2014, ഓഗസ്റ്റ് 31, ഞായറാഴ്‌ച

Two Keralites killed in Tamil Nadu

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CHENNAI: Two Keralites were killed in an accident in Tamil Nadu.

They have been identified as Thomson and Jibson, natives of Kannur. The accident happened when the car in which they were travelling in collided with a lorry at Dharmapuri.

The accident happened Sunday morning at 6 am.

Ten pilgrims killed in mishap

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JODHPUR: Ten pilgrims were killed and 34 others injured, 16 of them seriously, when a bus carrying them collided head-on with a truck in Pali district on Sunday.
The bus carrying pilgrims from different villages of Udaipur was returning from the shrine of Baba Ramdeo near Pokhran when the mishap took place, district magistrate (Pali) Rohit Gupta said.
"When the bus was passing through Manida village on the Pali-Udaipur bypass at about 6am, it collided with a truck coming from the opposite direction", said Gupta.
The accident took place apparently as the driver of one of the vehicles dozed off at the wheel, an official said.
While six passengers died on the spot, four others died on way to the hospital.
"We have rushed 16 passengers, who were seriously injured, to Jodhpur and others have been admitted to the Bangar Hospital in Pali itself," Gupta said.
The Pali administration has announced an ex-gratia relief of Rs 50,000 each for the next of the kin of the deceased from the chief minister's Relief Fund.
The bus was carrying about 45 passengers. While the driver of the truck was missing after the accident, the bus driver was killed in the accident.

Court grants man divorce over wife's demand for excessive sex

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MUMBAI: A man, who sought separation from his wife alleging that she was aggressive and autocratic with an insatiable appetite for sex, was granted divorce by a family court here.

"Due to respondent's (wife's) non-appearance before the court, the petitioner's (husband's) evidence remains unchallenged on record. Hence this court has no option but to accept his evidence as it is and he is entitled to a decree of divorce as prayed," Principal Judge of family court, Laxmi Rao ruled in a recent order.

The husband had approached the family court in January, saying that his wife was "adamant, aggressive, stubborn and autocratic" and would pick up quarrels for no reason.

The man, in his petition told the court that she was showing an "excessive and insatiable desire for sex" and harassed him since their marriage in April 2012.

He also alleged that she administered him medicines and also forced him to consume liquor.

The husband alleged that she used to force him into having unnatural sex and whenever he tried to resist it, she would abuse him following which he had to succumb to her pressure and persistent demands.

He told the court that he worked in three shifts leaving him very tired, and even then he was compelled to satisfy her 'lust'.

The woman even went to the extent of threatening him that if her demands are not fulfilled, she will go to another man, without caring for his emotions and feelings, the court was told.

In December 2012, the man had to be hospitalised for a stomach ache during which she chose to go to her sister's place, only to return after two weeks, the petition said.

Though doctors advised him to stay away from any physical relationship for a while, the wife kept up with her sexual demands, even as his health deteriorated for lack of rest, the petition submitted.

Further he said that in October 2013 he was operated for appendicitis and after discharge his wife insisted that they stay with her sister and even there, she forced him into having intercourse.

According to him, his wife even refused to visit a psychiatrist and threatened him against revealing anything to anybody.
In the petition, he said that it was intolerable for him to bear any more atrocities and that he also apprehended danger to his life and limb.

He said his wife has made his life horrible with her "cruel behaviour" and her "excessive prank for sex" has made it difficult for him to live together with her under one roof.

Judge Rao allowed the petition and dissolved the man's marriage.

Government to increase dearness allowance to 107 Per Cent

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NEW DELHI: The government is likely to approve a hike in dearness allowance (DA) to 107 per cent from the existing 100 per cent, benefiting the Centre's around 30 lakh employees and its 50 lakh pensioners including dependents.
"The average rate of retail inflation for industrial workers from July 1, 2013 to June 30, 2014 works out to be 7.25 per cent. Thus the Central government will hike dearness allowance for it employees by 7 per cent," an official said.
He further said the Finance Ministry will now put a Cabinet proposal for approval of 7 per cent dearness allowance hike from July 1 this year as the revised Consumer Price Index-Industrial Workers data for June was released by Labour Ministry on Saturday.
With increase in DA, the pensioners will also gain as the benefit provided to them as dearness relief will be hiked to 107 per cent of basic pay.
The previous UPA government had increased DA to 100 per cent from 90 per cent with effect from January 1, 2014, on February 28 on the basis of agreed formula for revision of the allowance.
However, the central government employees' union is not very enthused by the 7 per cent hike in the dearness allowance as their long pending demand of merger of DA with basic pay has not been given heed by 7th Pay Commission and the government.
"The erosion of value of wages is unbearable at 50 per cent dearness allowance. Now it will be 107 per cent. It is high time to merge DA with basic pay to provide relief to employees," Confederation of Central Government Employees' President K K N Kutty told reporters.
"We had summited our memorandum in this regard to 7th Pay Commission. They forwarded it to Central Government. We have apprised about the issue to the newly elected NDA government. But no decision has been taken so far," he said.
With merger of DA with basic pay, the salary and allowances paid in proportion of basic pay are increased. As per earlier practice, DA was merged with basic pay once it breached 50 per cent mark. But 6th Pay Commission has disallowed that.

Anti-govt protests in Pakistan continue, 300 injured as police clash with demonstrators

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ISLAMABAD: At least 300 people were wounded in clashes between police and protesters in Pakistan's capital Islamabad, hospital officials said on Sunday, as a fortnightlong political impasse took a violent turn.

The violence, which began late on Saturday and continued early on Sunday, erupted after around 25,000 people marched from parliament to the prime minister's house, where some attempted to remove barricades around it with cranes, an AFP reporter at the scene said.

Police responded with teargas and rubber bullets. Islamabad police chief Khalid Khattak told AFP police exercised restraint but the protesters were armed with axes, wire cutters and hammers.

'They had a crane and drove it until the entrance of the presidency. We are using only tear gas and firing rubber bullets where needed,' Khattak said.

Railways minister Khawaja Saad Rafique said protesters tried to uproot the entry gate of the prime minister's house.

The protesters, led by cricketer-turned-politician Imran Khan and populist cleric Tahir-ul-Qadri, have been camped outside parliament house since August 15 demanding Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif quit amid allegations of vote rigging.

