21 killed in Cambodia bus accident

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Phnom Penh : At least 21 people were killed and several others injured on Tuesday when a passenger bus collided with a truck in Cambodia.

The accident took place at Kampong Ro district in Cambodia's Svay Rieng province, Xinhua news agency reported.

According to police, the two vehicles coming from opposite directions collided head-on.

All the victims were garment factory workers and were travelling in the truck.

Local media Cambodia Express News reported that the passenger bus travelling from Phnom Penh to Vietnam carelessly overtook another car and it led to the collision.

The bus driver was arrested after the accident.

Kozhikode boy wins international Science award

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New York: A Malayalee boy from Kozhikode was among 9 Indian students who won awards in various categories at the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair held in America.

Ravi Pradip, 17, a student of Chathamangalam Dayapuram Residential School, was one of the student who bagged top honours in the fair. Ravi Pradip won third place in Material Sciences for work on 'Plumeria Blooms for Organic Electronics'.

An Indian-American student won the prestigious Intel Foundation Young Scientist Award Friday, while nine students from across India won awards in various categories and five US students were awarded science trips to India at the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair (IISEF) in Pttsburgh.

The IISEF honors the world's most promising high school student scientists, inventors and engineers selected through rigorous competitions held around the world. Many past winners have gone on to win Nobel Prizes and other prestigious awards.

For his work on refining a system to help protect the seas from oil-drilling disasters, Karan Jerath, 18, of Friendswood, Texas, received the $50,000 Young Scientist Award, the second highest prize at the IISEF.

Jerath was also one of the five students selected for the Intel and Indo-US Science and Technology Forum Visit to India Award. They will receive a week long visit to India to showcase their research projects, visit research leading institutions and interact with top scientists.

Onkar Singh Gujral, 18, of La Martiniere for Boys in Kolkata, won the Association of Computing Machinery first award and the second award in the System software category for his entry on image processing algorithms for detecting nanomaterials.

The other Indian winners came from Delhi, Kozhikode, Mangalore and Panipat.

An Indian-American foundation, gave ten awards at the Fair. Sanjana J Rane, 17, of Louisville, Kentucky, received the first award for work relating to renal fibrosis from the Ashtavadhani Vidwan Ambati Subbaraya Chetty Foundation based in Georgia. Five American students of Indian descent were among those who received the foundations second awards.

About 1,700 students who participated at the IISEF in Pittsburgh were the top performers at 422 affiliated fairs held in 75 countries. At the IISEF their projects went through rigorous evaluations by about 1,000 judges with PhDs or equivalent qualifications from across scientific disciplines.

Seventeen students from India were selected for the IISEF from the National Science Fair held by Initiative for Research and Innovation in Science.

Maya Ajmera, who is Indian descent and heads the Society for Science and the Public that conducts the IISEF, congratulated the winners and said, 'These talented young students are the problem solvers and innovators of their generation.'

The top prize, the $75,000 Gordon E Moore Award, went to Raymond Wang, 17, of Canada.

Scores of Indian American students won awards in various categories, five of them getting the first award in their specialisations, biochemistry, behavioral sciences, environmental engineering, mathematics and energy physics.

More than 200 Indian American students were among the finalists at the IISEF, having won regional competitions across the US. In addition, students of Indian descent came from South Africa, Malaysia and Singapore.

These are the other winners from schools in India:

Mansi Aggarwal, 17, and Harshit Jindal, 14, of Maharaja Agarsain Public School, Delhi: Fourth Award in Plant Sciences category for research on 'An Effective Herbal Ointment against Enterobiasis'

Ravi Pradip, 17, of Dayapuram Residential School, Kozhikode, Kerala: Third Place in Material Sciences for work on 'Plumeria Blooms for Organic Electronics'

Arsh Shah Dilbagi, 17, of DAV Public School, Panipat, Haryana, Third Award in Embedded Systems category for developing 'TALK-An AAC Device: Converting Breath into Speech for the Disabled'

Mansi Aggarwal, 17, and Harshit Jindal, 14, of Maharaja Agarsain Public School, Delhi: Fourth Award in Plant Sciences category for research on 'An Effective Herbal Ointment against Enterobiasis'

Aditya Bhargava, 16, and Komal S, 16, of Sharada Vidyanikethana Public School, Mangalore, Karnataka: Fourth Award in Material Sciences for work on 'Highly Sensitive Nano-Ferrite for Detection of Carbon Monoxide in Air'

Petrol price hiked by Rs 3.13 per litre, diesel by Rs 2.71

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New Delhi: Petrol price was on Friday hiked by Rs 3.13 per litre and diesel by Rs 2.71 per litre - the second straight steep increase in rates this month.

