Mars Mission completes 300 days in space

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CHENNAI: In a major boost to the Indian scientific community, the Mars Orbiter Mission (Mangalyaan), on its maiden tryst with the red planet, has completed 300 days of its journey in space and is just 23 days away from reaching its intended orbit.

"Mars Orbiter Mission completes 300 days in space. Just 23 days more to reach Mars", Indian Space Research Organisation said in its micro-blogging site.

It said the spacecraft has travelled 622 million km in its heliocentric trajectory towards Mars. It is now 199 million km away from Earth and is travelling at a velocity of 22.33 km a second with respect to the distance from the Sun. "MoM and its payload are in good health," ISRO said.

The Rs 450-crore project was launched from Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh from the old workhorse Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) on November 5, 2013 with the aim of reaching the red planet's atmosphere by Sept 24, traversing 680 million km.

Last week ISRO scientists said the spacecraft had completed 90 per cent of its journey towards Mars. On September 24, the scientists will undertake a "challenging task" when they would restart the on board liquid engine, which has been in sleep mode for nearly 10 months, for Mars Orbit insertion.

The project is expected to provide the scientific community better opportunities in planetary research.

Energy drinks cause heart problems: study

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LONDON: Energy drinks, popular in dance clubs and during physical exercise, can cause heart problems, a new research has warned.

"So-called 'energy drinks' are popular in dance clubs and during physical exercise, with people sometimes consuming a number of drinks one after the other. This situation can lead to a number of adverse conditions including angina, cardiac arrhythmia (irregular heartbeat) and even sudden death," said Professor Milou-Daniel Drici from France who presented the study at European Society of Cardiology (ESC) Congress in Barcelona, Spain.

"Around 96 per cent of these drinks contain caffeine, with a typical 0.25 litre can holding 2 espressos worth of caffeine. Caffeine is one of the most potent agonists of the ryanodine receptors and leads to a massive release of calcium within cardiac cells," said Drici.

"This can cause arrhythmias, but also has effects on the heart's abilities to contract and to use oxygen. In addition, 52 per cent of drinks contain taurine, 33 per cent have glucuronolactone and two-thirds contain vitamins," he added.

The study analysed adverse events reported to the ANSES, the French agency for food safety, between January 1, 2009 and November 30, 2012.

The researchers found that consumption of the 103 energy drinks in France increased by 30 per cent between 2009 and 2011 up to over 30 million litres. The leading brand made up 40 per cent of energy drinks consumed.

During the two year period 257 cases were reported to the agency, of which 212 provided sufficient information for food and drug safety evaluation.

The experts found that 95 of the reported adverse events had cardiovascular symptoms, 74 psychiatric, and 57 neurological, sometimes overlapping.

Cardiac arrests and sudden or unexplained deaths occurred at least in 8 cases, while 46 people had heart rhythm disorders, 13 had angina and 3 had hypertension, researchers said.

"We found that 'caffeine syndrome' was the most common problem, occurring in 60 people. It is characterised by a fast heart rate (called tachycardia), tremor, anxiety and headache.

"Rare but severe adverse events were also associated with these drinks, such as sudden or unexplained death, arrhythmia and heart attack (myocardial infarction). Our literature search confirmed that these conditions can be related to consumption of energy drinks," Drici said.

BJP demands CBI probe into murder of RSS leader

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KANNUR: Former BJP National Secretary P K Krishnadas Wednesday sought CBI probe into the murder of RSS leader T Manoj.

Speaking to reporters, he said lapse of investigation in the murder of Yuva Morcha leader K T Jayakrishnan and RMP leader T P Chandrasekharan had resulted in the planned murder of Manoj.

Krishnadas said only CBI probe would unearth the conspiracy behind brutal murder of Manoj.

He alleged that Kerala Police was inefficient in finding out the links of CPI (M) state leaders.

Kerala police officers were controlled by the politicians and there was unholy nexus between CPI (M) and Congress-led UDF government, he alleged.

