BJP hartal hits normal life in Kerala

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Thiruvananthapuram: The day-long hartal called by BJP, demanding the resignation of Finance Minister K.M. Mani in the bar bribery case, has disrupted normal life across the State.

Initial reports said buses, taxis and autorickshaws kept off the roads and shops remained closed all over the State.

Private vehicles are plying and no violence has so far been reported from anywhere.

The BJP in Kerala is also demanding that Chief Minister resign and go for a midterm poll.

BJP State president V. Muraleedharan Thursday said that it would be a disaster for Kerala if Mani presented the next State Budget.

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Palestinians should learn from India's peaceful resistance' -

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Ramallah: In a rare gesture, Palestinian Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah participated in a reception here to celebrate India's Republic Day and told his people to learn from the Indian example of peaceful resistance.

Accompanied by four senior ministers, four Governors, top officials and several other Palestinian dignitaries, Hamdallah joined a gathering of around 250 people assembled to celebrate India's 66th Republic Day in West Bank city of Ramallah.

Praising Mahatma Gandhi's model of non-violent movement against the British to attain India's Independence, he said that the "Palestinians could learn from the Indian example of peaceful resistance".

The Palestinian Prime Minister thanked India for providing financial assistance in developing various developmental projects in the Palestinian territories and also helping in the efforts to reconstruct Gaza.

"India has been consistent in its support to the Palestinians, diplomatically and politically, and has been also at the forefront of efforts towards the reconstruction of war-battered Gaza," he told the gathering congratulating them on the occasion.

India had recently provided the Palestinian Authority (PA) with an assistance of USD four million while parallel pursuing many other programmes aimed at skill development among the Palestinian population.

Expressing India's "unconditional and unwavering" support for a just resolution of the Palestinian problem, Representative of India (ROI) to Palestine, Mahesh Kumar, outlined certain initiatives taken by the new government in India, especially the "Make in India" initiative.

"Our economic engagement with Palestine, though substantial, has enormous untapped scope and potential. I, therefore, invite my Palestinian friends to avail the opportunity in India," Kumar said.

India-US ties a defining partnership of the century: Obama -

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New Delhi: US President Barack Obama said Tuesday the India-US relationship could potentially emerge as the defining partnership of the century.

“I believe that the relationship between India and the US can become the defining partnership of the century,” Obama said in a town-hall style lecture at the Sri Fort Auditorium here.

The US president said he desired to share his vision of how the two countries could strengthen their bilateral relationship.

“Today, I want to speak directly to you, the people of India, about what I believe we can achieve together and how we can do it.

“My commitment to a new chapter flows from the deep friendship between our people. Michelle (the First lady) and I felt it ourselves,” he said in the last public engagement of his three-day state visit to India.

During the visit, Obama was the chief guest at the 66th of the Republic Day parade here Monday.

“With the tricolor above us we celebrated the strength of your constitution... in yesterday's parade we saw the pride and diversity of this nation,” he said, adding that it was a great honour for him to be the first American president to attend the Republic Day parade.

Beetroot juice boosts exercise function in heart patients

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New York : A small yet significant study shows that beetroot juice improves exercise function in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) patients.

The new research by Wake Forest University looked at a small group of COPD patients who drank beetroot juice as compared to a placebo drink before exercise.

'The intent of this study was to determine if acute ingestion of beetroot juice, which is rich with nitrates, prior to exercising could improve the exercise capacity of COPD patients,' said Michael Berry, chair of Wake Forest's department of health and exercise science.

COPD makes it difficult for patients to breathe and worsens over time.

In turn, they tend to limit their activities, become more sedentary, and lose fitness and physical function.

The findings showed overall that those patients who drank beetroot juice were able to extend their exercise time and had reduced exercise diastolic and resting systolic blood pressures.

'This is the first study to demonstrate beneficial effects of dietary nitrite supplementation on exercise performance and blood pressure in patients with COPD,' he added. One of the benefits of exercise is that if you get positive results, you are more likely to continue doing it.

