Top Al Qaeda leader killed in Pakistan

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Islamabad: The Pakistan Army said Saturday that a top Al Qaeda leader was killed in the Shinwarsak region of South Waziristan.

Adnan el Shukrijuma

A statement issued by Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) said that Adnan el Shukrijuma had moved to this area from North Waziristan Agency to hide in a compound due to the ongoing 'Zarb-i-Azb' operation, Dawn online reported.

'His accomplice and local facilitator were also killed in the raid,' the statement said.

The statement says Adnan el Shukrijuma was a member of the core Al Qaeda leadership and was in charge of all external operations of the terror group. 

During the raid, a soldier was also killed and another injured.

The Pakistan Army had launched Operation Zarb-i-Azb in June against foreign and local terrorists who were hiding in sanctuaries in North Waziristan.

The comprehensive operation was launched a week after militants made a brazen attack on the country's busiest airport in Karachi.

IANS

US photojournalist Luke Somers killed in Yemen raid

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Sanaa: American photojournalist Luke Somers, who was held by the Al Qaeda in Yemen, died during a rescue operation in the province of Shabwa in Yemen.

Somers succumbed to the injuries sustained during the operation, Al Jazeera reported citing a senior official in the president's office.

Luke, 33, was abducted in September 2013 from the streets of Yemeni capital Sanaa. He worked as a freelance photojournalist for the Yemen Times.

Somers was shot at by his captors as a joint air raid by the US and Yemeni forces unfolded and was badly wounded. He died while being flown to a US naval base in the region.

Ten Al Qaeda fighters were also killed in the raid.

Somers pleaded for help in a video posted Thursday on the Twitter account of Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula.

'We ask that all of Luke's family members be allowed to mourn in peace,' his sister, Lucy, was quoted as saying, having been informed by the FBI of his death.

Earlier, conflicting reports came out about Somers' fate, as both Yemeni officials and the the US State Department seemed to be unaware of the end result of the rescue operation.

IANS

Muslim League donates Rs.25 lakh to PM's relief fund -

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New Delhi: India Union Muslim League (IMUL) president E. Ahamed Wednesday donated Rs.25 lakh to the Prime Minister's Relief Fund.

The IMUL extended its support for the prime minister's relief activities, said an official statement.

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World's fastest camera is here

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Washington: A team of biomedical engineers has developed the world's fastest camera, a device that can capture events up to 100 billion frames per second.

The current ultrafast imaging techniques are limited by on-chip storage and electronic readout speed to operations of about 10 million frames per second.

"For the first time, humans can see light pulses on the fly," said Lihong Wang, professor of Biomedical Engineering at Washington University in St. Louis.

"Because this technique advances the imaging frame rate by orders of magnitude, we now enter a new regime to open up new visions,” said Wang.

The team used a technique called compressed ultrafast photography (CUP) to make movies of the images they took with single laser shots.

This is a series of devices customised to work with high-powered microscopes and telescopes to capture dynamic natural and physical phenomena.

Once the raw data are acquired, the actual images are formed on a personal computer.

"These ultrafast cameras have the potential to greatly enhance our understanding of very fast biological interactions and chemical processes and allow us to build better models of complex, dynamical systems," said Richard Conroy from National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering, US.

The camera may have wider application in areas like biomedicine, astronomy and forensics.

"Combine CUP imaging with the Hubble Telescope, and we will have both the sharpest spatial resolution of the Hubble and the highest temporal solution with CUP," said Wang.

“Each new technique, especially one of a quantum leap forward, is always followed a number of new discoveries. It's our hope that CUP will enable new discoveries in science -- ones that we can't even anticipate yet," said Wang.

The research appeared in the journal Nature.

21-yr-old Malayali girl raped for a month by acquaintance in Delhi

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New Delhi: A 21-year-old girl from Kerala was allegedly kept captive and repeatedly raped by her male acquaintance at a residence in south Delhi's Vasant Kunj area here since the last one month.