The raise, which comes on the back of increases of Rs 3.96 per litre and Rs 2.37 a litre in petrol and diesel, respectively, from May 1, will be effective from the midnight of May 15 and May 16.

Petrol price in Delhi will be Rs 66.29 a litre from Saturday as against the current Rs 63.16 while diesel will cost Rs 52.28 per litre as against Rs 49.57, Indian Oil Corp (IOC) said.

The two consecutive hikes have wiped away more than one-third of the gains that had accrued to consumers when global rates began to fall in August last year.

'Since last price change (effective May 1), there has been a steep increase in international prices of both petrol and diesel. Rupee-US dollar exchange rate has also depreciated quite significantly during this period.'

'Combined impact of both these factors warrant an upward revision in prices, the impact of which is being passed on to consumers with this price increase,' IOC, the nation's largest oil retailer, said in a statement.

State-owned fuel retailers IOC, Bharat Petroleum Corp (BPCL) and Hindustan Petroleum Corp (HPCL) revise petrol and diesel prices on the 1st and 16th of every month based on average import cost and rupee-dollar exchange rate in the previous fortnight.

The price of petrol has been cumulatively cut by Rs 17.11 a litre in 10 reductions between August and February while that of diesel has been lowered by Rs 12.96 a litre in 6 reductions between October and February.

After two rates hikes (0.82 a litre in petrol and Rs 0.61 per litre in diesel on February 16, and Rs 3.18 per litre in petrol and Rs 3.09 a litre in diesel on March 1), rates were again cut on April 2 (49 paise a litre in petrol and Rs 1.21 in diesel) and then on April 16 (80 paise per litre on petrol and Rs 1.30 a litre on diesel).

'The movement of prices in international oil market and rupee-dollar exchange rate shall continue to be closely monitored and developing trends of the market will be reflected in future price changes,' IOC said.

PTI

Boston bomber Tsarnaev sentenced to death

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Washington: A US federal jury in Boston on Friday sentenced 21-year-old Dzhokhar Tsarnaev to death for his role in the 2013 Boston marathon bombing attacks and the killing of a police officer when on the run, media reported on Saturday.

The federal jury unanimously chose death by lethal injection for Tsarnaev, a Kyrgyzstan-born US citizen, over the only other option: life in prison without possibility of release, Xinhua news agency reported.

The same panel of seven women and five men convicted Tsarnaev last month of all 30 charges against him, including 17 counts that carried the death penalty.

Tsarnaev had no expression as a court clerk read the verdict sentencing him to death, local media The Boston Globe reported.

 

The sentence came down exactly 25 months after the April 15, 2013 bombings, one of the bloodiest attacks in America since the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks.

Tsarnaev was 19 when carried out a twin deadly bombings with his older brother Tamerlan Tsarnaev at the crowded finishing line at the signature event of Boston Marathon.

Three people were killed in the bombings and 264 more were severely injured.

IANS

Modi invites top Chinese CEOs to Make in India

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Shanghai: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday met top Chinese CEOs, including Alibaba's Jack Ma, and invited them to participate in the Make in India initiative.

'I have come to say to you Make in India,' Modi told the CEOs, according to a tweet by external affairs ministry spokesperson Vikas Swarup.

'India and China can together give something to the world,' Modi told the businesspersons, according to the MEA tweet.

'We are excited about India. We are excited about Make in India and Digital India.' Jack Ma of Alibaba to PM Modi, said the MEA tweet.

