2014, ജൂൺ 7, ശനിയാഴ്‌ച

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World's first 3D smartphone from Amazon?

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Washington: Move over ordinary smartphones as Amazon is reportedly planning to launch the world's first smartphone with a 3D display.

In a YouTube video, the online retail player shows the fist glimpse of this device - that can be unveiled as early as June 18 in Seattle, Washington DC, media reports said.

The new phone may have an eye-tracking technology and four cameras to produce 3D images.

In a YouTube video from Amazon, some people can be seen swaying from side to side - perhaps experimenting with the 3D view.

According to a report on the Verge website, the 3D technology could include displaying maps or viewing home-screen images in 3D.

The device may also enable users to operate the phone or navigate apps by tilting the phone. IANS

Seven children die of viral infection in Bengal

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Kolkata: As many as seven children in West Bengal's Malda district have died due to the litchi syndrome, a viral infection leading to sudden death, in the last five days, an official said Saturday.

The deaths of the children aged between two to four years were reported at the state-run Malda Medical College and Hospital.

'From June 3, till 8 a.m. in the morning June 7, seven children have died. The viral syndrome occurred last in 2012 and can be called rare,' M.A. Rashid, hospital's vice principal-cum-superintending officer, told IANS.

The virus, found in litchi fruit, affects the brain causing swelling. It is said to originate in China. In India, it is seen in the summer months in some parts of north India, Rashid said.

Rashid said: 'The parents noticed fever and spells of vomiting which intensified and culminated in convulsions, leading to death in five to six hours.'

'The symptoms were sudden. A team of specialists from the School of Tropical Medicine in Kolkata and a team from Indian Council of Medical Research will visit the area today (Saturday),' he added. IANS

BSNL unveils 'smart phone' for common man

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Bangalore: State-run Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) Friday unveiled a low-cost version of its smart phone, with e-governance applications for common man.

Branded as 'Bharat phone', the mobile device has a three-inch large screen display with provision for dual SIM card and has been priced at Rs.1,099 to make it affordable to common man.

'The low-cost mobile device will alter the Indian feature phone industry as it has been designed especially for e-governance applications and optimised for internet access to empower common man,' BSNL chairman R.K. Upadhyay said on the occasion.

Visiting Mauritius President Rajkeshwar Purryag was present on the occasion with Karnataka Governor H.R. Bhardwaj and state Higher Education Minister R.V. Deshpande.

Designed and developed by Pantel Technologies Ltd, a pioneer in the low-cost tablet PC market, the voicephone's large screen and proprietary Java operating system are suited for other user applications such as mobile banking, tele-healthcare delivery and streaming data delivery.

'As the phone is pre-bundled with attractive voice plan, the mobile handset offers common man the power of internet access at an affordable price and will benefit a wide section of society,' Upadhyay said.

According to Pantel managing director Vijender Singh, the phone has facility to browse, e-mail, to check Facebook and download music, video and Java games.

'Besides facility for dual SIM card, the phone is equipped with 1.3 mega pixel rear camera, Bluetooth for quick sharing of files, a lithium-ion battery with eight-hour charge and 15 days standby, 64MB random access memeory (RAM) and 64MB of internal storage, SMS scheduler, multimedia gaming and mobile tracker,' Singh said. 

Malaysian woman raped in Jaipur, man held

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Jaipur: A 30-year-old man was arrested here on charges of raping a Malaysian woman Friday, an official said Saturday.

'We have arrested (the man) on charges of raping a Malaysian woman Friday. (He) is a resident of Bhilwara,' Amandeep Singh, DCP (Jaipur East), told IANS here.

The woman in her complaint said she came to Jaipur three days back on a business trip and met the man.

Both of them had food in a five star hotel Thursday night from where he drove her to an isolated place and allegedly raped her in the car after offering her a drink laced with some drugs. He then left her in front of the hotel where she was staying.

The woman managed to reach a police car near the Jawahar Circle area in the city and lodged a complaint. The man was arrested within three hours.

'We have registered a case and are interrogating him,' Singh said. IANS

Over 100 killed in Afghanistan rain, floods

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Kabul: More than 100 people were killed and dozens of houses washed away when heavy rain and floods hit northern Afghanistan, an official said Saturday.

'Powerful wind, heavy rain and hailstones caused floods in Gazargah-e-Noor district of Baghlan province Friday night killing more than 100 people and injuring around 100 others within an hour,' Xinhua quoted the official as saying.

All roads leading to Gazargah-e-Noor district have been destroyed or badly damaged, the official said.

He also added that the local residents are in urgent need of humanitarian assistance.

IANS

Germany beat Armenia 6-1 in World Cup warm-up

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Berlin: Germany wrapped up a 6-1 win over Armenia thanks to six second half goals at an outsold Coface-Arena in Mainz.

