Month: January 2013

If you’re planning to report sick this weekend, it’s best if you stay off Facebook, as employers are increasingly using social media scanners to hunt for signs if their staff are wagging work.

Jess Whittaker from Australia’s largest social media monitoring service BuzzNumbers said that cheeky employees are more likely than ever to be caught out as companies routinely scan Twitter, Facebook and Instagram for mentions of their brand, the Herald Sun reported.

She said that people should be 100 percent aware that employers are monitoring.

The phenomenon of crying when we are overcome by emotion developed as a means to communicate our feelings before the emergence of language, a scientist has claimed.

Michael Trimble, a professor of neurology, suggests that there must have been a time in our evolution when tears took on a meaning beyond their simple bio-mechanical function – keeping the eyeballs moist, the Daily Mail reported.

He has written a new book – ‘Why Humans Like To Cry’ – that attempts to shed light on the mystery of why our species is the only one in the animal kingdom to shed tears of anguish.

The entire Bollywood fraternity strongly condemned the ban imposed on Kamal Haasan’s mega-budget movie Vishwaroopam. The latest is actor Salman Khan, who extended his support to the actor-filmmaker.

The Tamil Nadu government last week imposed ban on Vishwaroopam after Muslim groups objected to Kamal’s movie on the ground that it portrays the community in bad light.

Vegetables grown on board the International Space Station (ISS) can be consumed without fearing food poisoning, Russian scientists believe.

Scientists have been studying “orbital-grown” vegetables, including Misuna, or Japanese Cabbage, for several years.

“The samples of cabbage have been brought to Earth,” said a spokesman for the Moscow-based Institute of Medical and Biological Problems.

“We have not detected any deviations in their biomass composition compared with cabbage grown on Earth.”

Actor-filmmaker Kamal Haasan said Thursday that he doesn’t want to move the Supreme Court as of now because he hopes for a positive outcome for his movie “Vishwaroopam”.

“I still have hope things may be settled with Tamil Nadu government. For now, I may wait before moving to Supreme Court,” said Kamal.
On Jan 30, a Madras High Court bench chaired by Justice Dharma Rao reimposed the ban on the film and nullified the revocation of an earlier ban on the film by Justice K. Venkataraman on Jan 29.

The final hearing on the case is due Feb 6.

Tanzeem-e-Insaaf staged strong protest condemning writing of Quranic ayahs on the poster of film Race 2.

Leaders of Tanzeem-e-Insaaf Mr. Syed Aliuddin Ahmed Asar, Mr. Mir Maqsood Ali, Mr. Syed Ameer, Mohammed Amjad and others told that Muslim sentiments have been deliberately hurt in film Vishwaroopam and Race 2.

Siasat news

A 20-year-old woman was allegedly molested by four youths at Beadon Street in north Kolkata, the police said Thursday.

After the woman raised an alarm, locals rushed in, rescued her and caught hold of one of the youths.

He was handed over to the police and she filed a complaint about the incident last evening.

After interrogating the youth, the police later arrested one of his friends while two other accused were at large.

—PTI

There are several waqf properties in Shaikpet around the Qutub Shahi tomb on which colonies have been inhabited by illegally occupying them. An old ancient historical tomb in Shaikpet is now under the control of a non Muslim family where there was a shrine of a cleric.

India and Pakistan are being forced to patch up due to commercial and financial interests, feels critically acclaimed Pakistani novelist and translator Musharraf Ali Farooqi.

“Commercial and financial interests are forcing India and Pakistan to patch up. In the past such interests used to be miniscule but now the (commercial) changes are much bigger and the two countries are tying up because of that,” said Farooqi at the second Kolkata Literary Meet here Wednesday.

Angry over disparaging comments made by some politicians recently directed at them, representative bodies of sex workers and trans-genders have approached the West Bengal Human Rights Commissions (WBHRC) seeking its intervention as their “human rights were violated”.

Members of the city-based NGO Durbar Mahila Samanway Committee – a leading body of sex workers in the state – and Association of Trans-gender in Bengal Wednesday filed a petition to the WBHRC detailing the complaint.

MIM president and Hyderabad MP Asaduddin Owaisi condemned the Aurangabad Police for imposing a one-month ban on his entry while disallowing a public meeting proposed to be held in the town on February 1.

The country deserves to know the truth on the Kargil “fiasco” that led to the deaths of hundreds of Pakistani soldiers and damaged ties with India, said a leading Pakistani daily.

An editorial in the Dawn Wednesday said “…we have understood how Kargil came to be what it really was: a poorly planned and badly executed operation that put hundreds of our soldiers at risk, and not the mujahideen-led jihad initially sold to the nation”.

New revelations paint an even bleaker picture of this gamble that Gen Musharraf took as army chief.

The discovery of a 3,550-year-old child’s sarcophagus near the southern Egyptian city of Luxor could shed light on a little-known period of Ancient Egypt, said Jose Manuel Galan, the head of a Spanish team of archaeologists that made the find.

Experts who for the past three years have explored the vicinity of the tombs of Djehuty and Hery, two high-ranking dignitaries of the Egyptian court between 1500 and 1450 B.C., discovered the intact funeral receptacle lying unprotected on the ground a few days ago.

