 Oct., 2016

There is love and fulfillment in personal relationships.

Family, friends and loved ones gather around you to share some happy times. You regain health to indulge in sporty pastimes and busy work schedules. You are fortunate in business deals and gain financially. A dear friend brings goodwill and cheer into your life. A positive and creative approach changes attitudes and heals old wounds.

Beware of a conceited and ambitious person who takes advantage of your good name and goodwill.

You may blow your budget while splurging.

You are likely to be preoccupied with material and professional aspects of life. You achieve your goals at work with patience and intelligence. You have no time or interest at present in frivolities, social functions and family matters. Personal relationships, however, are steady and supportive. Business transactions go according to plan. Beware of a jealous man who could disrupt office routine. Health problems need to be attended to and the advice of the physician heeded.

A time of endings and beginnings can be exciting and rejuvenating this week! You are able to kick old habits like smoking and drinking and adopt a healthier lifestyle. You are likely to go on a shopping spree and change your personal image with new styles and effects. Redecorating office space, spring cleaning and moving things around at home changes ambience and energy. Priorities need to be kept in mind when making major changes this week! You meet new people and make friends easily.

Obsession and overweening ambition need to be avoided this week or you create endless problems for yourself. Artistic and creative pursuits and occupations can be most gratifying and lucrative this week. Its best to watch your feelings and moods rather than go with them as you are changeable and over sensitive, feeling hurt easily this week. You can get carried away when appealed to emotionally so be aware or you deplete your energy and resources. A shopping spree can be a wonderful experience for you but not for your pocket.

You are stressed and preoccupied because of too much to do and interference from different quarters that hinder your progress. Beware of wasting energy in details at the expense of important issues. You are not ready to make compromises, which may cause friction. Your social life is busy and variable and it’s time to separate your friends from your adversaries. Learn from mistakes; do not repeat them but do not feel guilty about them. You are needed just as you are, so liberate yourself from tension. A trip is on the cards.

You have a logical approach and clear perspective this week despite the variety of activity and degree of involvement in different projects. You do some logical thinking to make professional decisions and gain clear perspectives. You catch up on correspondence and can expect visitors or news. You achieve success after a period of intelligent hard work. A selfish person can interfere in your loving relationship if you allow it. Avoid making big plans as they are likely to be disrupted, rather be spontaneous and take opportunities as they come.

Personal relationships are integrated and flowering into lasting and loving commitments. A business partnership or professional collaboration is lucrative and supportive. You are restless and move into varying occupations. Good planning and management lead to progressive and productive ventures. You may take a short break before starting on a new project to renew your energy. Good luck in finances and opportunities is encouraging. You still have time to change your mind or clear doubts about a person who wants to work with you.

You are prudent in professional matters, as they need perfection and completion in a stipulated time. Introspection reveals valuable insights in personal relationships and work situations this week. You have to be a light onto yourself to guide yourself in your path of life and also shine for others as a consultant and advisor. Trust in yourself and people close to you for making the right choices and decisions in matters of the heart. Do not forget to share and express your feelings to the one who loves you dearly.

You express special feelings for the one you love. A short vacation or sojourn takes you away from stark reality and into a romantic, dreamy space. You are gracious and kind at work, gentle and generous in friendship, and supportive to children, parents and family. A youthful quality within you brings you closer to young people and children in a special way as you work or spend time with them. The Arts are involving as you are creative and innovative. Don’t forget to look at professional situations with your head and heart before taking an important decision.

You have a lot of courage, strength and energy to achieve goals and objectives this week. Love and romance in relationships is promising and leads to lasting commitment. A mystical encounter is exciting and leaves an impact on you. You transform your image and present a glamorous and stylish look this week. You turn things around in business and family situations in an astounding manner and seem to have control of the life force. Involvement in the arts is exciting. You regain good health after a short minor illness.

Patience in business matters and a positive attitude in relationships can turn things around and lead to a breakthrough this week. You can be divided about options in two conflicting situations. Priorities need to be clearly defined. You may have to split profits and responsibility in a business project. Delay and disruption in financial transactions can be expected.

It’s best not to take on difficult tasks or people till next week as you can get a better response then.

Some introspection is needed before you take the next step in an important relationship.

You deal with official and personal matters with calm authority and success this week. You possess great power to attract creative and charismatic people around you. You are generous in family and personal relationships but impatient of opposition. You can be dynamic, forceful and assertive in new ventures to establish a position of power and authority. Balance in all areas of life is recommended. You can be depleted of resources and forces if you don’t manage them well. Don’t encourage people to lean heavily on you.

Issue 689 (25)

18 - 24 Oct., 2016

Technology Facebook Messenger now Shocking! Facebook may disable your lets you encrypt your chat; account if you share this cat photo here’s how to do it

New Delhi After WhatsApp, social networking site Facebook will let you encrypt your chats on Messenger so that it’s just between you and your friend.

With the test having started in July, Facebook has finally rolled out an end-to-end encryption for its Messenger users globally. “That means the messages are intended just for you and the other person not anyone else,

including us,” Facebook said in a post. However, unlike WhatsApp, end-toend encryption on Facebook Messenger is optional, which means that users will have to set it themselves and is not automotic.

So, here is how to set the end-to-end encryption on your Facebook Messenger.

1. Choose the contact you want to have secret conversation with

No buyer for Twitter as last potential buyer Salesforce quits race

New York In a bad news for Twitter, its last potential buyer Salesforce has decided not to make a bid to buy the struggling microblogging website.

Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff told the Financial Times that he has “walked away” from making a bid to buy Twitter.

Earlier, Google, Apple and Walt Disney also decided not to bid for the website.

Twitter stocks fell

significantly this week after Google and Walt Disney reportedly ruled out to acquire the struggling microblogging platform.

Twitter is expected to announce its next quarterly earnings on October 27.

The acquisition of Twitter struggling to add new users amid stalled growth may cost over $20 billion.

It currently has 313 million monthly active users.

2. Tap on the ‘i’ icon on the top right 3. Click on ‘Secret Conversations’ and choose ‘turn on’ Behold! It’s done. And as seen from the setting, it has to be set for an individual by the users.

However, there is a catch too – the timer options range from 5 seconds to up to 1 day and the encrypted messages disappear after that.

Moreover, the secret messages can only be read on one device.

You may find it amusing to read and may actually get confused if it happens to you!

A post has gone viral that sharing a particular cat photo can actually lead to your Facebook account deactivating almost immediately.

As per a Fonearena report, Facebook account of many people was instantly deactivated as soon as they shared the picture with friends.

And, it is the particular image-a cat in suit, what is the causing deactivation of accounts.

As per the report, “If you don’t want to get your Facebook account disabled, be sure not to share any image from any unknown source and especially this cat in a suit,” said the report.

The reason what made Facebook disable account and restore accounts after 24 to 48 hours is not known, but when we tried at Zee Digital, our account did not get disabled.

Facebook hiring counter-terrorism researcher!

To go all out after terrorists’ accounts San Francisco After the micro-blogging platform Twitter that took down several terrorists‘ accounts in recent months, it is the turn of social media giant Facebook to ramp up its counterterrorism strategy to tackle online extremism.

According to a Quartz report, Facebook has posted a job description on its site for one counterterrorism researcher.

“The candidate will be responsible for helping drive our efforts around identifying the latest tools, tactics, and infrastructure used by terrorist actors as they affect Facebook and its ecosystems to better defend against and disrupt these threats,” the posting read.

In September, the company

joined with the Israeli government to take down what that government sees as terrorist content.

Facebook has claimed to have taken down 95 per cent of the content flagged by the Israeli government.

In its continued effort to curb terrorism-related activities, the micro-blogging website Twitter

recently suspended additional 235,000 accounts for violating its policies related to promotion of terrorism in the last six months.

Twitter had announced the blocking of more than 125,000 accounts earlier this year which were primarily related to the Islamic State (IS) terror group.

In addition to the account suspensions, Twitter‘s global Public Policy team has expanded its partnerships with organisations working to counter violent extremism (CVE) online.

According to a latest study by the US-based Brookings Institution, IS supporters may be operating over 46,000 active Twitter accounts.

Google, Apple, Disney out from Twitter acquisition race San Francisco: Twitter stocks fell significantly after Google and Walt Disney reportedly ruled out to acquire the struggling microblogging platform - leaving only Salesforce in the bidding race. According to a Re/Code report, Twitter‘s shares dropped 17 percent in pre-market trading on Thursday after “deeppocketed companies Google, Apple and Walt Disney” were reported to be out from the Twitter buyout race.

Twitter is expected to announce its next quarterly earnings on October 27.

According to earlier reports, Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff is “building a case to Salesforce.com Inc. investors and others that his company should be the buyer.” The acquisition of Twitter - struggling to add new users amid stalled growth - may cost over $20 billion.

It currently has 313 million monthly active users. Salesforce is vying for a social networking platform in its kitty for long.

The company, “which reached $6 billion in annual revenue faster than any other enterprise software company”, offers customer service software, market research tools, email marketing systems and other products and several of them already use social media.

Issue 689 (26)

18 - 24 Oct., 2016

Lust & revenge key to Ghorde’s murder HORRIFIC DETAILS have come out in the murder of perfumer Monika Ghurde as the suspect, her former security guard Rajkumar Singh admitted to the crime and recounted to the police during an intense interrogation Revealing the chilling details, Goa DIG Vimal Gupta said that revenge, lust and robbery were the motives behind the crime. The police also said that Singh had planned the murder and it was not accidental as was suspected earlier. Gupta said Singh posed as a security supervisor and knocked on the door.

When Ghurde opened the door, Singh entered the flat forcibly and held her at knife point. When she was about to shout, Singh overpowered her and covered her mouth with his

hand and took her inside the bathroom. Ghurde became nervous and went into a semi-conscious state, police said. The DIG said Singh has revealed that he then tied Ghurde to the bed, binding both her hands and legs. After ensuring that she was helpless, Singh demanded money. “She told Singh to take whatever money was there in her purse. He found Rs 4,000, which Singh told her was not enough for him,” Gupta said, adding that when Singh demanded more, Ghurde told him to take her ATM card and gave him the PIN. Later, Singh took her mobile phone to prevent her from alerting anyone and forced her to give him the phone’s password. “Once he got the password, he forced her to watch three porn clips,” the DIG said.

Gupta said Singh then released Ghurde’s legs and

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raped her. “We will add Section 376 (rape) of the Indian Penal Code to the case,” he added. The DIG said the police has clinching evidence as the suspect shaved at Ghurde’s flat. “We have recovered hair from the spot,” he said, adding that a DNA analysis would be conducted. Goa Police also ruled out the involvement of any other

person in the crime. Initially the police was working on two suspects following CCTV footage they obtained from an ATM in Porvorim. A local court on Tuesday remanded Singh, 21, a native of Bathinda, Punjab, to six days’ police custody. He had been working as a security guard at Sapana Raj Valley, Sangolda, where Ghurde’s body was found naked with

her hands tied to the bed.

Ghurde’s murder has put a question mark over safety of the residents just after beginning of the tourism season. The first chartered flight carrying more than 200 tourists from Russia landed in Goa on October 1, with several chartered flights expected to arrive till end of December. Goa’s

conscience has been shaken with Ghurde’s murder as it happened a couple of weeks after a Goa court acquitted seven people in the murder case of a UK teen, Scarlett Keeling.

