Explosion near Manipur CM’s home, two dead

Imphal: Two persons killed and seven others severely injured in a bomb blast near Mnipur Chief Minister Okram Ibobi Singh's residence here Wednesday. The blast took place at Moirankhom, a few metres away from police headquarters and some military installations.

The injured persons rushed to hospital. Police have launched combing operations shortly after the blast on Wednesday. However no arrest has been made. On Tuesday also, five persons were injured in a blast that hit a market complex in the state capital. That market complex too was just one kilometre away from the official residence of CMs.

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Explosion near Manipur CM’s home, two dead

Imphal: Two persons killed and seven others severely injured in a bomb blast near Mnipur Chief Minister Okram Ibobi Singh's residence here Wednesday. The blast took place at Moirankhom, a few metres away from police headquarters and some military installations.

The injured persons rushed to hospital. Police have launched combing operations shortly after the blast on Wednesday. However no arrest has been made. On Tuesday also, five persons were injured in a blast that hit a market complex in the state capital. That market complex too was just one kilometre away from the official residence of CMs.

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Saudi Arabia won't extend deadline for illegal residents'

Thiruvananthapuram: The Saudi Arabian authorities would not extend the Nov 4 deadline for those illegally residing in the country to regularise their papers, said a Kerala minister Tuesday.

Saudi Arabia is implementing the Nitaqat or Saudisation policy, which makes it mandatory for all Saudi companies to reserve 10 percent jobs for Saudi nationals. 
Speaking to IANS, State Minister for Diaspora K.C. Joseph said this information has come from the Indian embassy officials in that country.

'Officials said the deadline was extended twice before and hence there will be no more extension. They have informed all those who continue to remain with improper documents will have to face the music and would be sent to jail or deported with a fine,' said Joseph. He pointed that of the one million Keralites, at least 10,000 people have so far registered for their return or regularisation of papers.

'We have decided to open three offices at Jeddah, Riyadh and Dammam, which would be managed by the Norka committee and all people who require assistance to return would be helped,' said Joseph. Norka committee is the Kerala government panel looking after diaspora interest in association with the Kerala-based organisations in Saudi Arabia.

The oil-rich country since early this year has been on the job for the implementing new labour laws, and, following pressure from the Indian government, decided to give some more time for renewal of papers or registration to return without any penalty.

'A good number of our people have renewed their papers and given new jobs by our own people having business there. The exact number of those who have registered to return will be known only early next month once the deadline ends,' added Joseph

Saudi Arabia won't extend deadline for illegal residents'

Thiruvananthapuram: The Saudi Arabian authorities would not extend the Nov 4 deadline for those illegally residing in the country to regularise their papers, said a Kerala minister Tuesday.

Saudi Arabia is implementing the Nitaqat or Saudisation policy, which makes it mandatory for all Saudi companies to reserve 10 percent jobs for Saudi nationals. 
Speaking to IANS, State Minister for Diaspora K.C. Joseph said this information has come from the Indian embassy officials in that country.

'Officials said the deadline was extended twice before and hence there will be no more extension. They have informed all those who continue to remain with improper documents will have to face the music and would be sent to jail or deported with a fine,' said Joseph. He pointed that of the one million Keralites, at least 10,000 people have so far registered for their return or regularisation of papers.

'We have decided to open three offices at Jeddah, Riyadh and Dammam, which would be managed by the Norka committee and all people who require assistance to return would be helped,' said Joseph. Norka committee is the Kerala government panel looking after diaspora interest in association with the Kerala-based organisations in Saudi Arabia.

The oil-rich country since early this year has been on the job for the implementing new labour laws, and, following pressure from the Indian government, decided to give some more time for renewal of papers or registration to return without any penalty.

'A good number of our people have renewed their papers and given new jobs by our own people having business there. The exact number of those who have registered to return will be known only early next month once the deadline ends,' added Joseph

Malayalee woman arrested in Oman over husband's murder

Dubai: An Indian woman has been arrested in Oman for allegedly stabbing her alcoholic husband to death in a fit of rage. The Royal Oman Police (ROP) arrested Neena Varghese at the coastal town of Sur, about 200 km east of Muscat.
The woman worked as a teacher at the Indian School in Sur. 'The lady is under arrest and her husband's body is in the police mortuary in Muscat,' a spokesman for the ROP was quoted as saying by Gulf News. According to a source the deceased was in an inebriated state when he was killed. The couple from India's southern state of Kerala often had fights over his habit.