'If beetroot juice positively impacts those results, it could motivate COPD patients to continue to be physically active and improve their health,' he added.

The research appeared in the journal Nitric Oxide: Biology and Chemistry.

Sania in Australian Open mixed doubles third round

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Melbourne: The top seeded mixed doubles pair of Sania Mirza and Bruno Soares entered the third round of the mixed doubles competition in the Australian Open tennis tournament here at the Melbourne Park Monday.

The Indo-Brazilian pair defeated unseeded Santiago Gonzalez of Mexico and American Abigail Spears 7-5, 6-7 (3), 10-8 in a close contest that lasted for 93 minutes.

The winning duo hit 45 winners compared to 33 by their opponents and committed 12 unforced errors, two fewer than the losing team and claimed 86 points in total.

They will nest play the victor of the second round match between Slovakian Andreja Klepac-Australian Chris Guccione and the Australian pair of Casey Dellacqua and John Peers.

IANS

Colombia's Paulina Vega wins Miss Universe 2014 title

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Miami: Colombian beauty Paulina Vega Sunday night beat 87 contestants, including India's Noyonita Lodh, to win the Miss Universe 2014 crown here Sunday night.

Bangalore girl Noyonita, 21, failed to reach the Top 10, but she had managed to pave her way into the Top 15 at the 63rd edition of the pageant. India has not won the Miss Universe crown since 2000, when now Bollywood actress Lara Dutta had walked away with the accolades.

At the 2014 pageant, contestants from 88 countries were participating.

Miss USA Nia Sanchez was crowned first runner-up, while Diana Harkusha from Ukraine was named the second runner-up at the glitzy event, which was held at the FIU Arena at Florida International University here.

The judges included actor William Levy, Grammy winner musician and producer Emilio Estefan, footballer Desean Jackson, baseball player Giancarlos Cruz-Michael Stanton and boxer Manny Pacquiao.

Colombian fashion-journalist Nina Garcia, 'The Hills' star Kristin Cavallari, fashion guru Louise Roe and 'Real Housewives Of Beverly Hills' star Lisa Vanderpump were part of the panel too.

Vega was crowned by her predecessor Miss Universe 2013 Gabriela Isler from Venezuela at the end of the pageant.

Some of the highpoints of this year's Miss Universe was the new crown, created by Diamonds International Corporation (D.I.C), given to the winner along with an audience question that was asked in addition to the judges round.

The event also witnessed a flashback showing former Miss Universe winners from past several years along with a special showcasing of Isler and her contribution in the year after winning the crown.

IANS

Advani, Bachchan, Dilip Kumar, K K Venugopal get Padma Vibhushan

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New Delhi: L K Advani, Amitabh Bachchan, thespian Dilip Kumar and Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal were on Sunday chosen for this year's Padma Vibhushan, the second highest civilian honour, as government gave a saffron touch honouring eminent people of various fields in this year's list of Padma awardees.

Eminent lawyer K K Venugopal, D Veerendra Heggade of the famous Dharmasthala Jain temple in Karnataka, eminent nuclear
scientist M R Srinivasan and Aga Khan were also chosen for Padma Vibhushan.

Former CEC N Gopalaswami, Microsoft chief Bill Gates and his wife Melinda were selected for Padma Bhushan in the list of 104 people whose names were released on the eve of Republic day.

This list comprises nine Padma Vibhushan, 20 Padma Bhushan and 75 Padma Shri awardees. 17 of them were women and equal number were in the category of foreigners, NRIs, PIOs and four posthumous awardees.

Former Lok Sabha Secretary General Subhash C Kashyap, journalists Rajat Sharma and Swapan Dasgupta, eminent lawyer Harish Salve, cardiologist Ashok Seth, Indian-American mathematician Manjul Bhargava were also in the list of Padma Bhushan awardees. Hindi journalist Ram Bahadur Rai has been chosen for Padma Shri.

