India announces $2.5-mn aid to help poor nations combat climate change -

________ A to Z kerala .......... [kvk] [www.atozkerala.in , www.atozkerala.blogspot.com]

Valletta (Malta):  Joining a select group of countries, India Sunday said it will provide $2.5 million for the vulnerable nations in the Commonwealth to help them introduce clean energy and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

The announcement was made on the second day of the biennial summit of the Commonwealth whose membership includes powerful countries like Britain, Australia, Canada, Singapore and small island nations such the Maldives, Tonga and Nauru.

“India has announced $2.5 million for the Commonwealth small states trade finance facility. As you are aware, Commonwealth has 31 small states as its members out of the 53 countries and trade finance is very important to them,” External Affairs Ministry Spokesperson Vikas Swarup said.

The 24th Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting here deliberated extensively on combating climate change and a number of nations pledged their financial assistance to vulnerable countries ahead of the UN Climate Change conference in Paris beginning tomorrow.

India has been pushing for the rich nations to deliver “climate justice” for developing countries while insisting that commitment of the rich nations towards small islands and poor countries must go beyond the current level.

External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj represented India at the summit which was attended by heads of state and government of around 30 countries.

A number of countries, including Canada, Britain and Australia, have pledged nearly $2.5 billion to help the poor countries fight global warming.

Maltese Prime Minister Joseph Muscat unveiled a $1-billion Commonwealth Green Finance Facility to support environmental projects in the poor countries of the bloc.

Separately, the UK has committed £21 million for disaster management and £5.5 million for the ocean-based economy. Australia has committed $1 million for a new Commonwealth idea — a Climate Finance Access Hub.

Canada has pledged $2 billion assistance to help poor countries limiting greenhouse gas emission.

Earlier, the Commonwealth and the Governments of India, Malta, Mauritius and Sri Lanka announced the new trade financing fund to help boost trade and investment flows in small countries.

The voluntary fund is aimed at attracting a start-up capital of $20 million. It will provide member countries facing trade challenges with the finance they need to increase their trade capacity.

“We are acting as facilitators so small traders in small jurisdictions can penetrate new markets. We are very keen to create necessary trade infrastructure for ourselves and other small Commonwealth countries,” said Prime Minister Muscat.

The fund will seek to stimulate lending by major banks to smaller banks in member states and reduce risk. Financial investment will be sought from member countries and other parties that have expressed an interest in participating.

Three boys drown in Bharathapuzha at Thrissur

________ A to Z kerala .......... [kvk] [www.atozkerala.in , www.atozkerala.blogspot.com]
The three _ Mehboob, Akash and Niyas _ of Kattuvattoor are students of Deshamangalam Govt School.

Photo: Subin Cheruthuruthy

Thrissur: Three boys drowned while taking bath in Bhartahapuzha at Desamangalam in Thrissur on Sunday afternoon.  

Mehboob, Akash and Niyas _ all the three belonging to Kattuvattoor _ are students of Deshamangalam Govt School.

The three stepped into the river near the irrigation pump at Kalakkal. Local residents say a male teacher assisted them.

The bodies, caught in the under current, were found half km down the river.

Woman awarded life term for killing lover

________ A to Z kerala .......... [kvk] [www.atozkerala.in , www.atozkerala.blogspot.com]
Mavelikkara Additional Sessions Court Judge Muhammad Wasim sentenced Mishya (43) of Raj Nivas in Krishnapuram on charges of killing Sanalkumar of Chalil Veedu in Neendakara, Kollam.

Mavelikkara: A woman, who killed her lover by offering cyanide-laced soft drink, was awarded life term and a penalty of Rs 2 lakh.

Mavelikkara Additional Sessions Court Judge Muhammad Wasim sentenced Mishya (43) of Raj Nivas in Krishnapuram on charges of killing Sanalkumar of Chalil Veedu in Neendakara, Kollam.

The order wants the penalty of Rs 2 lakh be handed over to Sanalkumar’s wife Swapna. If Mishya fails to remit the fine, she would have to spend two more years in jail, it added.

The incident related to the case occurred on May 3, 2010. Sanalkumar had maintained a relationship with Mishya. Against her wish, Sanalkumar married Swapna, a native of Nilambur, in 2009 and settled in Goa.

On knowing that Sanalkumar has returned to his native place, Mishya invited him to her home and offered soft drink laced with cyanide. Sanalkumar drank and it later died inside the house.