What added to the residents’ worries is another murder of an elderly woman, Shobha Karmali, at Kakoda in south Goa on the same night when Singh allegedly smothered Ghurde. Karmali was strangulated to death.

Her killers are still on the run. Ghurde’s is a story of passion and of chasing dreams. A young woman who wanted to establish her own identity, who was never shy of travelling and living alone, was brutally murdered reportedly over a petty argument.

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Issue - 689 (27)

18 - 24 Oct., 2016

Dubai port titan invests in futuristic Hyperloop train SAN FRANCISCO Shipping port industry colossus DP World Group of Dubai has joined backers of a US startup working on the futuristic super-

speedy train concept Hyperloop.

DP World Group, the thirdlargest port operator in the world, led a $50 million round of investment in Hyperloop One, according to the company. A breakdown of the funding was not disclosed, but Hyperloop One said that latest round brought to $160 million the amount of financing raised since it was founded in 2014. DP World Group recently announced it is exploring the potential to use a Hyperloop system to move containers between ships docked at the port of Jebel Ali to a new inland depot in Dubai.

The fresh investment came with DP World Group chief executive Sultan Ahmed Bin Sulayem

taking a seat on Hyperloop One’s board of directors.“We continue to seek opportunities to invest in and utilize our expertise to develop disruptive technology,”

Sultan Ahmed Bin Sulayem said in a release. “We are exploring many innovations in our sector.”

Hyperloop One said that Summa Group chairman Ziyavudin Magomedov was also joining the startup’s board. The private holding company was described as having significant investments in port logistics, engineering, construction, telecommunications and the oil and gas sectors. Hyperloop One planned the first demonstration of a full Hyperloop system in the first quarter of next year. “With a team of nearly 200 brilliant employees, the company is leading the way in the development of Hyperloop technology and we are on track

US bans 4 Pak nationals for laundering money of drug dealers

WASHINGTON The US has blacklisted four Pakistani nationals and nine companies for laundering money of drugtraffickers for criminals worldwide.

Obaid Khanani, Huzaifa Khanani, Javed Khanani and Atif Polani were blacklisted by the US Treasury Department. The four persons' nine companies

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were also blacklisted.Their companies were engaged in third-party money laundering by transferring funds to financial institutions on behalf of drug traffickers worldwide, the Treasury Department said in a statement.

Any assets of the four persons or their entities in the US are blocked by the officials. US nationals are also prohibited from engaging in transactions with them.The companies, set up in Pakistan and the UAE, used to launder the money of drug dealers for criminals worldwide.

"Treasury remains committed to combating illicit money laundering networks around the world and today's action is the result of close coordination with our partners in the UAE," said John E Smith, Acting Director of Treasury Department.

to show the world our full system early next year,” said Hyperloop One chief executive Rob Lloyd.

The startup also announced it has brought on a new finance executive with internet industry credentials as it worked to polish an image tarnished by a nasty legal battle with co-founder Brogan BamBrogan.BamBrogan accused former colleagues of nepotism, threats and mismanagement, igniting a drama at a startup devoted to revolutionizing transport systems.Earlier this year, Hyperloop One held its first public test in the desert outside Las Vegas, trying out engine components designed to rocket pods carrying people or cargo through tubes at speeds of 700 miles per hour (1,125 kilometers) or more. The company one of the startups with its site set on realizing a futuristic vision for transportation at nearsupersonic speeds laid out three years ago by billionaire Elon Musk, the entrepreneur behind electric car company Tesla and private space exploration endeavor Space X. Instead of developing the idea himself, Musk made freely available his research into the feasibility of getting people or cargo places at unprecedented speeds by firing them in pods through lowpressure tubes.

Indian-origin scientist bags young scientist award in US

California Kirtiraj Kundlik Gaikwad, an Indian scientist with the Department of Packaging, has been awarded the prestigiousIAFP Young scientist scholarship award for his research work on "development of novel oxygen absorbing package in the field of active packaging for oxygen sensitive food products". This award worth $2000 and award plaque was presented in the annual meeting of International Association Of Food Protection (IAFP) held in St Louise, USA by The IAFP Foundation, USA. Its purpose was to encourage young outstanding food safety scientist from all over the world.

Kirtiraj developed novel oxygen scavenging package from the natural source. The feature of this package is it can extend the shelf life of food also it is suitable for microwave, liquid food

packaging like juices, and metal detector friendly at processing line.

The International Association for Food Protection recognizes young researchers from around the world that are the future leaders in the field of food safety.

The IAFP Foundation has been dedicated to enhancing the career potential of exceptional researchers through the annual IAFP Scholarship Program, which provides full funding for attendance at the Association's renowned annual meeting.

Kirtiraj received his MS (Packaging) from Michigan State University, USA in 2013, MTech (Food safety & standards) from Allahabad Agriculture University, India in 2011 and BTech (Food Science) from Dr PD Agriculture University, India in 2009. He has authored and co-authored 15 research papers in reputed international journals.

Two men accused of attacking Sikh man charged in California California Two men who are accused of attacking a Sikh man in California by punching him, knocking off his turban and cutting his hair were charged on Friday with assault as a hate crime, according to local media. The attack followed a number of similar beatings of Sikhs in the United States over a period of more than a decade. Hate crimetracking groups say assailants have occasionally mistaken Sikhs for Muslims, who themselves have also been victimized in religiously motivated hate crimes.It was not immediately clear if the two men charged on Friday had obtained an attorney and they could not be reached for comment.The Sikh man, Maan Singh Khalsa, has told police he was in his car at a red light in the San Francisco suburb of Richmond on September 25 when someone in a truck threw a beer can at him, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.Khalsa, 41, got out of his car and flung the can back. When he drove off, the men in the truck followed him, according to local media.They caught up to him at an intersection, and two men exited the vehicle and punched Khalsa through his open window, knocking off his turban, the

Chronicle reported, citing prosecutors. Prosecutors say one of the assailants, Chase Bryan Little, 31, cut Khalsa's hair with a knife, according to the

assault with a deadly weapon, according to documents posted on the website of San Francisco television station KQED.The charges carried hate crime

Chronicle."The savage cutting of Mr. Khalsa's unshorn hair, a sacred article of his faith, constitutes a hate crime under the law," Simon O'Connell, a Contra Costa County deputy district attorney, said in a statement to local media.A representative for the District Attorney's Office could not be reached for comment.Little and a second man, Colton Tye Leblanc, 24, were charged on Friday with assault by means to produce great bodily injury and

enhancements, the charging documents said.Little, who was arrested after the attack, and Leblanc, who is still outstanding, are from Texas and were in California to work at a refinery, according to local media.

The New York-based Sikh Coalition said in a statement on its website it had joined with civil rights groups in urging prosecutors to file hate crime charges in the attack on Khalsa, who was said to be an information technology specialist.

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Coke, Pepsi fund health groups... but fight them too NEW YORK Coca-Cola and Pepsi, the two major US soda giants, have given millions of dollars to health organizations while quietly fighting anti-obesity measures such as taxes on soft drinks, a new study shows.

The Coca-Cola Co and PepsiCo, from 2011 to 2015, sponsored 96 national health organizations

battling public health problems such as obesity, diabetes and heart disease, said the research published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.

During the same period, the two soda companies lobbied against 29 public health bills intended to reduce soda consumption or improve nutrition."These companies lobbied against public health intervention in 97

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percent of cases, calling into question a sincere commitment to improving the public's health," said the study's authors Daniel Aaron and Michael Siegel of Boston University."By accepting funding from these companies, health organizations are inadvertently participating in their marketing plans," they warned.Most of the recipients of

the companies' largesse were private organizations, while some were part of the US federal government, such as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

The donations have become larger in recent years, alongside mounting public health campaigns linking soft drinks to the country's rising obesity levels - related to a growing prevalence of diabetes.Coca-Cola recently revealed it had spent more than $120 million since 2010, financing scientific studies, partnerships with groups fighting obesity and lobbying.According to The Center for Responsive Politics - an independent, nonprofit organization - PepsiCo on average has spent $3 million a year on lobbying since 2011.

- Sweetening their image By supporting health organizations, the companies are

Car split completely in half after crash; everyone survives

New York A speeding drunken driver smashed into another car on Long Island in New York and split it in half, police said Saturday.

Miraculously, nobody suffered life-threatening injuries in the crash Friday night.

Police said Dustin Brandon, 27, was driving a Mercedes-Benz convertible when he collided with a Mazda Miata in Rockville Centre.

The impact caused the

Mercedes to overturn and the back of the Mazda was sheared off. Newsday reported that the Mazda’s rear tire detached and hit the windshield of a tractortrailer in a nearby CVS parking lot.

Brandon and his 25-year-old female passenger had to be extricated from the Mercedes.

He suffered head and leg injuries.

She suffered a lower leg injury.

The driver of the Mazda suffered internal injuries.

trying to improve their goodwill image with the public to distract from their lobbying efforts.

"By being able to say they partner with so many health organizations, they are able to create this image that they are actually contributing to public health," Siegel said in a phone interview.That diverts attention away from the fact that "their products are contributing to what is a terrible obesity epidemic," he said.About 35 percent of American adults are obese, and 69 percent are overweight, according to 2012 official data.

Spending on treatments linked to obesity accounted for a fifth of the country's health care spending.

For Keith-Thomas Ayoob, a dietician and professor at Yeshiva University, the source of the funding is not as important as what is done with it."I think there is a place for proper funding from industries," he said. "I am only concerned that the fundings go towards the efforts that benefit consumers," he said, giving as an example helping people better manage diabetes.

- Big Soda lobbying But Coca-Cola and PepsiCo engage in intense lobbying to kill any legislation against soft drinks, the study points out, putting the sponsored health organizations in a position of conflict of interest.

Anyone can chat with the White House... through a bot

WASHINGTON It’s now easy to chat on Facebook Messenger with the White House - or more accurately through the presidential “bot” released by the Obama administration on Friday.

The White House unveiled what was touted as “the first-ever government bot” on the messaging application - bringing the US government into the age of artificial intelligence. “Hi, it’s great to hear from you - and we’re excite to learn what’s on your mind,” the bot tells users signing up to chat.Users can send messages, 10 of which will be read each day by President Barack Obama, according to the White House.Jason Goldman, chief digital officer of the White House, said the new bot is another way for the public to communicate with the administration and the president.

“While receiving messages from the public isn’t a recent phenomenon - every day, the White House receives thousands of phone calls, physical letters, and submissions through our online contact form - being able to contact the president through Facebook has never been possible before,” Goldman said in a blog post. “Today, it’s able to happen because of the firstever government bot on Facebook Messenger.” Goldman said the White House has gone a step further by making the bot open-source for other developers to use.

“We’re open-sourcing this White House technology, with the hope that other governments and developers can build similar services - and foster similar connections with their citizens with significantly less upfront investment,” he said.

tragedies multiplying in communities across America,” Garcetti said in a statement.

The shooting occurred in a residential area of modest homes. Investigators were snapping photographs and scouring the ground in an area that extended over two blocks.

Three people died at the scene,

couple left the restaurant and returned “that’s when the shooting occurred.”

Neighbor Sheryl Cobb said she was awakened by screaming and gunfire, but never left her home for fear of getting caught in a crossfire.

“Bullets don’t have names on them,” she said. LAPD Sgt.

and 12 others were transported to local hospitals. Their conditions ranged from critical to stable but serious.

