Post title Rs 5000 each for employees in 418 bars

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THIRUVANANHAPURAM: The government will give Rs 5000 as special Onam grant for each employee of 418 bars which have remained close for the past five months. 7467 bar employees who have membership in Bar employees welfare fund board will be eligible for the relief.

 

Rs 3.5 crore needed for the Onam grant had been sanctioned by the government as advance amount.

 

However, the employees of 312 bars which have been served notice for closure will not be eligible for the Onam allowance.    

Sania reaches final of US Open mixed doubles with Soares

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NEW YORK: Sania Mirza is in line to win her third Grand Slam title and first with new partner Bruno Soares as the top seeded pair struggled past Yung-Jan Chan and Ross Hutchins to reach the mixed doubles summit clash, here.

The Indo-Brazilian team overcame the unseeded but fighting Tapiei-German combine 7-5 4-6 10-7 in the semifinals, which lasted one hour and 33 minutes.

The last-four pairs contest was very close as both the teams broke each other four times and Sania and Soares won overall 74 points, only three more than their rivals.
Sania and Soares are up against unseeded pair of Abigail Spears from the USA and Santiago Gonzalez from Mexico.

It will be Sania's fifth mixed doubles final appearance at the Grand Slam level, having won Australian Open (2009) and French Open (2012) with compatriot Mahesh Bhupathi.
The 27-year old had reached the Australian Open mixed doubles final this year also but ended runners-up with Romanian partner Horea Tecau.

Sania also has the opportunity to reach only her second women's doubles final at Majors as she prepares to take on Swiss comeback queen Martina Hingis and Italian Flavia Pennetta in the semifinals.

All other Indians have already exited from the last Grand Slam of the season as Rohan Bopanna and Leander Paes fell at different stages of their respective events.
There was no Indian playing in the men's singles as Somdev could not qualify for the main draw.

US endorses India-Japan strategic partnership

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WASHINGTON: The US has welcomed the just announced India-Japan Strategic Partnership and said it is looking forward to strengthen its trilateral co-operation with them. "The US strongly supports India's  collaboration and cooperation with its neighbours in the Asia Pacific. We actively support such collaboration through our trilateral dialogue and other activities with India and Japan, and look forward to strengthening further our trilateral cooperation," State Department spokesperson Jen Psaki told PTI. The US strongly supports a prosperous India playing an important role on the global stage, she said. It is during the Obama Administration that India, Japan and the US have started trilateral meetings. "As we have long said, a strong, prosperous India contributes to regional and global peace and prosperity," Psaki said responding to questions about Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to Japan this week. During a meeting between Modi and his Japanese counterpart Shinzao Abe, the two sides announced India-Japan strategic partnership and deepening of defence relationship. The Pentagon welcomed the decision of India and Japan and said that the latter's participation in the Malabar exercise would be routine. "We are very excited that Japan's participation in Exercise Malabar is becoming routine and believe that credible, ready, and inter-operable maritime forces help to preserve peace, prevent conflict, and foster a spirit of cooperation to meet regional and global challenges for mutual benefit," Jeffrey S Pool, a Defence Department spokesperson said. American think-tank community has described Modi's Japan visit a great success. "Modi's visit to Japan has been lauded by all corners as a great success," said Alyssa Ayres, Senior Fellow for India, Pakistan, and South Asia at the Council on Foreign Relations, a top American think-tank. "The United States has strongly supported strengthened ties between India and Japan (the US-India-Japan trilateral just one example), and the deliverables announced in the Tokyo Declaration complement components of US-India relations," Ayres told PTI. The joint emphasis on democracy, upgraded defence relations, science and technology, and a robust catalogue of economic undertakings all illustrate similarity with priorities in the US-India relationship, she said. One major difference lies in the Japanese government's ability to mobilise large amounts of Overseas Development Assistance, particularly through soft loans, she added. "The Tokyo Declaration puts Prime Minister Abe's commitment at 3.5 trillion yen over five years (around USD USD 33 billion). That's a much larger sum than the United States government typically mobilises, and at a time when the US Congress has not renewed the US ExIm Bank’s charter, shows where Washington has a diminished ability to support similar projects," Ayres said. "Countries like Japan are working with economic policy tools to meet the strategic interests of partners like India, especially on infrastructure. Some good lessons for us here," she said. Writing for "Asia Unbound" a CFR foreign policy blog, Sheila A Smith wrote that in his five-day visit this week, Narendra Modi has made Japan's pivot to India even more enticing – and far more likely to succeed. Modi's election in May has brought more energy to the relationship, she noted. "As the television footage suggested, the two leaders seem to have a good chemistry, and enjoyed their time together. Modi even sent out messages of thanks to Abe via social media as he visited Kyoto and other spots in Japan," Smith said. Abe, according to her, must be satisfied to see one of his main diplomatic efforts take root. He has put considerable energy into developing new partners and opportunities for balancing China’s rise, and India has long been an option that Tokyo's strategic thinkers have looked to develop, she observed.

