Month: October 2012

In a public statement, commenting upon the report published in newspapers regarding arrest of a youth Tayyab Jaberi on the charges of alleged links with terror module case, the residents of Barkas have claimed that the youth in question doesn’t belong to Barkas.

Jami’i Qabail Barkas has expressed apprehension and uneasiness on the publication of the news and said that the youth does not belong to Barkas.

It has been stated in the statement that it is quite evident by the history of Yaman natives that they are exemplary in bravery, loyalty and honesty.

Not everybody can be hypnotized, because of differences in brain structures of people, says a Stanford research.

Hypnosis is described as a trance-like state during which a person has a heightened focus and concentration. It has been used clinically to help patients manage pain, control stress and anxiety and combat phobias.

A new US study has found a daily slice of watermelon could help prevent heart disease by halting the build-up of harmful cholesterol and also be a help in weight control.

Scientists who carried out studies on mice fed a high-fat diet found the fruit halved the rate at which ‘bad’ low-density lipoprotein, or LDL, accumulated, Daily Mail reported.

LDL is a form of cholesterol that leads to clogged arteries and heart disease.

Talking about foundation of lifestyle behaviours being established as early as pre-school, a study found that nearly half of obese children ate dinner in front of the TV more than three times a week.

The study, led by Louise Hardy, from the University of Sydney School of Public Health, also showed not many parents realise their children have a weight problem.

The study of more than 1,200 children aged up to five years found almost a third of obese children had a TV in their bedrooms, the journal Preventive Medicine reported.

In an attempt to recover from a disappointing presidential debate, President Barack Obama blasted his Republican challenger for not being “the real Mitt Romney” by contradicting his own beliefs.

In campaign appearances after the debate, Obama said the Romney he met on the stage on Wednesday night was not the same Romney he knew.

The killing of a journalist in Balochistan and similar attacks in the past are “an assault on the right to information”, said a daily, ruing that it had become impossible for media personnel to work safely.

Abdul Haq Baloch, who worked for a private television news channel in the city of Khuzdar, Balochistan, was gunned down in late September.

An editorial in the News International noted that since 2002, some 80 journalists have been killed, most of them in the ‘war zones’ that have crept up across the country.

Others have been gunned down in cities.

Tens of thousands of Pakistan’s wealthy are not paying their taxes, revealing “how large and how audacious the picture of tax evasion” is in Pakistan, said a leading daily Friday.

An editorial in the Dawn said there are times “when the audacity and mismatch between what is being said and what is being done leaves us all dumbfounded”.

The National Database and Registration Authority has completed an exercise aimed at identifying those individuals who have lifestyles of opulence and luxury yet pay no taxes.

One girl was killed and two injured Thursday when a wall collapsed at an elementary school in the Panamanian capital, authorities said.

The accident happened before the start of classes as the three students were playing with a rope anchored to the wall that gave way.

A parent told a television reporter he had warned the school administration that the wall posed a danger to students because it was badly built.

Education Minister Lucy Molinar expressed regret over the accident a promised a full investigation.

Mexican authorities and peasants have stamped out illegal logging at a Monarch butterfly reserve in the mountains of the western state of Michoacan, an official said.

“Mexico has achieved its goal of eradicating illegal logging in the core area for the Monarch, which is an important achievement that guarantees the presence” of this species in Mexico, said federal environment secretary Juan Rafael Elvira Quesada.

Scientists have cracked the code of how mosquitoes develop immunity to virus, potentially opening the way to better vaccines for diseases such as dengue.

A team from the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) Lab, in Geelong, has shown Vago, a protein previously identified in fruit flies, is released by infected mosquito cells, warning other cells to defend against the invading virus.

Five people were killed and three injured when a minivan in which they were travelling collided with a lorry-trailer here in the West Bengal state capital on Thursday night, police said.

The accident took place around 2300 hours in central Kolkata area.

The injured were rushed to hospital, police said. The conditions of two were critical.

–IANS

External Affairs Minister SM Krishna met family members of victims of Oak Creek Gurdwara shooting and said India and the US stand united against those who perpetrate a culture of violence and hatred.

Krishna paid a visit to the Froedtert Hospital in Milwaukee yesterday and met the family of priest Punjab Singh, who is still in coma after being critically injured in the August shooting.

He later met with families of six Sikh persons who were killed when lone gunman Wade Michael Page went on a shooting rampage in the gurdwara, critically injuring three others.

RSS Sarsanghachalak Mohan Madhukar Bhagawat on Thursday said that there was no relation between the RSS and the BJP.

“There is a general belief that BJP is of the Sangh’s. I tell you it is not true. There is no relation between the two, because the Sangh is not in politics. If at all the Sangh wanted to be in politics, then why handover the bridle to others?” Bhagawat asked.

Congress leader Digvijay Singh on Thursday demanded resignation of Nitin Gadkari as Bharatiya Janata Party President in the wake of a letter written by him to Centre seeking release of funds for an irrigation project in Maharashtra, in which an associate of his is said to be a contractor.

“Yes,” replied Singh when asked whether he has made the demand for resignation of Gadkari.