President Barack Obama hopes to get a comprehensive immigration reform law offering a “pathway to citizenship” to 11 million illegal immigrants, including 240,000 from India, done by the end of this year.

In interviews with Hispanic television networks, Obama said that significant details of a bill still must be worked out by lawmakers, but the progress made by a bipartisan group of senators has given him hope that a deal can get done.

However, given the deep divisions on the issue, Obama said that’s contingent on bipartisan negotiations continuing to proceed well.

Auto, home and corporate loans will become cheaper with banks, led by market leader State Bank of India (SBI), lowering the lending rates by up to 0.50 percent in response to the easy money policy of the Reserve Bank.

While the SBI has reduced the lending rate by a marginal 0.05 percent, private sector HDFC Bank and Federal Bank announced reduction in a few segments like auto loans to the tune of 0.25-0.50 percent.

Yesterday, public sector IDBI Bank and Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) had reduced lending rates by 0.25 percent and 0.75 percent respectively.

Not many know that Bollywood megastar Amitabh Bachchan, who is known for his acting, can also fly airplanes.

During the grand finale of ‘India`s Prime Icon’, the inimitable actor disclosed his hidden talent.

Not only that, the 70-year-old revealed that at one point in his life he had wished to join the Air Force.

He also spoke about the heights he hoped to reach, which today seem as a fairly low goal when compared to the status he has achieved.

“Yes I did take up flying. And if there ever is an emergency and you are in the aircraft, I may be able to land that plane,” he said.

A plea of dentist couple Rajesh and Nupur Talwar, challenging the CBI’s decision to file “additional documents” in connection with the murder trial of Aarushi-Hemraj, has been rejected by the Allahabad High Court. The petitioners had claimed that filing of the documents at a stage where “as many as 15 prosecution witnesses stand examined and cross-examined” would “prejudice the accused”.

A High-level media delegation from Afghanistan which is on a familiarization visit to India, arrived in Hyderabad along with the representatives of foreign ministry. Mr. Amer Ali Khan News Editor Siasat Daily hosted a sumptuous dinner at his residence in their honour. Mr. Zaheeruddin Ali Khan, managing editor Siasat daily and Mr. Amer Ali Khan greeted the delegation which included Chief Editors, Members of Think Tanks, CEOs of prominent TV channels and senior journalists etc. The delegation explained in detail the current political situation in Afghanistan.

A German national drowned while swimming in the sea near Chovvara beach at nearby Vizhinjam, police said.

The deceased was identified as Werner Rudolph (68). He was swimming in the sea yesterday with his wife when he was caught in the current.

Lifeguards at the beach brought him ashore and he was admitted to a private hospital at Neyyattinkara. However, his life could not be saved.

The couple had been residing at a resort at Chovvara for treatment and had planned their trip back home tomorrow, police said.

—PTI

Kerala Government Wednesday withdrew its revision petition filed against a lower court order, directing the prosecution to give copies of documents and statements to Opposition leader V S Achuthanandan in the case relating to attempts to ‘sabotage’ the Ice Cream Parlour sex case.

On earlier occasions, the government had always sought adjournments.

Justice V K Mohanan, before whom the petition came up today, permitted the government to withdraw it. The court also allowed the AG’s plea to reserve their right to file the application again.

A Telangana Rashtra Samiti leader has filed a police complaint against Congress president and UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi, at the One Town police station here on Wednesday.

TRS leader Sardar Ravinder Singh filed the complaint alleging that the UPA chairperson had assured formation of Telangana during the General elections of 2004 and 2009, but did not keep her word, One Town circle inspector V Surender told PTI.

The owner of a nightclub in southern Brazil where more than 230 people died in a fire last weekend deflected blame to “the whole country,” as well as to architects and inspectors charged with making sure the building was safe, his lawyer said on Wednesday.

Attorney Jader Marques said his client, Elissandro Spohr, “regretted having ever been born” because of his grief over the fire, but still blamed Sunday’s tragedy on “a succession of errors made by the whole country.”

Gun violence in Chicago has claimed another teenager who only last week marched with her school band in Washington at President Obama’s inauguration, continuing an escalating trend of deadly shootings on the city’s South Side.

An unidentified gunman opened fire when Hadiya Pendleton, who along with her friends was hanging at a park on Tuesday, just blocks away from their high school.

It is being learnt that Pendelton was shot at her back while, trying to escape. Two of her other friends are also reported to be injured.

Billionaire philanthropist Bill Gates on Wednesday said India is becoming less dependent on aid and eventually would not need it.

His remark came while observing that economic growth is allowing many developing nations to devote more resources for their poorest people.

“The good news on resources is that many developing countries have growing economies that allow them to devote more resources to helping their poorest people. India, for example, is less dependent on aid and will eventually not need it,” Gates said in his annual letter.

The India-Pak region is the most dangerous place in the world, a former top US diplomat who served as the Secretary of State under the Regan administration has said.

“The most dangerous place in the world right now, I think, is India-Pakistan,” George Schultz, who served as the Secretary of State from 1982 to 1989 in the Regan Administration, said on Tuesday during his appearance before the Council on Foreign Relations, a Washington-based think tank.