The crisis took on a new dimension earlier in the week after the government asked the powerful army to mediate, raising fears the military would use the situation to enact a 'soft coup' and increase its dominance over civilian authorities.

'There are 1,600 to 2,000 trained terrorists. They have 200 women who are trained in the use of firearms and they have come with the intention of occupying state buildings,' defence minister Khawaja Asif told AFP as the fighting broke out late on Saturday.

'These are buildings that are symbols of the state,' he said. 'Their attempts are being resisted. And we will resist these with full force.'

AFP's correspondent at the scene said protesters were carrying batons, iron rods and slingshots.

The injured were rushed to Islamabad's two main hospitals, and the number of casualties is expected to rise as clashes continue.

Railway minister's son seeks anticipatory bail in rape case

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 Bangalore: Karthik Gowda, son of Railway Minister D.V. Sadananda Gowda, Saturday moved a court for anticipatory bail in a rape and cheating case filed against him by Kannada actress Maithreyi.

The actress had filed the case after 30-year-old Karthik got engaged to another woman at Kushalnagar in Kodagu district.

The city sessions court, however, adjourned the case for further hearing to Sep 4 after issuing notice to the R.T. Nagar police station where the complaint was filed Wednesday.

The court also asked the police station if it would file objections to Karthik's anticipatory bail plea.

Though police summoned Karthik Friday for questioning in the case registered under sections 376 (rape) and 420 (cheating) of the Indian Penal Code, he did not appear till Saturday evening.

The summons to Karthik was issued after the probe team began recording Maithreyi's statement Thursday.

Police also asked Maithreyi to submit some documents and audio proof of conversations between her and Karthik that she said were recorded in her smartphone in the last two-three months.

Maithreyi claimed that Karthik tied the wedding knot (mangalasutra) with her June 5 at his other house in Mangalore, about 350 km from Bangalore, and that they consummated the informal marriage after he forced himself upon her.

The minister and his son, however, refuted Maithreyi's charge and said her claims were part of a conspiracy to malign the family's reputation.

'I am pained and disturbed by Maitheryi's allegations. I will not interfere with the investigation. Truth will come out soon. Law will take its own course,' Gowda reiterated Saturday on the sidelines of an event here.

Meanwhile, Siddaraju, convenor of the state unit of the Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha, the BJP's youth wing, filed a police complaint against Maithreyi, seeking a probe into her allegations and accused her of blackmailing Gowda and his family.

Five killed as gas cylinder explodes in bus

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Ramanathapuram (TN): Five persons were charred to death and six injured when an overloaded bus from West Bengal, carrying 80 pilgrims, caught fire after a gas cylinder exploded on board at Tiruppullani near here, police said.

The bus was gutted in the mishap that occurred late last night when the pilgrims were en route to Kanyakumari after
visiting Tirupati and Rameswaram.

Police said the driver of the bus had noticed a spark at the back of the bus through the rear view mirror and had
immediately stopped the bus, and asked the passengers to get down. Suddenly one of the two LPG cylinders on board exploded and the fire spread fast helped by strong winds blowing through the coastal area.

The driver of the bus and a tourist guide Srinivasan from Tirukallukundram helped several passengers to get down but 11
persons were trapped by smoke and fire at the rear.

Police said five of them--Viswanath Dass (68) Viswanath Mandal (78), Gopal (70), Durga Sinide (50) and Malathi Nayaki
(60) were killed, while six others who were injured had been admitted to the government hospital where the condition of two
persons is stated to be serious.

Officials said the bus was overloaded and the 80 passengers, hailing from districts like Hooghly and Midnapore
districts, had left West Bengal on August 22. PTI

23 killed in Afghan accident

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Kabul: At least 23 people were killed Sunday in Afghanistan when their bus collided with a truck, an official said.

The accident took place along the Islam Qala highway in Herat province, the official told Xinhua. The victims included women and children.

2014, ഓഗസ്റ്റ് 20, ബുധനാഴ്‌ച

111-yr-old Japanese recognised as oldest man

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A 111-year-old retired educator from Japan who enjoys poetry has been recognised as the world's oldest living man.

Sakari Momoi received a certificate from Guinness World Records on Wednesday. He succeeds Alexander Imich of New York, who died in April at the age of 111 years, 164 days.

The world's oldest living person is also Japanese: Misao Okawa, a 116-year-old woman from Osaka.

Momoi was born February 5, 1903, in Fukushima prefecture, where he became a teacher. He later moved to the city of Saitama, north of Tokyo, and served as a high school principal there until retirement.

Momoi says he enjoys reading books, especially Chinese poetry. He has five children and now lives at a nursing home in Tokyo.

Mohanlal undergoing physiotherapy

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Kochi: Ace superstar Mohanlal is undergoing physiotherapy at a private hospital here for the past one week as he is suffering from pain in his left leg, a source at the facility said.

The physiotherapy sessions are progressing well, a source at the Amrita Institute of Medical Sciences told IANS.

The 54-year-old has been suffering the pain for a while and only after weighing different options did he decid to undergo physiotherapy, a close aide of the actor told IANS.

'The pain is on his left knee and is spreading downwards. At one point of time, even bringing in a knee expert from the US was discussed, but after weighing other medical opinions, physiotherapy was decided upon. Things are getting better for him now,' said the aide, who did not wish to be identified.

Once the physiotherapy session is over, Mohanlal is expected to take rest and would be ready to don the grease paint only in October when he teams up with Manju Warrier in a film, to be directed by master storyteller Sathyan Anthicadu.

'Aaram Thamburan' and 'Kanmadam' have been two films that turned out to be a huge success when the duo acted together.

Pakistan PM refuses to resign

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Islamabad: Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has decided not to succumb to pressure exerted by Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) and the Pakistan Awami Tehreek (PAT) to make him step down from his post, Geo News reported late Tuesday.

Presiding over a high-level meet at the Prime Minister House, Sharif said the doors to dialogue would be kept open but he would not resign from his post, sources said.

The meeting agreed to speedup the process of establishing contacts with political forces, sources added.

Cricketer turned politician Imaran Khan, the PTI chief, has claimed that the 2013 elections were rigged and that Sharif has a 'fake mandate'.