The incident came to light Wednesday when the girl managed to contact her mother back in Kerala as the accused has gone to his native place Bhopal.

Her mother then alerted police through her Delhi-based relatives.

When a police team reached the spot Wednesday evening, they found the flat locked from outside.

The girl was then rescued after the locks were broken, police said.

The accused, who hails from Bhopal was pursuing his MBA in Delhi and had brought the girl from Kerala to Delhi after luring her of getting her a good job here.

"Once the girl reached Delhi, he allegedly raped her and captured the act on his mobile phone and blackmailed her into keeping quiet.

He also restricted the girl from going anywhere," said a police official.

Police has registered a case and a team has been sent to arrest the accused from Bhopal.

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No Bangladesh terror link to Saradha case so far: Minister

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New Delhi: The government and the BJP appeared to be speaking in different voices on the Saradha chit fund case Wednesday, as union minister Jitendra Singh informed parliament that the probe so far has not revealed any transaction where money was routed to Bangladesh to fund terrorist activities.

"The investigation has so far not revealed any such transaction where money was routed to Bangladesh to fund terrorist activities. The matter is under investigation," Minister of State in the Prime Minister's Office Jitendra Singh informed the Lok Sabha in a written response.

He was replying to a question whether the government sought details of the probe after reports said a part of the money was routed to Bangladesh.

Bharatiya Janata Party chief Amit Shah claimed during a party rally in Kolkata that money from the Saradha chit fund was used to fund the Burdwan blast and the Trinamool Congress government was trying to save the accused.

He alleged involvement of Trinamool leaders in the blast, and accused West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee of compromising national security by hindering the NIA probe into the blast in which Bangladeshi militants were involved.

"The National Investigation Agency (NIA) probe into the blast is being hampered. The agency is not being allowed to work. Many Trinamool leaders are involved in the blast and Mamata didi will have to give all these answers during the polls," Shah said.

Trinamool leaders Wednesday lashed out at Shah following Jitendra Singh's remarks and demanded an apology.

Communist Party of India-Marxist leader Sitaram Yechury said there was "match-fixing" between the BJP and Trinamool.

Union Minister Babul Supriyo, who hails from West Bengal, did not comment on Jitendra Singh's remarks but accused the Trinamool government of tampering with evidence that could prove links with the terror plot.

BJP leader Siddharth Nath Singh denied there was any contradiction between the government and the party regarding the Saradha scam.

He said Shah's comments were based on reports that were in the public domain and Jitendra Singh said the matter was being probed by the Central Bureau of Investigation.

Jitendra Singh also sought to clarify matters to the media and said the last part of his reply clearly stated that the matter was under investigation.

RBI doubles pre-paid card limit to Rs 1 lakh

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MUMBAI: Relaxing norms for Pre-paid Payment Instruments (PPI), the Reserve Bank today doubled the card limit to Rs 1 lakh.

 

"The limit of PPI... has now been enhanced from Rs 50,000 to Rs 1 lakh. The balance in the PPI should not exceed Rs 1 lakh at any point of time," RBI said in a statement.
 

The move would help in achieving the objective of limiting cash transactions in the system.

 

Besides, the maximum validity of gift cards has been enhanced from one year to three years, it said, adding that other provisions of PPI guidelines with respect to gift cards will continue to be applicable.

 

RBI also allowed issue of multiple PPIs by banks from fully-KYC compliant bank accounts for dependent or family members, it said.

Only one card can be issued to one beneficiary, it said.

 

"The bank may put in place mechanisms to monitor and report suspicious transactions on these PPIs to Financial Intelligence Unit India (FIU IND)," it added.

 

Based on a comprehensive internal review and feedback received from entities currently authorised to issue PPIs, it has been considered necessary to amend certain provisions of existing guidelines for ensuring growth of prepaid payment industry, it said.

