SC issues notice to Advani, others in Babri demolition case

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

Tags: SC, notice, Advani, Babri
NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court Tuesday sought responses from senior BJP leader L K Advani and others on a plea against dropping of criminal conspiracy charge against them in the Babri mosque demolition case. A bench headed by Chief Justice H L Dattu issued notices to the BJP leader and the CBI on a separate plea filed by Haji Mahboob Ahmad, one of the petitioners in the Babri mosque case. Ahmad, in his plea, has alleged that CBI may dilute its stand in the wake of the change in the government at the Centre. Earlier, the CBI had moved the apex court against Allahabad High Court's verdict on dropping conspiracy charge against Advani and 19 others in Babri mosque demolition case. During the brief hearing, CBI today sought time for filing a fresh affidavit on delay in filing the appeal and on the merits of the case. The court allowed the plea of the probe agency and granted four weeks’ time to file the response. The apex court had earlier pulled up CBI for the delay in filing an appeal against the Allahabad High Court verdict. CBI has challenged in the Supreme Court the May 21, 2010 order of the high court, which had upheld a special court's decision to drop the charge against the leaders. In its verdict, the high court had upheld the special CBI court order dropping conspiracy charge against Advani, Kalyan Singh, Uma Bharti, Vinay Katiyar and Murli Manohar Joshi. The others against whom the charge was dropped included Satish Pradhan, C R Bansal, Ashok Singhal, Giriraj Kishore, Sadhvi Ritambhara, V H Dalmia, Mahant Avaidhynath, R V Vedanti, Param Hans Ram Chandra Das, Jagdish Muni Maharaj, B L Sharma, Nritya Gopal Das, Dharam Das, Satish Nagar and Moreshwar Save. Bal Thackeray's name was removed from the list of accused persons after his death.

Man missing at sea

________ A to Z kerala .......... [kvk] [www.atozkerala.in , www.atozkerala.blogspot.com]
THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: A man, who went fishing from Poonthura, is reported missing. Two persons have been rescued and reached the shore. The man identified as Sujan alias Albert (36) of Poonthura, has been reported missing. Xavier, Sunil, who were with Sujan in the boat, have been rescued and admitted in the medical college hospital.

The incident happened last night. Those rescued said he fell into the sea after struck by lightning. Xavier lost his consciousness after seeing Sujan falling into the sea. Sunil couldn’t control the boat engine after that.  When Xavier regained his consciousness, the two reached the shore and informed the incident.

Four killed as college bus collides with van in Karur

________ A to Z kerala .......... [kvk] [www.atozkerala.in , www.atozkerala.blogspot.com]
CHENNAI: Four people were killed and nine others injured when the bus belonging to a private engineering college collided with a van carrying some load at Karur district ofTamil Nadu Tuesday morning. According to police sources here, the dead included two girl students of the Chettinad Engineering college and a woman lab assistant. The injured were rushed to the Government Hospital and a private hospital.

Saudi assures help in safe pullout of Indians from Yemen

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

NEW DELHI: Saudi Arabia has assured India full assistance in safe evacuation of Indians stranded in strife-hit Yemen as Minister of State for External Affairs V K Singh flew to Djibouti on Tuesday to oversee evacuation efforts.

Saudi King Salman bin Abdul Aziz Al Saud spoke to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday night and assured him of his "full attention to the safety of Indians in Yemen and all possible assistance for their early and safe evacuation".

The Saudi monarch called up Modi at 9.30 pm. The prime minister shared his "deep concern about the safety and welfare of approximately 4,000 Indians in Yemen". He also briefed King Salman on India's evacuation plan and requested him for support and cooperation in it.

The Saudi monarch "recalled the strong and close relations between India and Saudi Arabia and assured the prime minister of his full attention to the safety of Indians".