Joachim Loew's men controlled the proceedings for most of the time Friday, yet the 'Nationalelf' had to wait until the second half to start their goal fest against the resilient visitors, reports Xinhua.

Lukas Podolski played a key role in the victory thanks to his goal and three assists.

'In the first half we lacked in chance conversion but due to our shape we were able to increase the pace in the second half. We still need a few training sessions in Brazil to get used to the temperatures,' Germany coach Loew said.

Germany depart Saturday from Frankfurt for Brazil where Loew and his 23 men will be staying in a recently built resort 'Campo Bahia' in Santo Andre before they face Portugal in their first group game in Salvador June 16.

IANS

Petro Poroshenko sworn in as Ukrainian president

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Petro Poroshenko
London: Petro Poroshenko was sworn in as the new Ukrainian president Saturday amidst hopes of an end to the tensions in the country.

Former acting President Oleksandr Turchynov began the swearing-in proceedings with a speech welcoming the dignitaries, BBC reported.

Ukraine's former President Viktor Yanukovych was ousted in Feb this year which gave rise to escalating tension in the country brought about by pro-Russian separatists. Also in March, the Black Sea Peninsula of Crimea joined Russia which deepened the crisis.

The swearing in ceremony took place at the parliament in Kiev.

Poroshenko, owner of Ukraine's Roshen chocolates group, took the oath of office and is expected to enunciate his plans for ending the current crisis.

The 48-year-old tycoon won the presidential election which was held May 25.

Dignitaries attending the ceremony include US Vice-President Joe Biden.

Poroshenko on Friday briefly met Russin President Vladimir Putin during the D-Day celebrations in Normandy, France.

Poroshenko said that the meeting could be the start of a dialogue.

A billionaire businessman, Poroshenko served as the minister of foreign affairs from 2009 to 2010 and as the minister of trade and economic development in 2012.

From 2007 until 2012, he headed the Council of Ukraine's National Bank. IANS

No role in house attack, says Pinarayi

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New Delhi: CPI-M state secretary Pinarayi Vijayan on Saturday ruled out any role of the party in the attack on the residence of newly elected RSP MP N K Premachandran in Kollam.
“The incident is unfortunate. The CPI-M has no role in it. It is not an approach of the party to attack its political foes,” said the Marxian, who is in Delhi to attend the politburo meeting.
Unidentified persons pelted stones at the house of Premachandran, damaging windowpanes early morning Saturday. None were injured in the attack as the MP and his family are in Delhi.
Locals told police that a group of 10 persons came to the spot late yesterday night, pelted stones and also pasted posters, accusing the MP of 'deceiving' the Left Democratic Front (LDF) for power and position.
Revolutionary Socialist Party (RSP) had severed its ties with the Communist Party of India (Marxist) led LDF on the eve of the April 10 Lok Sabha polls and became a partner in the ruling Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF).
Premachandran had defeated CPI-M politburo member and former state Minister M A Baby in the polls.
RSP is stated to merge with RSP (Bolshevik), which is already a partner in the ruling front, at a "re-unification" conference here on June 10.
RSP state secretary A A Azeez and State Labour Minister and leader of RSP(B) Shibu Baby John visited the house and requested the state government to take serious note of the incident.

UP policemen thrashed by mob for not registering rape complaint

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Lucknow: Policemen were attacked and senior district officials roughed up in Uttar Pradesh's Muzaffarnagar late on Friday for refusing to lodge a complaint about the rape of a mentally-challenged woman. The situation was brought under control only on Saturday, an official said.

The victim was raped on Tuesday near Basi village graveyard, but her family learnt about it only on Friday. The victim's brother went to lodge a complaint with the police but the station house officer (SHO) of Dulhera allegedly refused to do so.

Incensed at the SHO's refusal to lodge a complaint, hundreds of villagers from Palda, Rasoolpur Jatan, Mukandpur, Kutba-Kutbi, Kamalpur, Shahpur and Kakda villages protested at the Shahpur police station.

They also manhandled the SHO who was chased on to the road and beaten up.

When the news reached the district administration, top officials, including District Magistrate Kaushalraj Sharma and Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) H.N. Singh, rushed to the spot.

The SSP was also not spared by the mob and his uniform was torn.

The crowd was angry that the police not only refused to register a case, but also refused to send the victim for a medical examination.

Sensing that the situation might get out of control, the DM ordered a medical examination of the woman.

The state government also intervened midnight and suspended six policemen, including circle officer (CO) of Shahpur.

The situation was brought under control Saturday, though additional police force has been deployed, an official told IANS.

Muzaffarnagar in western Uttar Pradesh was the scene of communal riots in September 2013, leaving 63 dead and thousands homeless.

The riots had started after the police let off some youths accused of molesting a girl. When the brothers of the girl protested, they were shot dead. IANS

2014, ജൂൺ 6, വെള്ളിയാഴ്‌ച

Indian-origin scientist makes breakthrough in laser technology

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New York: Your personal computer may soon become more compact and energy efficient as laser could replace the mesh of wires.