'It seems that the husband, identified as Benny Varghese, had assaulted his wife, before she unintentionally took his life,' the source said. People close to the family in Sur are now coordinating with the police and the Indian embassy to send the body back to India. Efforts being are made to send the two daughters, aged 11 and 13, to India as the mother is in police custody and there is no one to look after them. PTI

Malayalee woman arrested in Oman over husband's murder

Dubai: An Indian woman has been arrested in Oman for allegedly stabbing her alcoholic husband to death in a fit of rage. The Royal Oman Police (ROP) arrested Neena Varghese at the coastal town of Sur, about 200 km east of Muscat.
The woman worked as a teacher at the Indian School in Sur. 'The lady is under arrest and her husband's body is in the police mortuary in Muscat,' a spokesman for the ROP was quoted as saying by Gulf News. According to a source the deceased was in an inebriated state when he was killed. The couple from India's southern state of Kerala often had fights over his habit.

'It seems that the husband, identified as Benny Varghese, had assaulted his wife, before she unintentionally took his life,' the source said. People close to the family in Sur are now coordinating with the police and the Indian embassy to send the body back to India. Efforts being are made to send the two daughters, aged 11 and 13, to India as the mother is in police custody and there is no one to look after them. PTI

Blasts aimed at communal clashes: accused

Patna: The Patna serial blasts in which Indian Mujhaideen(IM) was allegedly involved was engineered with the motive of triggering communal clashes in Bihar in a claim made to police by one of the main accused in the explosions at Narendra Modi's rally.

Three live bombs, meanwhile, were found today during searches at Gandhi Maidan, where another rally is scheduled for tomorrow after the Sunday blasts in and around the sprawling ground that killed six persons and injured 82 others.

The bombs were found on a day when Union Home Secretary Anil Goswami visited Gandhi Maidan and the toilet on the platform at the Patna railway station where the first blast took place. "The investigation is heading in the right direction and perpetrators and conspirators will be caught soon. "We are hopeful that the results will be out soon," Goswami told reporters. A bomb each was found near the Police Information Room, another from the Children's Park and third one from a place opposite the Magadh Mahila College, all on Gandhi Maidan, Deputy Superintendent of Police, City, Manoj Kumar Tiwari said.

The three bombs were recovered within a couple of hours of each other, he said. Two bombs were defused by the bomb disposal squads of the NSG, while the third one was being defused, Superintendent of Police, City, Jayant Kant said. Imtiyaz Ansari, the main accused in the Patna blasts, has reportedly claimed before his interrogators that he had been trained in making Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) in Jharkhand and Bihar only and the attack at the BJP rally was aimed at creating communal clashes in Bihar.

Ansari, as claimed by the interrogators, has alleged that Mohd Tehseen Akhtar, second-in-command after the arrest of Yasin Bhatkal, had told him and others that an attack had to be carried out during the rally as this could trigger communal clashes in the state, police sources said. Ansari, who was produced before Railway Magistrate Arvind Kumar Singh late last night, was remanded to seven days police custody.  Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar said the state government has asked the National Investigation Agency(NIA) to take over the probe into the blasts.

After his arrest, Ansari had been claiming that he was trained and indoctrinated into the IM fold by Akhtar whom he was identifying as "Memon". However, on being shown the picture of Akhtar, he identified him as his handler. 
Akhtar, who was suspected to be the brain behind the serial explosions, was reportedly desperate to conduct a sensational attack to avenge the arrest of Bhatkal.

Blasts aimed at communal clashes: accused

Patna: The Patna serial blasts in which Indian Mujhaideen(IM) was allegedly involved was engineered with the motive of triggering communal clashes in Bihar in a claim made to police by one of the main accused in the explosions at Narendra Modi's rally.

Three live bombs, meanwhile, were found today during searches at Gandhi Maidan, where another rally is scheduled for tomorrow after the Sunday blasts in and around the sprawling ground that killed six persons and injured 82 others.

The bombs were found on a day when Union Home Secretary Anil Goswami visited Gandhi Maidan and the toilet on the platform at the Patna railway station where the first blast took place. "The investigation is heading in the right direction and perpetrators and conspirators will be caught soon. "We are hopeful that the results will be out soon," Goswami told reporters. A bomb each was found near the Police Information Room, another from the Children's Park and third one from a place opposite the Magadh Mahila College, all on Gandhi Maidan, Deputy Superintendent of Police, City, Manoj Kumar Tiwari said.

The three bombs were recovered within a couple of hours of each other, he said. Two bombs were defused by the bomb disposal squads of the NSG, while the third one was being defused, Superintendent of Police, City, Jayant Kant said. Imtiyaz Ansari, the main accused in the Patna blasts, has reportedly claimed before his interrogators that he had been trained in making Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) in Jharkhand and Bihar only and the attack at the BJP rally was aimed at creating communal clashes in Bihar.