Meanwhile, as a protest march continued in Pakistan, Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan Tuesday announced the army has been entrusted with the responsibility of securing Islamabad's sensitive Red Zone area.

The move came as protesters from Imran Khan's PTI and the PAT persisted with their threat to march to Constitution Avenue in the federal capital city, a Dawn report said.

Pakistan army calls for dialogue as protesters reach parliament

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Islamabad: The Pakistan army Wednesday called for dialogue to resolve the current political crisis in the country as thousands of anti-government protesters forced their way to reach the parliament building demanding resignation of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.

The current 'situation requires patience, wisdom and sagacity from all stakeholders,' Xinhua quoted military spokesperson Major General Asim Bajwa as saying. He called for 'meaningful dialogue in larger national and public interest to resolve the prevailing impasse'.

The rare statement from the country's powerful army came shortly after the protesters removed all hurdles and reached a highly secured area in the capital city.

Bajwa said that buildings in 'Red Zone' are symbol of state and being protected by army, 'therefore sanctity of these national symbols must be respected.'

The authorities had earlier stopped the protesters from entering the secured zone which houses diplomatic missions and other important buildings including the prime minister's house.

Cricketer-turned politician, Imran Khan, and a religious leader, Tahir-ul-Qadri, led thousands of their supporters to enter the secured area.

Major political parties had earlier called for patience and dialogue to resolve the political deadlock. However all efforts for dialogue have failed so far.

2G money laundering case: Court grants bail to Dayalu Ammal

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New Delhi : A special court Wednesday granted bail to DMK chief M. Karunanidhi's wife Dayalu Ammal in a money laundering case relating to the allocation of 2G spectrum.

Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) Special Judge O.P. Saini granted bail to Ammal and asked her to furnish a personal bond of Rs.5 lakh and two sureties of the same amount.

However, the court dismissed her plea seeking discharge in the case.

The court said it will pass orders post lunch Wednesday on the bail pleas of former telecom minister A. Raja, DMK MP Kanimozhi and others.

Raja, Kanimozhi, Swan telecom promoters Shahid Usman Balwa and Vinod Goenka, Kusegaon Fruits and Vegetables Pvt. Ltd. (KFVPL) directors Asif Balwa and Rajiv Agarwal, Bollywood producer Karim Morani, DMK chief M. Karunanidhi's wife Dayalu Ammal, Kalaignar TV director Sharad Kumar and P. Amirthan have been chargesheeted by the ED in the case.

The companies named in the case are Swan Telecom Pvt. Ltd. (STPL), Kusegaon Realty Pvt. Ltd., Cineyug Media and Entertainment Pvt. Ltd. (Cineyug Films), Kalaignar TV (KTV) Pvt. Ltd., Dynamix Realty, Eversmile Construction Company Private Limited, Conwood Construction and Developers (P) Ltd., DB Realty Ltd. and Nihar Construction Pvt. Ltd.

The accused have been booked under various sections of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).

'The investigation revealed that an amount of Rs.200 crore was paid by promoters of STPL, using their group entity Dynamix Realty, to KTV, through KFVPL and CFPL (Cineyug Films) in the garb of legitimate financial transaction, that is as loan/share application money,' the Enforcement Directorate (ED) has said in the chargesheet.

It has said the payment was illegal gratification for and on behalf of Raja and his associates in lieu of illegal favours given to the STPL for grant of UAS licence.

The ED has further added that investigation has revealed that the return of Rs.200 crore has been done along with the additional amount in order to show this illegal payment in the guise of legal and bona fide financial transactions.

2014, ഓഗസ്റ്റ് 10, ഞായറാഴ്‌ച

4 killed, 3 injured in bus-auto collision

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Perubilav (Thrissur): Four persons were killed and 3 others injured when a bus rammed an autorickshaw at Kadavaloor in Thrissur on Saturday at about 7.30 pm. A bike rider who was behind the auto too sustained injuries. Two of the deceased are yet to be identified. The auto was completely crushed in the collision. Irate locals destroyed the bus near the Ambalam stop.

Auto driver Hassan Bhai (50) and headload worker Kunjumon (65) from Edappal are the deceased. Two of the injured, Sudharsan (45) and Vijayan (51) have been admitted to the Thrissur Ashwini hospital while bike rider Krishnadas (36) to the Perimbilav Ansar hospital for treatment.

The bus from Kozhikode to Thrissur collided with the auto coming in the opposite direction. The passengers in the auto were thrown away and one person's hand was severed in the impact. Local people rushed to the accident spot and took the injured to nearby hospitals.

Eye witnesses say the bus was overspeeding. The bodies of the deceased are preserved at the Ansar hospital and Thrissur Ashwini hospital.

Jaswant Singh remains critical, Modi visits hospital

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New Delhi: 
Prime
 Minister Narendra Modi Saturday met former BJP leader Jaswant Singh, a day after he was admitted to a hospital here in a critical condition.

'Visited Jaswant Singh ji. Met his family and enquired about his health. I pray for his quick recovery,' Modi tweeted after meeting Jaswant Singh at the Army Hospital (Research and Referral) here.

According to a defence ministry statement, he was 'still on life support systems and under constant monitoring by a team of neurosurgeons and critical care intensivists.'

'His vital parameters are stable but he continues to be in coma,' added the statement.

The 76-year-old leader was brought to the hospital with a head injury at about 1 a.m. Friday following a fall at his house here.

His family members had found him lying on the floor in an unconscious state.

Tracing Ebola's Breakout to an African 2-Year-Old

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Gueckedou, Guinea: Patient Zero in the Ebola outbreak, researchers suspect, was a 2-year-old boy who died Dec. 6, just a few days after falling ill in a village in Gueckedou, in southeastern Guinea. Bordering Sierra Leone and Liberia, Gueckedou is at the intersection of three nations, where the disease found an easy entry point to the region.

A week later, it killed the boy's mother, then his 3-year-old sister, then his grandmother. All had fever, vomiting and diarrhea, but no one knew what had sickened them.

Two mourners at the grandmother's funeral took the virus home to their village. A health worker carried it to still another, where he died, as did his doctor. They both infected relatives from other towns. By the time Ebola was recognized, in March, dozens of people had died in eight Guinean communities, and suspected cases were popping up in Liberia and Sierra Leone - three of the world's poorest countries, recovering from years of political dysfunction and civil war.

