Saudis spend 30 percent of income on phone, internet

Riyadh: People in Saudi Arabia spend 30 percent of their income to pay their phone and internet services bills, the Consumer Protection Association (CPA) said.

The average consumption is 30 percent, but some individuals spend up to 50-70 percent of their income on communication services, Arab News quoted head of CPA Nasir Al-Tuwaim as saying.

The CPA would publish the latest findings in relation to the services provided by telecom firms every three months to monitor consumption rates and quality of services, Al-Tuwaim said.

The figures show that consumers spend a considerable amount of time on phone calls and internet services, despite the adverse economic and health consequences.

Factors like lack of information about service charges, especially roaming prices and internet services, has hit consumers hard.

SFI `hartal' in state

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Thiruvananthapuram: The SFI will be abstaining from work on Tuesday protesting the police brutality against SFI workers at their protest march held at Thenjipalam demanding resignation of Calicut University Vice-Chancellor Dr M Abdul Salam.

The SFI had taken out a march on Monday which turned violent and police resorted to lathi charge and both sides started pelting stones at each other.

Several students and some from police force sustained injuries in the attack. Police booked case against over 300 SFI workers.
Many people who were present in the university campus too were at the receiving end.

Oposition leader V S Achuthanandhan also came out in protest against not removing the V-C. VS said that the govt would not hesitate to make even solar case accused Sarita S Nair and Biju Radhakrishnan as varsity V-Cs.

Gene linked to learning, memory identified

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New York: In a breakthrough that could provide new strategies for treating neuro-degenerative disease and memory loss, scientists have identified a gene that prompts growth of new neurons in adults.

Learning and memory are regulated by a region of the brain known as the hippocampus.

New research from City of Hope National Medical Centre, California, has found that stimulating a specific gene could prompt growth of new neurons in this critical region, leading to faster learning and better memories.

'Memory loss is a major health problem, both in diseases like Alzheimer's, but also just associated with ageing,' said Yanhong Shi, lead author of the study.

'We manipulated the expression of this receptor by introducing an additional copy of the gene - which obviously we cannot do outside the laboratory setting,' Shi explained.

The research on an animal model found that over-expressing the gene - a nuclear receptor called TLX - resulted in smart, faster learners that retained information better and longer.

'The next step is to find the drug that can target this same gene,' Shi noted.

The discovery creates a new potential strategy for improving cognitive performance in elderly patients and those who have a neurological disease or brain injury.

The study was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. IANS

Rituparna Sengupta pledges to donate body

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Kolkata: Popular Tollywood actress Rituparna Sengupta has pledged to donate her body after death and called for debunking the superstition about donating one's body. When contacted, Rituparna told PTI, "Yes, I made the pledge at a screening of documentary 'Maronottar Deho Daan' (Donating body after death) by Debdut Ghosh. "There are so many people around us who are maimed for life. If our organs come of use after death, it can be termed as being reborn," the Paromitar Ekdin actor said. Rituparna, who had earlier pledged to donate her eyes, also called for debunking the myth and superstition about donating one's body. "With the spread of scientific awareness let's be more rational," she said. Ghosh, who directed the documentary, said, "It is true that all religions have reservations about donating bodies. We can at least hope that since we all talk about humanity, let's be a bit more humane in our thoughts by thinking about fellow human beings. Let's hope relatives will not object during handing over the body of a donor having inked consent forms when he was alive." On Rituparna's pledge, Ghosh said, "I am happy that a personality like Ritudi has come forward to campaign for our cause. PTI

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, who is city since Wednesday, 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.

IANS

Orphanage issue rocks Assembly, Opp. stages walk out

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Thiruvananthapuram: The matter relating to bringing of 588 children from Bihar, Jharkhand and West Bengal to orphanages in the state rocked the Assembly on Monday with the Opposition staging a walk out in protest of the government stand on the issue.  

Replying to an Opposition member, State Social Justice Minister M.K. Muneer said until last year, all the orphanages in the state functioned under laws framed in 1960.

"It was last year, we revised the act and now we are in the process of setting right all the documents of all children in the orphanages," he said.

"Please do not forget that the officials working in the state appointed child welfare committee and the board that controls all the orphanages were all appointed when you were in office. We assure that laws will now be strictly enforced," Muneer told the opposition.