Al Qaeda announces India wing, race against ISIS for jihadi supremacy

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DUBAI: Al Qaeda leader Ayman al Zawahri on Wednesday announced the formation of an Indian branch of his militant group he said would spread Islamic rule and "raise the flag of jihad" across the subcontinent. In a 55-minute video posted online, Zawahri also renewed a longstanding vow of loyalty to Afghan Taliban leader Mullah Omar, in an apparent snub to the Islamic State armed group challenging al Qaeda for leadership of transnational Islamist militancy. Zawahri described the formation of "Al Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent" as a glad tidings for Muslims "in Burma, Bangladesh, Assam, Gujarat, Ahmedabad, and Kashmir" and said the new wing would rescue Muslims there from injustice and oppression. Counter-terrorism experts say al Qaeda's ageing leaders are struggling to compete for recruits with Islamic State, which has galvanised young followers around the world by carving out tracts of territory across the Iraq-Syria border. Islamic State leader Abu Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi calls himself a "caliph" or head of state and has demanded the loyalty of all Muslims. The group fell out with Zawahri in 2013 over its expansion into Syria, where Baghdadi's followers have carried out beheadings, crucifixions, and mass executions. As well being an indirect repudiation of Islamic State, the announcement could pose a challenge to India's new Prime Minister, Narendra Modi. He has already faced criticism for remaining silent about several incidents deemed anti-Muslim, underscoring fears that his Hindu nationalist followers will upset religious relations in the majority Hindi nation. However, while al Qaeda is very much at home in the Afghanistan-Pakistan border area, due to influential contacts and a long presence there, it is a minnow compared to local militant groups in terms of manpower and regional knowledge. Over the years Zawahri and his predecessor Osama bin Laden, killed by US forces in 2011, repeatedly pledged allegiance to Mullah Omar, in return for the safe haven he granted their followers in Afghanistan. The statement did not mention Islamic State or Baghdadi, but it appear to take a subtle dig at the group's efforts at administering areas it has seized in Iraq and Syria. Islamic State's effort at state-building is something never attempted by al Qaeda's central leaders, who traditionally have preferred to plot complex attacks on targets in the West. Zawahri called for unity among militants and criticised "discord" - echoing a common al Qaeda complaint against Islamic State's record of clashing with rival Islamist groups in Syria. The statement also warned al Qaeda's new wing against oppressing local populations - another complaint levelled against Islamic State by critics in Iraq and Syria. "If you said that you are doing jihad to defend the sanctities of the Muslims, then you must not transgress against them or their money or honour, and not even transgress your mujahideen brothers by word and action," he said. "Discord is a curse and torment, and disgrace for the believers and glory for the disbelievers," he said. "If you say that by your jihad you do not want but the pleasure of Allah, then you must not race for governance and leadership at the first opportunity." Muslims account for 15 percent of Indians but, numbering an estimated 175 million, theirs is the third-largest Muslim population in the world.

Vijayawada to be new capital of Andhra Pradesh

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HYDERABAD: Vijayawada will be the new capital of Andhra Pradesh, Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu announced Thursday.

He told the assembly that the government has decided to "locate the capital at central place of the state around Vijayawada".

Naidu said the decision was taken in the state cabinet meeting Sep 1.

MHA asks IB to verify authenticity of al-Qaeda video

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NEW DELHI: The  Home Ministry today asked the Intelligence Bureau (IB) to verify the authenticity of an al- Qaeda video that threatens to take the terror outfit's campaign to India.

Ministry officials said the IB has been asked to send a report as early as possible giving details of the video, its authenticity and possible place of uploading.

The IB, which constantly monitors the activities of the terror outfit operating in the country and its neighbourhood, is expected to send the report within a day or two, officials said.

US media and intelligence agencies said today that al-Qaeda has established a new branch to wage jihad in India, revive its caliphate and impose sharia in the Indian sub-continent,
The creation of the group called "Qaedat al-Jihad in the Indian Subcontinent" was announced by As Sahab, al-Qaeda's official media outlet, in a lengthy video posted on social media outlets including You Tube.

Al-Qaeda is active in Afghanistan and Pakistan, but the group's leader Ayman al Zawahiri said "Qaedat al-Jihad" would take the fight to India, Myanmar and Bangladesh.

Zawahiri said the group will defend the "vulnerable in the Indian subcontinent, in Burma, Bangladesh, Assam, Gujarat, Ahmedabad, and Kashmir..." and "your brothers in Qaedat al-Jihad did not forget you and that they are doing what they can to rescue you from injustice, oppression, persecution, and suffering".

Eat fruits daily for healthy heart

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London: Daily fruit consumption cuts the overall risk of death by 32 percent and cardio-vascular diseases (CVDs) by up to 40 percent, a study shows.

Researchers found that compared to people who never ate fruit, those who ate fruit daily cut their CVD risks by 25-40 percent - around 15 percent for ischaemic heart disease (IHD), around 25 percent for ischaemic stroke and 40 percent for haemorrhagic stroke.