In Gueckedou, where it all began, 'the feeling was fright,' said Dr. Kalissa N'fansoumane, the hospital director. He had to persuade his employees to come to work.

On March 31, Doctors Without Borders, which has intervened in many Ebola outbreaks, called this one 'unprecedented,' and warned that the disease had erupted in so many locations that fighting it would be enormously difficult.

Now, with 1,779 cases, including 961 deaths and a small cluster in Nigeria, the outbreak is out of control and still getting worse. Not only is it the largest ever, but it also seems likely to surpass all two dozen previous known Ebola outbreaks combined. Epidemiologists predict it will take months to control, perhaps many months, and a spokesman for the World Health Organization said thousands more health workers were needed to fight it.

Some experts warn that the outbreak could destabilize governments in the region. It is already causing widespread panic and disruption. On Saturday, Guinea announced that it had closed its borders with Sierra Leone and Liberia in a bid to halt the virus' spread. Doctors worry that deaths from malaria, dysentery and other diseases could shoot up as Ebola drains resources from weak health systems. Health care workers, already in short supply, have been hit hard by the outbreak: 145 have been infected, and 80 of them have died.

Past Ebola outbreaks have been snuffed out, often within a few months. How, then, did this one spin so far out of control? It is partly a consequence of modernization in Africa, and perhaps a warning that future outbreaks - which are inevitable - will pose tougher challenges. Unlike most previous outbreaks, which occurred in remote, localized spots, this one began in a border region where roads have been improved and people travel a lot. In this case, the disease was on the move before health officials even knew it had struck.

Also, this part of Africa had never seen Ebola before. Health workers did not recognize it and had neither the training nor the equipment to avoid infecting themselves or other patients. Hospitals in the region often lack running water and gloves, and can be fertile ground for epidemics.

Public health experts acknowledge that the initial response, both locally and internationally, was inadequate.

'That's obviously the case,' said Dr. Thomas Frieden, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 'Look at what's happening now.'

He added, 'A couple of months ago, there was a false sense of confidence that it was controlled, a stepping back, and then it flared up worse than before.'

Health experts have grown increasingly confident in recent years that they can control Ebola, Frieden said, based on success in places like Uganda.

But those successes hinged on huge education campaigns to teach people about the disease and persuade them to go to treatment centers. Much work also went into getting people to change funeral practices that involve touching corpses, which are highly infectious.

But in West Africa, Ebola was unknown.

In some areas, frightened and angry people have attacked health workers and even accused them of bringing in disease.

'Early on in the outbreak, we had at least 26 villages or little towns that would not cooperate with responders in terms of letting people into the village, even,' said Gregory Hartl, a spokesman for the World Health Organization.

The outbreak has occurred in three waves: The first two were relatively small, and the third, starting about a month ago, was much larger, Hartl said. 'That third wave was a clarion call,' he said.

At a House subcommittee hearing Thursday, Ken Isaacs, a vice president of Samaritan's Purse, said his aid group and Doctors Without Borders were doing much of the work on the outbreak.

'That the world would allow two relief agencies to shoulder this burden along with the overwhelmed Ministries of Health in these countries testifies to the lack of serious attention the epidemic was given,' he said.

In mid-March, Guinea's Ministry of Health asked Doctors Without Borders for help in Gueckedou.

At first, the group's experts suspected Lassa fever, a viral disease endemic in West Africa. But this illness was worse. Isolation units were set up, and tests confirmed Ebola.

Like many African cities and towns, this region hums with motorcycle taxis and minivans crammed with passengers.

The mobility, and now the sheer numbers, make the basic work of containing the disease a monumental task. The only way to stop an outbreak is to isolate infected patients, trace all their contacts, isolate the ones who get sick and repeat the process until, finally, there are no more cases.

But how do you do that when there can easily be 500 names on the list of contacts who are supposed to be tracked down and checked for fever every day for 21 days?

'They go to the field to work their crops,' said Monia Sayah, a nurse sent in by Doctors Without Borders. 'Some have phones, but the networks don't always work. Some will say, 'I'm fine; you don't have to come,' but we really have to see them and take their temperature. But if someone wants to lie and take Tylenol, they won't have a temperature.'

At Donka Hospital in Guinea's capital, Dr. Simon Mardel, a British emergency physician who has worked in seven previous hemorrhagic fever outbreaks and was sent to Guinea by the World Health Organization, realized this outbreak was the worst he had seen. A man had arrived late one night, panting and with abdominal pain. During the previous few days, he had been treated at two private clinics, given intravenous fluids and sent home. The staff did not suspect Ebola because he had no fever. But fever can diminish at the end stage of the disease.

The treatment room at Donka was poorly lit and had no sink. There were few buckets of chlorine solution, and the staff found it impossible to clean their hands between patients.

The man died two hours after arriving. Tests later showed he had been positive for Ebola. Untold numbers of health care workers and their subsequent patients had been exposed to the disease.

Gloves, in short supply at the hospitals, were selling for 50 cents a pair on the open market, a huge sum for people who often live on less than a dollar a day. At homes where families cared for patients, even plastic buckets to hold water and bleach for washing hands and disinfecting linens were lacking.

Workers were failing to trace all patients' contacts. The resulting unsuspected cases, appearing at hospitals without standard infection control measures, worsened the spread in a 'vicious circle,' Mardel said.

Tracing an Epidemic's Origins

As is often the case in Ebola outbreaks, no one knows how the first person got the disease or how the virus found its way to the region. The virus infects monkeys and apes, and some previous epidemics are thought to have begun when someone was exposed to blood while killing or butchering an infected animal. Cooking will destroy the virus, so the risk is not in eating the meat, but in handling it raw. Ebola is also thought to infect fruit bats without harming them, so the same risks apply to butchering bats. Some researchers also think that people might become infected by eating fruit or other uncooked foods contaminated by droppings from infected bats.

Once people become ill, their bodily fluids can infect others, and they become more infectious as the illness progresses. The disease does not spread through the air like the flu; contact with fluids is necessary, usually through the eyes, nose, mouth or cuts in the skin. One drop of blood can harbor millions of viruses, and corpses become like virus bombs.

A research team that studied the Guinea outbreak traced the disease back to the 2-year-old who died in Gueckedou and published a report in The New England Journal of Medicine. He and his relatives were never tested to confirm Ebola, but their symptoms matched it and they fit into a pattern of transmission that included other cases confirmed by blood tests.

