Month: July 2012

Mock drill at Mantralaya to test admn’s preparedness

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In the wake of last month’s devastating fire which killed five people at Mantralaya, a mock fire drill was conducted in the State Secretariat today to gauge the administration’s preparedness to evacuate people from the seven storied building.

The hooter was sounded at 4 pm and 4199 employees present in the building were evacuated in 12 minutes,
Mantralaya sources said.

The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) control room, however, could be alerted about the fire only at 4.07
pm, a delay of seven minutes.

Father abandons two daughters; one dies

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A man abandoned his two minor daughters near a bus stand at Ambala Cantonment last late evening allegedly due to his weak financial position and one child died, police said.

One of the daughters, who was suffering from a serious ailment, died, police said today adding her body was found by locals here in wee hours of today.

Passersby noticed that a minor girl was weeping near the body of another minor girl under the flyover close to Ambala Cantonment bus stand.

After getting the information, SHO Parao police station Ajaib Singh reached there.

ACB arrests rowdy-sheeter in cash-for-bail case :2.5 Crores seized

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ACB sleuths have arrested rowdy-sheeter Yadagiri Rao, who has allegedly brokered the cash-for-bail deal between CBI judge Pattabhi Rama Rao and Karnataka former minister Gali Janardana Reddy, here on Monday morning.
Yadagiri has disappeared as soon as the bail scam came to light, and has been evading arrest ever since. ACB authorities found that he was holed up in Kurnool and nabbed him.

DLF accused Gupta remanded to CCS custody

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The Criminal Court in Nampally on Monday remanded Gowri Shankar Gupta, who allegedly duped the Hyderabad Metropolitan Development Authority by invoking the name of realtor major DLF, to police custody for three days.

The court while remanding him to the custody of City Crime Station police asked them to question in the presence of lawyers from morning 10 to 5 pm. The court also directed the CCS police to don’t use any third degree methods while eliciting information from him.

Sleep loss jolts immune system into hyperactivity: Study

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Severe sleep loss jolts the immune system into hyperactivity, producing the same response as thrown up by exposure to stress, says a study.

Researchers in the Netherlands and UK compared the white blood cell counts of 15 healthy young men under normal and severely sleep-deprived conditions.

The greatest changes were seen in the white blood cells known as granulocytes, which showed a loss of day-night rhythmicity, along with increased numbers, particularly at night.

Runaway suspect in Bhanwari murder case re-arrested

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An accused in the Bhanwari Devi murder case, who had escaped from the police custody after a shoot-out between his accomplices and policemen at a court in Rajasthan’s Jodhpur city June 14, was re-arrested Monday, police said.

The accused, Kailash Jakhar was hiding in a house at a hamlet surrounded by sand dunes near Sujangarh in Churu district, some 250 km from Jaipur.

NASA to study solar magnetic field

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US space agency NASA plans to study the sun’s magnetic field in a “hard-to-observe area called the chromosphere”.

The Solar Ultraviolet Magnetograph Investigation (SUMI) mission will be launched Thursday, Xinhua reported.

Though there are already instruments that can measure these fields, they are constrained to observe the fields on a particular layer of the sun’s surface.

To measure magnetic fields in the chromosphere, SUMI will observe the ultraviolet light emitted from two types of atoms on the sun, Magnesium 2 and Carbon 4.

Spain celebrates soccer triumph

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Tens of thousands displaying the national colours of red and yellow thronged the streets of this capital Monday as Spain’s national soccer team celebrated its victory in the 2012 European Championship, rounding out a historic triple that also includes the 2008 Euro title and the 2010 World Cup.

The massive reception in Madrid climaxed celebrations for the title won Sunday in Ukraine and was the final ecstatic moment of almost 24 hours of partying all around the country.

Your farts could cure high blood pressure

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Though most of us may find it quite embarrassing in case we were caught breaking wind, a new study has in fact suggested flatulence could help patients with high blood pressure.