Modi expressed his gratitude "and conveyed his best wishes to His Majesty for a quick resolution of the challenges in the region and early restoration of peace and stability under his leadership. The prime minister also reaffirmed his commitment to further strengthening India's close relations with Saudi Arabia," said a statement.

On Monday, India evacuated 400 Indians from Aden through sea route by a local craft which took them to Djibouti. In Djibouti, India has stationed five diplomats, including three senior officials of the external affairs ministry, to assist in the efforts.

V K Singh is to oversee the evacuation operations at Djibouti from where Indians are to be flown back home.

The Indian Air Force has been asked to deploy two Globemaster aircraft to ferry those in Djibouti to India. The Air India has stationed two flights in Muscat.

An Indian Navy ship INS Sumitra is also in the region. The navy is pressing into service two more ships -- INS Mumbai and INS Tarkash. Two passenger liners with a total capacity of 1,100 are travelling towards Yemen and would reach there in four-five days, external affairs ministry spokesperson Syed Akbaruddin said on Monday.

India is also in touch with regional leaders and will seek their assistance in this difficult situation, he said.

The Saudi Arabia-led aerial bombing campaign against Houthi rebels in Yemen continued for the fifth day on Monday. The air strikes are aimed at forcing Houthi rebels to hand power back to President Abed Rabbu Mansour Hadi.

Around 40 people were killed on Monday and 200 wounded in an air strike at al-Mazraq camp.

Five lecturers among seven killed in Haryana accident

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

CHANDIGARH: Five lecturers and two students of a private engineering college were killed in an accident between their institute's bus and a truck in Haryana, police said on Tuesday.

Nineteen people, mostly students, were injured in the accident which took place on the Saha-Shahzadpur road in Ambala district, 55 km from here.

All the victims were from the SRM Institute of Engineering and Technology in Ambala district.

Police said there were nearly 30 people in the bus when the accident occurred.

Haryana Health Minister Anil Vij and senior officials visited the hospitals in Ambala where 14 of the injured were admitted.

Five of those critically injured were rushed to the Post-Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER) in Chandigarh.

The truck driver fled from the spot, leaving his vehicle behind.