Police did not disclose the names or ages of the fatalities or the wounded.

“There was some type of party there,” Lopez said. After the

Frank Preciado told The Los Angeles Times that the restaurant was “a bloody scene with shell casings everywhere.”

One firearm was recovered.

The Times described the restaurant as a popular Jamaican eatery that features a DJ yesterday night.

Three dead, 12 wounded in gunfire at LA restaurant

Los Angeles An early morning argument at a Los Angeles restaurant apparently triggered gunfire that left 3 people dead and 12 wounded, authorities said on Friday. Police who arrived at the scene in a working class neighborhood dotted by tall palm trees found shell casings and blood throughout the restaurant, located west of downtown Los Angeles.

Two possible suspects were being questioned.

Los Angeles Police Department Officer Mike Lopez said a preliminary investigation found a party was underway at 12:30 am on Friday in the restaurant, operating out of a converted home, when an argument started.

A man and woman left, then returned, and the restaurant erupted in gunfire.

Mayor Eric Garcetti said he was confident police would unravel questions surrounding the shooting, and expressed sympathy for victims’ families.

He called it “the latest example of a senseless gun violence epidemic that causes so much pain and sorrow in our city and across the nation.

“We cannot tolerate these

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Comet may have hit Earth 56 million years ago

WASHINGTON Droplets of glass dug up in New Jersey and from the Atlantic seabed indicate a comet or some other extraterrestrial

object may have smacked Earth 56 million years ago, roughly 10 million years after the asteroid impact that doomed the dinosaurs.

Scientists said on Thursday the collision may have triggered a particularly warm, ice-free period on Earth when important mammalian groups, including the primate lineage that led to humans, appeared for the first time. The findings, published in the journal Science, marked the latest evidence of the profound influence that past impacts by celestial bodies have had on life

on Earth.

The tiny spherical bits of dark glass, called microtektites, represent strong evidence of a collision with a comet or

asteroid, the researchers said.

They form when a space rock hits Earth’s surface and vaporizes the spot where it lands, ejecting into the air bits of molten rock that solidify into glass.

The microtektites were excavated from a geological layer marking the start of the Eocene Epoch about 56 million years ago from three sites in southern New Jersey (Millville, Wilson Lake and Medford) and an underwater site east of Florida.

That coincided with the beginning of a warming event, called the

US hails India’s role in world, says best of Indo-US relation yet to come

Washington A top White House official said on Thursday that United States has welcomed India’s prominent and effective role on issues ranging from climate change to peace keeping while emphasizing that the best of USIndia partnership is yet to come.

“We welcome India not just because it is consequential because we share and often promote norms about a rules based order,” Peter Lavoy, the White House’s point person for South Asia, told a Washington audience.

“The US welcomes more prominent and effective role that India is playing on a wide range of world problems from climate change and global health to peace keeping, maritime security and cyber governance.”

He said that the US-India partnership has come a long way in the past eight years, but the best is yet to come.

“We are handing over to the next team, a major defence partnership with India,” he said

as he highlighted the vibrant dimensions of the Indo-US relationship.

“First a growing convergence on regional issues. Second deepening cooperation on defense trade and third broadening in security partnership,” said Lavoy, Senior Director for South Asia at the National Security Council (NSC), said in his remarks at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS).

During the past six years of Obama Administration, he said there has been growing convergence of views of the risks, threats and opportunities.

“In part this convergence has come apart as we made monumental efforts to overcome specific areas of mistrust,” he said, adding that over the years the two countries have built habits of co-operation in discussing the challenge they face.Three regions where this cooperation has gained momentum are Afghanistan, Asia Pacific and Africa, he said.

Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum, associated with an accumulation of atmospheric carbon dioxide. It lasted more than 100,000 years and drove up global temperatures about 9-14 degrees Fahrenheit (5-8 degrees Celsius).

The impact of an asteroid about six miles wide (10 km) off Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula 10 million years earlier killed off many marine and terrestrial creatures including the dinosaurs and enabled mammals to gain supremacy.

No such mass extinction was associated with the event 56 million years ago, although many single-celled ocean-bottom creatures disappeared. During the warming period, primates and two mammal groups - one that includes deer, antelope, sheep and goats and another that includes horses and rhinos - first appear in the fossil record.

The researchers said they have not found the location of an impact crater linked to the collision. They said geological evidence suggested the object was a comet.

“We can’t really say where it was, or how big, at this point,” said geochemist Morgan Schaller of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, who led the study.

Celebrated Monet ‘haystack’ painting to be auctioned in NY

NEW YORK The Christie’s auction house in New York will offer for sale one of Claude Monet’s celebrated “haystack” paintings, valued at an estimated $45 million, which should reconfirm collectors’ appetite for Impressionist art.

With wealthy Chinese collectors expressing keen interest in such works, the painting - part of a series of haystack pictures painted by Monet during the winter of 1890-91 from his French home in Giverny - will first be presented next week in Hong Kong. It will then be shown in London before returning to New York in early November. This canvas, representing a simple cone-shaped haystack at dusk, is one of the rare works in this series to still be in private hands, Christie’s said. Most of the others are in the Musee d’Orsay in Paris, the Metropolitan

Museum of Art in New York, or the Art Institute of Chicago. This painting, to be auctioned on November 16, was acquired in September 1891 by the Knoedler & Co. art gallery, which brought it to the United States.

In recent years, prices for works

by Monet or other celebrated Impress-ionists have shot through the roof.

direct attacks on the Muslim community. He has frequently blamed Muslims for terrorist activity, and has vowed to tighten up border control to restrict the number of immigrants belonging

2% said that the Democratic Party was unfriendly.In comparison to 2012, Muslims over the past four years have developed more favorable perceptions of the Democratic

to the community.The voters said among the plethora of issues being discussed during the election campaign by the candidates, the top six most important issues to AmericanMuslim voters are civil rights, education, jobs and the economy, protecting students from bullying and harassment, the proposed ban on Muslims entering the US, terrorism and national security.Each of the parties was evaluated by respondents on “friendliness to Muslims.”61% of respondents said that the Democratic Party was friendly towards Muslims, as compared to 7% for the Republican Party.In contrast, 62% of respondents said that the Republican Party was unfriendly towards Muslims, while

Party and less favorable perceptions of the Republican Party.Of those surveyed, 91% said Trump’s proposed temporary ban on Muslim travelers entering the US is the wrong decision while only 3% call it right.Another 85% of respondents believe that Islamophobia and anti-Muslim sentiment in the US has increased in the past year, with 30% of respondents saying they have experienced discrimination or profiling in the past year.

“Our survey results indicate that presidential candidates still have time to appeal to American Muslim voters by addressing issues such as the erosion of civil rights and growing Islamophobia,” said CAIR Government Affairs Director Robert McCaw.

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Over 70% Muslims voters want to vote for Hillary Clinton, only 4% favour Trump: Survey

New York Seven in 10 American-Muslims will vote for Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton in the November presidential elections while just 4% from the community favoured Republican candidate Donald Trump, who has called for a controversial ban on Muslims entering the US. With less than a month left for the November 8 general election, the survey conducted by the Council on American- Islamic Relations (CAIR) lists the proposed ban, terrorism and national security as some of the key areas of concern for them.

The CAIR, the nation’s largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organisation, on Thursday released the results of a nationwide survey, indicating a high turnout of Muslims at the polls, with 72% of those surveyed saying they will vote for the 68year-old former secretary of state.There are around 3.3 million American-Muslims, according to a 2016 estimate, making up about 1% of the US population. About 86% of registered Muslim voters intend to vote in this year’s presidential election, while 12% of Muslim voters are still undecided.According to the independent live telephone survey of more than 800 Muslim voters, just 4% said they support the 70year-old reality TV star.

The lack of support for Trump could be seen as a result of his

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US govt bans Samsung Galaxy Pak family leaves US after son thrashed in school bus for being Muslim Note 7 smartphones on flights

Washington A seven-year-old Pakistani-origin boy was allegedly beaten up by five classmates on a school bus in the US for being a Muslim, an incident that has forced his family to move back to Pakistan fearing “Donald Trump’s America”.

The parents of Abdul Usmani

have alleged that he was bullied and beaten by five students on the bus while returning home from Weatherstone Elementary School in Cary, North Carolina, as they made references to Muslims and the boy’s Pakistani heritage. “Welcome to the United States of America of Donald Trump,” Zeeshan-ul-hassan Usmani captioned a Facebook photo showing his son, Abdul, with his left arm in a sling.

“He is in grade 1, bullied and beaten by his own classmates in school bus for being a Muslim,” Usmani said.

Usmani told BuzzFeed News that he his wife along with their

three sons have left the US for Pakistan after this latest incident in a long history of discrimination towards his children and family.

“These are six and seven year old kids calling him names, with one kid punching him in the face, while two other kids attacked him, kicked him, and held his

arms back,” Usmani said.

He described his son “as American as you can get”.

“They keep beating him all the way from school to home on the bus,” Usmani said of the boy’s ride home last Friday.

Abdul, his father said, is traumatised by the attack and has a sprained arm.

Lisa Luten, a spokesperson for the Wake County Public School System, was quoted as saying that the principal of the school immediately began investigating the alleged incident after the family told them about it. “(The principal) interviewed seven students sitting near this child,

As Thais mourn king, black clothing booms

BANGKOK Thailand’s government has warned of a national shortage of black clothing, which is flying off shelves as a distraught nation mourns beloved late King

Bhumibol Adulyadej. The commerce ministry also said it would work with manufacturers to ensure a stable supply of mourning wear while threatening stiff punishments for pricegouging by merchants.

Thailand has been plunged into grief by the death on Thursday of King Bhumibol Adulyadej, who reigned as a deeply revered god-like figure for 70 years. A range of public activities have been cancelled and television programming and nightlife has been ordered to tone it down for the next month out of respect.

The directives have raised some concern that the economy would suffer, but sales of black clothing, at least, are booming.

The commerce ministry’s director-general of internal trade Nuntawan Sakuntanaga has called on consumers to put off purchases of mourning wear until manufacturers can catch up with demand.

“The supply of black shirts may be low for a few days but g a r m e n t manufacturers have insisted that there will not be a shortage, while they will quote prices as normal,” she said, according to The Nation.Since the king’s death, black clothing was being sold at double the normal price in some cases, Nuntawan said.

Price-gougers could face fines of up to 140,000 baht ($3,900) and seven years in jail, she added.

Bhumibol was the only king most Thais have ever known, a father figure with an image of moral rectitude whose loss has profoundly touched millions in the country.

On Friday tens of thousands of his grieving subjects, many holding aloft portraits of the king, lined the route of a motorcade that bore his body to the royal palace in Bangkok from the hospital were he died at the age of 88.

and none of the students, nor the bus driver, witnessed any type of altercation or incident,” Luten said, adding that the principal has one more child to interview and has not been able to get in contact with the Usmani family since Friday.

Usmani, 38, first came to the US as a Fulbright Scholar from Pakistan and currently works as a Chief Technology Officer of a Silicon Valley data software company.

Usmani said his family was harassed by a neighbour for months because of their religion, and that his other son has been called a terrorist.

“Times are changing and it’s not the America we always thought of and believed in. It’s not the America that I studied in,” Usmani said.

“If Trump wins, America will be great again, but a great that nobody will care about,” he said.