But no one can explain how such a small child could have become the first person infected. Contaminated fruit is one possibility. An injection with a contaminated needle is another.

Sylvain Baize, part of the team that studied the Guinea outbreak and head of the national reference center for viral hemorrhagic fevers at the Pasteur Institute in Lyon, France, said there might have been an earlier case that went undiscovered, before the 2-year-old.

'We suppose that the first case was infected following contact with bats,' he said. 'Maybe, but we are not sure.'

Roaring Back in Liberia

Dr. Fazlul Haque, deputy representative of UNICEF in Liberia, said that after a few cases there in March and April, health workers thought the disease had gone away. But it came roaring back about a month later.

'It reappeared, and this time, it came in a very big way,' he said. 'The rate of increase is very high now.'

From July 30 to Aug. 6, Liberia's government reported more than 170 new cases and over 90 deaths.

'Currently, our efforts are not enough to stop the virus,' Haque said.

He added that most health agencies believed the true case numbers to be far higher, in part because locals were not coming forward when relatives fell ill, and because detection by the health authorities has been weak. Rukshan Ratnam, a spokesman for UNICEF in Liberia, said some families had hidden their sick to avoid sending them to isolation wards or out of shame stemming from traditional beliefs that illness is a punishment for doing something wrong.

Haque said that the tracing of cases, crucial for the containment of the disease, was moving too slowly to keep up with new infections. Seven counties have confirmed cases, and the government has deployed security forces in Lofa County, where Liberia's first case was detected, he said. But the government has given leave to nonessential employees in those areas, so it is not clear how they will have the staffing to isolate the sick. Some hospitals have closed because so many health workers have fallen ill.

Liberia has closed markets and many border crossings. It has said testing and screening will be done at immigration checkpoints.

But on Thursday, at a checkpoint staffed by at least 30 soldiers in Klay, Bomi County, there was no screening - just a blockade and a line of trucks loaded with bags of charcoal, plantains and potato greens.

Hilary Wesseh, a truck driver who was sucking the last drops of juice out of a small lime, said he had been stuck there for two days.

'They are holding us hostage,' he said.

A Desperate Call for Help

By June and July, Sierra Leone was becoming the center of the outbreak. At the government hospital in Kenema, Dr. Sheik Umar Khan was leading the efforts to treat patients and control the epidemic.

But he was desperate for supplies: chlorine for disinfection, gloves, goggles, protective suits, rudimentary sugar and salt solutions to fight dehydration and give patients a chance to survive. Early in July, he emailed friends and former medical school classmates in the United States, asking for their help and sending a spreadsheet listing what he needed, and what he had. Many of the lines in the 'available' column were empty. One of his requests was for body bags: 3,000 adult, 2,000 child.

Before his friends could send the supplies, Khan contracted Ebola himself. He died July 29.
New York Times

No Ebola symptoms, person discharged in Chennai

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Chennai: A hospital in the city, on Sunday, discharged a person kept under observation after no symptoms of Ebola were found but health authorities will monitor him for 21 days.

He flew in Saturday night from the west African country Guinea, said a senior official.

Speaking to IANS, Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital resident medical officer A. Illango said: 'The person was kept only as a quarantine measure from Saturday night. His blood samples have been taken and sent to the National Institute of Virology, Pune for testing.'

According to Illango, the person was discharged and sent to his native Theni district as he did not show any symptoms of suffering from the Ebola disease.

He said the person will, however, be under observation of the district health authorities for 21 days.

IANS

Reports say Iranian plane crashes after takeoff, killing 39

________ A to Z kerala .......... [kvk] [www.atozkerala.in , www.atozkerala.blogspot.com]


TEHRAN: A regional passenger plane assembled in Iran crashed Sunday while taking off from the capital, killing 39 and injuring another nine onboard, according to a senior transportation official and state media.

The IrAn-140 operated by domestic carrier Sepahan Air crashed in a residential area near Tehran's Mehrabad airport. State 
TV
 said the plane's tail struck the cables of an electricity tower before it hit the ground and burst into flames. The official IRNA news agency said the plane suffered an engine failure before it went down.

Deputy Minister of Transportation Ahmad Majidi provided the casualty figures in an appearance on state TV. The channel earlier had reported that all 48 people onboard had died.

The crash happened shortly after the plane took off at 9:20 a.m. local time (0450 GMT), bound for the town of Tabas in eastern Iran.

Eyewitness Hassan Molla said he heard a roaring sound as the plane came in low overhead, one wing tilting.

'There was no smoke or anything. It was absolutely sound and in good condition' before the crash and what appeared to be multiple explosions, he said.

Members of the Revolutionary Guard worked to secure the crash site and security and rescue personnel combed the wreckage as onlookers gathered shortly after the plane went down. The plane's mangled but largely intact tail section was torn from the fuselage and came to rest on a nearby road.

State TV said the bodies of some of the victims were so badly burned that they could not be identified. They will be handed over to relatives after DNA tests are carried out to determine their identities, it said.

The IrAn-140 is a twin-engine turboprop plane based on Ukrainian technology that is assembled under license in Iran. It is a version of the Antonov An-140 regional plane and can carry up to 52 passengers.

A similar plane crashed during a training flight in the city of Isfahan in February 2009, killing five onboard, according to a report by state-run Press TV at the time.

Lawmaker Mehrdad Lahouti suggested Sunday that the earlier accident should have been a wake-up call.

'Lawmakers visited the production site of the plane and expressed concern about its (safety),' IRNA quoted him as saying. 'This company should have not been allowed to operate the plane to avoid such a bitter incident.'

An official for Sepahan Air told The Associated Press from the central city of Isfahan that the carrier is affiliated with the Iran Aircraft Manufacturing Industrial Company, also known as HESA. The airline was set up in 2010 and has not had any previous crashes, said the official, who refused to provide his name.

HESA has ties to Iran's Ministry of Defense and is the company that assembles the IrAn-140.

Mehrabad, located in western Tehran, is the busier of two main airports serving the capital, and primarily handles domestic flights. Most international flights use the newer Imam Khomeini International Airport.