TRAI seeks views to regulate net-based calling, messaging apps

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

NEW DELHI: Telecom regulator TRAI today started the process to prepare regulatory framework for Internet-based calling and messaging applications like Skype, Viber, WhatsApp and Google Talk, known as over-the-top (OTT) players.   "Worldwide, there is an ongoing debate among governments, industry and consumers regarding regulations of OTT services and Net-neutrality. In this background, TRAI today released a consultation paper on regulatory framework for OTT services," TRAI Secretary Sudhir Gupta said in a statement.   At present, consumers get to make phone calls and send messages using Internet connection through mobile applications and their computers. They are required to pay only Internet bandwidth consumed but nothing on per call or message basis. Telecom operators and VoIP service providers or OTT players have been at loggerheads over this issue.   Telecom operators have said that OTT players like Skype, WhatsApp, Viber etc are eating up their main revenue without investing in networks.   On the other hand, OTT players defend themselves by demanding access to Internet or web-based services without hurdle for growth of communities and nations.   TRAI Chairman Rahul Khullar had earlier indicated about starting the process to frame regulation on OTT services after Airtel earned huge criticism from public for its plan to charge separately for VoIP calls, against principles of Net-neutrality.   Under the Net-neutrality principle, telecom and Internet companies should treat all web-based services equally and there should be no differential pricing or any kind of barrier that discourages people from accessing services.   However, there is no legislation in India at present on Net-neutrality. TRAI said that telecom service providers (TSPs) offering fixed and mobile telephony are currently being overwhelmed by online content, known as over-the-top (OTT) applications, and services.   "It is becoming increasingly difficult for consumers to know if there is an economic difference in connecting various networks via a landline phone, cell phone, or a computer. "In fact, young users find it difficult to distinguish among these three networks; from their perspective, all that matters is connectivity," TRAI said.   The regulator said that characteristics of OTT services are such that TSPs realise revenues solely from the increased data usage of the Internet-connected customers and do not realise any other revenues.   "On the other hand, OTT providers make use of the TSPs' infrastructure to reach their customers... that not only makes money for them but also compete with the traditional services offered by TSPs," TRAI said.   The regulator has sought views of people interested in the matter by April 24 and counter comments by May 8.      Citing industry reports, TRAI said that in 2013, Skype carried an estimated 214 billion minutes of international calls within its app network.   Skype's traffic was almost 40 per cent of the size of the entire conventional international telecom market and in growth terms, it now far out-paces the combined growth in the voice minutes of the global telecom industry, TRAI said.   "With innovations in OTT services, Full-HD voice is slowly becoming a reality for customers all over the world. The call quality of Skype and Google Voice is improving rapidly and, in some markets, nearly matches that of a circuit switched call," the regulator said.   However, it said that impact of VoIP calls is not much in Indian market because of low call rates provided by telecom operators which is in the range of 40-60 paise a minute, low Internet penetration and quality of service provided by OTT players not being up to the mark.   The regulator said impact of OTT messaging applications on SMS in India has been in line with international trends.   As on January 2015, WhatsApp had 700 million monthly active users across the globe and is delivering about 30 billion messages on an average each day. While, BlackBerry had over 50 million users of Messenger service in May 2011, who sent 100 billion messages each month.   "The user base of OTT messaging services has grown to more than one billion in less than five years, impacting TSPs and other service providers all over the world. This impact has also been felt in India," TRAI said.   "The (SMS) messaging traffic fell (in India) from 5,346 million in June 2013 to 4,367 million in June 2014, a decline of 18.3 per cent. This decrease can be attributed almost entirely to an increase in traffic of OTT messaging apps," TRAI said.   In the fourth quarter of 2014, Bharti Airtel and Idea Cellular, both Indian TSPs, have shown a significant drop in their messaging and Value Added Service (VAS) revenues as a percentage of total revenues, it added.   Quoting industry reports, TRAI said that as on December 2014, WhatsApp topped the messaging application market with 52 per cent of all users using OTT messaging services in India, followed by Facebook Messenger with 42 per cent, Skype with 37 per cent and WeChat with 26 per cent share.   Viber stood at fifth spot with 18 per cent share and Line stood at sixth position with 12 per cent share.   WhatsApp's subscriber base in India has risen to 70 million and it has a free subscription model unlike in developed markets where the annual fee is USD 1, the regulator said.

Curiosity rover detects life-supporting nitrogen on Mars

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

Tags: Curiosity rover, life-supporting nitrogen, Ma
WASHINGTON: NASA's rover Curiosity has detected the first traces of nitrogen on the surface of Mars, a discovery that adds to the evidence that the red planet could have once supported life.   A team using the Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) instrument suite aboard NASA's Curiosity rover made the first detection of nitrogen on the surface of Mars from release during heating of Martian sediments.   The nitrogen was detected in the form of nitric oxide, and could be released from breakdown of nitrates during heating.   "Nitrates are a class of molecules that contain nitrogen in a form that can be used by living organisms. The discovery adds to the evidence that ancient Mars was habitable for life," NASA said in a statement.   Nitrogen is essential for all known forms of life, since it is used in the building blocks of larger molecules like DNA and RNA, which encode the genetic instructions for life, and proteins, which are used to build structures like hair.   Researchers believe the nitrates are ancient, and likely came from non-biological processes like meteorite impacts and lightning in Mars' distant past.   "Finding a biochemically accessible form of nitrogen is more support for the ancient Martian environment at Gale Crater being habitable," said Jennifer Stern of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.   The team found evidence for nitrates in scooped samples of windblown sand and dust at the "Rocknest" site, and in samples drilled from mudstone at the "John Klein" and "Cumberland" drill sites in Yellowknife Bay.   Since the Rocknest sample is a combination of dust blown in from distant regions on Mars and more locally sourced materials, the nitrates are likely to be widespread across Mars, according to Stern.   The results support the equivalent of up to 1,100 parts per million nitrates in the Martian soil from the drill sites.   The samples were first heated to release molecules bound to the Martian soil, then portions of the gases released were diverted to the SAM instruments for analysis. Various nitrogen-bearing compounds were identified with two instruments: a mass spectrometer and a gas chromatograph.   Along with other nitrogen compounds, the instruments detected nitric oxide (NO - one atom of nitrogen bound to an oxygen atom) in samples from all three sites. Since nitrate is a nitrogen atom bound to three oxygen atoms, the team believes most of the NO came from nitrate which decomposed as the samples were heated for analysis.   Certain compounds in the SAM instrument can also release nitrogen as samples are heated; however, the amount of NO found is more than twice what could be produced by SAM in the most extreme and unrealistic scenario, according to Stern.   This leads the team to think that nitrates really are present on Mars, and the abundance estimates reported have been adjusted to reflect this potential additional source, said Stern.