Usmani said the irony of the alleged discrimination is he has been working to combat the effects of terrorism and has worked with the UN’s Special Envoy for Global Education on a safe school initiative in Pakistan.

Usmani said his family will stay in Pakistan until after the election to see if Trump is elected to determine if his family feels safe enough to return.

Washington Passengers and flight crews will be banned from bringing Samsung Galaxy Note 7 smartphones on airline flights under an emergency order issued Friday by the Department of Transportation in response to reports of the phones catching fire.The order, which goes into effect on Saturday at noon EDT, says the phones may not be carried on board or packed in checked bags on flights to and from the United States or within the country. The phones also can’t be shipped as air cargo.

The department initially said that passengers attempting to board planes with the phones might face fines, but later clarified that such passengers will simply not be allowed on planes.

Passengers who try to evade the ban by packing the phone in their checked luggage may be

subject to criminal prosecution in addition to fines. Packing the phones in checked luggage increases the risk of a “catastrophic incident,” the department said.Passengers who are currently travelling with Samsung Galaxy Note7 phones should contact Samsung or their wireless carrier immediately to obtain information about how to return their phones and arrange for a refund or a replacement phone, the department said.

Samsung has recalled more than 2.5 million of the smartphones, citing a battery manufacturing error. The South Korean company discontinued the product earlier this week, less than two months after its August release.The Consumer Product Safety Commission says there have been nearly 100 reports of batteries in Note 7 phones overheating in the US.

Medical delivery drones take flight over Rwanda MUHANGA, Rwanda “Three, two, one, launch!” And with that, catapulted from a ramp, the small fixed-wing drone buzzes into the air towards its pre-programmed destination, the Kabgayi hospital two kilometres away. On Friday Rwanda inaugurated a drone operation that its backers hope will kickstart a revolution in the supply of medical care in rural parts of Africa, in the first instance by delivering batches of blood to 21 clinics in the west of the country. Maternal mortality rates in Africa are among the highest in the world, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO), largely due to postpartum haemorrhage caused by lack of access to simple blood transfusions.

Rwanda is no exception, and the situation here is worsened by the topography of a country dubbed “the land of a thousand hills” as well as intense seasonal rains making the transport of blood by road often long and difficult.

Blood “is a very precious commodity so you cannot just stock a lot of it in every single heath centre,” said Keller Rinaudo, CEO of Zipline, a California-based robotics company that designed the 15 drones and the base housing them in Muhanga, 50 kilometres (31 miles) west of the capital Kigali.

Rinaudo hopes his drone delivery

system will “allow the Rwandan government to instantly deliver life-saving transfusions to any citizen in the country in 15 to 30

hour, it is predicted each drone could make as many as 150 deliveries a day.

At the tent that serves as a

minutes.” US package-delivery giant UPS and global vaccine alliance Gavi have invested $1.1 million (one million euros) in the Zipline project, one of a handful on the continent seeking to harness the potential of delivery drones to overcome poor infrastructure. For the Rwandan government blood delivery by drone is not cheaper, but it promises to be much faster.

The drones dubbed “Zips” are shaped like a fat-bellied miniature plane with a two-metre (six-foot) wingspan.

They are battery-powered with a range of around 150 kilometres, weigh 13 kilos (29 pounds) and can carry a cargo of about 1.5 kilos, or three bags of blood.

Flying at up to 70 kilometres per

launch station, Zipline technicians monitor the drones from laptops while others prepare the payload: small cardboard boxes with paper parachutes that will hold the transfusion blood and be dropped from a height of around 20 metres.

As the test flights were carried out curious residents peered through the fence, watching as the drones were flung into the air, returning after dropping their cargo at the hospital, and landing on an inflatable mattress.

Zipline plans to open a second base in Rwanda next year meaning the whole of the tiny country will be within range.

“These flights will save lives,” said Gregg Svingen, head of communications at UPS.

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Experts discover ‘cavities’ in Egypt’s Great Pyramid Cairo Egypt’s Great Pyramid of Giza could contain two previously unknown “cavities”, scientists using radiography to scan the millennia-old monument said on Saturday.

On Thursday, the antiquities

ministry cautiously announced finding “two anomalies” in the pyramid built 4,500 years ago under King Khufu, with further tests to determine their function, nature and size.

At 146 metres tall, Khufu pyramid, named after the son of pharaoh Snefru, is considered one of the seven wonders of the ancient world.

It has three known chambers, and like other pyramids in Egypt

was intended as a pharaoh’s tomb.

“We are now able to confirm the existence of a ‘void’ hidden behind the north face, that could have the form of at least one corridor going inside the Great Pyramid,” scientists from

Operation ScanPyramids said in a statement.

Another “cavity” was discovered on the pyramid’s northeast flank, said the researchers who are using radiography and 3D reconstruction for their study.

Operation ScanPyramids began in October last year to search for hidden rooms inside Khufu and its neighbour Khafre in Giza, as well as the Bent and Red pyramids in Dahshur, all

south of Cairo.

The project applies a mix of infrared thermography, muon radiography imaging and 3D reconstruction - all of which the researchers say are noninvasive and non-destructive techniques.

Muons are “similar to X-rays which can penetrate the body and allow bone imaging” and “can go through hundreds of meters of stone before being absorbed,” ScanPyramids explained in a statement.

“Judiciously placed detectors for example inside a pyramid, below a potential, unknown chamber - can then record particle tracks and discern cavities from denser regions.”

In late 2015, Egypt started radar scans of Tutankhamun’s tomb in the Valley of the Kings in southern Egypt, after a British archaeologist theorised that Nefertiti was buried in a secret chamber there.

Nicholas Reeves suggested that Tutankhamun’s tomb was in fact Nefertiti’s, and when the boy king died unexpectedly at a young age, he was rushed into her tomb’s outer chamber.

But Egyptologists have since differed on whether there is a secret chamber in the tomb and further analysis is expected.

4,000-year-old rock paintings found in Spanish resort town

MADRID Rock paintings dating back about 14,000 years have been found in a cave in a Spanish seaside resort town, the local government has announced.

About 50 paintings measuring up to 150 centimetres (60 inches) and depicting horses, bisons and lions were found in a cave “extremely difficult to access” and located under a building in the centre of Lekeitio in the Basque country, senior local official Andoni Iturbe told AFP. Cave specialists and

archaeologists have examined the paintings found in May and declared them to be the most “spectacular and striking” of their kind ever found in the Iberian peninsula.The cave would not be opened to the public both to preserve the paintings and because it is difficult to access.

Experts will hold a special congress at the end of the month to discuss the findings. The cave of Altamira with prehistoric bison paintings in Spain’s Cantabria region is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

An accidental shooting kills a child every other day in US Washington Hours earlier, he was a happy 4year-old who loved Ironman and the Hulk and all the Avengers.

Now, as Bryson MeesHernandez approached death in a Houston hospital room, his brain swelling through the bullet hole in his face, his mother assured the boy it was OK to die.

“When you are on the other side,” his mother, Crystal Mees, recalls telling him, “you are going to see Mommy cry a lot. It’s not because she’s mad. It’s because she misses you.”

And this: “It’s not your fault.”

But whose fault was it?

Bryson shot himself last January with a .22-caliber Derringer his grandmother kept under the bed.

It was an accident, but one that could be blamed on many factors, from his grandmother’s negligence to the failure of government and industry to find ways to prevent his death and so many others.The Associated Press and the USA TODAY Network set out to determine just how many others there have been.The findings: During the first six months of this year, minors died from accidental shootings — at their own hands, or at the hands of other children or adults — at a pace of one every other day, far more than limited federal statistics indicate.

Tragedies like the death of Bryson Mees-Hernandez play out repeatedly across the country. Curious toddlers find unsecured, loaded handguns in

their homes and vehicles, and fatally shoot themselves and others. Teenagers, often showing off guns to their friends and siblings, end up shooting them

or injured in the shootings, the vast majority of which were selfinflicted.Accidental shootings spike again for ages 15-17, when victims are most often fatally

in accidental shootings involving minors. Nearly 700 other children and 78 adults were injured.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported

instead. Using information collected by the Gun Violence Archive, a nonpartisan research group, news reports and public sources, the media outlets spent six months analyzing the circumstances of every death and injury from accidental shootings involving children ages 17 and younger from Jan. 1, 2014, to June 30 of this year more than 1,000 incidents in all.

Among the findings: Deaths and injuries spike for children under 5, with 3-year-olds the most common shooters and victims among young children.

Nearly 90 3-year-olds were killed

shot by other children but typically survive self-inflicted gunshots.They most often happen at the children’s homes, with handguns legally owned by adults for self-protection. They are more likely to occur on weekends or around holidays such as Christmas.

States in the South, including Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, Tennessee and Georgia, are among those with the highest per capita rates of accidental shootings involving minors.In all, more than 320 minors age 17 and under and more than 30 adults were killed

that 74 minors died from accidental discharges of firearms in 2014, the latest year for which comparable data are available.

The AP and USA TODAY analysis counted 113 for that year, suggesting the federal government missed a third of the cases. While accidental shootings account for only a fraction of firearm deaths in the U.S., gun safety advocates have long argued that they are largely preventable and thus prefer to call them unintentional shootings, rather than accidental.“The extent of the problem is a little bit shocking.

The extent of the undercount is a little bit shocking,” said Lindsay Nichols, an attorney at the Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence in San Francisco. “A lot of it provides further evidence that this is such a horrible pattern that continues and that more action is needed.”Gun control advocates demand stricter laws requiring guns to be kept locked up and unloaded. But gun rights supporters argue those measures make guns less useful in emergencies; citing CDC statistics, the National Rifle Association argues in public statements that such deaths have declined significantly in recent decades and that the chance of a child dying in a firearms accident is “one in one million.”Bob Anderson, chief of the mortality statistics branch of the CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics, suggested the NRA was citing statistics that underestimate the risk guns represent to American children.

He would not, he said, “put money on that interpretation.”

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18 - 24 Oct., 2016

Europe heads for Mars in search of life PARIS Thirteen years after its first, failed attempt to place a rover on Mars, Europe reaches a crucial stage Sunday in a fresh quest to scour the Red Planet for signs of life, this time with Russia.

Mission controllers will instruct a spacecraft about 175 million kilometres (109 million miles) from Earth to release and steer a paddling pool-sized lander towards the Red Planet’s cold, dry surface.Scheduled to arrive next Wednesday (October 19), the short-lived lander’s sole purpose is to prepare the way for a subsequent rover which will drill into Mars in search of extraterrestrial life.“Our goal here is to prove we can get to the surface, do science, take data,” European Space Agency (ESA)

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science advisor Mark McCaughrean said ahead of Sunday’s lander-release manoeuvres.Dubbed

second phase, due for launch in 2020 after a two-year funding delay, is the ExoMars rover, for which Schiaparelli will be testing

Schiaparelli, the 600kilogramme (1,300-pound) lander will separate from its mothership, the Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO), after a sevenmonth, 496 million-kilometre (308 million-mile) trek from Earth.The lander and the TGO which will enter into orbit around Mars to sniff its atmosphere for gases excreted by living organisms - comprise the first phase of the joint EuropeanRussian ExoMars project. The

entry and soft-landing technology.

More than half of US, Russian and European attempts to land and operate craft on the Martian surface since the 1960s have failed.