Since the case lacked witnesses, the court found her guilty on the basis of circumstantial evidences. The food samples collected from the kitchen tested positive for hydrocyanic acid. The Kayamkulam police recovered Sanlkumar’s wrist watch and phone from the house while his two-wheeler and footwear were found in the porch.

Public prosecutor Adv Sam Varghese represented the prosecution.

Voice tone can predict your divorce risk

________ A to Z kerala .......... [kvk] [www.atozkerala.in , www.atozkerala.blogspot.com]
Researchers recorded hundreds of conversations from over one hundred couples taken during marriage therapy sessions over two years, and then tracked their marital status for five years.

Washington D.C: Words can deceive, but tone of voice cannot as a new study has suggested that voice tone analyses of therapy sessions can accurately predict marital success.

A new computer algorithm can predict whether you and your spouse will have an improved or worsened relationship based on the tone of voice that you use when speaking to each other with nearly 79 percent accuracy.

In fact, the algorithm did a better job of predicting marital success of couples with serious marital issues than descriptions of the therapy sessions provided by relationship experts.

Researchers recorded hundreds of conversations from over one hundred couples taken during marriage therapy sessions over two years, and then tracked their marital status for five years.

"What you say is not the only thing that matters; it's very important how you say it. Our study confirms that it holds for a couple's relationship as well," researcher Md Nasir said.

Psychological practitioners and researchers have long known that the way that partners talk about and discuss problems has important implications for the health of their relationships. However, the lack of efficient and reliable tools for measuring the important elements in those conversations has been a major impediment in their widespread clinical use. These findings represent a major step forward in making objective measurement of behavior practical and feasible for couple therapists, Brian Baucom said.

Online sex racket: Top official in Home Ministry involved, says accused

________ A to Z kerala .......... [kvk] [www.atozkerala.in , www.atozkerala.blogspot.com]
Akbar, an accused in the online sex racket case said Sunday that a top official in the home ministry was also involved in the online sex racket.

Kochi: Akbar, an accused in the online sex racket case said Sunday that a top official in the home ministry was also involved in the online sex racket. 

"Innocent people like us were arrested because of this reason," Akbar said.

Akbar told mediapersons that he had all the necessary evidence and he will submit it to the court during the judicial investigation.

The police have taken the accused in the case to the hotel in Nedumbassery to collect evidence. 

Panayikkulam SIMI camp case: five found guilty

________ A to Z kerala .......... [kvk] [www.atozkerala.in , www.atozkerala.blogspot.com]

UAPA has been imposed against the first, second and third accused.

+

Kochi: Five accused in the Panayikkulam SIMI camp case have been found guilty by the NIA court in Kochi. P A Shaduli, Abdul Rasique, Ansar, Nizamuddin, and Shameem -- first to fifth accused -- are the guilty.
UAPA has been imposed against the first, second and third accused. The quantum of punishment for the five accused will be pronounced on Thursday.
Eleven accused were acquitted. There were total 17 accused in the case. One of them, Rasheed Moulavi, was made approver by the prosecution.
Conspiracy and treason charges have been proved against the accused.
According to the charge sheet, the accused, members of the banned SIMI, held a secret meeting at Panayikkulam near Aluva on August 15, 2006, with the aims of reviving the goals of the organisation and trying to turn India into a Muslim country by working against the government. It also said that the accused were enemies of the state and were engaged in extremist activities to free Kashmir.
The NIA took over investigation into the case in January as per the order of the Union Home Department.

Abu Dhabi scientists to research why diabetes is so prevalent in Emiratis

________ A to Z kerala .......... [kvk] [www.atozkerala.in , www.atozkerala.blogspot.com]

Dr Nader Lessan, consultant endocrinologist with ICLDC, says diabetes is in part independent of lifestyle and other factors behind obesity in the UAE. Courtesy Imperial College London Diabetes Centre

