Gali Nagaraja

Women diagnosed with gynecologic cancers may experience reduced sexual activity after treatment, says a study led by an Indian-origin scientist.

The team observed that sexual activity was down from 6.1-6.8 times per month before treatment to 2.6-4.9 times per month post treatment.

Gynecological cancers include cancer of the cervix, uterus, ovaries, vagina and vulva.

“It is a topic that not many people want to talk about because it is uncomfortable,” said Saketh Guntupalli, assistant professor at the University of Colorado School of Medicine.

A new study has shown sexual dysfunction in women following gynecologic cancer treatment.

The University of Colorado Cancer Center study shows that sexual activity goes down from 6.1-6.8 times per month before treatment to 2.6-4.9 times per month after treatment.

Researcher Saketh Guntupalli said that it is a topic that not many people want to talk about because it is uncomfortable, but for scientists it is about maintaining the quality of life after treatment for couples that have gone through it.

Mr. Zeeshan Khan, who was denied job by a Diamond firm of Mumbai since he was a Muslim, has been invited by Adani to join his company. He hit the national headlines recently on this count.

England was trailing New Zealand by 111 runs with seven wickets in hand at the close of the second day’s play of the second test against New Zealand at Headingly on Saturday.

Replying to New Zealand’s score of 350 all out, England had cruised to 239 for the loss of three wickets in 81 overs.

Expressing serious concerns over the recent statements made by the Indian leadership, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif said on Saturday that all possible measures would be taken to counter any “anti-Pakistan” acts from across the border.

He issued this veiled warning to New Delhi while on a visit to the headquarters of the Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) in Islamabad, the Dawn reports.

A deputation of ‘West Pakistan Refugees Action Committee’, led by its president, Labha Ram Gandhi, called on Minister of State in the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) Dr. Jitendra Singh, on Saturday, to seek his intervention for redressal of their long pending grievances.

Gandhi said they have great expectations from the present government in Jammu and Kashmir.

The deputation also handed over a detailed memorandum to Dr. Singh.

Dinesh Kumar Dixit, the father of three-year-old Vaishnavi Dixit, said his daughter and the rest of the family were excited to receive a response from the office of the Prime Minister’s Relief Fund and the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) for contributing a cheque of Rs.500 for Nepal’s earthquake victims.

The AAP’s youth and students wings on Saturday protested in the capital over the alleged banning of a student group at the Indian Institute of Technology-Madras for distributing controversial pamphlets.

“The Ambedkar Periyar Student Circle (APSC) on the IIT Madras campus must be allowed to function as usual as it is part of the democratic rights of the students to voice their concern over the policies and politics of the country,” said Anupam, president of the Chhatra Yuva Sangharsh Samiti (CYSS).

Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy who is also the boss of the right-wing newly renamed Les Republicains party pledged on Saturday to restore the confidence of discontented voters.

“It is not a dream, it’s just our ambition, the Republic of confidence. That’s why we became Republicans,” Sarkozy said, Xinhua reported.

“We must restore confidence of the French in knowledge, in science, in reason, in progress,” chanted the former head of state.

“The Republic of confidence is one that respects the family and supports it,” he added.

Former Maryland governor Martin O’Malley on Saturday announced his bid for the 2016 US presidential race, in which he will first face tough challenge from former secretary of state Hillary Clinton to win the Democratic nomination.

“I declare that I am a candidate for president of the US,” O’Malley told a crowd of supporters at the Federal Hill Park in Baltimore, where he served as mayor before becoming Maryland’s governor for 2007-2015, Xinhua reported.

Some enduring differences between Iran and the West over the nuclear programme of the country have hindered the progress in preparing the draft for a possible nuclear agreement, Iran’s senior nuclear negotiator Abbas Araqchi said.

“In the recent round of talks, both sides reviewed all issues, however, differences still remain,” Islamic Republic News Agency quoted Araqchi as saying on Saturday.

He made the remarks following two rounds of meetings between US Secretary of State John Kerry and his Iranian counterpart Mohammad-Javad Zarif in Geneva.

Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh on Saturday said that development of Maoist affected areas is one of the priorities of the NDA government, and praised the Chhattisgarh Government for working towards achieving this goal.

Union minister Smriti Irani on Saturday said the Narendra Modi government is people-oriented with all its departments working in coordination with each other while its predecessor UPA regime was just the opposite.

Participating in an interactive programme – Talkathon, telecast on Doordarshan – the minister for human resource development (HRD) said various departments of the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government did not know what the other one was doing.