CPI-M deputy leader in the assembly Kodiyeri Balakrishnan, who raised the issue, said: "We all agree to run an orphanage is a social service but none should be allowed to do undesirable activities in the name of running an orphanage."

According to government statistics, there are 1,387 destitute homes in the state, of which 87 are not licensed to operate. These homes have around 54,000 inmates.

Defending the government stand, Chief Minister Oommen Chandy said that the issue should not be generalised. "Please do not ever generalise the functioning of orphanages because there might be black sheep and for that the concerned agencies will do their job. We should not make comments without knowing facts," Chandy said in the state assembly.

Unhappy with the chief minister's statement, Leader of Opposition V.S. Achuthanandan asked if everything was very clean, then how come central minister Maneka Gandhi described the incident as a child trafficking.

"Sorry, I am not Maneka Gandhi's counsel and cannot answer for her," Chandy shot back. Unhappy with the reply, Achuthanandan led the entire opposition to stage a walk out.

With IANS inputs

Nadal wins 9th French Open, 14th major title

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Paris: World No.1 tennis player Rafael Nadal won his record ninth men's singles title at the French Open by beating second-seeded Serbian Novak Djokovic in four sets at Court Philippe Chatrier here Sunday.

The top-seeded Spaniard clinched the final 3-6, 7-5, 6-2, 6-4 in three hours and 31 minutes to become the first man in history to win five consecutive Roland Garros crowns.

The 28-year-old also drew level with American legend Pete Sampras at No.2 in the Grand Slam title-leaders' list with 14 crowns, three behind Swiss star Roger Federer with 17.

With the win, Nadal extended his win-loss record to 23-19 against the Serb but this is the Spaniard's first victory over Djokovic in five meetings. Nadal also guaranteed the World No.1 ranking as he will start his 139th week at the top spot Monday.

The Spaniard received a 1,650,000-euro prize cheque after he became the first man in tennis history to win nine titles at a single major championship.

Djokovic had been attempting to complete a career Grand Slam with his first French Open crown. He also finished runners-up to Nadal in the 2012 title match.

With the win, the 'King of Clay' also extended his win-loss record to 66-1 on the famous clay courts of Paris where he is on a 35-match unbeaten streak. His only loss came against Swede Robin Soderling in the 2009 fourth round.

IANS

Attack on Pakistan airport leaves 23 dead

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 AP

Islamabad: At least 23 people, including 10 terrorists, were killed at Pakistan's Jinnah International Airport in Karachi after it came under attack Sunday night, a leading Pakistani daily reported.

The entire airport has been cleared and all terrorists have been killed, a Pakistan Army spokesperson was quoted as saying by The Dawn.

Major General Asim Bajwa, spokesperson for Inter Services Public Relations (ISPR), said the terrorists "were confined to two areas and eliminated".

He said that weapons and live ammunition were recovered from the terrorists, adding that they were wearing large packs on their bodies.

The ISPR spokesperson said that Chief of Army Staff General Raheel Sharif "congratulated participating troops for a well coordinated, successful operation eliminating all terrorists".

At least 18 security personnel were also injured in the attack who were shifted to Abbasi Shaheed Hospital.

According to a statement by the spokesperson of the Prime Minister House, the militants entered the airport from a terminal used for cargo and special VIP operations at about 11:20 p.m.

The heavily armed assailants used forged ID cards of Airport Security Force (ASF), according to The Dawn. The attackers then engaged with security forces in a fierce gunbattle that lasted for hours.

The attackers also set an oil terminal and a building on fire.

The airport fire was put out by fire fighters who said that 30 vehicles were involved in the operation.

Army troops were called in to deal with the situation and all the routes to the airport were sealed.

Huge explosions were heard during the attack as intermittent firing took place at the airport. Large plumes of smoke were seen over the cargo terminal, the daily reported.

A hand grenade attack was also carried out on the Isphani Hanger.

"No damage to aircraft, fire visible in pics was not plane but a building, now extinguished. All vital assets intact," Bajwa tweeted.

Earlier, the media reported that the militants set two airplanes including cargo plane of a foreign company on fire and partially damaged four others by firing at them.

Suicide bombers were reportedly part of the terrorist squad that had infiltrated the airport.

All flight operations at the airport have been suspended and flights have been diverted to other cities.

IANS

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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