Ansari, as claimed by the interrogators, has alleged that Mohd Tehseen Akhtar, second-in-command after the arrest of Yasin Bhatkal, had told him and others that an attack had to be carried out during the rally as this could trigger communal clashes in the state, police sources said. Ansari, who was produced before Railway Magistrate Arvind Kumar Singh late last night, was remanded to seven days police custody.  Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar said the state government has asked the National Investigation Agency(NIA) to take over the probe into the blasts.

After his arrest, Ansari had been claiming that he was trained and indoctrinated into the IM fold by Akhtar whom he was identifying as "Memon". However, on being shown the picture of Akhtar, he identified him as his handler. 
Akhtar, who was suspected to be the brain behind the serial explosions, was reportedly desperate to conduct a sensational attack to avenge the arrest of Bhatkal.

Indian-American, team discover most distant galaxy

Washington: Astronomers, including an Indian-American, have discovered the most distant spectroscopically confirmed galaxy ever found - one created within 700 million years after the Big Bang. "It's exciting to know we're the first people in the world to see this," said Vithal Tilvi, a post-doctoral research associate at Texas A&M, a research-intensive flagship university, and co-author of the paper published in the latest edition of the journal Nature. "It raises interesting questions about the origins and the evolution of the universe," said Tilvi, born in Goa, India.  He attended Goa University and also worked at the National Institute of Oceanography, Dona Paula, and at the National Antarctic Research Centre, Vasco.

The paper's lead author is Steven Finkelstein, an assistant professor at the University of Texas at Austin and 2011 Hubble Fellow. Light from the galaxy, designated by scientists as z8_GND_5296, took about 13.1 billion years to reach the orbiting Hubble Space Telescope and the Keck Observatory in Hawaii, both of which detected the galaxy in infrared light. The researchers suspect they may have zeroed in on the era when the universe made its transition from an opaque state in which most of the hydrogen was neutral to a translucent state in which most of the hydrogen is ionised.

Tilvi notes this is one of two major changes in the fundamental essence of the universe since its beginning - the other being a transition from a plasma state to a neutral state. He is leading the effort on a follow-up paper that will use a sophisticated statistical analysis to explore that transition further. "Everything seems to have changed since then," Tilvi said. "If it was neutral everywhere today, the night sky that we see wouldn't be as beautiful. What I'm working on is studying exactly why and exactly where this happened. Was this transition sudden, or was it gradual?"

The Nature paper is the result of raw data gleaned from a powerful Hubble Space Telescope imaging survey of the distant universe called CANDELS, or Cosmic Assembly Near-Infrared Deep Extragalactic Legacy Survey. Using that data, the team was armed with 43 potential distant galaxies and set out to confirm their distances. 
Tilvi, Finkelstein and his graduate student, Mimi Song, detected only one galaxy during their two nights of observation at Keck, but it turned out to be the most distant ever confirmed.

Indian-American, team discover most distant galaxy

Washington: Astronomers, including an Indian-American, have discovered the most distant spectroscopically confirmed galaxy ever found - one created within 700 million years after the Big Bang. "It's exciting to know we're the first people in the world to see this," said Vithal Tilvi, a post-doctoral research associate at Texas A&M, a research-intensive flagship university, and co-author of the paper published in the latest edition of the journal Nature. "It raises interesting questions about the origins and the evolution of the universe," said Tilvi, born in Goa, India.  He attended Goa University and also worked at the National Institute of Oceanography, Dona Paula, and at the National Antarctic Research Centre, Vasco.

The paper's lead author is Steven Finkelstein, an assistant professor at the University of Texas at Austin and 2011 Hubble Fellow. Light from the galaxy, designated by scientists as z8_GND_5296, took about 13.1 billion years to reach the orbiting Hubble Space Telescope and the Keck Observatory in Hawaii, both of which detected the galaxy in infrared light. The researchers suspect they may have zeroed in on the era when the universe made its transition from an opaque state in which most of the hydrogen was neutral to a translucent state in which most of the hydrogen is ionised.

Tilvi notes this is one of two major changes in the fundamental essence of the universe since its beginning - the other being a transition from a plasma state to a neutral state. He is leading the effort on a follow-up paper that will use a sophisticated statistical analysis to explore that transition further. "Everything seems to have changed since then," Tilvi said. "If it was neutral everywhere today, the night sky that we see wouldn't be as beautiful. What I'm working on is studying exactly why and exactly where this happened. Was this transition sudden, or was it gradual?"

The Nature paper is the result of raw data gleaned from a powerful Hubble Space Telescope imaging survey of the distant universe called CANDELS, or Cosmic Assembly Near-Infrared Deep Extragalactic Legacy Survey. Using that data, the team was armed with 43 potential distant galaxies and set out to confirm their distances. 
Tilvi, Finkelstein and his graduate student, Mimi Song, detected only one galaxy during their two nights of observation at Keck, but it turned out to be the most distant ever confirmed.