Scientists are stepping up efforts to discover why a high number of Emiratis suffer from diabetes.
A doctor is being recruited to begin a three-year research project and join existing researchers at the Imperial College London Diabetes Centre (ICLDC) in Abu Dhabi, with further researchers – including Emiratis – to be brought on board. They are also aiming to identify individuals at risk so they can receive the appropriate treatment.
“There’s a high level of obesity and, beyond that, the level of diabetes in the UAE is very high and we don’t really understand why that is,” said Dr Kevin Murphy, a reader in endocrinology at Imperial College London helping to coordinate the work.
“The overarching theme of the project is: ‘Can we understand the causes of diabetes and the best way of treating it?’”
According to Dr Nader Lessan, an ICLDC consultant endocrinologist, the “diabetes epidemic” in the UAE is “at least in part independent of the lifestyle and other factors driving the obesity epidemic”.
The new researcher, who will work towards a PhD, will continue work already begun that involves identifying biological characteristics, or “biomarkers”, that predict who, among those who are diabetic, is more likely to develop complications such as heart disease, or kidney or eye problems.
Also supervising the work will be Dr Amir Sam, a senior lecturer and consultant endocrinologist at Imperial College London. In a diabetes clinic there might be two patients of the same weight, he said, yet one will often develop more complications than the other.
“It would be very useful to have a test that helps to predict who is going to get these complications, so you can target treatments,” Dr Sam said.
The amount of fat in the liver is one variable thought to help predict who will face problems caused by diabetes. The team is developing a simple blood test for the amount of fat in the liver. This would be many times cheaper than the scans currently used.
Initial results of this research have recently been published and further data on the utility of this test in patients with diabetes will be presented at a conference in the United States next year, but Dr Sam said it still needed to be tested on a larger number of patients.
The work in Abu Dhabi will also focus on what genetic factors correlate with an increased risk of diabetes, which might in turn help uncover why the rate of the condition is high among Emiratis. The new doctorate student will be the second to work at the ICLDC, which opened in 2006. About 35 doctors and scientists from around the world applied for the position.
“We expect further doctorate positions to be offered by Imperial College London and the ICLDC over the next few months. Two of these are expected to be filled by Emirati candidates,” Dr Lessan said.
He said that future work would focus on specific patient groups, including those “at the extreme of obesity”. As the research effort grows, the number of patients involved is likely to increase by several hundred each year and could ultimately reach 2,000, more than 90 per cent of them expected to be Emirati. Most will have just a single blood test but some may undergo additional assessments.
“When they come back we can take additional samples. One of the things that is helpful is you can see how things change,” Dr Murphy said.
Assessments of individuals over time should indicate whether the biomarkers being looked at can predict problems before they develop.
Using biomarkers can lead to improvements in treatment more quickly than would be the case if a drug was being developed.
A reliable biomarker could take about five years to introduce, while drugs typically take 10 to 20 years to develop.
If a patient’s biomarkers indicate he or she is less at risk of developing problems, that individual might not, for example, need to be assessed for another year. If it suggests they are more vulnerable, their doctor might recommend more regular checks.

Europe’s Schengen zone called into question after Paris attacks

________ A to Z kerala .......... [kvk] [www.atozkerala.in , www.atozkerala.blogspot.com]

The terror attacks in Paris and the influx of hundreds of thousands of refugees have European leaders looking to increase control over their borders, calling into question the continued existence of the Schengen zone.