'We are full of hope about India, which offers a dynamic work force and huge market '. Liang Wengen, Chairman SANY,' said another tweet.

Modi invited them to participate in the ''5F Formula - From Farm to Fibre to Fabric to Fashion to Foreign', the MEA tweet said.

'We have some big plans for India, We fully support Make in India,' President of Xiaomi Lin Bin to PM, the tweet said.

'Harbin Electric would like to bring more light to India, take advantage of Make in India,' said CEO Mr. Zou Lei to PM, said the MEA tweet.

Other participants of the meeting with the prime minister included the CEOs of Huawei, Shanghai Urban,Shanghai is the last leg of the prime minister's visit after which he will leave for Mongolia.

IANS

Madani will be brought to Kerala only on Sunday

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Bengaluru: PDP chairman Abdul Nassar Madani, the prime accused in 2008 Bangalore serial bomb blast case, will be brought to Kerala only on Sunday. The decision was taken in order to strengthen his security.

The Supreme Court had on Friday given permission to Madani for 5 days to visit his ailing mother who is undergoing treatment at the Thiruvananthapuram RCC and also his paralytic father.

Madani is currently undergoing treatment at Sahaya Holistic Integrative Hospital in Bengaluru after he was granted permission on health grounds. He will be taking the air route.

Since the SC instructed the Karnataka police to ensure security for Madani when he visits Kerala, police personnel from the state will be assisting him. This is Madani's second visit to Kerala following his arrest in the Bangalore blast case. Earlier, he was granted bail for attending his daughter's wedding.

Thiruvananthapuram: Some 5,17,633 candidates will write an exam conducted by the Kerala Public Service Commission at 2,121 centres across the state on Saturday.
There are 1,500 vacancies for the most sought after 'secretariat assistant' post in the state secretariat, the seat of the Kerala government. It is often considered as the 'dream job' for every Keralite. The examination begins at 2 p.m. and ends at 3.15 p.m. There are around 100 questions in an optical mark recognition (OMR) sheet. The questions are multiple-choice and candidates have to select the best possible answer from four choices.
The maximum age limit for candidates appearing for this exam is 37 in the general category and the minimum eligibility is graduation.
The examination is held once in two years.
"I wrote this examination two years ago but was unsuccessful. I hope that I pass this time," said Ann John, a home maker and government job aspirant.
- See more at: http://www.madhyamam.com/en/kerala/2015/may/16/over-five-lakh-candidates-1500-secretariat-assistant-posts#sthash.R6zgoDGQ.dpuf

Thiruvananthapuram: Some 5,17,633 candidates will write an exam conducted by the Kerala Public Service Commission at 2,121 centres across the state on Saturday.
There are 1,500 vacancies for the most sought after 'secretariat assistant' post in the state secretariat, the seat of the Kerala government. It is often considered as the 'dream job' for every Keralite. The examination begins at 2 p.m. and ends at 3.15 p.m. There are around 100 questions in an optical mark recognition (OMR) sheet. The questions are multiple-choice and candidates have to select the best possible answer from four choices.
The maximum age limit for candidates appearing for this exam is 37 in the general category and the minimum eligibility is graduation.
The examination is held once in two years.
"I wrote this examination two years ago but was unsuccessful. I hope that I pass this time," said Ann John, a home maker and government job aspirant.
- See more at: http://www.madhyamam.com/en/kerala/2015/may/16/over-five-lakh-candidates-1500-secretariat-assistant-posts#sthash.R6zgoDGQ.dpuf

Thiruvananthapuram: Some 5,17,633 candidates will write an exam conducted by the Kerala Public Service Commission at 2,121 centres across the state on Saturday.
There are 1,500 vacancies for the most sought after 'secretariat assistant' post in the state secretariat, the seat of the Kerala government. It is often considered as the 'dream job' for every Keralite. The examination begins at 2 p.m. and ends at 3.15 p.m. There are around 100 questions in an optical mark recognition (OMR) sheet. The questions are multiple-choice and candidates have to select the best possible answer from four choices.
The maximum age limit for candidates appearing for this exam is 37 in the general category and the minimum eligibility is graduation.
The examination is held once in two years.
"I wrote this examination two years ago but was unsuccessful. I hope that I pass this time," said Ann John, a home maker and government job aspirant.
- See more at: http://www.madhyamam.com/en/kerala/2015/may/16/over-five-lakh-candidates-1500-secretariat-assistant-posts#sthash.R6zgoDGQ.dpuf