Iran has suffered a series of airplane crashes, blamed on its aging aircraft and poor maintenance. Many of the Boeing aircraft in state-run Iran Air's fleet were bought before the country's 1979 Islamic Revolution, which disrupted ties with the U.S. and Europe.

Iranian airlines, including those run by the state, are chronically strapped for cash, and maintenance has suffered, experts say. U.S. sanctions prevent Iran from updating its American aircraft and make it difficult to get European spare parts or planes. The country has come to rely on Russian aircraft, many of them Soviet-era planes that are harder to get parts for since the Soviet Union's fall.

In March of this year, a small plane belonging to the State Aviation Organization crashed while on a test flight near the tourist 
resort
 of Kish Island, killing all four crew members.

The last major airliner crash in Iran happened in January 2011, when an Iran Air Boeing 727 broke to pieces on impact while trying an emergency landing in a snowstorm in northwestern Iran, killing at least 77 people.

In July 2009, a Russian-made jetliner crashed in northwest Iran shortly after taking off from the capital, killing all 168 on board. A Russian-made Ilyushin 76 carrying members of the Revolutionary Guard crashed in the mountains of southeastern Iran in February 2003, killing 302 people aboard.

2014, ഓഗസ്റ്റ് 5, ചൊവ്വാഴ്ച

Suspected Ebola virus case in Saudi Arabia

________ A to Z kerala .......... [kvk] [www.atozkerala.in , www.atozkerala.blogspot.com]
 
Riyadh: Saudi Arabia's health ministry announced Tuesday it is testing blood samples of a man who is suspected of being infected with the Ebola virus after a recent trip to Sierra Leone.

The 40-year-old Saudi man showed symptoms of viral haemorrhagic fever Monday night at a hospital in Jeddah. He is in critical condition and has been moved to a care centre with advanced isolation and infection-control capabilities, Xinhua reported citing the ministry.

Preliminary tests in a local laboratory showed negative for dengue virus and additional tests are under way to determine the source of infection, the ministry explained, adding that it would also submit samples for Ebola virus testing to an international reference laboratory at the recommendation of the World Health Organisation.

Some viral hemorrhagic fevers are found in Saudi Arabia but no confirmed case of Ebola virus has been detected in the Gulf nation, the ministry clarified.

Saudi Arabia announced in April that it was not issuing visas for the 2014 Haj and Umrah to pilgrims from Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea due to the outbreak of Ebola in these countries. Medical workers are monitoring travellers at airports and seaports across the kingdom.

Saudi Arabia has suffered from rampant spread of the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome coronavirus, and a total of 721 cases were registered since 2012, with 298 people dying of the disease.

Infection by the virus reduced drastically because of nationwide efforts as no new cases were registered for almost a month.

The Ebola virus disease, formerly known as Ebola haemorrhagic fever, is a severe illness with a mortality rate of up to 90 percent.

IANS

Visit visas now go online for expats in Saudi Arabia

________ A to Z kerala .......... [kvk] [www.atozkerala.in , www.atozkerala.blogspot.com]
 
Riyadh: Expatriates in Saudi Arabia will now be able to renew visit visas for their relatives online under a new service announced in the Gulf nation, a media report said Tuesday.

The Saudi Arabian passport department is slated to launch the new service under the interior ministry's Abshir system Aug 11, Arab News reported citing Mohammed Al-Saad, director of public relations.

The new service has been put in place after prior testing, Al-Saad said.

The launch of the new service coincides with the department's campaign to increase awareness on its electronic services.

Al-Saad urged expatriates to make use of its electronic services to save their time and energy and reduce congestion at the passport offices across the country.

Saudi Arabia is home to around 2.8 million expatriate Indians, many of whom are blue-collar workers.

Indians form the largest expatriate community in this Gulf nation.

People can register with Abshir by visiting one of the department's offices (Jawazat) or using interactive machines available at banks, as well as at malls and international airports, the director said.

Meanwhile, expatriates in the Gulf state have appreciated the new electronic services which could cut down on the tedious process of standing in long queues at Jawazat offices.

'The registration of expats with the (Saudi Arabian) interior ministry's electronic system simplified their residency procedures, including issuance of exit and re-entry visas,' the report quoted Omar Abubacker, a business consultant, as saying.

IANS

Baked or broiled fish improves brain health

________ A to Z kerala .......... [kvk] [www.atozkerala.in , www.atozkerala.blogspot.com]
 
New York: Baked or broiled fish once a week is good for your kid's brain, regardless of how much omega-3 fatty acids it contains, says a study.

'Our study shows that people who ate a diet that included baked or broiled, but not fried, fish have larger brain volumes in regions associated with memory and cognition,' said James T. Becker, a professor of psychiatry at University of Pittsburgh's school of medicine.

They found that people who ate baked or broiled fish at least once a week had greater grey matter brain volumes in areas of the brain associated with memory (4.3 percent) and cognition (14 percent).

They were more likely to have a college education than those who did not eat fish regularly.

But no association was found between the brain differences and blood levels of omega-3 fatty acids.

The lifestyle factors, in this case eating fish, rather than biological factors contribute to structural changes in the brain.

'A confluence of lifestyle factors likely are responsible for better brain health, and this reserve might prevent or delay cognitive problems that can develop later in life,' Becker noted.

Scientists estimate that more than 80 million people will have dementia by 2040 which could become a substantial burden to families and drive up health care costs.

The anti-oxidant effect of omega-3 fatty acids, which are found in high amounts in fish, seeds and nuts and certain oils, also have been associated with improved health, particularly brain health.

The paper appeared in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.

IANS

2014, ഓഗസ്റ്റ് 4, തിങ്കളാഴ്‌ച

Banglades ferry sinks with 200 passengers aboard

________ A to Z kerala .......... [kvk] [www.atozkerala.in , www.atozkerala.blogspot.com]


 
        

 
DHAKA: A ferry with about 200 passengers aboard capsized on Monday in the river Padma, near Munshiganj district, about 30 km (18 miles) southwest of Dhaka, the chief of the district administration told Reuters.

Mohammad Saiful Hasan Badal, the Deputy Commissioner of the district, said 44 passengers had been rescued from the vessel, identified as the Pinak-6. No deaths had yet been reported.

Teams from the Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Authority and the army were engaged in the rescue operation.