Scientists at University of Michigan, led by an Indian American Pallab Bhattacharya, have found a new and more efficient way to make a coherent laser-like beam.

The 'laser-like' beam is made up of precarious particles called polaritons that are part light and part matter.

This polariton laser is fuelled by electrical current and works at room temperature, rather than way below zero.

Those attributes make the device the most real-world ready of the handful of polariton lasers ever developed.

'This is big. For the past 50 years, we have relied on lasers to make coherent light and now we have something else based on a totally new principle,' said Pallab Bhattacharya, professor of engineering at University of Michigan.

The work could advance efforts to put lasers on computer circuits to replace wire connections, leading to smaller and more powerful electronics.

It may also have applications in medical devices and treatments among several other things.

Today lasers are used in the fibre-optic communication that makes the Internet and cable television possible.

'The new prototype requires 1,000 times less electricity to operate than its conventional counterpart made of the same material,' Bhattacharya concluded. IANS

With 41 million obese, India third after US, China: Report

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Kolkata: India, with 41 million obese people, ranks third after the US and China in having the highest number of overweight people in the world, says a study.

Together, India and China represent 15 percent of the world's obese population.

The 'Global, regional, and national prevalence of overweight and obesity in children and adults during 1980-2013: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2013' report highlights nearly one-third of the world's population is obese or overweight.

The study, that was released May 29, spanned 33 years and 188 countries.

It also states the number of overweight and obese individuals globally increased from 857 million in 1980 to 2.1 billion in 2013.

The analysis was conducted by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) at the University of Washington and published in The Lancet May 29.

One in five Indian men and women are either overweight or obese.

However, these rates are lower than Bhutan and Pakistan, but higher than Nepal and Bangladesh.

Although the prevalence of obesity has increased over the course of the 33-year study in India, only 3.7 percent men and 4.2 percent women were obese in 2013.

In the last 33 years, no country has successfully reduced obesity rates.

'In the last three decades, not one country has achieved success in reducing obesity rates, and we expect obesity to rise steadily as incomes rise in low and middle income countries in particular, unless urgent steps are taken to address this public health crisis,' said Christopher Murray, director of IHME and a co-founder of the Global Burden of Disease (GBD) study in a statement. IANS

North India reels under heat wave, power cuts; monsoon hits Kerala

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Lucknow/Chandigarh/Shimla: Heat wave conditions intensified across north India Friday with the mercury hovering between 46 and 48.4 degrees Celsius at several places. No respite was in sight in the coming days though the monsoon hit Kerala, a day behind schedule.

Extreme heat wave conditions continued in most parts of Uttar Pradesh, the country's most populated state, with the mercury climbing steadily. Met officials said Mahoba, with a maximum temperature of 48.4 degrees Celsius, was the hottest.

Day temperatures in the state hovered around 46 degrees Celsius in most places, including state capital Lucknow. Temperatures significantly soared in Agra, Unnao, Kanpur, Bareilly, Kannauj, Mainpuri, Muzaffarnagar, Deoria and Gorakhpur and humidity levels were also high.

Power outages made life miserable for the common people. No power supply in many parts of Lucknow and other districts added to the people's problems with power cuts extending from 8 to 10 hours. People at many places took to the streets to protest and, in some instances, even held power staff hostage.

The only good news Friday was that the monsoon hit the coastal belt in Kerala.

Regional Met director J.P. Gupta, said in Lucknow that the monsoon, after hitting the Kerala coast earlier in the day, was 'on schedule' and in all likelihood, will reach the eastern parts of Uttar Pradesh June 15.

In neighbouring Haryana, Hisar town sizzled at 46.5 degrees as heat wave conditions intensified over most parts of the state and Punjab. The temperature at most places ranged from 44 to 46.5 degrees, Met officials said.

Bhiwani recorded a high of 45.6 degrees while Ambala recorded 44.9 degrees.

In Punjab, Patiala was the hottest at 45.6 degrees while the Sikh holy city of Amritsar and industrial hub Ludhiana had a high of 45.5 degrees. All were four degrees above normal.

Chandigarh recorded a high of 44.5 degrees, five degrees above normal.

Met officials here said that the weather will remain dry, sunny and hot in the coming days with the heat wave intensifying.

People preferred to remain indoors during the day time with the searing heat prevailing outside.

Met officials ruled out any relief from the heat wave in the next two to three days.

The hills of Himachal Pradesh were slightly better than the plains but the mercury soared here also.

State capital Shimla recorded a maximum temperature of 30.7 degrees Celsius, a whopping six notches above the season's average.

'Temperatures across the state rose abnormally, remaining above average by two to seven degrees Celsius,' an official of the Met Office in Shimla told IANS.

According to him, Una town was the hottest place in the hill state with the maximum temperature touching 44.4 degrees Celsius.