Acharya Balkrishna of Patanjali on Saturday said it was yoga guru Baba Ramdev’s ‘moral responsibility’ to visit their food and herbal park where a clash had led to the death of

one person.

He also criticized the irresponsible statements made by political parties on the incident.

A group of 24 schoolchildren from the Mawar Valley of Jammu and Kashmir on Saturday called on Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The students, belonging to Classes 6 to 8, are currently on a tour to various parts of the country as part of the Indian Army’s Operation Sadbhavna.

The Prime Minister interacted with the students on various subjects such as their studies, and their interest in sports.

The students were thrilled when the Prime Minister mentioned the names of cricketer Parvez Rasool and recent UPSC topper and IAS Officer Shah Faisal.

Rains in parts of Andhra Pradsh and Telangana eased blistering heat wave, which claimed nearly 2,000 lives so far, officials said.

The heat wave subsided as showers and thunderstorms brought much-needed relief to people reeling under scorching summer temperatures for last two weeks.

However, the day temperatures remained high in parts of the two states. Ramagundam in Telangana and Jangamaheshwarapuram in Guntu district of Andhra Pradesh sizzled at 47 degree Celsius.

A massive earthquake of magnitude 7.8 on the Richter scale took place off the Japanese coast on Saturday, the U.S. Geological Survey stated.

The epicentre of the quake has been detected as 189 kilometres WNW off Chichi-shima.

According to reports, no tsunami warnings have been issued as of now.

Further details are awaited. (ANI)

Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi on Saturday slammed the Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government for the repromulgation of the Land Bill, adding that his party will fight for the rights of the farmers.

The official twitter account of Gandhi’s office shared the Congress vice president’s thoughts on the issue.

“Modi ji in an amazing hurry to grab land from poor farmers at any cost. A 3rd attempt at pushing the anti farmer Land Ordinance!” it posted.

” Congress Party will continue to fight for the rights of the kisan and mazdoor against this #suitbootkisarkar,” it added.

Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on Saturday expressed serious concern over recent statements made by the Indian political leadership, and said that all possible measures will be taken to counter “anti-Pakistan” acts.

Sharif and Pakistani Army Chief Gen. Raheel Sharif visited the headquarters of the Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) and met its Director General, Maj. Rizwan Akhtar, who briefed them on the internal and external security situation of the country.

Saudi-led coalition warplanes intensified airstrikes against Yemen’s Shia Houthi group in the capital Sanaa on Saturday.

The coalition forces made more than 20 sorties against Houthi targets at the Sanaa International Airport, adjacent al-Dailamy Airport, the headquarters of the air force base and the ammunition depots, security sources said.

The rape accused in the nurse Aruna Shanbaug case, Sohan Lal Bharti Valmiki, has been living in a Uttar Pradesh village for the last 35 years, local meda reports suggest.

He has been in the Parpa village of Hapur distict with his in-laws since being released from a Mumbai prison after serving a seven-year sentence for raping nurse Shanbaug, who died recently in a Mumbai hospital after being comatose for 42 long years.

Locals say they were not aware of the antescedents of Sohan Lal, now serving as a sweeper at NTPC power plant in Dadri.

India and Saudi Arabia have agreed to enhance bilateral cooperation, knowledge exchange and business ties reflecting the desire of both countries to deepen and widen their age-old ties, an official said on Friday.

The India-Saudi Arabia Joint Commission, that concluded its eleventh meeting here on Thursday, focused on enhancing bilateral cooperation, knowledge exchange and business ties between both nations, the finance ministry said in a statement.

Mauritius President Kailash Purryag has resigned from office, an official statement said.

The statement said that Purryag sent his letter of resignation to the Speaker of the National Assembly of Mauritius on Friday, Xinhua news agency reported on Saturday.

Purryag was appointed president in 2012 by the island’s previous Labour party government of former premier Navin Ramgoolam.

Former President A P J Abdul Kalam today advocated a “complete” change of the higher education framework in the country and stressed on skill development to come up with a workforce to meet future challenges.

Kalam suggested that students in schools and colleges be handed over “skill certificates” apart from the conventional degrees.

“In decades time, India will need 300 to 500 million employable skilled youth and there is a need to completely change the university education syllabus and secondary school education syllabus.

In a shocking incident, a 17-year-old boy, who was arrested on charge of theft, died in a hospital after he was allegedly assaulted brutally at a juvenile remand home in Matunga here.

The state Human Rights Commission took suo motu cognisance of the incident and sought details from the police and remand home officials.

Justice S R Bannurmath, SHRC chairperson, told PTI that as soon the rights panel came to know about the incident, it issued a notice to the police and senior officials of the remand home asking them to provide the details.