Hindu religious leader Jagadguru Ramanandacharya Swami Rambhadracharya (Padma Vibhushan), Swami Satyamitranand Giri (Padma Bhushan), both from Uttar Pradesh, Shivakumara Swami of Karnataka (Padma Bhushan) and Jagat Guru Amrta Suryananda Maha Raja of Portugal (Padma Shri) and former NCERT Director J S Rajput (Padma Shri) also figure in today's list.

Late Dawoodi Bohra leader Syedna Mohammad Burhanuddin has been chosen for Padma Shri. Eminent Carnatic musician Sudha Ragunathan, wrestling coach Satpal, Assamese filmmaker Jahnu Barua, David Frawley (Vamadeva) of the United States, Saichiro Misumi of Japan, scientist S Arunan find themselves in the Padma Bhushan list.

Filmmaker Sanjay Leela Bhansali, economist Bibek Debroy, lyricist Prasoon Joshi, who helped BJP's Lok Sabha campaign,
sports personality Saba Anjum, one of the founders of Infosys T V Mohandas Pai, badminton player P V Sindhu, woman cricketer Mithali Raj, Gujarati writer Tarak Mehta were given Padma Shri.

Cartoonist Pran Kumar Sharma, who was best known as the creator of Chacha Chaudhary has been selected for Padma Shri
posthumously.

Badminton star Saina Nehwal and boxer Vijendra Singh, who sought Padma awards have been ignored. The award will be given at a function later in the year.

Following is the list of the 104 persons conferred Padma Awards. These include nine Padma Vibhushan, 20 Padma Bhushan and 75 Padma Shri awardees.

Padma Vibhushan

Name (Discipline) State/Country

LK Advani (Public Affairs), Gujarat
Amitabh Bachchan (Art), Maharashtra
Prakash Singh Badal (Public Affairs), Punjab
Dr D Veerendra Heggade (Social Work), Karnataka
Dilip Kumar (Art), Maharashtra
Jagadguru Rambhadracharya (Others), Uttar Pradesh
Prof Malur Ramaswamy Srinivasan (Science and Engg), Tamil Nadu
Kottayan K Venugopal (Public Affairs), Delhi
Karim Al Hussaini Aga Khan (Trade and Industry) France/UK

Padma Bhushan

Jahnu Barua (Art), Assam
Dr Vijay Bhatkar (Science and Engineering), Maharashtra
Swapan Dasgupta (Literature and Education), Delhi
Swami Satyamitranand Giri (Others), Uttar Pradesh
N Gopalaswami (Civil Service), Tamil Nadu
Dr Subhash C Kashyap (Public Affairs), Delhi
Dr (Pandit) Gokulotsavji Maharaj (Art), Madhya Pradesh
Dr Ambrish Mithal (Medicine), Delhi
Sudha Ragunathan (Art), Tamil Nadu
Harish Salve (Public Affairs), Delhi
Dr Ashok Seth (Medicine), Delhi
Rajat Sharma (Literature and Education), Delhi
Satpal (Sports), Delhi
Shivakumara Swami (Others), Karnataka
Dr Kharag Singh Valdiya (Science and Engg), Karnataka
Prof Manjul Bhargava (Science and Engg), USA
David Frawley (Others), USA
Bill Gates (Social Work), USA
Melinda Gates (Social Work), USA
Saichiro Misumi (Others), Japan