Sundernagar in Mandi district recorded a maximum of 39.8 degrees, Bhuntar in Kullu district touched 36.5 degrees, Dharamsala in Kangra district was at 35.4 degrees, and Kalpa in Kinnaur district marked a high of 26.4 degrees.

Picturesque tourist resort of Manali recorded a high of 27.2 degrees. IANS

Afghan presidential candidate escapes bombing attack

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Kabul: Afghan presidential candidate Dr. Abdullah Abdullah Friday escaped unhurt twin-bomb blasts in Afghanistan's capital city Kabul, media reported.
"Following a political gathering, our vehicle was struck by a mine. None of our team members in the vehicle was hurt in the explosion," Xinhua quoted Abdullah as saying.
The blasts occurred at around 12:10 p.m., shortly after a political rally ended in Ariana restaurant in western Kabul.
The meeting was attended by several political leaders and hundreds of their supporters.
However, Abdullah, a former foreign minister, said several of his bodyguards were injured in the first blast, adding that none of the injured received life-threading wounds.
The attack took place as Afghanistan is preparing for the presidential runoff between Abdullah and his rival Dr. Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzi to be held on June 14.

IANS

2014, ജൂൺ 5, വ്യാഴാഴ്‌ച

Orphanage issue: HC for "serious investigation"

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Kochi: The High Court Thursday wanted a "serious investigation" in the matter relating to bringing of 588 children from Bihar, Jharkhand and West Bengal to orphanages in the state and suo motu impleaded the Railway ministry and social welfare ministries of the three states. 
"There should be a serious investigation in the matter to know the real cause or reason why such a huge number of children from outside the state came to Kozhikode and Palakkad," a division bench, comprising Chief Justice Manjula Chellur and Justice PR Ramachanra Menon said.
The Court suo motu impleaded the states of Bihar, West Bengal and Jharkhand and issued notices to the Ministry of social welfare in each of the three states. The Railway ministry was also impleaded in the case. 
The bench directed the state to place on record from time to time details of the investigation by the crime branch in the case and posted the case to June 19. The directions were issued on a PIL filed by Rajendra Prasada, President of Thampu, an NGO, seeking a direction to send back the children immediately to their homes. The children belonging to extremely impoverised communities were brought to the orphanages. 
The bench directed the government to place on record all details of children, including their age and state to which they belonged. The reports of the child welfare committee on the incident should also be placed before the court, it said. The report should also contain details on how many children were sent back to their respective states, who were in charge of the children, it said. 
On June 3, the state child rights panel had directed the government to send back the children to their home states-- Jharkhand, Bihar and West Bengal--within three weeks, after it found they were brought without due documents and not following procedures under Juvenile Justice Act and Orphanage and Other Charitable Homes Act. 
A police investigation is already under way by a special team and an FIR has been lodged following the arrest of eight persons, who accompanied 586 children at Palakkad, where they were brought in two batches by train. The children, meant to be taken to some orphanages, had been kept in state-run juvenile homes of the Child Welfare Society in Palakkad, Malappuram and Thrissur.
The issue has also caused ruptures within ruling UDF with key partner IUML resenting the steps taken by the Home Department.

PTI

2014, ജൂൺ 4, ബുധനാഴ്‌ച

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Munde's body brought home to Beed for last rites

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Latur/Beed (Maharashtra): The body of senior BJP leader and union minister Gopinath Munde, who was killed in a road accident in New Delhi early Tuesday, was flown in to Latur from Mumbai Wednesday morning.
Thousands of mourners, including senior party leaders, activists and commoners received the coffin at Latur airport.
Earlier, the body was taken from the Mumbai residence of the Munde family, where security forces accorded a guard of honour, for the flight to Latur.
From Latur, it was taken by a special helicopter to Beed, which is around 65 km away, for the last rites.
The body will be kept for public homage at the sprawling Vaijnath Sugar Factory campus till around 2 p.m. before the last rites. The state government has announced a three-day mourning for Munde.
Munde's eldest daughter and Parali legislator Pankaja Munde-Palve will perform the last rites at the state funeral being accorded to Munde. His wife is Pramod Mahajan's sister and they have three daughters.
Top BJP leaders, including L.K. Advani, Rajnath Singh, Nitin Gadkari, Sushma Swaraj, other union ministers, Maharashtra political bigwigs, chief ministers of several states and party activists from all over the country are expected to attend the funeral.
Late Tuesday evening, Munde's body was brought to Mumbai from Delhi and kept at his residence in Purna Building, Worli, where relatives, friends and close acquaintances besides VVIPs paid their last respects.
Ironically, it is the same building where his brother-in-law and former BJP strongman Pramod Mahajan was gunned down by his brother Pravin eight years ago.
Subsequently, Munde's body was kept at the BJP state headquarters at Nariman Point in south Mumbai where party workers from Mumbai and surrounding areas paid homage.
Munde was scheduled to go to Beed Wednesday to address a series of victory rallies, his first visit to his home district after the BJP-led NDA swept to power last month.
Munde was born Dec 12, 1949, in Parali-Vaijnath village where he had his schooling.
Soon afterwards, he plunged into student politics along with BJP strongman and later his brother-in-law, late Pramod Mahajan, and was imprisoned during the Emergency of 1975-1977.
Over the years, Munde was elected five times as legislator in Maharashtra, then Leader of Opposition in the Maharashtra assembly, deputy chief minister of the state, and subsequently as the deputy leader of opposition in the Lok Sabha, and last week was made the union minister for rural development.