The last time Europe tried, the British-built Beagle 2 disappeared without a trace

Indonesian gay couple arrested over Facebook photo that showed them kissing

Jakarta | An Indonesian gay couple has been arrested after a photo on Facebook of the men kissing sparked anger, police said on Friday, in the latest move against the country’s homosexual community.There has been a growing backlash against gay people in the world’s most populous Muslim-majority country this year, with government ministers and religious leaders lining up to denounce them.The 22-year-old university student and 24-yearold office worker were arrested Tuesday in the city of Manado, on central Sulawesi island, after social media users complained about the picture of them kissing in bed, police said.“The couple admitted it’s them in the picture and they posted the picture to prove their love,” local police spokesman Marzuki, who like many Indonesians goes by one name, told AFP.Homosexuality is not illegal in Indonesia, but police plan to charge the men

with breaking anti-pornography laws and under tough legislation governing internet content.The couple, who are not in police custody and whose identities were not disclosed, could be jailed if found guilty.After the picture was posted on October 9, it went viral and sparked a flood of angry responses.

The image was removed from Facebook after a request from the communications and information technology ministry, local media reported.The case follows criticism of the government after the youth and sports ministry this week barred members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community from applying for a job.The online advertisement for the post of creative youth ambassador said candidates should “not be involved in casual sex or deviant acts, including LGBT”, and that this should be proven with a doctor’s certificate.The ad was revised, with the part about LGBT

after separating from the Mars Express mothership in December 2003. It was finally spotted in January 2015 in a NASA picture of Mars. It showed that even though Beagle 2 failed to establish contact, it had successfully landed.

The United States is alone in having successfully operated rovers on Mars. If there is life on Mars, it is unlikely to be found on the surface, which is bombarded by ultraviolet and cosmic rays. But scientists say traces of methane in Mars’ thin atmosphere may be an indicator of something stirring underground.

Methane also does not survive the Sun’s ultraviolet rays for long, McCaughrean explained. “And so for it actually to exist in the Martian atmosphere, it must be coming from something. Something must be making methane.”

One possible source is underground volcanoes. Another is life: single-celled microbes called methanogens, which on

Earth live in places without oxygen such as animal stomachs, where they convert carbon dioxide into methane.

It is hoped that the ExoMars rover - equipped to drill twometres (six feet) below the surface - will yield some clues as to the provenance of Mars’ methane.

In the meantime, Schiaparelli’s exploits will be crucial in designing the rover’s landing gear.The lander will separate from the TGO around 1430 GMT on Sunday, about a million kilometres (621,000 miles) from the Red Planet.

It will enter the atmosphere on Wednesday at an altitude of some 121 km and a speed of nearly 21,000 km (13,000 miles) per hour.The hot and bumpy trip through Mars’ atmosphere will take six minutes.

To protect the lander, an “aeroshell” will absorb and dissipate the heat generated by atmospheric drag for the first three or four minutes.

When it has reached an altitude of 11 km and slowed to 1,700 km/hr, a supersonic parachute will be deployed, the ESA said.

China’s last Tiananmen prisoner set to be freed after 27 years in prison Beijing China’s last-known prisoner held in relation to the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests will reportedly be released Saturday, but he’ll face freedom a frail and mentally ill man, a rights group and a fellow former inmate said. Miao Deshun’s expected release follows an 11-month sentence reduction, according to the Dui Hua Foundation, a San Francisco-based group that advocates for the rights of political prisoners in China.

The 51-year-old former factory worker is severely ill after spending more than half his life behind bars, said Dui Hua’s executive director, John Kamm, in an email.Tanks and troops converged in Beijing to quash pro-democracy protests on the night of June 3-4, 1989, killing hundreds, possibly thousands, of people. Authorities later jailed more than 1,600 people around the country for crimes linked to the demonstrations. Nearly three decades later, young Chinese know little of the events that marked the last major popular challenge to Communist rule in the mainland and remain a taboo.

Dui Hua said in May that Miao was due to be released Saturday. The date could not be independently verified. The Ministry of Public Security and the Beijing Higher People’s Court did not respond to faxed requests for comment.

Miao was sentenced to death with a two-year reprieve in 1989 for throwing a basket into a burning tank, an act considered

arson by the court. His sentence was commuted to life imprisonment in 1991, and further reduced over the years.

“That’s why he was moved to another unit reserved for the ‘diehards.'”

For that, Miao often endured

“No one other than prison officials or other prisoners in the ward for sick and disabled prisoners have seen him for many years,” Kamm said. Miao suffers from hepatitis B and schizophrenia and is being held at the Yanqing Prison, a facility in a Beijing suburb that has a ward for elderly and ill prisoners, Dui Hua said.

During his time at the Beijing No. 1 Prison, Miao refused to accept the charges leveled against him or sign declarations of repentance, according to a former fellow inmate, Wu Wenjian.

Wu, then a factory worker, was also serving a sentence for involvement in the Tiananment protest. He spent four years in the same prison units as Miao.

“As time passed, Miao became very stubborn and refused to do hard labor, refused re-education, refused to write repentance letters,” Wu said in an interview.

heavier punishments than other inmates, and prison guards frequently beat him and tortured him with electric batons, Wu said.“It is already a miracle that he is alive. We all thought he would not make it out of this,” Wu said.According to Dui Hua, Miao has spent time in solitary confinement and has had no contact with the outside world for many years. He was transferred to Yanqing in 2003.

China has never fully disclosed what happened when the military crushed the 1989 weeklong protests, which authorities branded a “counterrevolutionary riot.” The decades since have seen breakneck economic growth and the ruling Communist Party relinquish much of its dayto-day control over many aspects of society. The party retains a tight grip on dissent that has intensified under President Xi Jinping.

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18 - 24 Oct., 2016

As Thais mourn, tourists cautioned against behaving badly Bangkok Embassies in Thailand have advised tourists to respect the feelings of the Thai people following the death of King

Bhumibol Adulyadej, a man seen as a father-figure in the country.King Bhumibol, who was the world’s longest-reigning monarch, died on Thursday aged 88, sparking an outpouring of grief.The government has declared one year of official mourning and asked Thais to wear black and avoid “festivities” for 30 days.Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha, however, has called on businesses to stay active. The cabinet declared a government holiday for mourning on Friday but the Stock

Exchange of Thailand and banks operated normally.Britain’s Foreign Office said in a travel advisory those travelling to Thailand to be respectful of

people’s feelings.“You should respect the sensitivities of the Thai people at this time; access to entertainment, including restaurants, bars and shopping areas may be restricted and you should behave respectfully when in public areas,” it said.Tropical Thailand, with its beaches, Buddhist temples and infamous night life, remains a magnate for travellers despite weathering more than a decade of unrest, including two coups, floods in 2011 and a wave of bombs in tourist towns in August.The

Dutch politician Wilders to face trial for inciting racial hatred

The Hague Anti-Islam politician Geert Wilders can be tried on charges of inciting racial hatred, a court in The Hague ruled on Friday, setting the stage for a politically charged test of freedom of speech laws in the Netherlands.Judge Hendrik Steenhuis dismissed Wilders’ lawyers arguments that he was being singled out, saying prosecutors have broad leeway in determining when they think someone has crossed the line from offensive speech to discriminatory speech.Wilders is accused of discrimination and inciting racism for remarks in 2014, televised live, in which he led a roomful of followers in chanting that they wanted “fewer” Moroccans in the Netherlands.Steenhuis set the start date for the three-week trial on October 31, meaning a verdict would be likely in

December – well ahead of national elections in March.Wilders’ far-right Freedom Party is neck-and-neck with Prime Minister Mark Rutte’s ruling conservative VVD Party in popularity polls.Wilders response to the ruling was that he was being “prosecuted for what millions (of Dutch people) think”. Via Twitter he also indicated he thinks the process against him is politically motivated.In 2011, he was acquitted of inciting racial hatred charges for calling for the Quran to be banned and for the deportation of “criminal” Moroccans. Judges said that his remarks, while offensive to some, were within the bounds of legitimate political discourse.Many observers felt the trial helped increase his popularity as he was able to showcase himself as a champion of free speech.

country expects a record 33 million visitors this year.The government has not announced specific restrictions on nightlife but it is at least likely to be subdued.Thailand’s laws protecting the royal family from insult are among the strictest in the world.Article 112 of the criminal code says anyone who “defames, insults or threatens the king, queen, heir-apparent or regent” will be punished with up to 15 years in prison.Foreigners have been jailed for breaking the law.In 2009, an Australian writer was sentenced to three years in prison for a passage in his 2005 novel deemed insulting to the monarchy. He was later released.In 2007, a Swiss man was sentenced to 10 years in prison for spray-painting graffiti over posters of King Bhumibol, apparently while drunk. He was later released.“We recommend the following for residents and tourists: exercise caution and observe public order laws ... maximum respect for the sentiment of the Thai people,” the Italian Embassy in Bangkok said.The government said it had increased security around the country following the king’s death.“Stupid behaviour right now is totally out of the question,” said Didier Arnault, a French national living in Bangkok’s historic quarter near royal palaces.

Woman found dead at wealthy Indianorigin family’s house in UK, probe launched

London A woman was found dead at a wealthy Indian-origin family’s home in an upscale area here, prompting British police to launch a murder probe into the incident.Harcharanjit Matharu, 58, his wife Baldev, 60, and daughters Ranjeeta, 26, and Rupinder, 33, are believed to reside in the one-million-pound home in the upmarket neighbourhood of Gerrards Cross in Buckinghamshire.

Emergency services rushed there after screams were heard from the home. The woman, in her 30s, was found dead in the property earlier this week.

Police refused to reveal the identity of the woman and details of the autopsy.

Police launched a murder inquiry on Thursday after a postmortem was conducted and a man was arrested on suspicion of murder, according to The Sun. “At around 5.50 PM on Monday, officers attended a property following a report that a woman in her thirties had died. A Home Office post-mortem examination

was carried out and following this, the Force’s Major Crime Unit has launched a murder investigation. A scene watch is currently in place at the property,” a Thames Valley Police spokesperson said.

Senior investigating officer, Detective Chief Inspector Simon Steel of the Major Crime Unit said, “We are appealing for anyone with information regarding this incident to come forward”.“We sent two rapid response vehicles, an ambulance crew and an ambulance officer.

They were assessing a woman in her 30s and sadly they confirmed one patient was dead at the scene,” South Central Ambulance Service’s spokesperson said.An adjoining bungalow to the home at the centre of the murder probe was built for the family’s car leasing firm’s employees to live in.

Neighbours said both homes are owned by the Matharu family.

The family firm is valued at twomillion pounds. The firm is run from a property in nearby Denham area.

Pakistan delays Christian woman’s blasphemy appeal after judge steps down Islamabad | Pakistan’s Supreme Court delayed an appeal into the infamous blasphemy case against Asia Bibi, the Christian mother on death row, on Thursday after one of the judges stepped down.Security was beefed up in Islamabad with police and troops stationed across the capital as the court readied to hear a final appeal in the case of Asia Bibi, who has been on death row since 2010.

