Month: December 2009

French scientists create skin fast from stem cells

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Paris, December 02: French scientists have found a way to create human skin rapidly from stem cells, a discovery that could save the lives of many burns victims who are vulnerable to infection and now wait weeks for a skin graft.

The scientists made the breakthrough by creating a patch of human skin on a mouse’s back using stem cells — cells which have the ability to develop into any human cell.

Skin grafts have traditionally been created from cell cultures taken from the patient — a process that takes three weeks, too long for some patients suffering extensive burns.

Philippines to replace 1,000 police after massacre

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Manila, Decemebr 02: All 1,092 police officers in a Philippine province will be replaced amid an investigation into an alleged role played by some of them in an election-linked massacre, the government said Wednesday.

Fifty-seven people, including journalists and supporters of a local politician, were shot dead in the November 23 murders in the southern province of Maguindanao.

Govt favours quiet talks on Kashmir: Chidambaram

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New Delhi, December 02: The Central Government on Wednesday said it favoured “quiet talks” to resolve the festering Kashmir dispute.

“The prime minister and I offered to talk to every shade of public opinion. The response has been encouraging,” Home Minister P. Chidambaram said during question hour in the Rajya Sabha.

“I am in favour of quiet talks and quiet diplomacy far off from the glare of the media,” he said. “At the appropriate stage, I will share with the house the contours of the settlement that may emerge.”

Talks with Maoists if they abjure violence

India a key partner in AfPak stability: US envoy

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New Delhi, December 02: Hours after US President Barack Obama announced a troop surge in Afghanistan, US ambassador to India Timothy J. Roemer Wednesday described India as ‘a key global partner’ of Washington and underlined that the two countries share the ‘core goal’ of disrupting terrorist networks in the region.

‘India is a key, global partner of the United States and we value the positive role India continues to play in the region, including its significant humanitarian contributions to Afghanistan,’ Roemer said here.

Agitated students conducted KCR’s Shava Yatra

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Hyderabad, December 02: The Agitation of separate statehood for Telangana appears slipping slowly away from the hands of Telangana Rashtra Samithi and its president K Chandrasekhara Rao.

Soon after the announcement of his withdrawal of hunger strike, the students of all universities seriously reacted and declared that they would continue relay hunger strikes on their own.

The agitation is their own and not connected to TRS or any other political affiliation. Students also conducted the Shava Yatra of KCR in all universities and also burnt his effigy.

India drafts list of firms for stake sales: report

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New Delhi, December 02: India has prepared a preliminary list of 25 public sector companies it could float on the stock market as it seeks to accelerate state asset sales, a report Wednesday said.

Among the firms are Nuclear Power Corp of India, the National Bank for Agriculture and UTI Asset Management, which is India’s oldest mutual fund, according to the Indian Express.

“This is not an exhaustive list and more companies could be added,” the newspaper quoted an unnamed government official as saying.

China sentences 5 church leaders to labor camp

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Beijing, December 02: Five members of an unregistered Chinese Protestant congregation have been sentenced to two years in a labor camp following a police raid on their church, a monitoring group said Wednesday.

The report comes less than a week after five leaders of the same church in the northern province of Shanxi were sentenced to prison terms of up to seven years on charges including illegal assembly, the toughest punishments against unofficial church leaders in more than three years.

Police brutality in Sant Shri Asaram Ashram, Ahmedabad

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Ahmedabad, December 02: Breaking ALL boundaries of vandalism, the act of violence that was executed by the police today at Sant Shri Asaramji Ashram, was terrifying.

The rally in protest against the Sandesh newspaper saw their own miscreants getting into the crowd and instigating the people to pelt stones at the police. In the resulting violence that ensued, some senior police officials and other policemen were injured.

TRS chief on fast, houses of Congress leaders attacked

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Hyderabad, December 02: Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) chief K. Chandrasekhara Rao is continuing his ‘fast unto death’ demanding a separate state of Telangana even as his supporters went on a rampage targeting houses of Congress leaders and other property.

Rao, who remained at a government-run hospital in Khammam town, is running high temperature and is not taking food, his family members said.

KCR, as the TRS chief is popularly known, has again appealed to the government and the state human rights commission that he should be shifted to a hospital either in Hyderabad or Khammam.

Lok Sabha okays two central universities in J&K

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New Delhi, December 02: Yesterday Lok Sabha passed the Central Universities (Amendment) Bill 2009 by a voice vote, allowing the government to set up two separate central universities in two different regions of Jammu and Kashmir.

Replying on the debate, Human Resource Development Minister Kapil Sibal clarified that there was no proposal before the government for setting up of any new central university.

”However, as and when, the proposals will come the HRD Ministry will look into it,” he said while thanking the House for the ‘near unanimity’ expressed over his proposal.

Iran releases 5 British sailors detained at sea

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Tehran, December 02: Iran released on Wednesday five British sailors who were detained last week when their 60-foot racing yacht drifted accidentally into Iran’s Persian Gulf waters and was seized.

The elite Revolutionary Guard, whose navy had stopped the vessel, interrogated the yachtsmen and found that their “illegal entry” into Iranian waters had been a mistake, the official IRNA news agency said.

Al-Qaeda leadership has established safe haven in Pakistan: Obama

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Washington, December 02: Al Qaeda’s leadership has established a safe haven in Pakistan after escaping across the Afghan border in 2001 and 2002, Says US President Barack Obama.

Announcing his new Afghan strategy last night, the President said, Over the last several years, the Taliban has maintained common cause with al Qaeda, as they both seek an overthrow of the Afghan government.

Gradually, the Taliban has begun to control additional swaths of territory in Afghanistan, while engaging in increasingly brazen and devastating attacks of terrorism against the Pakistani people.

