Qayam Ali

Researchers have recently pinpointed the epicenter of brain’s predictive ability that unravels how the brain is such a surprisingly accurate fortune-teller, but only when it comes to mundane events.

University Distinguished Professor Lisa Feldman Barrett at Northeastern found that limbic tissue, which also helps to create emotions, was at the top of the brain’s pre­dic­tion hierarchy.

W. Kyle Simmons, of the Laureate Institute for Brain Research in Tulsa, Oklahoma co-authored the paper.

President Barack Obama has urged Myanmar to end discrimination against its Rohingya Muslims if it wants to succeed in its transition to a democracy. Speaking to a group of young Asians invited to the White House, Obama said the US focused to make sure that the Rohingya migrants are relocated.

“I think one of the most important things is to put an end to discrimination against people because of their color or what their faith is. And the Rohingya have been discriminated against. And that’s part of the reason they’re fleeing,” said Obama.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Wednesday said the samples of maggi have been collected in few states and added that necessary action would be taken in the case.

“Quite a few governments have already started initiating action. The samples are being collected in various states. Union Minister has also spoken about this issue and wherever any action is required, it will be taken,” said BJP spokesperson Nalin Kohli.

Union Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution Minister Ram Vilas Paswan has said that the government is framing new law to deal with maggi-like cases.

The stage is now set for data to be collected from collisions within the Large Hadron Collider’s giant detectors.

Scientists are waiting for the first new data to start flowing from the underground particle smasher, as the LHC begins its first “physics collisions” in two years, the BBC reported.

The vast machine will clatter proton beams together at much higher energies than it achieved during its first operational period from 2010-2013, which should allow physicists to hunt for signs of new scientific phenomena.

On the occasion of first anniversary of Telangana State formation day on Tuesday, chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao promises of soon fulfilling its election promise of constructing over 50,000 houses for the poor at a cost of Rs 25K crore.

Rao also assures that TRS is commitment to 12% reservations in education institution and jobs to Muslims adding a committee was already in place and measures would be initiated based on its report.

“Govt would soon release a notification this month for filling up 25,000 posts besides regularization of services of contract workers”, Rao added.

A 20-year-old girl was allegedly raped by a village head and his friend under Kairana police station area in Shamli district, police said on Wednesday.

An FIR was lodged on the basis of a complaint filed by the victim’s father, stating that the girl was raped on Tuesday by Farzand Ali, the village head and his accomplice Israr Ahmad at the former’s residence when she had gone there for some work, SHO of Kairana police station B P Singh said.

The duo also threatened to kill the victim if she told anyone about the incident, he said.

Senior Iraqi government officials have thanked New Zealand for its military contribution to the fight against Islamic State insurgents, Defence Minister Gerry Brownlee said on Wednesday.

Brownlee, who has just left Iraq, said in a statement from his office that he had met with Iraqi Defence Minister Khaled al- Obeidi in Baghdad and discussed the joint Australian-New Zealand mission to train Iraqi forces, Xinhua reported.

“Iraqi government and military commanders recognise our contribution to the Building Partner Capacity mission,” Brownlee said.

Lashing out at Pakistan over its repeated ceasefire violations across the border in Jammu and Kashmir, Shiv Sena today said it would not be wrong for India as well to breach the truce to teach the neighbouring country a lesson.

“In 2013, Pakistan indulged in ceasefire violations 347 times and the number went up to 562 in 2014. As many as 32,000 people living along the border areas had to leave their homes to find shelter elsewhere,” it said in its editorial mouthpiece ‘Saamana’.

An American court yesterday sentenced an Indian-origin man to 30 months in prison for facilitating illegal entry of Indians into the US.

The New Jersey court also ordered Sandip Kumar Patel to pay a fine of USD 50,000 and restitution to the amount of USD 423,452 to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). Last year Patel, a resident of Edison in New Jersey, had pleaded guilty to the charges.

Pakistan said it will not sign the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) because it considers it discriminatory.

“It is a discriminatory treaty. Pakistan has the right to defend itself, so Pakistan will not sign the NPT. Why should we?” said Foreign Secretary Aizaz Ahmad Chaudhry on being asked whether Islamabad would sign the NPT if Washington asks it to do so, reported Dawn on Wednesday.

Already, 190 states have signed the treaty, which came into force in 1970. But South Asia’s both nuclear states, India and Pakistan, have stayed out of it.

In a horrendous incident, a 55-year old man was beheaded at his home during an alleged human sacrifice for better harvest and timely rainfall in Jharkhand.

The headless body of Thepa Kharia was found at his home by his neighbors and relative. Kharia’s relatives suspected that he was killed by Orkas and Mudkatwa, who buries human head in paddy fields to appease the rain god.

Jharkhand has been reeling under extreme heat for the past two weeks with some parts of the state recording temperature as high as 47°C.

Five suspects – Aitzaz Shah, Rafaqat Hussain, Husnain Gul, Sher Zaman and Abdul Rashid – are facing trial in the case.
File Photo dna Research & Archives
A key witness and former official of Pakistan’s ISI has refused to testify against Pakistani Taliban suspects being tried in the 2007 assassination of former premier Benazir Bhutto, citing threat to his life.