Singh, against whom Gadkari had issued a legal notice over allegations related to coal scam, was quick to latch on the issue and describe the BJP chief as “more of a businessman than a politician.”

Actress Sridevi`s comeback film `English Vinglish` Thursday turned to be the biggest premiere of the year so far where the entire film fraternity came to cheer this diva who is appearing on the big screen after 15 years.

Sridevi graced the premiere with her family including Boney Kapoor, daughter Jhanvi and Kushi.

Sridevi`s 15-year-old daughter Jhanvi said: “I am so proud she is the coolest mom.”

Justice Markandey Katju, Chairman Press Council of India has also made representation for the release of ex-constable Abdul Qadeer who has served 22 years in jail. He urged to release Abdul Qadeer on humanitarian grounds.

Sending a letter to chief minister Kiran Kumar Reddy, Justice Markandey Katju stated that he has received representation seeking release of 55 year old ex-constable Abdul Qadeer. Justice Katju told that it has been said in the submission that Abdul Qadeer has become weak due to diabetes and other ailments and he has a wife and four children to look after.

Facebook has exceeded one billion active users, an “amazing” milestone for the social networking site that now reaches one out of every seven people on the Earth.

“This morning, there are more than one billion people using Facebook actively each month,” said Mark Zuckerberg, the Co-founder and CEO of the social media giant.

“If you’re reading this: thank you for giving me and my little team the honour of serving you. Helping a billion people connect is amazing, humbling and by far the thing I am most proud of in my life.”

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is alarmed at escalating tensions along the Syrian-Turkish border and is warning that the risk of regional conflict and threat to international peace is increasing.

The UN chief is calling on all parties “to abandon the use of violence, exercise maximum restraint and exert all efforts to move toward a political solution,” Ban’s spokesman, Martin Nesirky, said today.

Nesirky said Lakhdar Brahimi, the UN-Arab League envoy, has been in contact with Turkish and Syrian officials “to encourage an easing of tensions.”

All 18 primary school students who were buried in a landslide Thursday in southwest China’s Yunnan province have died, officials said early Friday.

The disaster, which occurred in Zhenhe village of Yiliang county, affected more than 800 people, Xinhua cited the county government as saying.

The landslide had earlier buried 19 people, including the 18 students at the Tiantou Primary School. The other man was a villager, who is still missing, the government said.

Six houses near the school were also hit by the landslide. Thursday’s landslide also blocked a nearby river.

The Big Apple is set to host a two-day educational conference, themed “Bollywood: Beyond the Song and Dance,” featuring some of the most successful Indian filmmakers in the business.

Scheduled for Oct 6 and 7, it also provides a platform for aspiring and established actors, directors, and producers to glean “insider” information about direction, production, script writing, and financing movies in the largest film industry in the world – Bollywood, as the Indian film industry is known, according to the organisers.

The National Service Scheme Cell of Maulana Azad National Urdu University (MANUU) celebrated the UN International Day of Non-Violence. To commemorate the 2nd October (Gandhi Jayanti), Mahatma Gandhi’s path of ahimsa and the NSS theme of the day (From Non-Violence to Humanity), a documentary film “Little Terrorist” was screened. The programme was organized on 2nd October 2012 at the CPDUMT Auditorium, MANUU Campus, Hyderabad in collaboration with Centre for the Study of Social Exclusion and Inclusive Policy and Department of Social Work.

Union Minister Farooq Abdullah on Thursday said time was not far when Congress General Secretary Rahul Gandhi will become the Prime Minister and advised him to look up to his mother Sonia Gandhi for inspiration to fight his adversaries.

“Time is not far when Rahul will be the Prime Minister. There will be troubles along the way but he can look up to his mother who has remained steadfast to fight the adversaries and make Congress party strong,” Abdullah said at a function here, 85 km from Srinagar.

A Kazakh court on Thursday ruled that the anti-Islam US film “Innocence of Muslims” was extremist and issued a nationwide ban on its distribution, Judge Kuanysh Zhaksybergenov said.

The Kazakh prosecutor’s office initiated proceedings Sep 21, calling for a ban on the film’s import, duplication and distribution in Kazakhstan on religious hatred and extremism grounds.

Mobile network operators have agreed to carry out the court’s instructions.

A cabinet minister was roughed up and three people were killed in an attack by machete-wielding militiamen in Kenya, Xinhua reported.

The attack took place Thursday in the coastal town of Kilifi.

Police said the three men were killed after a mob disrupted a meeting addressed by Fisheries Minister Amason Kingi in Mtwapa in Kilifi county.

The minister’s bodyguards were injured.

Sources tod Xinhua that Kingi, who opposes the Mombasa Republic Council’s call for secession of the coastal region, escaped unhurt after a gang suspected to be from the council disrupted the meeting.

Reaching out to the people of Kashmir, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Thursday said he wants to understand their “pain” and help connect them with the development of the country.

On a visit to Kashmir after a year, Gandhi said the youth in the state should join the development process taking place in the country in various sectors such as education, health, infrastructure and electricity.