Nikita Venkatesh Scientists have revealed that NASA’s Cassini mission have provided firm evidence that ocean inside the Saturn ‘s largest moon, Titan, might be extremely salty like Earth’s Dead Sea.
The new results come from a study of gravity and topography data collected during Cassini’s repeated flybys of Titan during the past 10 years.
A police constable was gunned down by unidentified men in Uttar Pradesh’s Agra district when he was on duty, police said on Thursday.
The incident took place in Bamrauli Ahir where a police team arrived for a search operation Wednesday night, acting on a complaint about a large procession taken out by a notorious criminal with weapons being flaunted, police said.
As the police team reached the village, which has a history of violent clashes and murders, it was attacked and policemen were beaten up.
Days after a minister in Manohar Parrikar-led government set off a controversy by denouncing “pub culture”, a BJP MLA has invoked mythology saying “pub and liquor are very much part of Indian culture” and opposed any move to ban them in the name of culture and religion.
The legislator, Vishnu Wagh said he would attend the upcoming session of the state Legislative Assembly, beginning July 22, wearing ‘dhoti’ in protest against MGP minister Sudin Dhavalikar who has sought ban on bikinis on beaches saying it is against Indian culture.
The 46 Indian nurses stranded in Iraq’s Tikrit town that has been overrun by ISIS militants have been told to board a bus by unknown men and proceed to Mosul, Kerala Chief Minister Oommen Chandy confirmed to a news agency the development. The Indian embassy in Baghdad has advised the nurses to “try and hold on till (Thursday) morning”.
The nurses have not left, an official source told a news agency.
Accusing the ruling Samajwadi Party in Uttar Pradesh of not fulfilling the promises made in its election manifesto for increased compensation to farmers on land acquisition, BSP members Wednesday walked out from the state Assembly.
Replying to a question asked by BSP member Dharmpal Singh, Cabinet minister Shivpal Yadav said a committee had been formed under state Chief Secretary to formulate rules and regulations for the land acquisition.
With the production of over 5490 MT of pineapples exceeding the last production of 3520 MT, the 7th Pineapple Fair-cum-Youth Festival 2014 has begun at the Yairipok Thambalnu market in Imphal.
The ten-day fair which started on Monday is being organised by Development Organization Andro Kendra under the sponsorship of Horticulture Mission for North East and Himalayan States.
Stating that NCP has won twice the number of seats as compared to Congress in Maharashtra in the recent Lok Sabha polls, Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar has sought equal number of seats for his party with Congress in the upcoming Assembly polls.
“As NCP’s strength in the state has grown in the recent Lok Sabha polls as compared to Congress, we should get 144 seats, an equal share with our ally Congress in the ensuing Assembly polls,” Pawar said at Palghar last evening while addressing party workers.
Former union law minister M Veerappa Moily on Wednesday accused the NDA government of being in “confrontation” with the judiciary.
Reacting to the government’s recent opposition to former solicitor general Gopal Subramaniam’s appointment as a Supreme Court judge, Moily said the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government was working “unilaterally” and “arbitrarily”.
“There was no consultation at all. The decision was taken unilaterally and arbitrarily without even an informal consultation with the chief justice of India,” Moily told the media here.
Shimla, popularly known as Queen of Hills, experienced 95 mm rain, the highest in Himachal Pradesh on Wednesday, said the weather bureau here.
“With the arrival of the monsoon (yesterday) Tuesday, the entire state has been experiencing moderate to heavy rain,” Manmohan Singh, director of the meteorological office here, told a news agency.
He said the maximum temperatures across the state fell by one to two degrees. However, there was no appreciable change in the minimum temperature.
Nagaland Home Minister Y Patton called on Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh in New Delhi and raised the pending issues of the State before him, official sources here said on Wednesday.
In a major embarrassment for the Uttar Pradesh government, the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) has punched many holes in the much-hyped 2013 Maha Kumbh in Allahabad.
The state government, which has been tom-toming its “great managerial skills” in organising the biggest religious congregation on the Earth, is on the backfoot as the audit has revealed many administrative oversights, financial irregularities and misappropriation of funds granted by the union government for the event.
Accusing West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee of trying to shield Tapas Pal, who has made controversial remarks, senior BJP leader Siddharth Nath Singh said only an apology was of no use and he should be made to quit as Trinamool Congress MP.
“Two tapes of TMC MP Tapas Pal are out and Mamata Banerjee is still trying to shield him. This is the policy of Trinamool for TMC goons. Only apology is of no consequence, he should be made to quit his parliament seat,” Singh told PTI.
“West Bengal government should file a criminal case against him,” Singh said.
A new study has revealed that half of all adults in the USA suffer from at least one chronic condition, such as diabetes, heart disease, or obesity, and over a quarter of adults have two or more.
According to the study, the majority of these chronic conditions stem from a small number of risk factors that are largely preventable, including tobacco use, poor diet, and physical inactivity (both strongly associated with obesity), alcohol consumption, and uncontrolled high blood pressure.
Congress workers protested on Wednesday against the BJP-led NDA government for not being able to curb the rising inflation in the country.