Thiruvananthapuram: Some 5,17,633 candidates will write an exam conducted by the Kerala Public Service Commission at 2,121 centres across the state on Saturday.
There are 1,500 vacancies for the most sought after 'secretariat assistant' post in the state secretariat, the seat of the Kerala government. It is often considered as the 'dream job' for every Keralite. The examination begins at 2 p.m. and ends at 3.15 p.m. There are around 100 questions in an optical mark recognition (OMR) sheet. The questions are multiple-choice and candidates have to select the best possible answer from four choices.
The maximum age limit for candidates appearing for this exam is 37 in the general category and the minimum eligibility is graduation.
The examination is held once in two years.
"I wrote this examination two years ago but was unsuccessful. I hope that I pass this time," said Ann John, a home maker and government job aspirant.
- See more at: http://www.madhyamam.com/en/kerala/2015/may/16/over-five-lakh-candidates-1500-secretariat-assistant-posts#sthash.R6zgoDGQ.dpuf

India, China sign 24 key agreements

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BEIJING: India and China Friday signed a record 24 agreements in key sectors, including in railways and education, on day two of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's first visit to the communist neighbour.
Protocol for setting up Consulates-General at Chengdu and Chennai besides an MoU on consultative mechanism for cooperation in trade negotiations were among the 24 agreements signed in the presence of Modi and his Chinese counterpart Li Keqiang here.
An action plan between the Indian Railways and China National Railways on enhancing cooperation in the railway sector was also signed.
"Today, we have signed over 20 agreements, covering diverse areas of cooperation. This shows the depth and maturity of our relationship and the positive direction of our partnership," Modi said in his address.
"Our decision to open consulates in Chengdu and Chennai reflects growing mutual confidence and shared commitment to expand relations," he added.
An MoU on education exchange programme and 'Space Cooperation Outline' were also signed.
Other key agreements are on developing China India think tanks, maritime cooperation and ocean sciences.
Four agreements were signed on sister-state and sister city relations between Karnataka and Sichuan province; Chennai and Chongqing; Hyderabad and Qingdao; and Aurangabad and Dunhuang.
An agreement on setting up a Mahatma Gandhi skill centre in Ahmedabad was also signed besides a broadcast tie-up for Doordarshan and China's state-run CCTV.
Agreements on education exchange programme, on mining and minerals, skill development, tourism and vocational education also figured on the list.
Two MoUs between Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR) and Yunnan Minzu University and another with Fudan University were signed on the establishment of a Yoga college and centre for Gandhian and Indian studies, respectively.

Plea for spectrum term extension dismissed by Supreme Court

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New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Thursday dismissed the petitions filed by a host of telecom operators, seeking an extension of their existing licences for spectrum, or airwaves, for various service areas across the country.

'We see no merit in these appeals and writ petitions. Therefore, all the appeals and writ petitions are dismissed,' said the judgement of a bench of Justices J. Chelameswar and R.K. Agrawal, dismissing the clutch of petitions on similar lines.

The telecom companies, like Bharti Airtel, Idea, Vodafone and Reliance, had moved the court seeking extension of their licences in different circles, which are about to expire. They contended that under the terms of contract, they had a right to have their claim for extension considered.

In December this year, seven licences each of Idea Cellular and Reliance Communications, four licences of Bharti Airtel and six licences of Vodafone were set complete their 20-year term after which they hoped to have them renewed. In total, there are 29 licences in 18 service areas, set to expire this fiscal.

The telecom operators maintained that the government was neither entitled to, nor justified, in calling upon them to take part in the recent auction for spectrum and obtain the necessary airwaves to offer their services in their respective licences.

Such a decision of the government violated their contractual rights, telecom companies had contended, adding that under the terms of licence, they were entitled to seek an extension but not a 'renewal' of the licence.

