‘Exercise, mental activity vital for brain health’

Physical exercise is just as vital as mental activity in keeping the brain fit and healthy, according to an Australian research.

A study conducted by scientists at the University of Queensland’s Brain Institute found the mechanism by which exercise increases the number of stem cells that are actively generating new nerve cells in the brain and reverses the decline normally observed as animals age.

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David Headley to be sentenced in January

Pakistani American David Coleman Headley, a key plotter in the 2008 Mumbai terror attack, will be sentenced Jan 17, it was reported here Thursday.

Headley pleaded guilty to checking targets for the Mumbai attack that left 166 Indians and foreigners dead, a US judge has ruled.

He entered a guilty plea on 12 counts in a Chicago court in 2010, reported BBC.

Headley had initially denied the charges but changed his plea to avoid the death penalty or extradition to India, Pakistan or Denmark.

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Normal life disrupted in Srinagar due to curfew

Normal life was on Thursday disrupted in the city as curfew continued in nine police station areas following sectarian clashes.

In view of the situation, the Kashmir University has postponed all examinations scheduled to be held on Thursday.

“All the Kashmir University examinations scheduled to be held today have been postponed. Fresh dates will be notified separately,” a university spokesman said.

The district magistrate, Srinagar, had on Wednesday imposed curfew in the nine police station areas of the city after sectarian clashes broke out near Hawal area in the old city.

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Yeddyurappa to quit, BJP braces for split

The ruling BJP in Karnataka is bracing for a split as former chief minister B.S. Yeddyurappa will quit the party Friday to launch his own outfit Dec 9.

The 69-year-old Yeddyurappa, credited with leading the Bharatiya Janata Party to power in the state for the first time in May 2008, is also resigning as an assembly member Friday.

The new party, Karnataka Janata Party (KJP), is scheduled to be formally launched at a public meeting in Haveri, about 400 km north of Bangalore.

The KJP was registered last year with the Election Commission by a Karnataka voter, Padmanabha Prasanna Kumar.

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Rajya Sabha adjourned over quota in promotions

The Rajya Sabha was adjourned for the fifth day on Thursday after the Samajwadi Party created a ruckus over a proposal to introduce quota in job promotions while BJP members demanded a debate on FDI in multi-brand retail.

Samajwadi members walked towards the presiding officer’s podium shouting slogans against providing quota in job promotions, while the Bahujan Samaj Party members raised slogans in favour.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) members were meanwhile on their feet demanding a debate on FDI in retail.

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Andhra Congress MLA resigns

Senior Congress MLA from Punganur in Andhra Pradesh, Peddireddi Ramachandra Reddy, on Thursday resigned from the House protesting the continuation of N Kiran Kumar Reddy as Chief Minister.

Peddireddi met Assembly Speaker Nadendla Manohar and handed over his resignation.

A former minister and five-time MLA, Peddireddi is a known detractor of Kiran Kumar in their native Chittoor district.

Kiran dropped Peddireddi from the Cabinet when he became Chief Minister in November 2010.

Peddireddi had set November 29 as deadline for the Congress high command to replace the Chief Minister.

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Micro-finance is in danger zone: Ramesh

Micro-finance is in a “danger zone” and to think that poverty alleviation in India is possible through this “discredited model” is “crap”, Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh said on Wednesday.

“Nothing can stop an idea whose time has gone. And micro- finance is in a danger zone. It is a discredited model. It has raised more questions that it has answered,” the Minister said in his valedictory address at the Micro finance summit here.

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US suspends contracts with British oil giant BP

The US has temporarily suspended new government contracts with the British oil and gas company BP.

The move was in response to a 2010 explosion that killed 11 people on a deepwater oil drilling rig in the Gulf of Mexico and caused the largest environmental disaster in US history.

“EPA is taking this action due to BP’s lack of business integrity as demonstrated by the company’s conduct with regard to the Deepwater Horizon blowout, explosion, oil spill, and response,” the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) said in a statement Wednesday.

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Need to bring down current account deficit to 2.5%: Rangarajan

Prime Minister’s Economic Adviser Council Chairman C Rangarajan has said there is a need to bring down the current account deficit to 2.5 percent over a period of time from over 4.5 percent at present.

He, however, pegged the current account deficit for the current fiscal at 3.5 percent of the GDP.

“The current account deficit is remaining at high level and we should work towards getting the current account deficit to more moderate levels,” he told reporters here late last night at the sidelines of a function.

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Ponty Chadha case: Police likely to seek further custody of Namdhari

The Delhi Police is likely to seek further custody of Sukhdev Singh Namdhari in connection with the Ponty Chadha shootout case with investigators claiming that they have to collect more evidence.

Namdhari’s five-day custody will end on Thursday and police will produce him before court.

A senior police official said they will seek further custody of Namdhari and with his help, they hope to collect more evidence.

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BJP to press for FDI debate in Rajya Sabha

The BJP on Thursday accused the UPA government of “double standards” by allowing a debate with voting on FDI in retail in the Lok Sabha but not in the Rajya Sabha.

Bharatiya Janata Party spokesperson Ravi Shankar Prasad said his party would stick to its demand for debate with voting in the Upper House as well.

“This is double standards… They have allowed debate in the Lok Sabha but not in Rajya Sabha. They know they don’t have the numbers (in the Upper House), so they are trying to escape.”

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Cauvery row: Jayalalithaa, Shettar to meet today

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa and her Karnataka counterpart Jagadish Shettar are meeting in Bangalore on Thursday on the Cauvery water sharing row heeding the Supreme Court advice amid indications that a breakthrough is unlikely.

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‘Chinese firms facing huge challenges in Myanmar’

Chinese companies’ investments in Myanmar are facing huge challenges, said a state-run Chinese daily that called upon Beijing to “exert some influence”.

