Asian News International

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Obama faces difficult final years as Republicans snatch Senate

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President Barack faced the prospect of a tightening gridlock in his final two years in office as Republicans gained at least six seats to wrest back control of the Senate for the first time in eight years.

Riding a wave of discontent with Obama and his policies, Republicans picked their sixth Senate seat in North Carolina, where Thom Tillis defeated incumbent Democratic Senator Kay Hagan to consolidate their power on Capitol Hill, the New York Times reported.

SC reserves order on Salman Khan case

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The Supreme Court Wednesday reserved its order on the Rajasthan government’s appeal challenging a state high court order staying the conviction of film star Salman Khan so that he could travel to Britain for a film engagement.

An apex court bench of Justice S.J. Mukhopadhyay and Justice A.K. Goel reserved its order, saying that Salman Khan’s conviction could not be stayed merely because it comes in the way of his getting a British visa.

Sensex hits record high, breaches 28,000-mark

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A benchmark index of Indian equities markets Monday touched a record high of 28,006 points in the early morning trade session Wednesday, surpassing the previous high of 27,969.82 points hit in the intra-trade Monday.

The index was trading up 82 points or 0.30 percent around 10.30 a.m. at 27,942.58 points before coming down from the psychological barrier of 28,000-mark.

Healthy buying was observed in bank, auto, consumer durable and fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) stocks. While selling pressure was seen in the metal sector.

Facebook reports 24 percent rise in US govt requests for user info since mid 2013

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Social network site Facebook says that requests by governments for user data increased by 24 percent from the second half of 2013.

CNET reports that during the first half of the year, the social network received 15,433 requests for data in the US alone pertaining to data about 23,667 accounts, to which the company complied with data to 80.15 percent of these requests.

The latest transparency report released by Facebook on Tuesday revealed that it received 34,946 requests for data during the first six months of 2014 in the US.

Indians capable of building WhatsApp for the world: Official

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Indians have it in their DNA to build the next WhatsApp for the world, a top company official said here Tuesday.

“While Indians, thanks to their propensity for hard work and great ideas, have this DNA in them naturally, what is missing is the ecosystem to leverage it,” said Neeraj Arora, vice president for business development at WhatsApp, the world’s most successful mobile messenger service.

Arora, an alumnus of the Indian School of Business (ISB), was interacting with his juniors and peers at the ISB campus here Tuesday.

Facebook tweaked news feeds of 1.9 million users before 2012 US elections

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Social network site Facebook reportedly made slight changes to the news feeds of 1.9 million users prior to the 2012 US election to enable them to see more “hard news” shared by friends.

The Huffington Post reports that the change may have boosted voter turnout by as much as 3 percent, according to a little-known study first disclosed Friday by Mother Jones.

The researchers changed the news feed in a way that news articles posted by users’ friends appeared on top instead of the general status and photo updates.

ICC to countdown 100 greatest World Cup Cricket moments

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The International Cricket Council (ICC) has asked cricket fans across the world to vote for their favorite moments in the cricket world cups till date as the countdown for the World Cup in Australia and New Zealand 2015 begins.

Over the course of the 100 days leading up to ICC Cricket World Cup 2015, the ICC will release details of the 100 greatest moments in Cricket World Cup history.

Inhaling secondhand cigarette smoke can make you pile on the pounds

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A new study has revealed that exposure to cigarette smoke can actually cause weight gain , secondhand smoke being the biggest reason.

Study author Benjamin Bikman, professor of physiology and developmental biology at Brigham Young University, said that for people who are in a home with a smoker, particularly children, the increased risk of cardiovascular or metabolic problems is massive.

Govt to launch ‘rental housing’ scheme for migrants, poor

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Aiming to provide temporary shelter for migrants and homeless people, the government is firming up a new initiative to launch a rental housing project in the big cities to answer their accommodation needs.

“We are launching a major initiative to promote rental housing on a large scale, for which an investment of Rs 6,000 crore is proposed,” said a senior Urban Development Ministry official.

Sale of tickets begins for India-Sri Lanka ODI at Hyderabad

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The Hyderabad Cricket Association (HCA) is making all arrangements for the ODI to be played here between India and Sri Lanka on November 9 and the sale of tickets has begun for the same.

Tickets would be available online and at counters at Gymkhana stadium and the Rajiv Gandhi International cricket stadium at Uppal, HCA President Arshad Ayub today told reporters here.

As a special gesture, special seating arrangement would be made for former Hyderabad Ranji players and former office bearers of HCA.

–PTI

Rupee gains 6 paise to 61.34 against dollar in early trade

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The rupee strengthened by six paise to 61.34 against the US dollar in early trade on Wednesday at the Interbank Foreign Exchange on selling of the US currency by exporters and banks amidst sustained capital inflows.

The rupee settled four paise down at 61.40 against the dollar on Monday. Forex market remained closed yesterday on account of “Muharram”.

40 Indians remain captives in Iraq; govt assures families

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External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj on Tuesday met the families of 40 Indians, still held captives in Iraq, and assured them that the ‘earnest’ efforts continued to secure the release of the nationals who remain ‘unharmed’.

