Modi's wife unhappy over round-the-clock security

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New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi's wife has questioned the government's decision to provide her with gun-toting bodyguards around the clock, even when she travels in rickety three-wheeler taxis.

Jashodaben Modi, 62, who lives in Gujarat, said she had filed a petition to find out why she has been given security cover since Modi was elected in May. "I am surrounded by five security guards all the time. Often my relatives or I have to cook for them, my sister-in-law has to make their beds. This is a bit annoying," Jashodaben Modi said. "You see it gets really chaotic when I have to travel, because I use public transport and the guards are following me in an air-conditioned car."

Modi's wife is a retired primary school teacher who has lived with her brothers since her husband decided to separate from her about 45 years ago, when they were both teenagers.

She has never considered seeking a divorce and leads a life immersed in prayer for Modi's well-being.

She was thrown into the national spotlight when Modi, after years of silence, disclosed his marriage in an election filing earlier this year.

The Prime Minister has never spoken about his wife, but friends and relatives say they were married off under a family arrangement, a tradition of the time, especially among the poor.

Modi left home soon after, and was drawn into the ascetic life of the Hindu nationalist volunteer group Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, many of whose top leaders practiced celibacy to focus on the organisation's cause of nation-building.

Jashodaben's brother, Ashok Modi, said he supported her decision to file a request seeking information about her security detail under the Right to Information Act.

"The commandos assigned to guard my sister have no official order by which they have been posted at my residence," he said.

The Special Protection Group, an elite force modelled on the Secret Service that guards U.S. Presidents, took over Jashodaben's security. By law, it is responsible for the security of the Prime Minister and his immediate family members.

"I don't want to cause any embarrassment for my brother-in-law and I don't need any fancy treatment, but I expect the government to understand that the security guards are becoming an economic liability for my family," said Ashok Modi.

Xi Jinping-Peng Liyuan love story goes viral on internet

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Beijing: A music video that tells the story of the deep love between Chinese President Xi Jinping and his wife Peng Liyuan has gone viral on the internet with more than 22 million views in a week, the People's Daily reported Monday.

The couple's glances of complicity and small shows of affection in public have made the Chinese leader and his wife the centre of attention in a country where affection is supposed to be displayed only in the privacy of the home.

Far from the usual solemn image that characterises Xi Jinping, the video, titled 'Xi Dada loves Peng Mama', shows the couple at several humorous moments, as well as in numerous scenes of intimacy captured by cameras.

Users of Weibo, the Chinese Twitter, where the video is shared freely, refer to the couple affectionately as Xi Dada (literally, Uncle Xi) and Peng Mama (Mother Peng), two nicknames which have become popular over the past week on the social networks.

Two singers from Henan province have added the musical touch to the video.

One of the composers of the song, Yu Runze, told the newspaper that the love story between the Chinese president and his wife has always been admired by Chinese internet users, a phenomenon that has grown since Xi was photographed holding hands with Peng during his visit to Australia.

The song does not present the stereotypical image of Xi as a serious political leader and, instead, shows someone who can connect with the people on the street, added Xu An, the singer in the video, who also noted that it would inspire other couples to achieve a greater degree of emotional connect. 

IANS

Science bears witness to dog's love for master

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New York: Your dog loves you as much as you love it, researchers confirmed in a study that looked inside the brain of our canine friends using imaging technology.

Not only do dogs seem to love their owners back, they actually see them as their family, the researchers found.

'Bonding with owners is much more important for dogs than other pets,' lead author of the study Attila Andics, was quoted as saying by Mic.

The study used neuroimaging to study odour processing in the canine brain.

And of all the smells the dogs smelled during the MRI, it was only the scent of the dogs' owners that triggered activity in the caudate nucleus of the brain - otherwise known as the 'reward centre'.

Dogs actually prioritised the scent of humans above everything else, the study noted.

The results of the study seem to support previous canine neuroimaging research that showed that there are remarkable similarities to the way dog and human brains react to emotional cues.

IANS

World powers, Iran to make ´last push´ for nuclear deal: Britain

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VIENNA: World powers and Iran will make a "last push" for a nuclear deal before a Monday midnight deadline even though the parties are far apart, British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond said.

"At the moment we´re focused on the last push, a big push tomorrow morning to try and get this across the line," Hammond told reporters Sunday in Vienna when asked if an extension of the deadline was being considered.