Observers had warned of “tremendous” repercussions in the case.But one of the threejudge bench, Justice Iqbal Hameed ur Rehman, told the court he had to recuse himself, claiming a conflict of interest.“I was a part of the bench that was hearing the case of Salmaan Taseer, and this case is related to that,” he told the court, which was overflowing with journalists, lawyers, activists and clerics.Taseer, a liberal provincial governor, was gunned down in Islamabad in 2011 after speaking out for Bibi.His assassin, Mumtaz Qadri, was hanged earlier in 2016 in a step liberals hailed as progressive, but which brought hardliners into the streets calling for Bibi’s death.Rehman was chief justice on the Islamabad High Court which heard Qadri’s appeal in

2011, according to local media.The Supreme Court did not immediately set a new date

a violent and bloody death at the hands of vigilantes.Rights groups complain the controversial

for Bibi’s appeal.Observers have called the case a battle for Pakistan’s soul as the state walks a line between upholding human rights and appeasing hardliners.Clerics at the influential Red Mosque in Islamabad warned they would launch a nationwide protest if Bibi is released.Police said up to 3,000 security forces had been sent out across the capital.Bibi’s lawyer Saif-ul-Mulook called the Red Mosque threat “big”.“I hope the government takes it very seriously and takes care of our security,” he told media outside the court on Thursday.

Blasphemy is a hugely sensitive issue in Pakistan. Anyone even accused of insulting Islam risks

legislation is often abused to carry out personal vendettas, mainly against minority Christians.Bibi was convicted and sentenced to hang in 2010 after an argument with a Muslim woman over a bowl of water. Her supporters maintain her innocence and insist it was a personal dispute, and the Vatican has called for her release.But successive appeals have been rejected, and if the Supreme Court bench eventually upholds Bibi’s conviction her only recourse will be a direct appeal to the president for clemency.If that fails, she could become the first person in Pakistan to be executed for blasphemy.

Issue - 689 (34)

18 - 24 Oct., 2016

Canadian police probing fire that burnt down Indian-origin family’s motel Toronto Police in the Canadian province of Alberta are investigating a fire that burned down a motel run by an Indo-Canadian family and claimed one life, with authorities looking into the possibility that the incident was a hate crime.The fire occurred over the weekend at Bashaw Motor Inn, run by the Tiwana family in the rural town of Bashaw.The wife and two sons of the motel’s owner were taken to hospital with fire-related injuries though he is yet to be located, leading to the belief that the remains of one person found at the site could be his.The results of an autopsy, not yet released, will confirm the identity of the deceased and the cause of death.The Alberta Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) confirmed “there was graffiti damage to property located on the premises of the Bashaw Motor Inn”.

Spokesperson Corporal Ronald Bumbry referred to the graffiti and told the Hindustan Times: “Basically, it did contain a racial slur.” However, the RCMP is unwilling to link the fire to that at this stage of the investigation, nor is it releasing information about the nature of the slur. “At this time, police have no

information to indicate the mischief to property and motel fire are related in any way,” the RCMP said in a statement.The Tiwana family have owned and operated the inn for more than a decade. One of the two sons has

been discharged from hospital.“No arrests” have been made yet, the RCMP spokesperson said, and police are still “determining what caused the fire”.The tragedy has shaken the small rural community of Bashaw, which has a population of less than 900.

“It has been difficult, it has impacted residents. We’re definitely feeling for the family,” the town’s chief administrative officer Theresa Fuller said.The town’s residents have started

Pakistan cuts down PIA flights from Karachi to Delhi, Mumbai

NEW DELHI Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) has cut down its flights from Karachi to Delhi and Mumbai.

The airline has attributed this to poor traffic in the recent past, which indicates a fall in travel between the two countries post the A statement issued by PIA on Saturday said: "Reference media queries regarding PIA's flights to India, PIA spokesman has clarified that Lahore-Delhi flights are operating normally.

However, due to very poor load during last three to four weeks, few of the Karachi-Delhi and Karachi-Mumbai are being cancelled." The statement added, "Passengers who had reservations on these cancelled flights have either been accommodated on PIA's subsequent flights or rerouted to Pakistan through other airlines.

Passengers facing any difficulty in getting reservations are advised to contact PIA offices in New Delhi and Mumbai."

While no Indian carrier flies to Pakistan, PIA is the only airline that flies directly between the two countries. Before Saturday's decision, it had five flights a week to India — one on Delhi-Karachi route and two each on DelhiLahore and Mumbai-Karachi sectors.

Pakistan has been imposing restrictions on flying over its airspace in Karachi and Lahore . Indian carriers that fly abroad — Air India, Jet, IndiGo and SpiceJet have had to change the routes of some of their flights.After the Uri attack, PMO had sought details of aviation ties between the two countries which include direct flights and allowing airlines of one country to fly over the other. India is examining whether these should be allowed to continue, but has exercised utmost restraint in taking any decision.

Overflying is clearly the more critical part for airlines of both the countries.

several drives to raise money for the survivors. Among them is an online GoFundMe fundraiser that has yielded more than Canadian $10,000 so far. Town resident Jackie Northey, who started it, said this was because “the family

is part of our community and they belong to our community.

They have lost not just a business but their home.”The facts of what actually happened in the episode will take a while to be established as the police sift through the evidence in the charred remains of the inn they are considering “to be a crime scene until proven otherwise”.Meanwhile, the Pakistan Army’s top commanders on Friday expressed serious concern at the publication of a “false and fabricated story” about an important security meeting held at the Prime Minister’s House “in a national English language

daily”.Army chief Gen Raheel Sharif chaired the conference of the Corps Commanders at the General Headquarters, during which participants said they viewed the report as a “breach of national security”, according to the military’s media wing.The commanders carried out a review of the internal and external security situation, with “particular focus on the prevailing situation on the Line of Control and army’s operational preparedness”, the military said.On Thursday, the interior minister had defended the imposition of the travel ban and

told reporters that Almeida would not be allowed to leave Pakistan until the completion of a government committee’s inquiry into the report.

The committee will decide if anyone is to be prosecuted for the story, he added.The government denied the report three times but the Dawn stood by the story and Almeida, a columnist and assistant editor at Pakistan’s most influential English daily. He also received support from other media organisations and rights groups in Pakistan and abroad.

US to ban eyeglasses from passport, visa photos from Nov Washington The US?state department is banning passport and visa applicants from wearing eyeglasses in photos taken for the documents.In a notice published Friday, the department says that effective November 1, applicants must remove glasses for passport and visa photographs.

It says the step is being taken to “eliminate glares and shadows” that can cause delays in processing the applications and to ensure consistent photo standards.

Only in rare circumstances, if applicants have “documented

medical necessity during urgent travel” will glasses be allowed.

The department says it expects to process a record number of passports more than 20 million in the current budget year that ends next October.

New computer glitch delays United Airlines flights

PARIS Thousands of passengers were delayed worldwide after a computer glitch temporarily halted departures at United Airlines, the latest in a series of outages to affect rival companies in the industry.

United said on Twitter that an issue with its weight reporting system delayed flights starting Thursday, and it resolved the problem by 3 AM EDT (07:00 GMT) on Friday. The No.3 US airline by passenger traffic is working to determine the cause, its spokesman said Friday.

Weight and balance systems calculate a plane’s centre of gravity and if it is carrying no more than it can handle to fly.

On Friday, delays often lasted 10 to 20 minutes due to United’s crew having to handle some tasks manually, the spokesman said. But some passengers reported they had to wait aboard planes or inside terminals for several hours.

“On the plane for more than an hour, away from the gate and no communication.

What’s happening?,” one passenger tweeted.

In Paris, passengers complained as check-in lines grew for a flight to New York, a Reuters reporter said on Friday morning.

As of 5:00 PM EDT (21:00 GMT), United had cancelled 11 flights and delayed 216, or 9 percent of its operation, according to flight

tracking website FlightAware.com.

The large size of global airlines and their need to automate systems to be reliable mean recovering from glitches will almost always take some time, despite investment and redundancies, said Bob Edwards, United’s former chief information officer until 2014.

This is the third computer glitch recently to hit United’s owner United Continental Holdings Inc and the latest in a series of problems that have tested airlines’ reliance on aging technology.

This has prompted some experts to question whether the airline industry has invested enough in technology infrastructure, given new profits from baggage and cancellation fees.

On June 2, 2015 software needed to dispatch United’s flight plan briefly lost functionality.

In July 2015, the same airline’s

flights were disrupted after a computer problem blocked access to reservations records.

This August, Delta Air Lines Inc cancelled thousands of flights and delayed many others after a power outage hit its computer systems.

And in September, a systemwide computer problem at British Airways caused significant delays. After the previous incidents, United said it had invested in backup plans.

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18 - 24 Oct., 2016

BCCI’s bonus to Team India for No. 1 Serena Williams pulls out of season-ending WTA ranking also needs Lodha nod: Thakur Finals with shoulder injury

New Delhi Push has come to shove and Monday could well be the D-Day for the Indian cricket board in its ongoing tussle over its opposition to implementing the Justice RM Lodha committee report in full. The BCCI counsel will provide the sports body’s arguments before the Supreme Court, but it remains to be seen how the court sees Saturday’s special meeting of the board’s full members where the decision was to let the case first reach its logical conclusion. The court, in its October 7 hearing, had asked the state units to file affidavits that they would follow the Lodha report to receive funds

from the BCCI. BCCI president Anurag Thakur is the man in the spotlight. Added to it, he is also supposed to file an affidavit in the Supreme Court explaining his interaction with his predecessor in the Indian board and current ICC chairman, Shashank Manohar. The court directive came in the wake of reports that a letter was sought from the global body to the effect that inclusion of a Comptroller and Auditor General’s office member in the Apex council as required by the Lodha report would amount to government interference. Thakur said the members have accepted all recommendations barring a few

New Delhi In what is going to be the judgment day for the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), the Supreme Court is set to come out with its verdict that should change the face of the influential sports body. The Supreme Court had asked the BCCI to submit an undertaking

by October 7 that it would unconditionally accept all the recommendations of the Lodha Committee. But the defiance of the BCCI is indication that the board is willing to break but not budge. The special meeting held in New Delhi on Saturday upheld the view that the board shouldn’t digress from its stand and allow its counsel, Kapil Sibal, to present its argument. Some associations are ready to amend their constitution but most are of the view that the

recommendations of ‘one state, one vote’, capping of tenure and cooling-off periods in between can’t be accepted under any circumstance. Monday should be the last chance for the BCCI to try and reason with the Supreme Court.

Given the Court’s no-nonsense attitude, however, the BCCI is braced for the worst. The apex court already warned the cricket body that it can’t pick and choose from the recommendations as it had done after a special general meeting on October 1. The court could well ask the top brass — president Anurag Thakur, secretary Ajay Shirke, treasurer Anirudh Chaudhry and joint secretary Amitabh Choudhary — to step down before appointing an ad-hoc committee that will ensure the Lodha Committee’s recommendations are

and that the Board would try to explain before the court on Monday the practical difficulties the state associations are facing. He said Saturday’s meeting in Delhi was more of a feedback exercise. “Our reservations to few of the issues still stand,” Thakur said.

He was non-committal on whether the Board and its members are ready to submit affidavits in the court to unconditionally accept the Lodha recommendations, the deadline for which is Monday.

“We will be meeting our lawyers tomorrow morning. Anyway, the SC has to see the problem the state associations are facing.

Many of them have thousands of members and they have to talk to everyone to reach a consensus. It will take time and can’t be done arbitrarily with the state association presidents taking the decision,” he said in an informal media interaction.

The BCCI has already opened a front against the Lodha committee members and Thakur listed another problem.

“We have decided to give the Test Team Rs 1 crore cash prize for becoming the No. 1 team in the world but again for this to happen, we will have to go back to the Lodha committee for approval.”