An article in the Global Times Thursday cited the example of the Letpadaung copper mine project, jointly established by China and Myanmar, which has become the target of growing protests.

Leader of Myanmar’s National League for Democracy, Aung San Suu Kyi, has said she will visit the area. She has also insisted that Myanmar should stick to its agreement with Chinese companies.

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Colombia withdraws from world-court pact

President Juan Manuel Santos said Wednesday that Colombia has pulled out of a pact recognizing the International Court of Justice’s jurisdiction over its territorial disputes, a step taken in the wake of this month’s world-court decision setting new maritime borders with Nicaragua.

“Colombia withdrew from the (1948) Pact of Bogota (Tuesday). The corresponding notice was given to the secretary-general of the Organization of American States,” Santos said.

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Muslim Brotherhood to rally in support of Mursi

Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood has said it will rally nationwide next Friday in support of President Muhammad Mursi, who is facing opposition’s ire over recent constitutional declaration expanding his power.

Party spokesperson Mahmud Ghozlan said the Brotherhood will be joined by supporters in massive protests in support of the recent constitutional declaration by President Mursi.

The brotherhood has so far cancelled such planned supportive protests twice.

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China’s new fighter jet J-15 has range of 3,000 km

Chinese fighter jet J-15, which successfully landed on the country’s first aircraft carrier, has a range of about 3,000 km without refueling and strong sea-air combat capability, said an official.

Zhang Junshe, deputy director of the country’s Naval Military Studies Research Institute, told the People’s Daily that the successful takeoff and landing of the J-15 is a clear sign of an increase in the fighting capacity of the aircraft carrier.

Carrier-based aircraft is an important symbol of the fighting capacity of an aircraft carrier, he said.

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Chavez returns to Cuba for medical treatment

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez is once again in Cuba, where he arrived with substantially more security precautions than normal to undergo treatment.

For the first time since June 2011, when Chavez began coming and going to the island for cancer treatment and medical checkups, authorities in Caracas did not announce his departure time or provide any photographs of it, in contrast to other trips, on some of which he was accompanied by huge entourages on his way to the capital airport.

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Pushing Palestinian resolution at UN a mistake: US

The US on Thursday said that the Palestinian bid for a non-member observer states at the United Nations General Assembly would be a “mistake” and the move would not take them any closer to their goal of a statehood.

With majority of nations deciding to vote on the resolution in this regard at UN General Assembly, the United States appears to be isolated on this particular issue.

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AQ Khan’s political party registered to contest Pak election

Disgraced nuclear scientist A Q Khan’s Tehrik-e-Tahaffuz Pakistan is among 19 new parties registered by the election Commission to contest the general election scheduled for early next year.

Khan, 76, was placed under house arrest in 2004 after he confessed on state-run television to running a clandestine nuclear proliferation ring that provided technology and know-how to countries like Libya and North Korea.

However, he is regarded as a hero in Pakistan for his role in the programme to develop nuclear weapons.

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Pak: 12 killed as passenger bus plunges into canal

At least 12 people were killed on Wednesday when a passenger bus they were travelling in plunged into a canal in Pakistan’s southern Sindh province.

According to reports, the bus carrying 22 passengers lost control and veered off into the Kirthar Canal in Shikarpur district in the province.

“The bus was carrying 22 passengers when it plunged into the Kirthar Canal near Shikarpur,” a police official said.

The official while confirming the casualties said the accident had occurred due to the negligence of the driver.

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Ponting to retire from Test cricket after Perth Test

Former Australian captain Ricky Ponting today announced that he will retire from Test cricket after playing in the third Test against South Africa which begins here from Friday.

“A few hours ago I let the team know that this upcoming Test will be my last,” Ponting said at a hastily-called press conference here.

“It’s a decision I thought long and hard about, put in long consideration about the decision, at the end of the day it was about my results and my output in this series so far,” Ponting said.

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BCCI sparks off fresh controversy, sidelines veteran Eden curator

In a move which has triggered a fresh controversy, the BCCI on Tuesday asked the Cricket Association of Bengal to appoint East Zone curator Ashish Bhowmick to prepare the Eden track in place of veteran Prabir Mukherjee, who has been in charge of the historic Eden Gardens pitch for decades.

According to reports, octogenarian Mukherjee, who looks after the Eden strip, has been sidelined due to his differences with Indian captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni, who insisted for rank turners from day one of the Kolkata Test against England, starting December 5.

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TAQWA – 3 ( Taqwa: The Cornerstone Of Islamic Faith)

On the road to inculcate Taqwa

Once we say “La Ilaha Illallah”, we should take a few steps to lodge Taqwa (piety, righteousness, humbleness, fear, God consciousness, etc.) in our hearts. Some of the steps we can take; include the following:

Know as a believer that it’s Allah’s (our creator and sustainer’s) right to be obeyed:

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Gmail users can now send files up to 10 GB

Gmail users can now send files up to 10 GB from their Google Drive, announced Google on Wednesday.

“Now with Drive, you can insert files up to 10GB — 400 times larger than what you can send as a traditional attachment. Also, because you’re sending a file stored in the cloud, all your recipients will have access to the same, most-up-to-date version”, wrote Gmail’s product manager Phil Sharp, in a blog post.

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Example Of A Mosquito in Qur’an

Unbelievable facts about Mosquito:

The Quranic account of a mosquito which is so different from that of all other animals. It is the only animal which is mentioned with an emphatic denial that its creation could present any cause for embarrassment to its Creator. Thus declares the Quran:

“Allah does not feel shy (or embarrassed) at mentioning the example of a mosquito because of what is carried above it . . . ”

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