At least 367 dead after quake hits southwest China

________ A to Z kerala .......... [kvk] [www.atozkerala.in , www.atozkerala.blogspot.com]

Beijing: A magnitude 6.3 earthquake struck southwestern China on Sunday, killing at least 367 people and leaving 1,881 injured in a remote area of Yunnan province, and causing thousands of buildings, including a school, to collapse.

The U.S. Geological Survey said the quake registered at a shallow depth of less than 1 mile (1.6 km). Chinese state media said it was felt most strongly in Yunnan as well as in the neighbouring provinces of Guizhou and Sichuan.

The official Xinhua news agency said the epicentre was in Longtoushan town in Yunnan's mountainous Ludian county.

Paramilitary policemen carrying an injured woman after an earthquake hit Ludian county of Zhaotong, Yunnan province in China



Communications have been seriously affected and rescuers have begun arriving on the scene, the report said.

Pictures posted online by state media showed troops stretchering people away and cars damaged by fallen bricks.

Many people rushed out of buildings onto the street after the quake hit, electricity supplies were cut and at least one school collapsed, Xinhua added, with more than 12,000 houses having collapsed and 30,000 sustaining damage.

Ludian resident Ma Liya told Xinhua the streets were like a 'battlefield after bombardment'.

The government is sending 2,000 tents, 3,000 folding beds, 3,000 quilts and 3,000 coats to the disaster zone, where heavy rain forecast for the coming days will add to the misery, the report said.

Ludian is home to some 265,900 people, Xinhua added.

This region of China is frequently struck by quakes, with one killing more than 1,400 in the same part of Yunnan in 1974.

A quake in Sichuan in 2008 killed almost 70,000 people.

REUTERS

Six-year-old slips into borewell in Karnataka

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Bagalkot: A six-year-old boy Sunday slipped into a dry borewell and got stuck about 100 ft-deep in Bagalkot district of Karnataka.

The incident happened in a village near Badami, about 550 km from state capital Bangalore.

'The boy (Thimanna) suddenly fell into the borewell while playing with his brother and friends in the village. The borewell was dug in June and left unattended, as there were no rains then,' S.R. Patil, district in-charge minister, told reporters at the accident spot.

The district authorities launched rescue operations with the help of police and experts from irrigation and public works departments to dig a parallel hole to rescue the trapped boy out from the dark pit.

'Oxygen is being supplied to the boy through a pipe. View of the boy through a closed circuit television camera, which was lowered to 60-80 feet underground showed his one hand and leg folded with some movement,' Patil said.

The rescue team has pressed one earth moving machine and one drilling machine to dig the hole a few feet away from the dry borewell to rescue the boy.

Keralite killed in Libya

________ A to Z kerala .......... [kvk] [www.atozkerala.in , www.atozkerala.blogspot.com]
Pandalam: A Keralite was killed in mortar shell attack in the war-torn Libya on Sunday.

Sources said Solomon Daniel, hailing from Mattapally in Nooranad, had been working as turner at J&B Company in Tripoli for the last 10 years. The accident happened around 11 am on Sunday.

Solomon had visited his family two months ago.

The tragedy struck Solomon as he was planning to return to India in the wake of ongoing conflict in Libya. He is survived by wife Jessie and children Shyni, Shyji and Shaiju. 

No benefits for public from KSRTC, better wind it up: HC

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Kochi: It is better to wind up the operations of KSRTC since it is not offering any benefits to the public, opined the Kerala High Court.

The HC added that by providing assistance to the corporation, the taxpayers' money is being wasted.

A High Court single bench made this observation while hearing a batch of 35 petitions on non-payment of pension and other benefits to employees. 

'The arrears of the employees should be settled by selling off the assets belonging to the corporation. Even if the KSRTC wind up its operations, nothing will happen except for a minister losing his post,' it said.

The standing council, on behalf of the government, argued that the KSRTC fails to clear the arrears on time as it is running at a monthly loss of Rs 60 crore. 

This is the second time the HC is making such a statement.

2014, ഓഗസ്റ്റ് 3, ഞായറാഴ്‌ച

First molecular map to detect vision loss created

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Washington: An Indian-origin researcher-led team has created the most detailed map to date of a region of the human eye, long associated with blinding diseases, such as age-related macular degeneration.

By seeing differences in protein abundance in this eye region, researchers can figure out which proteins may be the critical actors in vision loss and eye disease.

Understanding eye diseases is tricky enough. Knowing what causes them at the molecular level is even more confounding.

The high-resolution molecular map catalogues thousands of proteins in the choroid that supplies blood and oxygen to the outer retina, itself critical in vision.

'This molecular map now gives us clues why certain areas of the choroid are more sensitive to certain diseases, as well as where to target therapies and why,' said Vinit Mahajan, assistant professor in ophthalmology at University of Iowa.

What vision specialists know is many eye diseases, including age-related macular degeneration (AMD), are caused by inflammation that damages the choroid and the accompanying cellular network known as the retinal pigment epithelium (RPE).

Mahajan and Jessica Skeie, post-doctoral researcher in ophthalmology at University of Iowa, created a map that catalogues more than 4,000 unique proteins in each of the three areas of the choroid-RPE - the fovea, macula and the periphery.

'This has helped explain why certain genes are associated with macular degeneration and helps point us to new treatment targets,' Skeie concluded in a paper published in the journal JAMA Ophthalmology.

IANS

56 suspects arrested for Myanmar's riots

________ A to Z kerala .......... [kvk] [www.atozkerala.in , www.atozkerala.blogspot.com]
Yangon: Myanmar authorities have arrested 56 suspects for their involvement in a sectarian riot in Mandalay, police officials said Sunday.

Action is being taken against them on charges of murder, arson and illegal possession of weapons, Xinhua reported.

The police forces are investigating 36 other suspects.

The police have already punished 1,400 people who allegedly broke the curfew order.

In the riot that broke out in Mandalay July 1 over a rape case, two people were killed and 17 injured.

Following the riot, all seven townships in Mandalay have been placed under a dusk-to-dawn curfew since July 3.

As security situation in the areas has improved, the authorities have gradually reduced the curfew hours and as of July 28, the curfew was cut to be only effective from 10 p.m. to 3 a.m.

IANS

India grants residential visa to Taslima Nasreen

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New Delhi: Bangladeshi writer Taslima Nasreen on Saturday was granted residential visa by India following her meeting with Union home minister Rajnath Singh seeking long-term extension of her residence permit earlier in the day.