Germany to launch probe into US spying on Merkel

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Berlin: Germany's Federal Prosecutor General Harald Range has decided to launch a criminal investigation into alleged hacking of Chancellor Angela Merkel's phone by the US National Security Agency (NSA), a German daily reported Tuesday.
The mass spying on German citizens by the NSA, however, will at least provisionally not be placed under formal investigations, Xinhua reported citing German newspaper Sueddeutsche Zeitung.
It is said that Range's decision to look into the monitoring of Merkel's cell phone is a reaction to angers triggered by reports about a possible drop of NSA snooping investigations.
Range did not find enough evidence to warrant criminal proceedings into the cases, reported Sueddeutsche Zeitung last week, citing sources from the prosecutor's office.
In Range's opinion, the newspaper said, the proceedings would be purely "symbolic" since it is impossible to gather evidence about the activities of the NSA or its British counterpart GCHQ on German soil.

IANS

Egypt's al-Sisi officially declared president

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Cairo: Egypt's former military chief Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi was Tuesday officially announced as the new president of the country by the presidential election commission.
Al-Sisi achieved a landslide victory over leftist candidate Hamdeen Sabahy in the three-day presidential polls held last month.
"Presidential candidate Abdel-Fattah Saeed Hussein Khalil al-Sisi got 23,780,104 votes, which represents 96.91 percent of the votes," Xinhua quoted Judge Anwar al-Assi, chairman of the election commission, as saying in a press conference Tuesday.
Al-Assi said Sabahy got 757,511 of the total valid votes, about 3.1 percent.
More than 25 million of the 53.9 million eligible voters joined the polls, giving a voter turnout of 47.45 percent.
"The valid votes were 24,537,615, representing 95.93 percent of the votes, while the invalid votes were 1,040,608, representing 4.07 percent of the votes," he said.
"Accordingly, the winner of the post of president of the Arab Republic of Egypt is Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi," al-Assi announced.
Sisi supporters took to the streets across the country to celebrate his victory after the announcement.

IANS

MERS toll surges to 282 in Saudi Arabia

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Riyadh: The death toll from the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) coronavirus in Saudi Arabia has surged to 282 after recalculations, the health ministry announced Tuesday.
A total of 688 cases have been confirmed in the Gulf kingdom since the first case was registered in 2012, according to the ministry's rigorous review. Of those infected, 53 are reportedly receiving treatment, Xinhua reported.
Before the review, the ministry's latest tally of cases reached 575, with 190 deaths.
The main objective of that review was to ensure a more complete and accurate understanding of the virus outbreak in the country, the ministry said, adding that the review has already enhanced the ministry's policy development process and improved measures already taken to address the situation.
MERS is considered a deadlier but less transmissible cousin of the SARS virus which erupted in Asia in 2003 and infected thousands of people. The coronavirus was first discovered in mid-2012 in an old man with acute pneumonia and renal failure.
The Saudi government has been criticised by international health experts over its handling of the disease, which has spread to several Middle East countries, Asia, and the US.

2014, ജൂൺ 2, തിങ്കളാഴ്‌ച

IUML resents move against orphanages

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Kozhikode: IUML, a key partner in ruling Congress-led UDF, on Monday came out strongly against the Home Department and Child Rights Commission for running down orphanages managed by Muslim religious outfits in the context of alleged trafficking of children from eastern states. 
A meeting of Indian Union Muslim League working committee held here claimed the arrival of over 500 children, mostly from Jharkhand and West Bengal, was being projected with the intention of casting orphanages in Malabar region of Kerala in poor light.
Briefing reporters after the meeting, IUML General Secretary and Lok Sabha member ET Muhammad Basheer said the party's serious concern over the matter would be conveyed to the government. The League would press for "corrections" in the FIR lodged in the case since serious charges had been made against the authorities of orphanages, which smacked of prejudice, he said.
The party took serious objections to the statements made by DIG S Sreejith, nodal officer of state Human Rights Trafficking Cell. "The DIG is only an investigator. How could he arrive at definite conclusions and make specific charges before the investigation is completed"? he said. The course of investigation was moving in a direction as if its sole purpose was to malign reputed charity homes, the League leader alleged. 
Police have claimed to have unearthed a child trafficking racket with the arrest of eight persons who had accompanied over 500 children who reached Palakkad by train recently. The children were moved to child care homes in the district. 
A team of officials from Jharkhand is in Kerala and after preliminary interaction with children they said there were no proper grounds to believe that this was a case of human trafficking.

