From being a centre-point of village gatherings to gracing plush joints in metros, the hookah has made a comeback in social space. But its return has sparked concern among cancer experts who say Indian youth are getting addicted to the hubble-bubble in the mistaken belief that it is a healthy alternative to cigarettes.
British experts are growing human body parts like nose and ears in laboratory, Daily Mail reported Sunday.
“This is a nose we’re growing for a patient next month,” professor Alexander Seifalian says matter-of-factly, plucking a petri dish from the bench beside him.
Inside is an utterly lifelike appendage, swimming in red goo. Alongside it is another dish containing an ear. “It’s a world first,” he says smiling.
His lab is little more than a series of worn wooden desktops strewn with beakers, solutions, taps, medical jars, tubing and looks like a school chemistry lab.
The Delhi High Court has issued notice to the defence ministry and the Ordnance Factory Board (OFB) on a plea by the Israel Military Industries (IMI), Israel’s state-run defence equipment supplier, seeking to set aside OFB’s decision cancelling its contract to set up a plant to manufacture an advanced propellent for artillery ammunition at Nalanda in Bihar.
Justice Vipin Sanghi has sought a reply by July 26, the next date of hearing.
Britain’s Queen Elizabeth would never reveal how much money she is worth despite being one of the world’s richest landowners.
Philip Beresford, compiler of the Sunday Times Rich List, believes the total worth of her properties could be worth around 400 million pounds.
“If she ignored the outrage, cast aside concerns about heritage and simply liquidated everything she could probably walk away with something like 300 million to 400 million pounds,” femalefirst.co.uk quoted him as saying.
“Her financial affairs are shrouded in secrecy. She never lifts the veil,” he said.
A warden posted at the district jail in Bhondsi near here was arrested Sunday for allegedly supplying mobile phones to the prisoners, police said.
Warden Pawan Kumar, who was deputed in Bhondsi jail, about eight kilometres from here, was taken into custody for allegedly supplying mobile phones to the inmates. The action was taken against Kumar following a complaint by deputy jailer Shahid Husain.
Mumbai will face water cuts for two days starting Monday owing to the repairing of pipelines along the Eastern Express Highway, a civic official said.
“Work is on for joining two major water pipelines along the Eastern Express Highway, owing to which there will be varying levels of water cuts imposed through the city,” an official from the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) said.
The pipeline work will be completed by Tuesday evening.
A high proportion of HIV positive women report domestic violence than HIV negative women, says a latest study by the Armed Forces Medical College (AFMC), Pune.
Conducted in a tertiary care hospital in Pune on a randomly selected sample of 150 married women, of which 75 each were HIV positive and negative, the study showed that overall, 33.3 percent of HIV positive married women reported acts of domestic violence inflicted upon them.
Of these, physical violence was reported by 29.3 percent women, emotional violence by 14.7 percent and sexual violence by 5.3 percent victims.
An over-the-counter natural remedy derived from beehives slows down the growth of prostate cancer cells and tumours in mice, says a new study.
Caffeic acid phenethyl ester, or CAPE, is a compound isolated from honeybee hive propolis, the resin used by bees to patch up holes in hives. Propolis has been used for centuries as a natural remedy for conditions ranging from sore throats and allergies to burns and cancer.
But the compound has not gained acceptance in the clinic due to scientific questions about its effect on cells, the journal Cancer Prevention Research reports.
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton interacted with young women rescued from human traffickers and listened keenly to their tales in her first programme after arriving in this eastern Indian metropolis Sunday.
She later met representatives of several non-governmental organisations working towards preventing human trafficking and praised them for their work and also offered to help them.
Clad in a dark suit, Clinton, 64, also clapped enthusiastically during a four-minute welcome dance by the women at the Indian Council for Cultural Relations’ Rabindranath Tagore Centre.
A new cabinet comprising 11 ministers belonging to different political parties has sworn in Nepal, Xinhua reported Sunday.
The new government has been formed after dissolving the previous cabinet as per a five-point agreement reached amongst the parties to form a national consensus government under Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai.
Ministers from Nepali Congress (NC), United Democratic Madhesi Front (UDMF) and Unified Communist Party of Nepal Maoists (UCPN- M) were sworn in Saturday night an oath taking ceremony at Shital Niwas, Nepal’s President House.
The much-awaited television show “Sataymev Jayate” has turned out to be another masterstroke from Aamir Khan. The star evoked a range of emotions as he dealt with the sensitive topic of female feticide and its repercussion on the society in the first episode of his maiden TV venture that went on air Sunday.
The rift within the Bharatiya Janata Party’s Rajasthan unit widened Sunday after over 40 legislators offered to resign in favour of senior party leader and former chief minister Vasundhara Raje, sources said.
The simmering differences within the party had come to the fore Saturday evening when Raje resigned from the party’s primary membership over senior BJP legislator Gulab Chand Kataria’s ‘Lok Jagaran Yatra’.
Sanjay Gupta is at the end of his tether. Barely weeks before the shooting of a mujra sequence with Bipasha Basu for his under-production film Shootout At Wadala, there is no song for the situation. Apparently, the director has requested various composers to create a traditional mujra in a language that will appeal to today’s youngsters. But the tune is yet to be delivered.