Meeting the families for the fifth time since the Indians were taken hostage by Islamic militants ISIS in June, the minister told them that the recent contacts indicate that Indians in Iraq remain in captivity and unharmed, the official spokesperson in the External Affairs Ministry said.

‘Kiss of Love’: Cases against nearly 100 persons registered

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Cases have been registered against at least 100 persons by police for taking out processions and unlawful assembly at the Marine drive ground here on November 2 when the controversial ‘Kiss of Love’ programme against moral Policing was to be held.

The Marine drive was packed with onlookers, members of organisations like Shiv Sena, and some others who were protesting against conduct of the ‘Kiss of Love’ protest.

No cases were registered against onlookers and spectators, but against those who took out processions and for unlawful assembly.

UNHCR launches global drive to end statelessness

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The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has launched a 10-year global campaign aimed at ending the statelessness which affects millions of people around the world.

According to the UN refugee agency, at least 10 million people worldwide are currently stateless and a baby is born stateless every 10 minutes, Xinhua reported.

Rural painting, photography merge in unique ‘experimenter’ in West Bengal

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In a unique fusion of the urban and the indigenous folk art traditions, the Warli school of paintings of an indigenous artisan in rural Maharasthra has been brought to metro art galleries.

A collaborative exercise between the tribal artiste Rajesh Vangad from an adivasi coastal village Dahanu and Gauri Gil of Delhi.

‘Ways of Seeing’, brings alive the landscape viewed through the eyes of 50-something painter having drawn the typical tribal motifs including animals in his inimitable style chiseled through generations and captured through the lens of Gill.

NCAER lowers India GDP growth forecast for this year to 5%

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The National Council of Applied Economic Research (NCAER) has lowered India’s GDP growth forecast to 5% in the current financial year on weak economical fundamentals and uncertainties in growth prospects.

The economic think-tank in its earlier projection had suggested that the Indian economy was likely to grow at 5.7% in 2014-15.

“NCAER is predicting a slower growth for the economy unlike other forecasts. The fundamentals of the economy remain weak with uncertainties prevail. The only redeeming feature is the weakening of inflation and FDI inflows.

Man shot at by son-in-law over family dispute

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A man was shot at by his son-in-law when he refused to send his daughter with him at Dangrol village in Shamli district, police said.

Fayyaz was shot at by his son-in-law Gulzar when he refused to send his daughter Saira Begum with him yesterday.

Begum had left her husband’s house and was staying with her parents. Gulzar yesterday came with his family to take Begum with him but she refused.

Fayyaz also denied to send his daughter following which Gulzar in a fit of rage shot at his father-in-law.

Four sentenced for life in murder case

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Four persons have been sentenced to life imprisonment by a local court here for abducting and murdering a 12-year-old boy. All the four accused has been imposed with a fine by Additional District and Sessions Judge Harish Tripathi.

The imposed fine is of Rs 20,000. Each of the four accused – Imran, Farman, Gaffar and Budhu were found guilty of murder yesterday and has been sentenced for their whole life by Additional District and Sessions Judge Harish Tripathi.

World’s first dengue vaccine likely by 2015: Sanofi

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Very soon, vaccine against the mosquito-borne viral disease will be accessible to the world. Pharma major Sanofi has announced that the world’s first vaccine against dengue may be available by the second half of 2015.

Affecting lakhs of people annually, dengue has been a serious challenge to public health in India.

This vaccine will provide a 95.5% protection against severe dengue and an 80.3% reduction in the risk of hospitalisation.

Being husband, wife feels nice: Jolie

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Angelina Jolie says being married to her long-time beau Brad Pitt feels “different” and “nice”.

Pitt and Jolie were together for nearly nine years before exchanging wedding vows earlier this year.

“It does feel different. It feels nice to be husband and wife,” Jolie said in response to whether anything has changed now that she is officially married to Pitt, reports eonline.com.

Jolie and Pitt tied the knot on Aug 23 in a civil ceremony held inside the chapel on their estate in the South of France, Château Miraval. Very few people attended the nuptials.

–IANS

Woman gang-raped by robbers in front of husband, mother-in-law in Bengaluru

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A 25-year-old woman was allegedly gang-raped by knife wielding robbers in the presence of her husband and mother-in-law at her residence here, police said on Tuesday.

The woman was raped by two of a four-member robbers’ gang in the presence of the family, as the accused allegedly tied their hands and threatened them with knife, Inspector HSR layout, Raghvinder said.

The four accused, all aged 21 and residents of Bengaluru, entered the victim’s house around midnight and claimed to be policemen who wanted to inquire about illegal sale of intoxicants, he said.

UN wants $173 mn for winter in Iraq

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The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) has called for 173.1 million dollars to address the immediate needs of 1.26 million people across Iraq in need of assistance over the winter.

As the winter season approaches, hundreds of thousands of displaced people are being hit with heavy rains, strong winds, storms and dropping temperatures, especially at night and in the mountain areas of the Kurdistan region, Xinhua reported.