New york Serena Williams has withdrawn from the season-ending, elite WTA Finals in Singapore, saying she’s still working to recover from the shoulder troubles that have hindered her this season. The WTA announced Williams’ withdrawal from the event that starts on October 23 on their Twitter feed, posting a video of Williams herself explaining the decision. “Hey everyone in Singapore,” Williams said. “I’m really, really bummed that I won’t be able to come compete this year. “It’s been a really tough year for me just dealing so much with these shoulder injuries. My doctor insists that I stay home and heal it every single day.” The 22-time Grand Slam champion pulled out of two tournaments in China after

being knocked out of the semifinals of the US Open.

That defeat saw Williams’ 186week reign atop the world rankings end as Germany’s Angelique Kerber reached the summit and went on to captured the Flushing Meadows title.

Williams claimed just one Grand Slam title in 2016, at Wimbledon, and was runner-up at the Australian Open. After that, shoulder troubles hampered her in Rio where her hopes of a fifth Olympic gold medal were crushed in the third round. Though she begins her next year in Auckland, fans hoping to see her in Singapore will, no doubt, be disappointed by her withdrawal. She recently voted for Angelique Kerber as the Player of the Year and was also spotted going to a concert with Taylor Swift in New York.

Amid BCCI-SC tangle, Ganguly might land big role in remodelling the cricket body implemented in its entirety. In all likelihood, a former judge could be appointed as legal advisor to

the committee that could comprise only former players. If the court decides that is the way forward, former India skipper Sourav Ganguly could be heavily involved in the remodelling of the BCCI as he is the biggest name in cricket

administration right now. In 2014, Sunil Gavaskar was asked to head the BCCI during the IPL in the aftermath of the spot-fixing scandal. Ganguly, president of the Cricket Association of Bengal (CAB) for over a year now and part of two high-profile BCCI committees, could be the perfect candidate for the Supreme Court.

The biggest question is how long the judiciary will be willing to supervise the body if the BCCI remodelling kicks off on Monday.

Implementing all the recommendations in each state association is a time-consuming process and that could mean the

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BCCI might be without full-time office-bearers for a considerable period. And since many of the committees could be drastically pruned or even done away with, day-to-day functioning and representation of the board, the most powerful national cricket body, in the ICC could be an issue.

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18 - 24 Oct., 2016

LIFE FLICKERS AMID DEATH & DESTRUCTION

THIS is the incredible moment a young Syrian boy was found alive following Russian air strikes on a residential neighbourhood in Aleppo. The youngster was pulled from the rubble by White Helmet rescue workers in the rebel-held Fardous neighbourhood of the city. Photographs show him being given oxygen by medical staff before he was taken to hospital.

Russian jets resumed heavy bombing of rebel-held eastern Aleppo on Tuesday after several days of relative calm. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said that at least eight people were killed in the Bustan al-Qasr and Fardous neighbourhoods. The number of air strikes were reduced in Aleppo last week, which the Syrian army claimed was in part to allow civilians to leave rebel-held neighbourhoods. Another youngster affected by a bombing raid was recorded crying for her father as she was treated by medics. Covered in blood and with cuts to her head, the young girl called Aya repeatedly cries ‘Baba’, which is Arabic for daddy. Doctors wipe away blood from young Aya’s face and scalp after she was injured during bombing in Talbiseh in Homs.

The terrified young girl was caught up in air and mortar strikes on Monday, before she was rescued and taken to a field hospital for treatment. According to activist-run Talbiseh News, the town was hit with four strikes on Monday, in which two civilians were killed and many more injured, including children and babies. According to the news agency, Aya was later reunited with her father after she was treated in the medical centre. The town of Talbiseh, which has a population of 84,000, has suffered heavy bombing in recent weeks, after a sevenday ceasefire last month came to an end. Aid could reach the town only in September after July. Talbiseh lies close to the Lebanese border, and two hours south of the partly rebel-held Aleppo.

The ‘playboy’ king with wife in G-string

WEARING a tight, white crop top, his body adorned with temporary tattoos and holding a white fluffy poodle this is the 64-year-old new king of Thailand. The coronation of Crown Prince Maha Vajiralongkorn which has been delayed by four days while he mourns the death of his father has shone a spotlight on his colourful past. For the father-of-seven has three failed marriages, a love of fast jets and a reputation for having an explosive temper. During an attempted coup in Thailand in 2014, a film was published online of his third wife dressed in nothing but a black Gstring while she sang happy birthday to the royal

couple’s beloved pet poodle, Fufu. Following news of revered King Bhumibol’s death on Thursday, Thailand’s Prime Minister announced that Prince Maha described by one royal biographer as ‘a man prone to violence, fast cars and dubious business deals’ will ascend to the throne held by his father for 70 years. In May, the Crown Prince was pictured on the runway at Munich airport wearing a skimpy, torsobaring tank top, with fake tattoos covering the small of his back, chest and arms. The scantily clad woman standing beside him on the red carpet was Suthida Nui, a flight attendant who is believed to be his mistress. In stark contract to his father, who had one wife and a long and happy marriage lasting 66 years until his death, the prince has been married three times. His own mother Queen Sirikit, on a trip to the US in 1982, described him as something of a womaniser. “My son, the crown prince, is a little bit of a Don Juan. He is a good student, a good boy, but women find him interesting and he finds women even more interesting,” she told reporters.

Chemical castration for child sex offenders

PAEDOPHILES can be chemically castrated or executed under tough new laws passed by the Indonesian parliament. Repeat offenders and those who abuse family members face 10 to 20 years jail and courts can also order their chemical castration and tagging with a microchip. Those who murder their victims or leave them with permanent physical or psychological trauma, or give them a sexually transmitted disease, can be executed. The harsher penalties were prompted by the shocking rape and murder of 14-year-old girl Yuyun in Sumatra by a gang of 12 men and boys in May. Her battered body was found three days later in woods, tied up and naked. Seven teenagers, aged 16 and 17, were jailed soon after for their part in the incident.

Indonesia is a hotspot for Western paedophiles, with more than 100 sex criminals

caught travelling to the country since 2014 from Australia alone.

Australian man Robert Andrew Fiddes Ellis, who is on trial for the alleged sexual abuse of at least 11 girls ¬between the ages of eight and 17 in Bali, will be spared as the laws are not retroactive. He instead faces 16 years jail if convicted in the Denpasar District Court next Tuesday. Indonesia is the first Southeast Asian country to use chemical castration on sex offenders. Others are Russia, Poland, South Korea and some U.S. states.

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18 - 24 Oct., 2016

Health 7 most common reasons why your hair is falling out!

New Delhi Almost everyone experiences some type of hair loss as they age. But not all hair loss is the same; it could be due to several reasons, including hormonal changes, heredity, medications or some serious underlying conditions.

Hair loss is considered normal when you lose up to 100 hairs a day, but when this limit is crossed and a person has excessive hair shedding it may be a sign of more serious condition that needs an evaluation by a medical doctor and treatment. Here are some common reasons why your hair is falling out: Stress Both physical and emotional stress can cause hair loss. Intense physical stress such as childbirth, surgery, etc,

can result in hair loss for several months after delivery. Also, extreme mental stress and anxiety can contribute to hair loss.

Hormonal changes Hormonal changes, which take place as a result of various conditions, including pregnancy, childbirth or the onset of menopause can cause temporary hair loss.

Besides, man can also lose hair as their hormonal composition changes with age.

Thyroid disorders Perhaps, hair loss is a

common side effect of thyroid disorders. Both hypothyroidism (too little thyroid hormone) and hyperthyroidism (too much) can cause hair to fall out. Treating the thyroid disorder can help the hair grow back.

Lupus Thinning hair is often one of the first signs of lupus, an autoimmune disease that causes thinning of the hair on your scalp. Some people may experience thinning of the beard, eyebrows, eyelashes, and other body hair.

Medical conditions A long-term illness, such as cancer, liver disease or inflammatory bowel disease can lead to hair thinning. Also, skin conditions such as psoriasis and dermatitis can interfere with hair growth.

Medications Drugs used for cancer, arthritis, depression, heart problems, high blood pressure and birth control may cause hair loss.

Genetics Hereditary - pattern baldness - a natural condition caused by some combination of genetics, hormone levels and the aging process -is the most common cause of hair loss. Although, this hereditary condition usually occurs in both male and female, it is most common in men and can begin as early as puberty.

Try these home remedies to treat high blood pressure!

New Delhi High blood pressure is a chronic medical condition which boost the risk of developing many health related problems like heart disease, stroke and kidney failure.

People get to know that they have high blood pressure is by getting it measured by a professional. But, one can treat their high blood pressure without any medication with the help of natural remedies.

Here are some home remedies to treat high blood pressure: Garlic Include garlic in your daily diet if you want to treat your high blood

pressure because it acts as a natural medicine and helps in lowering cholesterol. It also keeps the blood pressure in check.

Onion and honey Start having a cup of onion juice with two table spoon of honey daily to lower your blood pressure.

Carrot Drink a glass of carrot and spinach juice twice a day to lower your blood pressure.

Beet root Beet root juice is also helps in lowering your blood pressure. SO, drink this healthy juice twice a day to treat high blood pressure.

Want to get rid of Talking to a nurse may persuade acne? Eat these foods! smokers to quit smoking

New York Talking to a trained nurse might help smokers to quit smoking, a study has found.The research shows that selfreported quit rates increased when nurses and other staff members were trained to coach patients on how to stop smoking.”Hospitalisation is the perfect time to help people quit. They are more motivated and nurses can explain how smoking harms their health, including slowing healing,” said Sonia Duffy, Professor at The Ohio State University in the study published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.The study looked at the quit rates of 1,528 patients,

who were discharged from the hospital after six months. Those who had been treated met with a nurse who had undergone a one-hour training on how to help people quit smoking.Six months after release, 16.5 per cent of the smokers from the intervention hospitals said they did quit, compared to 5.7 per cent from other hospitals. The researchers also looked at lab-confirmed quit rates based on urine tests and found a twofold difference among patients from intervention hospitals, but that data was not considered statistically significant.

According to the study, many smokers, even those who plan to quit, start smoking the minute they leave the hospital. Getting them started with a quitting plan while they are admitted to hospitals boosts their chances of success.”I hope hospital administrators will look beyond telephone quit lines to help people. Nurses have the greatest access to patients, they have relationships with patients and they can relate the benefits of quitting to the patient’s medical condition,” Duffy added.

New Delhi Nobody likes to have ugly acne marks and unwanted dark spots on their face. Acne is a common skin problem that occurs when oil and dead skin cells clog up your pores.It can pop up any time and its causes are many. It could be a genetic problem or hormonal or constipation or simply lifestyle issues. But one can simple prevent and cure acne by eating the right and healthy foods. Here are some foods that will help to get rid of acne: Spinach If you want to get of acne then include lots of green veggies like spinach in your daily diet. Being rich in chlorophyll, spinach

helps cleanse bacteria and toxins from the digestive tract and blood stream. The green veggie is also rich in Vitamin A that acts as an anti-acne agent.

Turmeric Turmeric helps in curing acne as it fights inflammation and brightens the appearance of the skin. It also acts as a natural remedy against internal bacteria and

toxins that lead to acne.

Carrots Eat lots of carrots along with a healthy diet to get rid of acne as they are rich in Vitamin A in the form of beta-carotene that work against it.