He was driving a taxi in Jammu when a passenger offered him a chance to “spy for the nation” and earn big bucks. As a 24-year-old, he grabbed the opportunity. But now, after more than three decades and a 10-year jail stint in Pakistan, a frail and hapless Vinod Sawhney struggles for his livelihood.
Sawhney, 59, still curses the day when the allurement of money got him entangled in the network of Indian intelligence that launched him as a “spy” in Pakistan.
“Dhak dhak” girl Madhuri Dixit is all set to play a new innings in the Hindi film industry and says she wants to challenge herself as an actor.
She has signed Vishal Bhardwaj’s “Dedh Ishqiya” and Anubhav Sinha’s “Gulab Gang”, thrilling her fans.
“I am trying to explore new roles and do different types of films for you. Want to challenge myself as an actor! Having fun. I think you will be thrilled with the roles. They are powerful, moving and will leave an impression! More films to come,” she tweeted.
Home Minister P. Chidambaram has said the government will take a “hard decision” on the controversial National Counter Terrorism Centre (NCTC) given the terror threats the country faces.
“Hard decisions have to be taken. Our decision cannot be based upon our past experience alone, because the past does not contain any indicators,” Chidambaram said in his concluding remarks at Saturday’s chief ministers’ conference on the anti-terror agency that has almost been dumped due to opposition from many state governments.
China launched a new mapping satellite early Sunday.
The satellite – Tianhui I-02 – will mainly be used to conduct scientific experiments, carry out land resource surveys and map territory, according to a statement released after the launch, Xinhua reported.
Remote sensing information and test results from the satellite will boost both the country’s scientific research and economic development, it added.
It was launched from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Centre in the country’s Gansu province. It has entered its preset orbit.
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton interacted with young women rescued from human traffickers and listened keenly to their tales in her first programme after arriving in this eastern Indian metropolis Sunday.
Clad in a dark suit, Clinton, 64, also clapped enthusiastically during a four-minute welcome dance by the women at the Indian Council for Cultural Relations’ Rabindranath Tagore Centre.
She encouraged the performers and asked about details and significance of the performance from Sohini Chakraborty, founder of Kolkata Sanved, an NGO looking after victims of human trafficking.
Iran has busted a drug gang linked to the killings of its nuclear scientists, authorities said Sunday.
Major drug smugglers linked to the assassination of nuclear scientists have been identified and arrested, Xinhua quoted Intelligence Minister Heidar Moslehi as saying.
Iran has accused Israel and the US of the killings. The West suspects Iran’s uranium programme is aimed at producing nuclear weapons. Tehran says its for peaceful uses only.
——-IANS
South Africa became the last men’s field hockey team to qualify for the London Olympics after beating hosts Japan 2-1 in Sunday’s final of the qualifying event.
Thornton McDade and Lloyd Norris Jones scored in the second half to help top-seed South Africa secure their third straight appearance at the Olympics.
Kenji Kitazato pulled a goal back for Japan with six minutes left. Japan was bidding for their first Olympic slot in 44 years.
British Singer Tulisa Contostavlos says after years of neglecting her beliefs, she is reconnecting with her faith.
“I’m a lot more religious now. I kind of stopped believing in God but as I got older but I found my faith again and has come morals,” thesun.co.uk quoted her as saying.
Her former bandmate Dappy has backed her religious credentials, claiming he used to see her pray a lot.
“She’s very religious. I think she’ll pray before every one of the live ‘X Factor’ shows. It’s all a big change from her teenage years,”
——IANS
Eight people were killed and three others injured in a head-on collision between two vehicles on the Wardha-Nagpur Road Sunday, police said here.
The accident happened near Sevagram, on the Wardha-Nagpur Road, around 10 km from the district headquarters of Wardha.
“Eight people were killed and three others were injured as the Tavera car they were travelling in collided with a container coming from the opposite direction,” an official from Sevagram Police Station told IANS.
The victims were on their way to Nagpur to appear for a railway recruitment examination, the official said.
Disbelief, horror, tears, smiles — Aamir Khan evoked all this among his rapt audience as he dealt with the sensitive topic of female foeticide and bias toward the male child in the first episode of “Satyamev Jayate” Sunday – without being preachy.
There were many moist eyes among those in the TV audience and many more at homes and offices across India as people tuned in to watch the much-awaited programme, which Aamir said in his ads he wanted to replicate the phenomena created by the epic “Mahabharat” and “Ramayana” teleserials of yore on Sunday mornings.
Almost 28,000 telephones have been disconnected and over 44,000 notices issued to unregistered telemarketers till April 24 for sending pesky calls and messages, according to the government.
“Government is aware that several calls and SMSs are being sent from private numbers i.e. by subscribers not registered as a telemarketer. 44,810 notices have been issued to unregistered telemarketers and 27,984 telephones have been disconnected till April 24, 2012 since inception of the regulation i.e. Sep 27, 2011,” Communications Minister Kapil Sibal said in a written reply to the Rajya Sabha.
AT least twenty-six people were reported injured when eight coaches of the Punjab Mail derailed at Sampla in Haryana’s Rohtak district early Sunday.
The derailment occurred around 4 a.m., railway officials said.
The injured were admitted to the Postgraduate Institute of Medical Sciences (PGIMS) in Rohtak, 70 km from New Delhi. The injured included seven women and 19 men, a PGIMS spokesman said.
Railway and local police officials said passengers had a miraculous escape and not deaths were reported despite the derailment of bogies.