Obama answers troop question, but prompts others

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Kabul, December 02: The much-anticipated new U.S. war strategy finally in hand, Afghans and U.S. troops on the ground began asking key questions Wednesday on the fate of the violence-battered nation: Can the Afghan government fight corruption and ready its forces to secure the nation? Can U.S. troops really start going home in July 2011?

ULFA chief Rajkhowa arrested

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Guwahati, Dec 2 (UNI) ULFA chairman Auribindo Rajkhowa has been arrested by Bangladesh security forces from somewhere near Dhaka, Union Home Ministry sources confirmed today.

Along with him, National Liberation Front of Tripura (NLFT)chairman Biswmohan Devverma was also arrested.

The news was confirmed this morning and it came within a fortnight of the arrest of ULFA ‘foreign secretary’ Chitrabon Hazarika and ‘finance secretary’ Sashadhar Chaudhury.

UN suspends approval of Chinese wind farms

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Beijing, December 02: The U.N. body that oversees carbon credit trading has suspended approval of some Chinese wind farms, a government official said on Wednesday, amid questions about how Beijing obtains money through the system.

“The projects are stuck” in the Executive Board of the Clean Development Mechanism, which suspended approval in July pending a review, said Wang Shu, an official of the Cabinet’s Climate Change Department. The panel is based in Bonn, Germany.

Rajya Sabha mourns Bhopal gas tragedy victims

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New Delhi, December 02: The Rajya Sabha Wednesday mourned the victims of the Bhopal gas disaster of 1984, expressing the members’ ‘heartfelt sympathies’ for the ‘human tragedy of unparalleled magnitude’.

As soon as the upper house assembled at 11 a.m., House Chairman and Vice President Hamid Ansari read out a statement, saying that the ‘scars of the tragedy still haunt us’.

‘It was a human tragedy of unparalleled magnitude and shocked the world. It is incumbent on us to do the utmost for the victims,’ Ansari said.

Having two moms key to a longer lifespan: Study

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London, December 02: Bizarre it may appear, but having two mothers may be the key to a longer lifespan in mice, at least, a new study has revealed.

Scientists in Japan have discovered that mice with two biological mothers but no father live about 30 percent longer than usual, in an pioneering experiment which they claim could have implications for understanding human ageing.

Arrangement for NTPC can’t be equated with private accord: Govt

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New Delhi, December 02: Government on Wednesday filed its affidavit in the Supreme Court on the ongoing gas row between the Ambani brothers saying that the arrangement for public sector NTPC cannot be equated with any agreement between RIL and RNRL.

The apex court had sought the response after Anil Ambani-led RNRL had consented to Government being made a party in the dispute.

RNRL contended that it was entitled to receive the gas at USD 2.34 per unit from Mukesh Ambani group RIL which had entered into an arrangement for supplying gas to NTPC at that rate.

Sukhoi fleet grounded after Monday crash

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New Delhi, December 02: The entire fleet of the Indian Air Force (IAF) frontline fighter jets Sukhoi-30 MKI has been grounded following a crash Monday, an official Wednesday said.

‘The Sukhoi fleet has been grounded for preliminary checks required after any crash. The fleet will be airborne as and when the mandatory checks are complete,’ said an IAF spokesperson.

The Sukhoi-30 MKI, belonging to 31 Squadron based at the IAF station in Bareilly in Uttar Pradesh, crashed southwest of Pokhran in Rajasthan at 5.30 p.m. Monday. The pilots ejected in time and survived.

UAE economy solid despite debts: president

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Abu Dhabi, December 02: The United Arab Emirates economy is in a good condition and will not slip due to the global financial crisis, the Gulf country’s president said on Tuesday as Dubai’s ruler said the global reaction showed a lack of understanding.

President Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed al-Nahayan also voiced support to the ruler of Dubai, saying Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum and his cabinet “face every morning challenges, but plan and remove all obstacles to score achievements.”

Hrithik Roshan sides with his father; refuses to work with Imtiaz

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Mumbai, December 02: If Titans like Hrithik Roshan and Imtiaz Ali worked on a project, the film would have been a blockbuster. But as fate would have it, the talented duo have decided to massage their egos rather than create a masterpiece. After agreeing to work together for a film, the director and the actor have now fallen apart over trivial differences thereby spelling bad news for all fans, who were eagerly waiting to watch their magic onscreen.

Green buildings catching up fast in India

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Kolkata, December 02: The green building concept is swiftly catching up in the country partly because of government sops and partly because of the marketing strategy of real estate developers to get customers – and everyone is now busy linking it to climate change.

According to figures available with the Indian Green Building Council (IGBC), part of the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII)-Godrej Green Building Council, in 2008 India had only 18 certified green buildings and 328 projects in the pipeline.

Indias Most wanted Terrorist Still a Govt Servant

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Tinsukia, December 02: One of the most wanted terrorists in India has played truant for nearly three decades for not attending the office, but remains an employee of central government in Assam.

Self-styled commander of the outlawed United Liberation Front of Asom(ULFA) Paresh Baruah is an employee of the Railways of the Northwest Frontier.

He was 21 when he got the job of a porter in 1978, under the sports quota (which was a football player) on the railways in the division of Tinsukia in eastern Assam.

Priyanka Chopra and Shahid Kapur rekindle their romance

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Mumbai, December 02: ‘Absence makes the heart grow fonder’ is one adage that stands true in the case of Shahid Kapur and Priyanka Chopra. The lovebirds, who had recently ended their romantic sojourn, are reportedly back together after they bumped into each other in Bangkok. And reunion is sure good for the hot duo as they are happier than ever.

Ending their months long affair, the couple had churned juicy fodder for the ever so curious gossipmongers. However, if the latest reports are to be believed then the two actors have rekindled their relationship.