PTI

22-year-old girl gangraped, murdered

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BAREILLY: A 22-year-old girl was allegedly gangraped, forced to drink acid and later strangulated to death in Baheri area here, police sources said on Monday.
The victim’s body was recovered from a field in Aithpura village on Saturday with her face mutilated, they said, adding her postmortem report, which was received on Monday, found that she was gangraped and later strangulated.
Police said that acid was detected from the stomach of the victim, which indicated that she was forced to drink it before being murdered.
Her face was mutilated by pouring acid and petrol to conceal her identity, they added.
SSP J Ravindra Gaur said there was a possibility of the victim hailing from Uttrakhand, and therefore a team has been dispatched there for investigation.
Deputy SP Baheri Kalu Singh said police was investigating on several aspects.
It is being suspected that it could be a case of honour killing or could be related to flesh trade, he said.

15 killed in Karnataka van-bus collision

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 GULBARGA (KARNATAKA):  At least 15 people, including three children, were killed and a dozen injured when a van and a bus collided head-on and fell in a ditch in Karnataka, police said.

The accident took place in Aland, 40 km from here and 700 km from Bangalore.

The collision occurred around 5 am on a highway when a pick-up van and a state-run route bus collided head-on at high speed and fell in a roadside ditch, Gulbarga superintendent of police Amit Singh told IANS.

Most of the victims were from the van, which was going to Gulbarga from Akkalgud in Sholapur district of Maharashtra across the border.

Of the injured, five were admitted to the district hospital at Gulbarga and seven in a state-run general hospital at Aland.

"The victims, including the injured, from joint families  were on way to visit the Sufi shrine (dargah) of Khwaja Bande Nawaz on the city's outskirts," Singh said.

Among the injured were the driver and six passengers of the bus, which was coming from Koppal to Aland in the northern region of the state.

"We have registered a complaint against the bus and van drivers and set up a team to investigate the incident," Singh said.

2014, ജൂൺ 1, ഞായറാഴ്‌ച

Eyeing Pakistan and China, Modi bolsters security team

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New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi has chosen a daring former spy with years of experience in dealing with Pakistan as his national security adviser, a move officials say signals a more muscular approach to New Delhi's traditional enemy.

The choice of Ajit Doval, alongside former army chief General V.K. Singh as a federal minister for the northeast region, underscores plans to revamp national security that Modi says became weak under the outgoing government.

The two top-level appointments, reporting directly to Modi, point to a desire to address what are arguably India's two most pressing external security concerns - Pakistan and China, both of which, like India, have nuclear arms.

Doval, a highly decorated officer renowned for his role in dangerous counter-insurgency missions, has long advocated tough action against militant groups, although operations he has been involved in suggest a level of pragmatism.

In the 1980s, he smuggled himself into the Golden Temple in the city of Amritsar from where Sikh militants were later flushed out, and he infiltrated a powerful guerrilla group fighting for independence from India in the northeastern state of Mizoram. The group ultimately signed a peace accord.

Doval was also on the ground in Kandahar, Afghanistan, when an Indian Airlines plane from Kathmandu was hijacked by Pakistan-based militants on Christmas Eve, 1999. The crisis was resolved when top militants were freed in exchange for hostages.

'Doval is an out-of-the-box thinker,' said an Intelligence Bureau officer with long years of service in Kashmir and other Indian hotspots. 'Expect him to shake things up.'

The official, who did not want to be named, said he expected the new security team to push for a rapid expansion of border infrastructure and a streamlining of intelligence services, which still function in isolation and often impede one other.

Singh has declared his priority is to develop the northeast in order to narrow the gap with Chinese investment in roads and railways on its side of the frontier.

India is also creating a new mountain corps and beefing up border defences, although that initiative has stalled.
FEARS OF AFGHAN SPILLOVER
A secure India is a long-standing goal of Modi's Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), and the new prime minister himself wants strong borders so the country can focus fully on giving economic growth a much-needed boost.

He won the election in May in a landslide victory largely on economic pledges that India's 1.2 billion people hope will secure jobs and raise living standards.

But with most foreign troops withdrawing from Afghanistan by the end of this year, India is concerned that Islamist militants fighting there will turn their sights towards the disputed region of Kashmir, which is also claimed by Pakistan.

India and Pakistan have fought two of three wars since independence over the Himalayan territory, and their armed forces are separated there by a rugged, mountainous Line of Control which militants have the capability to cross.

Doval, 69, formerly head of the Intelligence Bureau domestic spy agency, will be National Security Adviser, only the second officer from the intelligence community to hold the post.