The 26-nation area within Europe has no passport checks or other controls between its internal borders, allowing travellers to move across countries with ease.
But this Friday, interior ministers from European Union states meet in Brussels to discuss the future of the zone, with France pushing for tighter border controls. This could see Schengen, a historic attempt at a unified Europe with free movement of people and goods, effectively disbanded after only two decades of existence.
The agreement, named for the town in Luxembourg where it was signed, was implemented in 1995. It applies to an area stretching from Finland all the way to Hungary on Europe’s southern frontiers. Greece is also a member, though it is separated from the rest of the countries by the Balkans.
In May, Emirati citizens were granted a visa waiver for Schengen countries, making the UAE the first Arab country to be granted free entry to the zone. Dozens of flights leave Abu Dhabi and Dubai every day for Schengen countries from which UAE citizens and eligible residents can freely travel across most of Europe for 90 days in any 190-day period.
Being able to travel without the hassle and delays of border controls through most of the European Union (Britain and Ireland are not Schengen members) benefits not only tourists, but also the spirit of economic cooperation that the EU aims to promote. Lorries transporting goods save precious hours by avoiding border controls, as do businesspeople travelling overland from Berlin to Warsaw, for example.
As the numbers of people fleeing conflict, political oppression and a lack of economic opportunities increased over the past year, many European countries have moved to reintroduce border controls. This is an attempt by authorities to both organise the flow of refugees and to also understand who is entering their territory.
Such measures are understandable, all the more so after 129 people were killed in multiple terror attacks in Paris on November 13 that were claimed by ISIL. For months, there were fears that ISIL militants would hide themselves among refugees to travel to Europe and carry out attacks. Initial reports suggested that one of the Paris attackers was a refugee, but it was later reported that the passport found near his dead body was fake, leaving his true identity unknown. Most of the individuals involved in the attack were identified as European citizens.
Refugees fleeing to Europe instead of moving to ISIL-controlled territory is a significant repudiation of the group’s rule. ISIL has every reason to want European citizens to fear the refugees. The return of border controls across Europe over fears caused by the influx of refugees would be exactly the kind of victory ISIL aims to achieve.
Security concerns must be taken into account. French president Francois Hollande, who is demanding stricter controls following the attacks in Paris, aims to protect his country’s citizens. The Schengen agreement also allows for the reintroduction of border controls during emergencies.
However, any long-term curtailing of Schengen is a blow to the international community. The successful effort at free movement and economic cooperation among different nationalities, cultures and languages is an example for other unions of countries, including the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC).
“The big question is whether Schengen will be formally abolished, or if countries will begin to opt out from it,” the geopolitical risk firm Stratfor said in an analysis following the Paris attacks.
“The concept of a Europe without borders has become very difficult for governments to defend.”
At the moment, several Schengen countries, including Germany, France and Sweden, have re-established border controls. At the least, a revision to the agreement appears likely to follow the meeting in Brussels on Friday.
This would come not just at a time when great numbers of refugees are coming to Europe from the Middle East, but also when right-wing nationalist parties sceptical of efforts such as Schengen are gaining ground.
There is the question of whose agenda the ending or scaling back of Schengen would better serve: that of security services aiming to prevent a terror attack or that of nationalist parties?
After all, it appears that most of the extremists who carried out the Paris attacks were citizens of Schengen countries.
The EU meeting on Friday in Brussels will also discuss stronger weapons controls, ways to combat terror financing and a European database of airline passengers.

Militants hold 170 hostage at Radisson Blu hotel in Mali’s capital

________ A to Z kerala .......... [kvk] [www.atozkerala.in , www.atozkerala.blogspot.com]

BAMAKO // Gunmen attacked a Radisson hotel in Mali’s capital on Friday and were believed to be holding 170 hostages.
Two people have “locked in” 140 guests and 30 employees in an ongoing hostage-taking at the Radisson Blu hotel in Bamako, the hotel chain said in a statement
“The Rezidor Hotel Group... is aware of the hostage-taking that is ongoing at the property today, 20th November 2015. As per our information two persons have locked in 140 guests and 30 employees,” said the company.
“Our safety and security teams and our corporate team are in constant contact with the local authorities in order to offer any support possible to re-instate safety and security at the hotel,” it added in a statement released in London.
Automatic weapons fire could be heard from outside the 190-room hotel, where security forces have set up a security cordon.
The shooting follows a nearly 24-hour siege and hostage-taking at another hotel in August in the central Malian town of Sevare.
Four soldiers, five UN workers and four attackers were killed.
Extremist groups have continued to wage attacks in Mali despite a June peace deal between former Tuareg rebels in the north of the country and rival pro-government armed groups.
Northern Mali fell in March-April 2012 to Al-Qaeda-linked groups long concentrated in the area before being ousted by an French-led military operation launched in January 2013.
Despite the peace deal, large swathes of Mali remain beyond the control of government and foreign forces.
* Reuters, Agence France-Presse

Can't sleep? Avoid keeping mobile near your bed

________ A to Z kerala .......... [kvk] [www.atozkerala.in , www.atozkerala.blogspot.com]
As it gets darker in the evening, the body starts to produce the sleep hormone melatonin - which helps people nod off.

London: A new study has suggested that smartphones, tablets and e-readers should have 'bed mode' to protect sleep as their blue-light emission can keep you up at night.

Avoid keeping mobile near your bed

Evelina Children's Hospital's Paul Gringras said that since every new model was "bluer and brighter," the setting should filter out the blue light that delays the body clock and keeps people awake later into the evening.

He said manufacturers needed to show more "responsibility." As it gets darker in the evening, the body starts to produce the sleep hormone melatonin - which helps people nod off. Certain wavelengths of light, those at the blue-green end of the spectrum, can disrupt the system.

The study concluded that there was a clear trend for new devices to be bigger, brighter, have higher levels of contrast and emit more blue light.

The study appears in Frontiers in Public Health, analysing the light emitted by devices. (ANI)