Salmon Salmon helps in getting rid of acne as it contains high amount of omega 3 fats, protein that boosts collagen in the skin and helps fight inflammation.

Issue 689 (38)

18 - 24 Oct., 2016

Depression symptoms may influence lung cancer survival Washington DC Worsening depression symptoms are associated with shorter survival for lung cancer patients, particularly those in the early stages of disease, according to a recent study.

On the other hand, when depression symptoms lift, survival tends to improve, researchers found. Lead author Donald R. Sullivan said, “Surprisingly, depression remission was associated with a mortality benefit as they had the same mortality as never-depressed patients.”

“This study cannot prove causation - but it lends support to the idea that surveillance for depression symptoms and treatment for depression could provide significant impact on patient outcomes, perhaps even a mortality benefit,” he said.

The researchers followed more than 1,700 patients newly diagnosed with lung cancer between 2003 and 2005 who had completed an eight-item depression assessment at diagnosis and again 12 months later.

Almost 40 percent, 681 people had depressive symptoms at diagnosis

and 14 percent, 105 people, developed newonset symptoms during treatment. Overall, those who were depressed at the beginning of the study period were 17 percent more likely to die during follow-up than those without depressive symptoms.

Compared to the 640 people, who never developed depression symptoms, the 105 with new-onset symptoms were 50 percent more likely to die. Another 254 people, whose depression symptoms persisted throughout the study period, were 42 percent more likely to die.

However, those who had depressive symptoms at diagnosis but did not have them one year later had a similar risk of death to those who were never

depressed.

The researchers did not have any data on how or why these patients experienced depression remission. “We have known since the 1970`s that a cancer diagnosis sets off a period of existential plight, a period that lasts about 100 days during which people ask questions of life and death and worry about their health and the meaning of their physical symptoms,” said Mark Lazenby, the associate researcher.

“Although from this study we cannot say that treating depression would extend survival, other studies have shown that care aimed at improving the psychosocial wellbeing, which includes but is not limited to detecting and treating depression, does have a survival

benefit,” Lazenby, an expert in the field.

Depression impacts quality of life and has been associated with missed appointments and lower adherence to recommended therapies, which could impact morality.

“Most of all, I believe a positive attitude, fighting spirit, and coping ability significantly impact a patient`s ability to persevere in the face of a life-threatening illness,” he said.

Adding, “This is likely why married patients and those with strong social support networks have better cancer outcomes having a `community` to help share the emotional burden is essential.”

“Clinicians have to do a better job of treating the whole person and not focusing on the disease only,” Sullivan further said.

“From the patients` perspective, hopefully some of them will take a look at this study and realize the feelings they are experiencing are common and they will feel empowered to advocate for themselves and ask their clinicians for help or resources when they need it,” he concluded.

Want to get rid of body odour? Avoid these foods!

New Delhi Body odour is mainly caused due to excessive use of deodorants, but sometimes, it can also be of food items. The food we eat also influences our body odour like our breath.

The impurities and toxins in the body from improperly digested foods results in body odour. But one can easily get rid of body odour by avoiding certain food items.

Here are some foods which you must avoid to get rid of body odour: Spicy food Eating too much spicy food leads causes bad odour because of the sulfurous gases produced when digested. One should eat a well-balanced meals that aren’t too heavy on chillies, garlic, onions or piping hot curries.

Red meat Red meat causes stagnation in the body and also putrefies in the

digestive tract and releases all sorts of toxins into the bloodstream through the large intestine. This in turn is ejected as flatulence and sweat that reeks.

Avoid alcohol Excessive consumption of alcohol causes body odour as atleast 10% of it will be left unprocessed causing perspiration.

Baked and fried foods Consuming too much of baked and fried foods causes poor digestion, excessive belching and flatulence because they contain fats and oil which becomes rancid with the passage of time.

Too fibrous food When you eat too much foods that contain soluble fiber like fruits, vegetables, whole grains, beans and legumes, gases like hydrogen, carbon dioxide and methane are released.

These food items can give rise to pungent body smell.

Things you can do to Keep your eyes healthy prevent dementia! with these simple tips!

New Delhi Dementia is a chronic or persistent disorder of the mental processes which

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is caused by brain disease or injury. It is also marked by memory disorders, personality changes, and impaired reasoning. Though, there is no cure for dementia but one can decrease the risk of developing dementia by making certain changes in our lifestyle.

Here are some ways you can do to prevent dementia: Eat healthy diet Eating a healthy diet consisting of fruit, fish and

vegetables may lower the risk of dementia.

Exercise regularly Besides eating a healthy diet and not smoking, one of the best ways to prevent dementia is by exercising regularly. 30 minutes of walking daily can lower the risk of dementia.

Reduce alcohol intake One should reduce the intake of alcohol as it is one of the lifestyle factors associated with an increased risk of dementia.

Stop smoking If you are a chain smoker, then stop smoking as it increases the risk of developing dementia.

Passive smoking may also increase a person’s risk of dementia.

Adequate sleep Getting proper sleep is good for the health of your brain as lack of it affect the protein amyloid-beta which has been associated with dementia.

New Delhi Our eyes are the most valuable and sensitive sense organs of our body. It also enables us to see the world and the colours around us. We often tend to ignore our eyes until there are noticeable issues. We should take proper care and always keep our eyes healthy to have a good eyesight.

Here are some simple

tips to keep our eyes healthy: Eat healthy diet One should eat a healthy nutritious diet consisting of lots of fruits and vegetables like dark leafy greens, sprouts, nuts, oranges and citrus fruits.

Quit smoking If you want healthy eyes then quit smoking as it can increase the risk for macular degeneration, cataracts and optic nerve

damage.

Proper sleep Lack of sleep can cause eye fatigue, which include tired, itching and burning eyes. So, one should get adequate sleep to help replenish your eyes with essential nutrients as well as to function properly.

Regular eye check-up Get your eye check up done on regular basis to keep your vision strong.

It can also help with early detection of conditions such as cataracts, glaucoma and macular degeneration which could lead to sight loss.

UV protection One should always wear UV protective sunglasses or sports goggles while going out as looking directly at the sun can damage your eyes and also increases the risk for cataracts and macular degeneration.

Issue 689 (39)

18 - 24 Oct., 2016

Lamb Chops with Balsamic Reduction

Ingredients: 3/4 teaspoon dried rosemary 1/4 teaspoon dried basil 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme salt and pepper to taste 4 lamb chops (3/4 inch thick) 1 tablespoon olive oil 1/4 cup minced shallots 1/3 cup aged balsamic vinegar

3/4 cup chicken broth 1 tablespoon butter Directions: In a small bowl or cup, mix together the rosemary, basil, thyme, salt and pepper. Rub this mixture onto the lamb chops on both sides. Place them on a plate, cover and set aside for 15 minutes to absorb the flavors.

Heat olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Place lamb chops in the skillet, and cook for about 3 1/2 minutes per side for medium rare, or continue to cook to your desired doneness. Remove from the skillet, and keep warm on a serving platter. Add shallots to the skillet, and cook for a few minutes, just until browned. Stir in vinegar, scraping any bits of lamb from the bottom of the skillet, then stir in the chicken broth. Continue to cook and stir over medium-high heat for about 5 minutes, until the sauce has reduced by half. If you don't, the sauce will be runny and not good.

Remove from heat, and stir in the butter. Pour over the lamb chops, and serve.

Savory Garlic Marinated Steaks Ingredients: 1/2 cup balsamic vinegar 1/4 cup soy sauce 3 tablespoons minced garlic 2 tablespoons honey 2 tablespoons olive oil 2 teaspoons ground black pepper 1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce 1 teaspoon onion powder 1/2 teaspoon salt 1/2 teaspoon liquid smoke flavoring 1 pinch cayenne pepper 2 (1/2 pound) rib-eye steaks Directions: In a medium bowl, mix the vinegar, soy sauce, garlic, honey, olive oil, ground black pepper, Worcestershire sauce, onion powder, salt, liquid smoke, and cayenne pepper. Place steaks in a shallow glass dish with the marinade, and turn to coat. For optimum flavor, rub the liquid into the meat. Cover, and marinate in the refrigerator for 1 to 2 days. Preheat grill for medium-high to high heat. Lightly oil the grill grate. Grill steaks 7 min-

chopped 1 medium yellow onion, peeled and quartered 1 cup white rice Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper Roughly chopped cilantro and scallions, for

Ingredients: 1 small white onion, roughly chopped 1/4 cup gochujang (Korean red chile paste) 2 tbsp. Korean red pepper flakes 2 tbsp. mirin 1 tbsp. soy sauce 3 garlic cloves, minced 1 (1/2-inch) piece ginger, peeled and minced 1 lb. pork belly, sliced 1/ 8-inch thick (about 16 slices) 2 tbsp. vegetable oil Instructions: In a blender, puree the white onion until smooth, scraping the sides as needed. Transfer to a large bowl, add the gochujang, pepper flakes, mirin, soy sauce, garlic, and ginger,

and whisk until smooth.

Add the pork belly and toss to coat. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and refrigerate at least 2 hours and up to overnight.

Heat 1 tablespoon oil in a wok over medium-high until lightly smoking. Add half the pork slices and 2 tablespoons of the marinade and cook, flipping once, until caramelized and golden, about 5 minutes.

Transfer the pork to a bowl, wipe out the wok, and return to the heat. Repeat cooking with the remaining oil, pork, and another 2 tablespoons of the marinade. Transfer the pork and its juices to a bowl and serve, or let cool and refrigerate for up to 3 days.

Easy Broccoli Quiche utes per side, or to desired doneness. Discard leftover marinade.

TURKEY CONGEE

Ingredients: 1 3-lb. turkey carcass, plus 1 1/2 cups shredded leftover cooked turkey meat 3 stalks celery, roughly chopped 2 medium carrots, roughly

SPICY SAUTEED PORK BELLY

serving Instructions: In a large saucepan, cover the turkey carcass with 14 cups of water. Add in onethird of the celery, half the carrots, and the onion quarters and bring to a boil.

Reduce the heat to maintain a simmer and cook until the stock has reduced to 8 cups, about 1 1/2 hours. Remove the pan from the heat and discard the carcass. Pour the stock through a fine sieve

set over a bowl and discard the solids. In a 4-qt. saucepan, combine the stock with the remaining celery and carrots and the rice. Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat to maintain a simmer and cook, stirring occasionally, until the rice falls apart and the congee thickens, about 90 minutes.

Stir in the shredded turkey and cook for 5 minutes longer. Season the congee with salt and pepper and divide among serving bowls. Top with cilantro and scallions before serving.

Ingredients: 2 tablespoons butter 1 onion, minced 1 teaspoon minced garlic 2 cups chopped fresh broccoli 1 (9 inch) unbaked pie crust 1 1/2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese 4 eggs, well beaten 1 1/2 cups milk 1 teaspoon salt 1/2 teaspoon black pepper 1 tablespoon butter, melted

Directions: Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).

Over medium-low heat melt butter in a large saucepan.

Add onions, garlic and broccoli. Cook slowly, stirring occasionally until the vegetables are soft. Spoon vegetables into crust and sprinkle with cheese. Combine eggs and milk. Season with salt and pepper. Stir in melted butter. Pour egg mixture over vegetables and cheese. Bake in preheated oven for 30 to 50 minutes, or until center has set.

Issue 689 (40)

18 - 24 Oct., 2016