"Of course if we´re not able to do it, we´ll then look at where we go from there," he added.

A senior US official acknowledged for the first time Sunday that Iran and world powers were now discussing a possible extension of their deadline for a deal amid wide gaps in the talks.

Hammond said the parties would still try to bridge the gaps even though it was not clear whether they could be.

"We´re all focused on trying to get to a deal but I wouldn´t want to give any false hopes here. We´re still quite a long way apart and there are some very tough and complex issues to deal with but we´re all focused right now on trying to get that deal done," he said.

Hammond said he was consulting Sunday evening with his counterparts from Germany and France on how to "manage the meetings" on Monday with the Iranian negotiators.

Britain, the United States, Russia, China, Francce and Germany have been locked in talks with Iran for months to turn an interim deal that expires on Monday into a lasting accord.

Such an agreement, after a 12-year-standoff, is aimed at easing fears that Iran will develop nuclear weapons under the guise of its civilian activities, an ambition it strongly denies.

 

UK health volunteers head to S. Leone to tackle Ebola

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LONDON: A first group of volunteers from Britain´s state National Health Service left for Sierra Leone on Saturday to join the Ebola epidemic fightback.

More than 30 NHS workers flew out of London Heathrow Airport and were due to arrive in the capital Freetown on Sunday for a week of training before moving to British-built treatment centres around the west African country.

The group includes doctors, nurses, clinicians, psychiatrists and emergency medicine consultants.

"I found myself less and less able to hear about the evolving situation in west Africa and the increasing loss of life and do nothing. I felt I just had to go," said Doctor Hannah Ryan, 29, from the intensive care unit at Aintree University Hospital in Liverpool, northwest England.

Doctor James Lavers, 37, an intensive care registrar from Bangor in northwest Wales, said: "This could be the biggest medical disaster of my lifetime, killing hundreds of thousands of people in the region.

To prevent this from happening and save vast numbers of lives, large-scale intervention has to happen now."

The volunteers have gone through nine days of intensive training at a specialist Ministry of Defence unit in northern England, which has a replica treatment centre.

More than 1,000 NHS workers have put their names forward and more teams of British volunteers are due to go out to Sierra Leone over the coming weeks.

Suicide blast at Afghan volleyball match kills 50

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KHOST: Around 50 people were killed and 60 others wounded when a suicide blast ripped through crowds gathered to watch a volleyball game in eastern Afghanistan on Sunday, officials said.

“The suicide attacker was on a motorcycle. He detonated himself in the middle of a volleyball match,” Attaullah Fazli, deputy governor of Paktika province, told AFP.

“A lot of people including some provincial officials and the police chief were there. About 50 people have been killed, and 60 injured, a lot of them seriously.”

The attack was in Yahya Khail district of Paktika, a volatile province bordering Pakistan.President Ashraf Ghani, who came to power in September, swiftly condemned the attack, according to his spokesman.

There was no immediate response from the Taliban insurgents, who are responsible for many of the attacks across Afghanistan.Paktika was also struck by a massive suicide blast in July, when a bomber driving a truck packed with explosives killed at least 41 people at a busy market in Urgun district.

Sunday’s attack occurred on the same day that Afghanistan’s lower House of parliament approved agreements to allow about 12,500 Nato-led troops to stay on next year as the national army and police struggle to hold back the Taliban.

The US-led Nato combat operations will finish at the end of this year, but the Taliban have launched a series of recent offensives that have severely tested Afghan soldiers and police.

The new Nato mission — named Resolute Support — will focus on supporting the Afghan forces, in parallel with the US counterterrorism operations.

Dog has its day as mayor of San Francisco

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A previously unknown female Chihuahua named Frida has won her first political office, being named Mayor of San Francisco for the day as part of a campaign to support the city's animal shelter.

Frida, whose owner bid $5,000 for the privilege, will spend her special day touring Bay Area landmarks and receiving a commendation from the Board of Supervisors, according to a spokeswoman with the city and county Department of Animal Care and Control said.

Her honor will then be shown around city hall and presented with a retirement package that includes a doggy bed, gift basket and play products.

"We applaud Mayor Frida's ability to rise above her humble start as a single mom in an animal shelter to Mayor for the Day," said Miriam Saez, acting director of the Animal Care and Control department.