Wrightspeed is one of a growing number of companies that are trying to transform the market for commercial trucks that consume billions of gallons of fuel while spewing tons of carbon dioxide, nitrogen oxide and other pollutants.
Representational image Agencies Getty Images
Twelve years ago, Ian Wright and some fellow engineers launched Tesla Motors, a Silicon Valley company that has helped jumpstart the market for electric cars.

Now, the Tesla co-founder wants to electrify noisy, gas-guzzling trucks that deliver packages, haul garbage and make frequent stops on city streets.

The Shiv Sena showered its ‘blessings’ on Zeeshan Ali Khan, a Muslim MBA who was recently refused a job in a well-known diamond export company but now absorbed by the Adani Group in Mumbai.

“If something like this had happened, it is condemnable in the strongest terms… The boy was refused a job on grounds of religion, but now he has got an even bigger offer from Adani Group, and he is happy…” the party said in an editorial in its mouthpiece Saamana on Tuesday.
“Go ahead, Zeeshan…!” it added.

Extending its decline, the BSE Sensex tanked over 640 points on IMD’s lowering monsoon forecast for this year and RBI taking a cautious stance on the economic recovery even as it cut policy rates by 25 basis points.

In its second bi-monthly policy review, the RBI cut interest rate by 0.25 per cent for the third time this year.
The 30-share index — which fell by over 347 points soon after RBI announced monetary policy — was down sharply by 642.11 points or 2.31 per cent to 27,206.88.

All the sectoral indices led by banking and realty, were trading in negative terrain.

A district court here directed police on Tuesday to register an FIR against two Nestle officials and film stars Amitabh Bachchan, Madhuri Dixit and Preity Zinta, who have featured in the Maggi advertisements and arrest them if required.

Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate Ramchandra Prasad directed Kazi Mohammadpur Police Station to register the FIR against the five and investigate the complaint.

The court also directed the police to go for arrest if required in the course of investigation.

The order came during the hearing of a case filed by lawyer Sudhir Kumar Ojha on Monday.

Countering immediate threats to outspoken writer and human rights activist Taslima Nasrin, a New York-based non-profit educational, advocacy and research organisation has relocated her to the United States.

The step to relocate Nasrin has been taken in the wake of the murder of three secular bloggers, Avijit Roy, Washiqur Rahman, and Ananta Bijoy Das in Bangladesh.

Weeks after the Election Commission expressed displeasure over senior leader Sanjay Raut’s comments on voting rights of Muslims, the Shiv Sena on Tuesday said all Muslims who consider India their motherland should be given all citizen rights.

“All Muslims who consider India as their motherland and those who are ready to sweat it out for the development of the country are our brothers and they should be given all the rights as citizens of India,” the Sena said in an editorial in its mouthpiece ‘Saamana’.

Mothers are unbeatable, even in exams. This was proven by an Assamese woman.

Nayanmoni 37 outperformed her son Ankur, 18, in the class XII final exam in Assam securing first division with 69.8% and above 80% in sociology. Both have attended the examination as regular students.

However the mother feels upset that her son only managed to pass the third division. “How can I be happy? I would be delighted if my son too had done better. We always look up to him for a better living,” Nayanmoni, said.

A division bench comprising of Chief Justice Dilip B Bhosale and justice S V Bhatt of the Hyderabad High Court on Monday directed the state home department to submit case details along with the statements of father and also the person who first witnessed the incident and the dying declaration of the shaik Mustafa, by June 8.

HC order comes pertaining to suspicious killing of 11-year-old Shaik Mustafa in Army Garrison campus at Mehdipatnam in the city.

Refusing to grant maintenance to a highly qualified woman, a Mumbai family court has held that she cannot be permitted to sit idle and put her burden on the husband for demanding alimony during pendency of a matrimonial petition.

Section 24 of Hindu Marriage Act is not meant for creating an army of such persons who would be sitting idle waiting for a ‘dole’ to be awarded by her husband who has got a grievance against her and moved the court for seeking relief against her, said Dr Laxmi P Rao, Principal Judge of Family Court here.

Denied permission by Odisha government to visit communally sensitive Kandhamal district, VHP president Praveen Togadia on Friday clarified that he was not against the minorities but would continue to speak in favour of his Hindu brothers and sisters.

“I am not against the minorities, but I’ll certainly speak on the interest of my Hindu brothers and sisters,” Togadia told reporters, adding that he was, however, against the illegal entry of Bangladeshi Muslims.

Togadia said he had been worried over the safety, security and well being of the Hindus.

In a veiled attack on Congress, Union minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi today alleged that since Independence funds meant for welfare of minorities were not well spent and “looted” by middlemen and “power brokers”.

“Much has happened in the past six decades but it can be clearly seen that justice has not been done with regard to socio-economic and educational empowerment of minorities. There can be vote-bank politics behind it or other things, I don’t want to delve into it,” Naqvi claimed.

A 102-year-old German woman is set to become the oldest person to receive a doctorate which will be awarded to her by the Hamburg University next week, 77 years after the Nazis blocked it because she was Jewish.

Ingeborg Rapoport, a Berlin-based medical professor who retired more than three decades ago, has been granted the PhD for a dissertation on diphtheria that she finished in 1938, aged 25.

Widening its probe into alleged lapses of food safety standards in Maggi noodles, the government today said it is testing samples from all states and strict action will be taken for any violation, including against brand ambassadors of the famous brand of Nestle.

The tests are being done by the central food safety regulator FSSAI (Food Safety and Standards Authority of India) and the reports are expected to come in the next 2-3 days.