Aus researchers discover new treatment for prostrate cancer

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

MELBOURNE: Australian researchers have made a breakthrough by discovering a new treatment for prostrate cancer which can starve cancer cells.   The discovery was made by a team led by a researcher Jeff Holst at Sydney's Centenary Institute which identified three specific nutrients that prostate cancer cells need to grow.   "What we've discovered this time around is that prostate cancer cells increase one of the pumps that bring a nutrient called glutamine into the cells," Holst said, according to ABC report.   "If we can block the pumps that bring glutamine into the cells, then we can actually starve the cancer cells and stop them from growing," he said, adding, an increase in the number of pumps provided the ability to target those pumps and selectively block the cancer cells and not the surrounding normal cells.   Holst said the next step involved identifying a drug to switch off the nutrient pump. "And we actually together with some researchers at the University of Sydney have the first such compounds that we're currently testing, first of all in our cell models, but also we're moving into what are called tumour explants where we take a piece of a patient's prostate, grow it in a dish and put these compounds on and see if it's able to stop the cells growing in that context," he said.   Last year, Holst had identified a nutrient pump associated with melanoma cancer cells but he said the field of research had grown enormously since then.   "The fact that there's big labs around the world finding these same mechanisms at work in other cancer cells is encouraging because it means if we can get these therapies into the clinic it's going to have broader implications than just prostate cancer," he said.

Countdown begins for launch of ISRO's navigation satellite IRNSS-1D

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

New Delhi: Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) on Thursday announced the countdown for the launch of India's fourth navigation satellite IRNSS-1D began at 5.49 am.

ISRO announced on its Facebook page “The 59-and-half hour count down for PSLV-C27/IRNSS-1D Mission began in the Sriharikota rocket port in Andhra Pradesh”.

The rocket is expected to blast off at 5.19 p.m. on March 28 to put into orbit the 1,425 kg IRNSS-1D satellite, which was originally scheduled for launch on March 9, but was deferred after an anomaly was found in one of the telemetry transmitters.

India has so far launched three regional navigational satellites as part of a constellation of seven satellites to provide accurate position information service to users across the country and the region, extending up to an area of 1,500 km.

Though the full system comprises of nine satellites - seven in orbit and two on the ground as stand-by - the navigation services could be made operational with four satellites, ISRO officials said.

Each satellite costs around Rs.150 crore and the PSLV-XL version rocket costs around Rs.130 crore. The seven rockets would involve an outlay of around Rs.910 crore.

The entire IRNSS constellation of seven satellites is planned to be completed this year itself.

The first satellite IRNSS-1A was launched in July 2013, the second IRNSS-1B in April 2014 and the third on October 16, 2014.

Once the regional navigation system is in place, India need not be dependent on other platforms.

(With Agency inputs)