The findings came from a seven year follow up study of nearly 5,000,00 people living in ten different areas of China.

'The more fruit you eat the more your CVD risk goes down. It suggests that eating more fruit is beneficial compared to less or no fruit,' said lead researcher Dr Huaidong Du from Oxford University.

The researchers also found that people who consumed fruit more often had significantly lower blood pressure (BP).

'Patients with CVD and hypertension should also be encouraged to consume more fresh fruit,' Du noted.

The study was presented at the European Society of Cardiology (ESC) Congress, 2014 in Barcelona.

IANS

Naval chief to commission largest offshore patrol vessel

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New Delhi : Strengthening Navy's coastal surveillance capabilities, Admiral Robin Dhowan will commission its largest offshore patrol vessel INS Sumitra on Thursday in Chennai.

'The latest generation warship built by the state-owned Goa Shipyard Limited will join the Eastern Naval
Command fleetat Chennai for nation's maritime surveillance and coastal security,' a GSL press release said.

The INS Sumitra is the Indian Navy's largest offshore patrol vessel, the fourth in its class and built on in-house
design of GSL, the shipyard said.

The ship is fitted with most sophisticated weapons, guns,heavy calibre SRGM, rapid fire Russian AK630 guns, chaff
launchers Kavach, Electronic warfare system Sanket and various other electronic sensors.

'Significantly, all the equipment planned on the warshiphas been tried and fully operational. It is ready for
itsintentional role in war and peace. Further, ship has been built at fixed cost in scheduled time with no pending
liabilities by the PSU shipyard,' the GSL said.

The vessel can help meet Navy's requirement for undertaking ocean surveillance and surface warfare operations
in order to prevent infiltration and transgression of maritime sovereignty and is suitable for monitoring sea lanes of
communication, defence of offshore oil installations and other critical offshore national assets.

GSL chief Rear Admiral Shekhar Mital (Retd) said this delivery would take the shipyard's delivery account to 203 ships.

The first, second and third of the series of 105 meter class of NOPV - INS Saryu, Sunayna and Sumedha were earlier
handed over to the Navy by GSL. PTI

AMU convocation to honour distinguished Muslims

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Aligarh: The Aligarh Muslim University will honour distinguished Muslims at its convocation for which Emir of Sharjah, Sultan Bin Mohamed Al-Qasimi, has been invited to deliver the convocation address.

The emir will also be the chief guest at the Sir Syed Day, it was decided at a meeting of varsity officials presided over by Vice Chancellor, Lt.Gen. (retd.) Zameer Uddin Shah.

The AMU will confer its D. Lit. degree, honoris causa, to Dr. Abdulaziz Othman Altwaijri, the director general, Islamic Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (ISESCO) and secretary general of the Federation of Universities of the Islamic World, Dr. Shamsheer Vayalil Parambath, managing director, VPS Healthcare, Abu Dhabi, and Nadeem Tarin, a distinguished AMU alumnus and general manager, Salman Al-Terais and Partners Ltd. Construction Company, Riyadh.

The annual convocation on Oct 16, a day before the commemorative meeting on the birth anniversary of varsity founder Sir Syed Ahmad Khan.

IANS

Keralite wins prestigious US award

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Washington: India-born scientist Dr Thomas John Colacot has won the American Chemical Society's ACS Award in Industrial Chemistry, one of the top honours in the field.

Colacot, who studied at St Berchman's College, Changanacherry, Kerala and IIT, Chennai, is the first Indian to get the award in industrial chemistry. He also holds an MBA degree and was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry

The award is sponsored by the ACS Division of Business Development and Management and the ACS Division of Industrial and Engineering Chemistry.

Currently Global R&D manager in the homogenous catalysis area at Johnson Matthey, a specialty chemicals company, Colacot directs research in US, UK and in Indian labs.

'The ACS is proud to recognize your outstanding contributions to the development and commercialization of ligands and precatalysts for metal-catalyzed organic synthesis, particularly cross-couplings, for industrial and academic use and applications,' a letter from Tom Barton, president of ACS noted.

The 2015 national awards recipients will be honoured at the awards ceremony in conjunction with the 249th ACS national meeting in Denver, Colorado in March next year.

Colacot had received Royal Society of Chemistry's RSC Applied Catalysis Award in 2012 for his contributions to the area of catalysis. His work on 'cross-coupling' is particularly acclaimed.

Colacot joined Johnson Matthey, USA in 1995 and started working in the area of palladium catalyzed cross-coupling.

The catalysts developed in his labs are currently used to make new drugs for Hepatitis C, a deadly disease with no cure, one pill per week for type II diabetics, and many hypertension drugs.

Colacot's work involves developing and commercializing ligands and catalysts for applications in metal-catalyzed synthetic organic chemistry.

His book on 'New Trends in Cross-Coupling: Theory and Applications' is scheduled to be published in October, 2014 by the Royal Society of Chemistry.

He is also PhD thesis examiner to many IITs and visiting faculty at Rutgers University.