Padma Shri

Dr Manjula Anagani (Medicine), Telangana
S Arunan (Science and Engg), Karnataka
Kanyakumari Avasarala (Art), Tamil Nadu
Dr Bettina Sharada Baumer (Literature and Education), J-K
Naresh Bedi (Art), Delhi
Ashok Bhagat (Social Work), Jharkhand
Sanjay Leela Bhansali (Art), Maharashtra
Dr Lakshmi Nandan Bora (Literature and Education), Assam
Dr Gyan Chaturvedi (Literature and Education), Madhya Pradesh
Prof (Dr) Yogesh Kumar Chawla (Medicine), Chandigarh
Jayakumari Chikkala (Medicine), Delhi
Bibek Debroy (Literature and Education), Delhi
Dr Sarungbam Bimola Kumari Devi (Medicine), Manipur
Dr Ashok Gulati (Public Affairs), Delhi
Dr Randeep Guleria (Medicine), Delhi
Dr KP Haridas (Medicine), Kerala
Rahul Jain (Art), Delhi
Ravindra Jain (Art), Maharashtra
Dr Sunil Jogi (Literature and Education), Delhi
Prasoon Joshi (Art), Maharashtra
Dr Prafulla Kar (Art), Odisha
Saba Anjum (Sports), Chhattisgarh
Ushakiran Khan (Literature and Education), Bihar
Dr Rajesh Kotecha (Medicine), Rajasthan
Prof Alka Kriplani (Medicine), Delhi
Dr Harsh Kumar (Medicine), Delhi
Narayana Purushothama Mallaya (Literature & Education), Kerala
Lambert Mascarenhas (Literature and Education), Goa
Dr Janak Palta McGilligan (Social Work), Madhya Pradesh
Veerendra Raj Mehta (Social Work), Delhi
Tarak Mehta (Art), Gujarat
Neil Herbert Nongkynrih (Art), Meghalaya
Chewang Norphel (Others), Jammu and Kashmir
T V Mohandas Pai (Trade and Industry), Karnataka
Dr Tejas Patel (Medicine), Gujarat
Jadav Molai Peyang (Others), Assam
Bimla Poddar (Others), Uttar Pradesh
Dr N Prabhakar (Science and Engg), Delhi
Dr Prahalada (Science and Engg), Maharashtra
Dr Narendra Prasad (Medicine), Bihar
Ram Bahadur Rai (Literature and Education), Delhi
Mithali Raj (Sports), Telangana
PV Rajaraman (Civil Service), Tamil Nadu
Prof JS Rajput (Literature and Education), Uttar Pradesh
Kota Srinivasa Rao (Art), Andhra Pradesh
Prof Bimal Roy (Literature and Education), West Bengal
Shekhar Sen (Art), Maharashtra
Gunvant Shah (Literature and Education), Gujarat
Brahmdev Sharma (Literature and Education), Delhi
Manu Sharma (Literature and Education), Uttar Pradesh
Prof Yog Raj Sharma (Medicine), Delhi
Vasant Shastri (Science and Engg), Karnataka
S K Shivkumar (Science and Engg), Karnataka
PV Sindhu (Sports), Telangana
Sardara Singh (Sports), Haryana
Arunima Sinha (Sports), Uttar Pradesh
Mahesh Raj Soni (Art), Rajasthan
Dr Nikhil Tandon (Medicine), Delhi
H Thegtse Rinpoche (Social Work), Arunachal Pradesh
Dr Hargovind Laxmishanker Trivedi (Medicine), Gujarat
Huang Baosheng (Others), China
Prof Jacques Blamont (Science and Engg), France
Late Syedna Mohammad Burhanuddin (Others), Maharashtra
(Posthumous)
Jean-Claude Carriere (Literature and Education), France
Dr Nandrajan 'Raj' Chetty (Literature and Education), France
George L Hart (Others), USA
Jagat Guru Amrta Suryananda Maha Raja (Others), Portugal
Late Meetha Lal Mehta (Social Work), Rajasthan (Posthumous)
Tripti Mukherjee (Art), USA
Dr Dattatreyudu Nori (Medicine), USA
Dr Raghu Rama Pillarisetti (Medicine), USA
Dr Saumitra Rawat (Medicine), UK
Prof Annette Schmiedchen (Literature and Education), Germany
Late Pran Kumar Sharma alias Pran (Art), Delhi (Posthumous)
Late R Vasudevan (Civil Service), Tamil Nadu (Posthumous)

PTI

Modi, Obama cheered at Rajpath

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New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi and US President Barack Obama were greeted with loud cheers as they arrived at Rajpath for the Republic Day parade Monday.