'I met Singh today (Saturday) and he assured me that my stay in India will be extended. I gave him my book 'Wo Andhere Din' (Those Dark Days) and in return he said my dark days are over,' Nasreen told IANS.

Earlier, Nasreen had expressed her anguish after the government on Wednesday refused her a one-year visa giving instead a temporary permission to stay in India for two months.

Following her outburst on a social networking site, support for her has been pouring from various quarters with Press Council of India Chairperson and former Supreme Court judge Markandey Katju demanding permanent visa for the 52-year-old who has been living in exile since 1994.

Nasreen, however, expressed her surprise over intellectuals from Kolkata — her 'home' remaining silent on the issue.

'I am surely surprised that people in Kolkata known for their righteous stand have chosen to remain silent. But at the same time I must admit I have gotten used to this. There were not many voices to come out when I was thrown of my home — Kolkata,' she said.

Exiled from Bangladesh in 1994 for 'hurting religious sentiments' with her novel 'Lajja', Nasreen took refuge in the city in 2004. But after violent protests in the city November 2007, the erstwhile Left Front government whisked her away to New Delhi where she has been living since then.

Eager to come back to Kolkata, Nasreen said so long as the Mamata Banerjee government in the state continues to accede to the whims of religious fanatics, her return to the city is not possible.

'By banning my tele-serial Dusahobas, this government denied me a slice of livelihood. I have been repeatedly writing to Mamata Banerjee expressing my wish to come back to Kolkata, but so long as she continues to listen to the fanatics my return will never be possible,a she added.

She said 'Dusahobas' a story of three sisters and their triumph over the injustices meted out by the patriarchal society, would have been a source of inspiration at a time when crime against women was on the rise in the state.

Following protests by minority religious groups, the TV serial was refused telecast.

IANS

1,700 Palestinians killed in Gaza offensive

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Gaza: The Palestinian health ministry said Sunday that at least 1,712 Palestinians have been killed since Israel launched its offensive in the Gaza Strip against Hamas July 8.

This number included 398 children, 207 women and 74 old people, the ministry said in a statement, adding that 9,080 people have been injured so far, including 2,744 children and 1,750 women, Xinhua reported.

Israel has confirmed that 61 soldiers have died in combat, while Palestinian shelling has also killed three civilians in Israel.

As cross-border violence in Gaza between Hamas and Israeli troops continued, both sides have vowed to keep fighting until their goals are achieved.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said late Saturday night that Israel's military campaign in Gaza will continue 'with full power' as long as necessary to restore the country's security.

Hamas, the Islamist movement that dominates the Gaza Strip, said Netanyahu's remarks reflect that his army is in trouble in Gaza, pledging that the movement will not put its guns aside until its goals, mainly ending a seven-year blockade of Gaza, are achieved.

Meanwhile, a Palestinian official said that a comprehensive national delegation that includes the majority of Palestinian factions headed to Egypt's capital Saturday to negotiate a long-term Israeli-Palestinian ceasefire.

Since the violence erupted, regional and international powers have exerted unremitting efforts to end the ongoing fighting between Israel and Palestinian factions.

However, a 72-hour humanitarian ceasefire collapsed only hours after it came into force in the early hours of Friday as Israeli military said two of its soldiers were killed and a third went missing in an ambush.

IANS

2014, ഓഗസ്റ്റ് 1, വെള്ളിയാഴ്‌ച

Children brought to offset shortage of orphans in orphanage'

________ A to Z kerala .......... [kvk]                   [www.atozkerala.in , or www.atozkerala.blogspot.com]
Kochi: The Crime Branch Thursday informed the High Court that the main purpose children were brought from other states to Kerala was to overcome shortage of orphans and destitute children in the orphanage at Mukkam at Kozhikode.

The case pertains to the recent bringing of 588 children from Jharkhand, Bihar and West Bengal to the state.

In the statement filed by R Sudhakaran Pillai, CB-CID, Deputy Superintendent of Police, it was also pointed out that the main reason behind transportation of children to the state was to prevent the 'division fall' due to shortage of students in the school run by orphanage.

Police also said shortage of inmates in the orphanage had adversely affected collection of funds as contributions are government grants aids, from local sources and outside.

The Crime Branch also ruled out the possibilities of sexual abuse, organ trade and child labour, they claimed that investigation was proper and a special team was appointed.

However, it was found that the documents relating to the children brought from Jharkhand were forged, it was stated.

Over 580 children from Bihar, Jharkhand and West Bengal, meant to be brought to two orphanages in Kerala, were detained by police at a railway station in Palakkad early in June after it was found many did not have any proper documents.

The issue had snowballed into a major row in the state with IUML, the key partner in UDF, taking objection to treating the incident as a case of child trafficking.

Taking serious note of the incident, Kerala State Child Rights Protection Commission had directed the state government to take necessary steps to send the children back home.

The children are now kept at state-run juvenile homes of the Child Welfare Society in Palakkad, Malappuram and Thrissur.

Petrol price cut by Rs.1.09 a litre, diesel hiked 50 paise

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New Delhi: Petrol price was Thursday lowered by Rs.1.09 per litre, the second reduction in three-and-half-months, while diesel rates were hiked by 50 paise a litre.

The revisions will be effective midnight Thursday, Indian Oil Corp said.

'During the past fortnight, petrol prices have shown a downward trend while the INR-USD exchange rate has slightly depreciated,' IOC said in a release.

Allowing for local taxes, petrol per litre will cost Rs.72.51 in Delhi, Rs.80.30 in Kolkata, Rs.80.60 in Mumbai and Rs.75.78 in Chennai.

KSEB becomes a company, deal signed

________ A to Z kerala .......... [kvk] [www.atozkerala.in , or www.atozkerala.blogspot.com]
Thiruvananthapuram: KSEB has become a single company with the signing of the tripartite deal between the government, the Electricity Board and the various employees associations. INTUC and CIT also signed the deal but the CPI backed outfit AITUC did not enter into the deal. Majority of the associations backed the agreement.

The deal was inked smoothly with the govt deciding to form a special pension fund to meet existing and future pension liabilities.. The terms and conditions of service will continue. With KSEB becoming a company, appointments would be through PS