Scientists at Johns Hopkins University, in Baltimore, Maryland, US, have found that hydrogen sulphide in flatus – informally known as a fart – is also produced by an enzyme in blood vessels where it relaxes them and lowers blood pressure, The Sun reported.

Darkness in US amid unrelenting heat

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Three days after a ferocious summer storm, about 1.7 million people, from the capital city of Washington through 10 states from Indiana to Delaware, are still without electricity even as they battle unrelenting heat .

Making up more than half of those knocked powerless Friday night, the total included about 410,000 in West Virginia, 400,000 in Ohio and 340,000 in Virginia, according to CNN. And officials said some may not get power back until week’s end.

Rayala-Telangana proposal not acceptable to T-Cong: Amos

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Congress senior leader and MLC K R Amos on Tuesday stated that the Telangana Congress leaders would not accept the proposal of `Rayala-Telangana’ anytime.

Talking to media persons at Assembly premises, Amos alleged that a section of leaders moving this proposal to divert the attention of Congress High Command from the Telangana statehood issue.

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Injustice increasing medical seats in Telangana ?

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Senior TRS leader and former MP B Vinod Kumar on Monday accused the State and Central Governments’of showing step-motherly treatment towards the Telangana statehood issue.

Talking to media persons, Vinod Kumar came down heavily on the state government for not increasing the medical seats in the colleges from Telangana region.

Mother triumphs in exams – 28 hours after delivery

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You might want to say hats off to a determined British woman who wrote her final graduation exams from a hospital bed, just 28 hours after giving birth to her first child – and secured top marks.

Isobel Cohen, 33, graduated with a first class honours degree in English from Cambridge University’s Lucy Cavendish College – despite sitting her final exams in a hospital bed, Daily Mail reported.

The talented student took on both challenges within mere hours of the other and triumphed.

Georgian PM proposes $600 payment to each family

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Georgia’s new Prime Minister Ivane Merabishvili has proposed to allocate vouchers worth 1,000 lari (about $600) to every family in Georgia, NewsGeorgia reported Monday.

“Families can use the money to pay utilities or buy medicine and textbooks. Farmers can buy fertilizers and fuel. Or it can be used for other purposes not mentioned in the government program,” said Merabishvili, who was appointed prime minister Saturday.

Families would receive the money next year, Merabishvili said, adding that the vouchers will be “for four years.” He did not elaborate.

–IANS–

Eliasson sworn in as deputy UN chief

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Jan Eliasson of Sweden was sworn in as the UN deputy secretary-general here Monday, Xinhua reported.

Eliasson “has had substantial experience at the United Nations serving in a number of different capacities,” UN spokesman Martin Nesirky said at a daily news briefing.

Eliasson has been praised by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon for “his ‘instrumental’ leadership as president of the 60th Session of the general assembly,” said Nesirky.

German birth rate hits all-time low

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Birth rate in Germany, Europe’s most-populous nation, hits all time low, with merely 663,000 children born in 2011, down by 2.2 percent, as compared with the previous year.

The figure was 215,000 fewer than the year before, Xinhua quoted the Wiesbaden-based Federal Statistical Office of Germany as saying.

The birth rate steadily kept on a downward trend since 1964.

Since 1972, deaths had outnumbered that of the newly-born children, while the gap between the birth-death ratio also increased remarkably during the past years.

Hope for mouth cancer treatment

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A protein active in mouth cancer has been identified that could lead to new methods to treat the disease, according to a British study.

The protein FRMD4A is permanently switched on in cancer, and higher the levels, the more likely cancer is to spread and return, Xinhua quoted the Cancer Research UK as saying.

By blocking the protein, researchers were able to stop cancers growing and spreading, and increased the survival of mice with cancer.

British parliament to conduct banking inquiry

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British Prime Minister David Cameron has announced that a parliamentary committee will probe the banking sector following Barclays’ lending rate manipulation scandal.