Last November the city of San Francisco transformed itself into the fictional Gotham City so that a little boy could celebrate his win against cancer by becoming "Bat Kid" for the day.

Bahrain sees 51.5 percent voter turnout in national elections

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Manama: Bahrain registered 51.5 percent turnout in the parliamentary and municipal elections Saturday, notwithstanding the opposition's call to boycott the elections.

'The turnout today was 51.5 percent compared to the 67.7 per cent in the 2010 elections,' said Bahrain's Minister of Justice, Islamic Affairs and Endowments, Shaikh Khalid bin Ali Al Khalifa, Xinhua reported. 

The minister said after polling closed Saturday, that the calls for boycotting the polls did not affect the process and the boycott represented only 16 percent of the electorates. He praised the 'high turnout' of voters.

Opposition groups, led by the Al Wefaq had claimed that the Shiite majority in Bahrain is discriminated by the Sunni monarchy and that the parliament is subject to the king's wishes and lacks any real power.

Al Wefaq National Islamic Society claimed that the boycott affected the process and its secretary general, Shaikh Ali Salman, called for the United Nations (UN) to organise a fair and transparent poll.

'We are determined to continue this peaceful struggle until we achieve a democratic civil humanitarian state,' Salman said.

There were minor clashes in some villages, but the security forces were able to control the situation.

Bahrain's interior ministry said that there was a strong police presence in the country, throughout the day and police were on high alert for any possible trouble.

The ministry confirmed that it would continue to secure the election process and take appropriate steps against lawbreakers. 

A total of 419 candidates, including 34 women, are running in these parliamentary and municipal elections.

As many as 53 polling stations across the country helped the voters cast their ballots smoothly.

349,713 people were eligible to vote in these elections to choose 39 MPs from 266 candidates and 29 municipal councillors from 153 candidates.

The elections were monitored by over 300 observers from eight local non-governmental organisations. 

These are the first elections in Bahrain since a failed protest against the monarchy in 2011.

IANS

Veteran Congress leader, ex-union minister Murli Deora dead

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Mumbai: Veteran Congress leader and former union minister Murli Deora passed away here early Monday following a brief illness, a senior party leader said.

He was 77 and he died around 3.30 a.m.

A former mayor of Mumbai in 1977-78, and later chief of the Congress Party's city unit for two decades, a four-time Lok Sabha MP from Mumbai South, he was a union minister for petroleum and natural gas and earlier handled communications and IT.
PM condoles Deora's demisePrime Minister Narendra Modi today condoled the death of senior Congress leader Murli Deora and said his warm nature made him popular across party lines.

'Just yesterday I had spoken to Shri Murli Deora's family & asked about his health. Very sad to hear the unfortunate
news today,' he said on Twitter.

'My deepest condolences to the Deora family on Shri Murli Deora's demise. May his soul rest in peace.

'A dedicated leader, Shri Murli Deora's warm nature made him popular across party lines. News of his demise is
saddening,' Modi said in a series of tweets.

Union Minister Venkaiah Naidu said the country has lost a veteran Parliamentarian.

'I am deeply saddened by the demise of Murli Deora. We have lost a veteran Parliamentarian and an experienced
administrator,' the Parliamentary Affairs Minister said.

Anti-HIV drugs can affect unborn babies' hearts

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Washington: The drugs given to HIV-positive pregnant women can cause significant long-term heart problems for the non-HIV-infected babies they carry, says a new study.

Such medicines help prevent the transmission of the virus from mother to infant but may cause impaired development of heart muscle and reduced heart performance in non-HIV-infected children.

'What our study indicates is that there is potentially a long-term price to be paid for protecting the children of HIV-infected mothers from the virus,' said Steven E. Lipshultz, pediatrician at the Children's Hospital of Michigan in the US and chair of pediatrics for the Wayne State University School of Medicine.

The study compared heart development and long-term heart functioning in 428 uninfected children of HIV-infected mothers to children who had not been exposed to HIV from 2007 to 2012.

There was a significant association between lagging heart muscle development and impaired pumping ability in the children of the HIV-infected mothers who had received the medications, found the study.

The findings show clearly that further investigation of their long-term impact on the heart health of the children involved is needed, said Lipshultz.

The study appeared in the journal AIDS.

IANS