By contrast, predecessor Shiv Shankar Menon is a member of the elite Indian Foreign Service - an expert on China and nuclear security known for his formidable intellect.

Doval did not say what his priorities would be after his job was announced on Friday, but in conversations with Reuters previously as head of a right-wing think tank in New Delhi, he said the new government must lay down core security policies, one of which was 'zero tolerance' for acts of violence.

He was referring to operations by militants who India says cross from Pakistan, like the gunmen who killed 166 people in Mumbai in 2008 in a brazen assault that brought tentative peace talks between the South Asian rivals to a juddering halt.
CARROT AND STICK APPROACH
Modi invited his Pakistani counterpart, Nawaz Sharif, to his inauguration in a calculated sign of reconciliation. But he used stick as well as carrot.

During nearly an hour of talks, he told Sharif Pakistan must prevent militants on its territory from attacking India and act speedily against the men India blames for the Mumbai massacre.

Modi's assertive stance was in keeping with his Hindu nationalist agenda, which makes many of India's 175 million or so Muslims nervous, not to mention those in Pakistan next door.

The two nations did, however, agree to relaunch peace talks.

'Terrorism continues to be our main concern and we have to handle it in a holistic manner,' said A.S. Dulat, a former head of the Research and Analysis Wing, which is charged with external intelligence gathering.

'At the end of the day, war is not an option.'

While India will put diplomatic pressure on Pakistan, there is also an acceptance that the civilian government in Islamabad is not in a position to control all militant groups and that New Delhi needs to address weaknesses in its homeland security.

'The one thing the new government will focus on is internal security, that's what worries them most. You don't want another Mumbai, you don't have a lot of good options if it happens,' said an official at the Home Ministry.

Pakistan said it remained committed to improving ties with India and that it had got off to a good start.

'Whoever is appointed by Modi in his national security team is his own prerogative, and we will certainly not interfere in that,' said Tariq Azeem, a senior official in Sharif's team.

'Pakistan will carry on with the determination shown by Nawaz Sharif to build good relations with India. The meeting in Delhi was cordial and friendly and we hope to build on that,' he told Reuters.
CHINESE FRONT
Modi's other key appointment, retired general Singh, may inject new urgency into India's plan to establish a corps of 80,000 troops along its border with China in the northeast.

A massive programme to build roads and upgrade airfields in the remote area was also cleared by the ousted Congress party, but has lagged.

Singh, who won a parliamentary seat for the BJP in the election, is expected to accelerate the process through the defence bureaucracy, helped by a direct reporting line to the all-powerful prime minister.

'Development of the northeast will be my top priority,' he told reporters after taking charge on Thursday.

China claims more than 90,000 square km (35,000 square miles) of land disputed by New Delhi in the eastern sector of the Himalayas, including most of Arunachal Pradesh state, which China calls South Tibet.

'As China continues to refuse to recognise Arunachal Pradesh as an integral part of India, and builds military-grade highways that can rapidly move tanks and heavy artillery to India's border, it's absolutely the perfect stratagem to put a former army chief in charge of the region,' wrote commentator Sandipan Deb in the Mint newspaper.

But in another sign that Modi is keen to defuse regional tensions, he spoke to Chinese Premier Li Keqiang on Thursday and extended an invitation to President Xi Jinping to visit India.

REUTERS

Veteran Hindi journalist H Y Narayan Dutt passes away

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Bangalore: Renowned Hindi journalist and writer H Y Narayan Dutt passed away at a hospital here on Sunday following a heart ailment and related complications, his family said.

Dutt (85), also a scholar, was the younger brother of late H Y Sharada Prasad, who was the media adviser to Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi during their Prime Ministership.

'He underwent an open heart surgery and developed some complications and passed away at a hospital in Bangalore this morning,' his brother H Y Mohanram said.

The illustrious journalistic career of Dutt spanned over five decades during which he started and headed PTI's Hindi Feature Service after joining the organisation in 1981 and served till his retirement in 1993.

Dutt also worked with the Indian Express group of publications in Mumbai serving in its film journal 'Screen' in Hindi and also as Editor of 'Navneet', a Hindi monthly magazine.

He had also compiled the edited lettters of veteran journalist and writer Sri Banarasi Das Chaturvedi.

Dutt was one of the journalists honoured by the then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee for his contributions, among Hindi journalists whose mother tongue was not Hindi, Mohanram said. Dutt was born into a Kannada speaking family.

In 1992, he was felicitated for his outstanding work in the field of Hindi journalism by the Uttar Pradesh Sansthan with the Sauhard Samman. The following year, Kendriya Hindi Sansthan honoured him with Ganesh Shankar Vidyarthi Samman. In 2006, he was awarded an honorary DLitt by Makhanlal Chaturvedi University of Journalism.

Dutt also encouraged propagating science and technology in a 'correct perspective', Mohanram said.