The telecom companies had said that word 'extension' in the licence confers a higher right than the right to seek a renewal.

While agreeing with the telecom companies that the licence granted to them under Section 4 of the Indian Telegraph Act, 1885 was a 'contract' between the them and the government, the apex court referred to an earlier judgment in 2G matter.

This verdict had said that this was clearly a matter of an economic policy, entailing an intricate economic choice and the court lacked the necessary expertise to make such choice.

The apex court also referred to some relevant clauses of the licences. 'It is clear that the licencees have no automatic right of renewal/extension on the expiry of the original tenure of the license,' it observed.

'The contract only provided for extension of the period of license at the sole discretion of the licensor subject to the condition that the LICENSEE makes an application seeking an extension during the 19th year of the currency of the licence.'

Having said this, the court said it appeared that all of the licencsees did make such an application. It also said this while examining the question: What are the obligations of the licensor (the government) on receipt of such an application?

The obligations of the licensor flow from two sources -- from the contract, and from the Constitution of India and the relevant provisions of the Indian Telegraph Act, 1885.

In the event of any conflict between the said two sets of obligations, the further question would be which one of the conflicting obligations prevail?

FIR filed against IIPM founder

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New Delhi: Delhi Police have registered an FIR against Arindam Chaudhuri, founder of Indian Institute of Planning and Management (IIPM), on the basis of a complaint by the University Grants Commission of 'misleading, cheating and fooling' its students as its courses were not recognised by any recognised authority.

'We have registered an FIR under Section 420 of IPC against IIPM Dean Arindam Choudhari and his father Malayendra Kisor Chaudhuri, who is a Director, based on the UGC complaint. We are probing the matter,' Joint CP (Crime) Ravindra Yadav said.

A notice has been sent to both of them to join the investigation, police said. IIPM, however, has questioned the UGC complaint and said the institute was not cheating its students. The UGC, in its complaint, has said that despite the fact its courses are not authorised, the institute was 'fooling' the students by charging a hefty fee from them.

Chaudhari said in a statement it was sad that some sections of the media have decided to pick up a case that was 6 months old and wondered how this could amount to cheating.

'UGC and AICTE keep themselves in news by targeting IIPM with their lies because we have stayed consciously out of their purview and accused them of massive corruption', he said.

'We have never claimed that the institute is recognised by any statutory body nor have we claimed we give degrees. We give certificates and write clearly everywhere that 'students interested in de jure recognition of IIPM's programmes need not apply to IIPM! Its written clearly since 1970s in our prospectus and in our websites since it came into effect,' the IIPM dean also said.

'We have been cooperating with the police ever since the first notice came and will continue to do so as law abiding citizens,' he added.

PTI

No need to switch off your smartphone at night

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New York: If you often switch off your smartphone at night to give it some rest do remember that such 'rest periods' don't do any good to your cell phone.

'I would say that shutting down your phone at night isn't something that necessarily falls under routine maintenance,' observes iFixit founder Kyle Wiens, a technology expert.

According to Wiens, shutting your smartphone off won't necessarily help save your battery.

'Batteries in phones have a finite lifespan -- the more that you use them, the faster that battery wears out,' he says.

In general, smartphone batteries have a life of between 300 to 500 full-charge to fully-discharged cycles. And even if you only use a fraction of your phone's battery and then recharge it to 100 percent, that still counts towards a full cycle.

'If you wear your battery down 50 percent then charge it back up, that's half a cycle,' says Wiens.

Powering down your smartphone at night won't help preserve the battery, since it's unlikely that you would be using the device at that time, anyhow.

'It comes to how hard you use your phone,' says Wiens. For instance, if you're constantly streaming music, watching videos, or using it as a Global Positioning System (GPS) device while mounted on a car's sun-soaked dashboard (heat kills batteries too), your phone's power won't last very long.

Instead, what you can do, advises Wien, is periodically drain your battery to zero percent and let your smartphone die.

'If you run your battery all the way down to zero every once in a while -- once a year is fine -- it makes the percentage count,' says the tech expert.

IANS