The probe will involve both houses and will be chaired by Treasury Select Committee chairman Andrew Tyrie, Cameron told the House of Commons Monday, Xinhua reported.

“This committee will be able to take evidence under oath, it will have full access to papers and officials and ministers,” Cameron said.

Nieto claims Mexico presidency win

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Institutional Revolutionary Party’s Enrique Pena Nieto has claimed victory in Mexico’s presidential elections, the Prensa latina news agency reported.

“I assume with emotion, great commitment, and full responsibility the mandate that the Mexicans have given to me this day,” Nieto said Monday after the first results were out.

About 80 million Mexicans voted in Sunday’s elections.

According to the initial results, Nieto got about 38 percent of votes, about seven points ahead of his rival Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador of the Progressive Movement.

NASA to study solar magnetic field

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US space agency NASA plans to study the sun’s magnetic field in a “hard-to-observe area called the chromosphere”.

The Solar Ultraviolet Magnetograph Investigation (SUMI) mission will be launched Thursday, Xinhua reported.

Though there are already instruments that can measure these fields, they are constrained to observe the fields on a particular layer of the sun’s surface.

To measure magnetic fields in the chromosphere, SUMI will observe the ultraviolet light emitted from two types of atoms on the sun, Magnesium 2 and Carbon 4.

Controversy over dress circular to Kerala teachers

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Kerala’s education department Monday sent a circular to woman teachers to turn up at a function in a saree and green blouse, inviting allegations that the colour reflected the minister’s party flag. The circular was cancelled late in the evening.

The Ernakulam district official who issued it was placed under suspension.

The education portfolio in the Congress-led government is handled by Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) member P.K. Abdu Rabb. Green is the official colour of the IUML.

Bangalore court summons wife of jailed mining baron Reddy

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A court here Monday summoned Aruna Lakshmi, the wife of jailed mining baron and former Karnataka minister G. Janardhana Reddy to appear before it on July 10 in an illegal mining case.

The summons were ordered by the Central Bureau of Investigation special court judge B.M. Angadi who is trying Reddy, Aruna Lakshmi and four others on charges of illegal mining in Karnataka.

Aruna Lakshmi is the second accused in the case as she and Reddy own the Associated Mining Corporation (AMC) which is alleged to have indulged in illegal mining in Karnataka.

A million British workers pumped up with drugs

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Over a million people in Britain are pumped up with drugs, a study suggests.

Statistics from a drug-testing firm have revealed that around one in 30 employees tested at work last year had taken narcotics, with the most commonly-used drugs being cannabis, opiates and cocaine, Daily Mail reported.

Earlier this year, a senior British police officer asked employers to consider drug-testing middle-class professionals to help stem country’s spiralling cocaine trade.

Naidu, Narayana held at `Maha Dharna’ for farmers cause

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Protesting the failure of State Government in addressing the farmers issues despite the start of Khariff season, Telugu Desam president N Chandrababu Naidu and Communist Party of India state secretary K Narayana staged a
Maha Dharna at Indira Park.

Addressing the gathering at Indira Park, Naidu accused the State and Central Government
of totally failed in resolving the farmers’ woes including the supply of subsidized seeds
and fertilizers, rescheduling of loans, waiving of interest and in providing minimum

SRIDHAR REDDY’S CALL TO T CONG LEADERS TO WORK FOR SEPARATION

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Congress Party Senior Leader Dr M. Sridhar Reddy has appealed to the Congress leaders from Telangana region to come out from the Andhra Pradesh Congress Committee and set up the Telangana Congress Committee to fight for the cause of separate Telangana state.
Speaking to the media persons, Sridhar Reddy urged the congress leaders from the region to
remain united and mount pressure on the Central government to solve the separate State issue. He
wanted the leaders to achieve Telangana state as it existed prior to merger with Andhra region in 1956,