Krishnadas said BJP/ RSS State leadership would jointly meet Chief Minister and Home Minister tomorrow and handover the memorandum for demanding CBI probe along with the memorandum of the relatives of the dead.

He said the state government had power to handover the case to CBI so they would approach the Union Government in this regard.

Former State President of BJP said the party would protest against the brutal murder of Manoj at national level and make it an important issue in coming days.

To a question, Krishnadas said the party had no role in the attack of CPI (M) office at Pune in Maharashtra and New Delhi. The party only arranged a protest dharna in front of Kerala house yesterday.

He alleged that the CPI (M) was showing intolerance due to the erosion of party workers as around 500 CPI(M) activists had joined BJP last month at Kannur.

Krishnadas claimed that around 1000 CPI (M) activists were showing willingness to join BJP due to the misleading of CPI (M) state and district leadership.

Ten B.Ed centres lose recognition

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THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Ten B.Ed centres under Kerala University have lost their recognition. The National Council for Teachers’ Education, (NCTE) which had met in Bangalore, decided to cancel the recognition, citing the reason that the centres had not followed the criteria for the recognition.
     
The centres which have lost the recognition are those at Thiruvananthapuram, Kollam, Alappuzha and Pathanamthitta. The step will badly affect about 2000 students and about 200 teaching and non-teaching staff.

Nine out of the ten centres under the university are functioning on government lease lands. In centres functioning in temporary buildings, there are no permanent teachers. The university, after coming into an understanding with the government, could also bypass the criteria that the centres need to have own plots. Every year the centres were able to extend their recognition by informing NCTE about the temporary arrangements. But this time, the centres’ failure to submit application for the extension of recognition, resulted in the cancellation of recognition.

Gang arrested for 'kidnapping, abusing' girl

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PUNALUR: A six-member gang who allegedly kidnapped a girl and sexually abused her was arrested on Wednesday. Sujith, Ratheesh, Baiju, Satheesh Kumar and Shefeeq, all hailing from Punalur, were arrested by the Thenmala police from Puliyara. The victim is a 19-year-old girl from Maniyar. The kidnapping came to light when the girl’s mother lodged a complaint with the police, saying that the girl had gone missing two days ago. Following the search conducted by the police on receipt of the complaint, the police nabbed the gang members. The girl was sent back to home with her mother.

Schools without toilets not to get fitness certificates

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THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: In a significant decision, Congress-led UDF government in Kerala Wednesday said schools that lacked toilet facility would not be issued 'fitness certificate' from next academic year.

Addressing a press conference after a cabinet meeting, Chief Minister Oommen Chandy said it has been decided to make toilet facility mandatory in schools.

He said till now safety of school buildings were considered for issuing fitness certificates. From next year along with safety, other facilities including toilet would be made mandatory for getting fitness certificate, he said.

“Schools which lacked facilities also would not be allowed to admit new students,” Chandy said.

There were 196 government schools that did not have toilet and it has been decided to ensure this facility in next 100 days from the funds under Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, he said.

Similarly, 1011 government aided schools were found to have no toilet facility. Managements of these schools have been directed to construct toilets with their own resources by next academic year, he said.

Diesel under-recovery declines steeply, deregulation imminent

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NEW DELHI: Diesel price deregulation looks imminent after the difference between retail sale price and its actual cost dropped to a historic low of just 8 paisa.

This is the first time in over a decade that retail pump prices are almost in line with imported cost of the nation's most consumed fuel.

Under-recovery or the gap between retail selling price and the cost of import has dipped to 8 paisa a litre, helped by the monthly increases and softening in international oil rates, an official statement said here.

If the trend continues, diesel price will be at par with international rates by next week, not necessitating the next increase of 50 paisa a litre due on October 1.

Diesel prices since January 2013 have been raised every month by up to 50 paise per litre to trim the losses. Rates were last raised on August 31 after which losses had dipped.

Rates have cumulatively risen by Rs 11.81 per litre in 19 instalments since January 2013 when the previous UPA government had decided on small monthly hikes.

Officials said the monthly increases had trimmed losses to less than Rs 3 per litre in May last year before a fall in rupee value led to losses on diesel sale widening to Rs 14.50 per litre in September 2013.