 

The central bank also permitted banks to issue rupee denominated PPIs for visiting foreign nationals and NRIs.

 

"Banks are permitted to issue open system rupee denominated non-reloadable PPIs to NRIs and foreign nationals visiting India and PPIs co-branded with exchange houses/money transmitters (approved by RBI) to NRIs and foreign nationals visiting India," it said.

 

However, this would be subject to certain conditions like the cards can be issued by overseas branches of banks in India directly or by co-branding with the exchange houses/money transmitters up to a maximum amount of Rs 2 lakh by loading from a KYC compliant bank account.

 

Such PPIs should be activated by the bank only after the traveller arrives in India and cash withdrawal will be restricted to Rs 50,000 per month.

 

The cards should be issued strictly for use in India and transactions settled in Indian rupee, it added.

Red wine can prevent head, neck cancer

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New York: Researchers have found that a compound known as resveratrol in red wine and grape skin may prevent head and neck cancer.

Alcohol bombards our genes. The body has ways to repair this cell damage but with enough alcohol, some cells become dangerous.

'Resveratrol challenges these cells - the ones with unrepaired DNA damage are killed so they cannot go on to cause cancer. Alcohol damages cells and resveratrol kills damaged cells,' said Robert Sclafani, investigator at University of Colorado's cancer centre.

The body metabolises alcohol by converting it first to acetyl aldehyde and then the body uses aldehyde dehydrogenase (ALDH) to further convert it to acetic acid which is excreted.

The partially processed state of alcohol, acetyl aldehyde, is a carcinogen and produces 'cross links' in DNA.

With enough alcohol, the body can get behind and end up with a backlog of acetyl aldehyde.

'Increased exposure to alcohol, loss of the ALDH gene that helps the body process alcohol, and loss of the ability to repair DNA cross links all result in increased cancer risk,' Sclafani said.

In red wine, resveratrol blocks the cancer-causing effect of alcohol.

'Resveratrol takes out the cells with the most damage - the cells that have the highest probability of being able to cause cancer,' he said.

Resveratrol, however, is not a magic bullet that can completely undo the cancer-causing effects of alcohol.

'But by killing the most dangerous cells, it may decrease the probability that alcohol use will cause cancer,' Sclafani added.

10 killed in Colombia plane crash

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Bogota: A total of 10 people were killed, including five children, when their plane crashed in central Colombia Wednesday, the civil aviation authority said.

The airplane, which was en route from the Colombian capital Bogota to Bahia Solano, a scenic spot in the country's western Choco department, was carrying eight passengers and two crew members.

Colombian company Nacional de Aviacion's plane crashed and burst into flames near the airport of Mariquita municipality, in the Colombian central Tolima department, Xinhua quoted the country's El Tiempo daily network as stating.

Tolima's police director Nelson Quinonez told media that five charred bodies had been recovered so far, but they could not be immediately identified. A search is on to find the rest of the bodies.

Quinonez said the pilot had asked for an emergency landing minutes before the crash.

Five children killed as train rams into school van

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Mau (UP): Five children were today killed and eight others injured when a school van was hit by a Varanasi-bound passenger train at an unmanned railway crossing in Mau district.

The incident took place at around 8 AM when the van carrying school children was hit by Tamsa passenger train
going to Varanasi from Azamgarh at Mahaso unmanned crossing in Ranipur area here.

Superintendent of Police AK Shukla said that five children were killed on the spot while eight others were injured in the incident.

The victims are yet to be identified. All of them were students of DD Convent School, Hajipur, police said.

Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu will make a suo motu statement in both Houses of Parliament on the accident.

'Just now, there has been a railway accident. We want to make a statement in Parliament. The Railway Minister has given
a notice and I spoke to both the presiding officers. The government wants to take the Opposition in confidence and
inform the House,' Parliamentary Affairs Minister M Venkaiah Naidu told reporters outside Parliament House. PTI