Modi arrived at the saluting dais after paying homage to unknown soldiers at the India Gate and was received by Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar.

Modi then waved at the crowd and was greeted with loud cheers.

Obama arrived after him, with wife Michelle Obama, in his official car The Beast and was received by Modi.

As the two moved towards the glass enclosure erected for the VVIPs, Obama also waved at the crowd.

IANS

Mother hangs self after tying son’s body to her

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: A mother was found hanging with her son’s body tied to hers in their house on Friday. The bodies were found have been 3-day old when the police came to cordon off the area.  Meanwhile, Karamana police have taken the husband into custody. The RDO was called in by the police to prepare inquest as the relatives alleged some foul-play in the death.  The dead have been identified as Manju (38) from Karamana Nedungadu and her son Abhishek. Manju’s husband is a habitual drinker. Their marriage took place nine years ago and they had recently shifted to the rented house in Kunnumpuram, according to sources. Renjith has told the police that he left the house on Januray 20 after quarrelling with his wife. A relative also saw Manju on the day for the last time. The couple were staying on the first floor of the two-storey house. The incident came to light when the house owner, who is living in the ground floor, complained to the police after he started getting foul smell from upstairs.  The police suspect the incident to have happened on January 20. “The husband would have seen the bodies of his wife and son but he might not have had the courage to report the matter to the police. Maju must have taken the drastic step due to her husband’s ill treatment,” the police said.

Saudi Arabia King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz dies, new ruler is Salman

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RIYADH: Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah died early on Friday and his brother Salman became king, the royal court in the world's top oil exporter and birthplace of Islam said in a statement carried by state television.

King Salman has named his half-brother Muqrin as his crown prince and heir.

'His Highness Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud and all members of the family and the nation mourn the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz, who passed away at exactly 1am this morning,' said the statement.

Abdullah, thought to have been born in 1923, had ruled Saudi Arabia as king since 2006, but had run the country as de facto regent for a decade before that after his predecessor King Fahd suffered a debilitating stroke.

At stake with the appointment of Salman as king is the future direction of the United States' most important Arab ally and self-appointed champion of Sunni Islam at a moment of unprecedented turmoil across the Middle East.

Abdullah played a guiding role in Saudi Arabia's support for Egypt's government after the military intervened in 2012, and drove his country's support for Syria's rebellion against President Bashar al-Assad.

King Salman, thought to be 79, has been crown prince and defence minister since 2012. He was governor of Riyadh province for five decades before that.

By immediately appointing Muqrin as his heir, subject to the approval of a family Allegiance Council, Salman has moved to avert widespread speculation about the immediate path of the royal succession in the world's top oil exporter.

Long term challenges

Abdullah pushed cautious changes in the conservative Islamic kingdom including increased women's rights and economic deregulation, but made no moves towards democracy and was a hawk on policy towards rival Iran.

King Salman has been part of the ruling clique of princes for decades and is thought likely to continue the main thrusts of Saudi strategic policy, including maintaining the alliance with the United States and working towards energy market stability.

During his five decades as Riyadh governor he was reputedly adept at managing the delicate balance of clerical, tribal and princely interests that determine Saudi policy, while maintaining good relations with the West.

In the long term Saudi rulers have to manage the needs of a rapidly growing population plagued by structural unemployment, and an economy that remains overly dependent on oil revenue and undermined by lavish subsidies.

Saudi Arabia, which holds more than a fifth of the world's crude oil, also exerts some influence over the world's 1.6 billion Muslims through its guardianship of Mecca and Medina, Islam's holiest sites.

Most senior members of the ruling al-Saud family are thought to favour similar positions on foreign and energy policy, but incoming kings have traditionally chosen to appoint new ministers to head top ministries like oil and finance.

In a country where the big ministries are dominated by royals, successive kings have kept the oil portfolio reserved for commoners and insisted on maintaining substantial spare output capacity to help reduce market volatility.

In King Abdullah, we have lost an important voice who left a lasting impact on his country. I condole his demise.Reuters