Dutt was not married. PTI 

Kerala CM confident of good working relationship with Centre

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Thiruvananthapuram: Ahead of his meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday, Kerala Chief Minister Oommen Chandy said he was confident of a good working relationship with the Centre regardless of political differences to take forward the development of the state.

'Though it will be a courtesy call, development issues relating to the state will broadly figure during the meeting,'
Chandy, whose current tenure as chief minister has two more year to go, told PTI.

Asked what are the key issues of development to be taken up with the Centre, Chandy, who did not attend the
installation of the new government, said 'let us see what their priorities are and that would also be factored in while
working out the state's projects.'

Chandy had earlier made it clear that the UDF government was not for any confrontation with the new government at the
Centre even though they have political differences.

Looking back to the last three years, Chandy expressed satisfaction about the performance of the government based
on the plank 'Development and Care,' which gave equal emphasis to infrastructure development and welfare of the
people, especially the less privileged.

The Congress-led UDF Government will come out with more support to help business and technological ventures, enthused
by the good response a youth entrepreneurship programme in Start-up Village at Kochi Infopark has received.

'For the last few decades aspiration of a Keralite youth has been a job or a visa. This mindset has started changing
with more and more graduates and technically skilled youth looking for opportunities to do things by themselves.They have
ideas and acumen to execute their ideas.All that they require is an initial support from government and state agencies,'
Chandy said.

Chandy said government would give added emphasis and budgetary support to promote such business and technological
vetnrues. Already 200 units have come up at the Startup village at the Infopark and more than 1000 ideas are still
waiting to take-off, he said.

As a policy, the Government had set apart one per cent of the budget for all departments for Youth entrepreneurship,
which together stood at around Rs 500 crore. This will be enhanced further and all the departments had been asked to
submit their views on this, he said.

Chandy, whose 'Mass Contact Programme' brought laurels to him including a UN award, said 'We have been able to carry
forward many of the items on our agenda and more remains to be done.'

On the development front, he said some projects like Kochi Metro and Kannur airport are on track. The first phase of the
metro would be commissioned in 2016, he said.

The first flight would take off from Kannur International airport in north Kerala in December next year. The work on
the airport terminal would start in July, he said. Smartcity IT project in Kochi would be commissioned next year. The government was keen on time-bound completion of the proposed Mono Rail projects in Thiruvanathapuram and at
Kozhikode.

The sea plane service, abandoned due to protest from people living in backwater areas, would be revived, he said.
He said side by side the infrastructure development, welfare of the people continue to receive due attention.
Schemes like rice at Re 1 per kg were successfully implemented to the benefit of the less privileged.

Chandy said the good work done by the government helped Congress and its UDF allies to buck the anti-incumbency and
win 12 of the 20 seats in the state in the Lok Sabha polls.

A popular leader who has never lost any assembly election in his home segment Puthuppally in Kottayam district since
1970, Chandy had turned the Lok Sabha polls into a referendum on his government's performance along with national issues.

Listing the priorities before him, Chandy said issues in health sector was a major challenge.
'High cost of treatment was an important factor the government has to tackle,' he said, adding that government was
working out schemes in this regard. PTI

Masked men attack Pakistani daily Jang's editor

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Zafar Aheer
Islamabad, June 1 (IANS) Unidentified masked men attacked resident editor of the Pakistani daily Jang and left him injured near Western Ford Colony in Multan, media reported Sunday.

Zafar Aheer was attacked Saturday when he was moving back home after his job, Geo News reported.

Aheer said the attackers stopped his car near his residence and started beating him, the report said.

'The attackers beat me a lot, tore my clothes and snatched my mobile phone,' Aheer was quoted as saying.

The attackers threw bullets in front of Aheer's car before escaping the site.

Police said that it is pre-mature to say anything at this moment about the incident.

Investigation into the matter has been started.

The injured resident editor of Jang, an Urdu newspaper, said that the attackers were talking to each other about shooting him in the legs.

'They called me an agent of India and Jews, and a traitor,' the editor said.

'I am Pakistani and love Pakistan,' Aheer added. IANS

Learn how to make your kids eat veggies

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London: If you wish to encourage your kids to eat healthy and want them to eat vegetables without making much fuss, starting early and often could be the key.

Exposing babies to a new vegetable early in life encourages them to eat more of it compared to offering new vegetables to older children, a new study has suggested.

Even fussy eaters are able to eat a bit more of a new vegetable each time they are offered it.

'Even if your child is fussy or does not like veggies, our study shows that 5-10 exposures (nine servings) will do the trick,' said professor Marion Hetherington from University of Leeds in Britain.

In the study, researchers gave artichoke puree to 332 children from three countries aged from weaning age to 38 months.

The research that involved babies and children from the UK, France and Denmark, also dispelled the popular myth that vegetable tastes need to be masked or given by stealth in order for children to eat them.

The study appeared in the journal PLOS ONE.