Since then, monthly increases have continued and the rupee has strengthened.

Losses have fallen rapidly since March as the prospects of a stable and decisive government under Prime Minister Narendra Modi helped the rupee gain against the dollar.

Losses on diesel stood at Rs 8.37 per litre in March.

When Modi government came to power in May, losses on diesel sales stood at Rs 4.41 a litre. They fell to Rs 1.62 a litre in the second half of June but doubled to Rs 3.40 in first fortnight of July. The losses fell to Rs 2.49 in second half of July. They stood at Rs 1.78 in second half of August.

Petrol price was deregulated in June 2010 and has moved more or less in tandem with the cost. The softening in international rates has seen rates being cut thrice in August.

State-owned oil firms calculate the desired retail selling price of petrol and diesel on 1st and 16th of month, based on average international oil rates and foreign exchange value in the previous fortnight.

While petrol rates are revised accordingly, diesel prices are hiked on the 1st of every month.

Besides diesel, the oil firms are losing Rs 32.67 a litre on kerosene and Rs 427.82 on LPG, the statement said.

"Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs) are now incurring combined daily under-recovery (revenue loss) of about Rs 195 crore on the sale of diesel, PDS kerosene and domestic LPG. This is lower than Rs 230 crore daily under-recoveries during previous fortnight," it said.

The under-recoveries for the financial year 2014-15 are projected to be Rs 91,665 crore as opposed to Rs 1,39,869 crore in 2013-14.

Plus Two: Court rejects Govt’s appeal

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KOCHI: A division bench of Kerala High Court has rejected the appeal filed by the government against a single bench order in the Plus Two case. Now, the government will not be able to start admissions to Plus Two batches allotted without the approval of Higher Secondary Director.   

The division bench pointed out that it couldn’t find sufficient reasons to interfere with the Single bench’s order. The government had not taken into account the high court’s former orders regarding Plus Two allotments. The allotments were made flouting the criteria. The bench which comprised Justices Antony Dominic and  Sheshadri Naidu observed that the government had not checked whether the schools they chose for allotting Plus Two batches had the required credentials. The July 31 order issued regarding the sanctioning of Plus Two had something mysterious about it.

The court also rejected the argument that the Plus batches were allotted after taking into consideration MLAs recommendation. “Don’t try to justify through courts actions taken by flouting norms. The government also tried to blame the court, saying that the stay had affected students’ future,” the court added.

Wasim and Shaniera Akram expecting first child

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LAHORE: Swing ka Sultan and former Pakistani captain Wasim Akram is expecting his first child with wife Shaniera Akram.

Shaniera described this as an extremely pleasant moment in their lives.

 Wasim and Shaniera have settled in Karachi after their marriage in August 2013 where they live with the former fast bowlers sons from his first marriage.

Akram’s first wife Huma died after multiple organ failure in 2009.

 

Knifeman kills 3 in rampage at China school: reports

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BEIJING: A knife-wielding man stabbed eight children and a teacher in a rampage at a Chinese primary school Monday, leaving at least three of them dead, reports said, in the country´s latest attack against youngsters.

The man, surnamed Chen, killed himself by jumping from a building following the carnage at a school in Shiyan, in the central province of Hubei, according to the official news agency Xinhua, which said three of the victims had died.

He carried out the attack "because he couldn´t enrol his child" at the school, local broadcaster Shiyan Television said on its verified account on Sina Weibo, China´s version of Twitter, without giving details.

It said six children had been killed, as did a local newspaper. A local police official declined to provide information, saying: "I am not clear, the police bureau officials are at that school investigating."

China has seen several violent attacks against children in recent years, including a spate of five incidents in 2010 which killed 17 people -- 15 of them children -- and wounded more than 80.Last March, a man killed two relatives and then slashed 11 people, including six children, outside a school in China´s commercial hub Shanghai.

Earlier this summer, police in Qianjing -- which is near Shiyan -- killed a suspect who was attempting to take over a primary school, state media said.