They shouted slogans against Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Bharatiya Janata Party, criticizing them for not being able to deal with the water and electricity crisis in the capital.
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had called upon state governments to check hoarding, while Prime Minister Modi had met ministers and senior bureaucrats to discuss strategies to control inflation, which is at a five month high.
The 42nd edition of All Manipur Shumang Leela Festival was held recently under the aegis of Manipur State Kala Akademi at the Iboyaima Shumang Leela Shanglen, Palace Compound in Imphal.
The 15-day long festival not only provides the groups an opportunity to showcase their new productions but also acts as a platform to analyze the trends of this art form.
Researchers have developed a compound that blocks the action of a key ‘ gatekeeper’ enzyme essential for malaria parasite survival.
The researchers have revealed that the compound, called WEHI-916, is the first step toward a new class of antimalarial drugs that could cure and prevent malaria infections caused by all species of the parasite, including those resistant to existing drugs.
Scientists at the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute developed WEHI-916 to block the critical malaria enzyme Plasmepsin V.
Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the commander of the insurgent group Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), has vowed war against many countries including India which he says have been violating Muslims’ rights.
Baghdadi, in a speech released yesterday, said that Muslims’ rights were being violated in India, China, Palestine, Somalia, the Arabian Peninsula, the Caucasus, Sham (the Levant), the Philippines, Ahvaz, Iran, Pakistan, Egypt, Iraq, Indonesia, Afghanistan, Tunisia, Libya, Algeria and Morocco.
Daniel Ricciardo has said that he is surprised to have outperformed four-time world champion Sebastian Vettel in the 2014-15 F1 championship season so far.
Twenty-five-year-old Australian racer Ricciardo is currently holding the third position in driver’s leader board list, and is 23 point ahead of incumbent world champion Vettel.
Ricciardo added that he came into the season knowing what he had around himself, but never thought he would surpass Vettel in the championship, that too with a 6-2 lead in qualifying, reports the BBC.
…..ANI
The iconic Mumbai ‘dabbawalas’ or lunch box carriers, have hiked the costs of their delivery by Rs 100 a month to cope up with the rising cost of essential commodities.
“We are requesting our customers to support us in the time of crisis, as we will not be able to survive at a time when costs of essential commodities are escalating. We do not want our dabbawalas to commit suicide, when they fail to pay up for the bare minimal comforts of life,” Raghunath Medge, former president of Mumbai dabbawalas Association told PTI.
Pakistani players are unhappy with some of the clauses included in the nearly 200-page new central contract documents sent to them after a long delay by the Pakistan Cricket Board.
Well-informed sources close to some of the players told PTI that one of the biggest complaints they had was that the board had stopped the win bonuses given to the team for winning a Test, One-day international or T20 match.
Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa Wednesday expressed hope that the Mullaperiyar Dam supervisory committee will restore the dam’s water storage level to 142 feet during the current monsoon period.
In a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi Wednesday, text of which was released to the media, Jayalaltihaa thanked Modi for constituting the supervisory committee to implement the order of the apex court for increasing the water storage level at Mullaperiyar Dam to 142 feet.
She said the state government has received the Centre’s order constituting the supervisory committee.
Less than a month after 24 students of an engineering college from Hyderabad were swept away in Himachal Pradesh’s Beas river, a US daily Wednesday blamed the “sand mafia” for the tragedy.
“Millions of Indians have gazed in horror at videos showing 24 cheerful engineering students wading in a tranquil stretch of the Beas river in Himachal Pradesh last month and then being swept to their deaths as the waters around them surged,” the New York Times said in editorial “Erosion of Trust in India”.
Heavy rain lashed Mumbai and large parts of coastal and western Maharashtra on Wednesday, providing welcome relief from the extended summer here.
Though delayed by over three weeks – the normal date for onset of monsoon is June 10 – the steady downpour resulted in water-logging in low-lying areas and created disruptions in road and rail traffic within the city and outside.
Traffic came to a halt or crawled at some sections on the SV Road in the western suburbs and LBS Marg in the eastern suburbs. Suburban trains on Western Railway, Central Railway and Harbour Line ran into delays.
Meghalaya Governor Krishan Kant Paul Wednesday took over additional charge of Nagaland too following resignation of Ashwani Kumar.
He was administered the oath of office by Gauhati High Court Justice T Vaiphei at Raj Bhavan here.
Additional State Chief Secretary Toshi Aier read out a warrant of appointment issued by the President appointing Paul as the state governor.
Rains lashed parts of Punjab and Haryana Wednesday, bringing the mercury down considerably, with conditions for advancement of monsoon in the twin agrarian states being “favourable”.
Moderate to heavy rainfall poured in Chandigarh, Ambala and Patiala this morning, the MeT office said here.
“Monsoon has entered some parts of Punjab and Haryana and the conditions for its advancement are favourable,” Chandigarh MeT Director Surinder Pal said.
While Chandigarh received 58.8 mm of rainfall, Ambala received 41.9 mm and Patiala 0.7 mm.