A fund set up by Pakistani schoolgirl Malala Yousafzai, who was shot by the Taliban for campaigning for girls’ education, is to send 40 girls to school in her home region with the support of US actress Angelina Jolie.
Malala, 15, announced the fund’s first project in a video message late Thursday to the Women in the World Conference in New York from Britain, where she was sent for surgery after the attack on her schoolbus last October.
It is possible for the country to achieve economic growth rate of 8-9 percent by the end of 12th Plan period (2012-17) but prior planing is needed for this, Telecom Minister Kapil Sibal said on Friday.
“By the end of the 12th Five-Year Plan Period and even during the 13th Plan period, we will have a growth rate of at least 8-9 percent. It is achievable, but for this we have to plan accordingly,” Sibal said at an event here.
The Delhi High Court on Friday refused to grant interim relief on a patent row to US pharmaceuticals major Merck Sharp and Dohme (MSD) which sought a restraint on Indian firm Glenmark Pharmaceuticals on manufacturing and marketing anti-diabetes drugs Zita and Zita-Met.
Justice Rajiv Sahai Endlaw dismissed the interim application of the multinational pharma major that the Mumbai-based firm be restrained from manufacturing and selling the anti-diabetes medicines on the grounds that the salt used in the drugs were not of generic nature.
The Supreme Court Friday declined to hold an immediate hearing of a Bharti Airtel petition challenging the Delhi High Court ruling resurrecting the department of telecommunications (DoT) order directing it to halt its 3G services in several circles.
As senior counsels Abhishek Manu Singhvi and Soli Sorabjee mentioned the matter before the court, the apex court bench headed by Justice R.M. Lodha said that Bharti Airtel’s plea challenging the Delhi High Court order would be listed in the mentioning list Monday.
Oxford University scientists have developed a custom-built programmable 3D printer that can create materials with several of the properties of living tissues.
The new type of material consists of thousands of connected water droplets, encapsulated within lipid films, which can perform some of the functions of the cells inside our bodies.
These printed “droplet networks” could be the building blocks of a new kind of technology for delivering drugs to places where they are needed and potentially one day replacing or interfacing with damaged human tissues.
NASA’s Kepler space telescope has witnessed the effects of a dead star bending the light of its companion star- a result of Einstein’s general theory of relativity – in binary, or double, star systems.
The dead star, called a white dwarf, is the burnt-out core of what used to be a star like our Sun. It is locked in an orbiting dance with its partner, a small “red dwarf” star. While the tiny white dwarf is physically smaller than the red dwarf, it is more massive.
After a record melt season last year, the Arctic Ocean’s icy cover shrank to its lowest extent on record, continuing a long-term trend and diminishing to about half the size of the average summertime extent from 1979 to 2000.
During the cold and dark of Arctic winter, sea ice refreezes and achieves its maximum extent, usually in late February or early March.
According to a NASA analysis, this year the annual maximum extent was reached on February 28 and it was the fifth lowest sea ice winter extent in the past 35 years.
Producer Bandla Ganesh says he doesn`t have to rave about his forthcoming Telugu action-drama ‘Baadshah’ because the film will speak for itself when it hits theatres worldwide Friday.
Srinu Vaitla is known for blockbusters such as ‘Dubai Seenu’, ‘King’ and ‘Dookudu’. His latest film ‘Baadshah’ features Junior NTR, Kajal Agarwal, Navdeep, Prakash Raj, Ashish Vidyarthi, Mukesh Rushi, Nassar, Kelly Dorji, Brahmanandam and Chandra Mohan.
Long before Bollywood discovered actor Boman Irani, he was just a regular film fan and even stood in line in the middle of the night to see Sanjay Dutt and Pooja Bhatt shoot for 1991 film ‘Sadak’.
Boman, 53, who is here to host the debut Times of India Film Awards (TOIFA), says he has realized the fan frenzy only after becoming an actor.
The ‘Jolly LLB’ star was touched to see fans standing outside his hotel in the rainy and cold Canadian weather to get a glimpse of Bollywood stars.
Actress Neha Dhupia is excited to return to her roots by starring in her first Punjabi film `Rangeelay` with Jimmy Shergill, who has also produced the movie.
The 32-year-old actress, who hosted the musical extravaganza for the debut Times of India Film awards here, said she would not mind taking up regional projects with interesting scripts.
A new set of genetic markers for Alzheimer`s that point to a second pathway through which the disease develops has been identified by researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.
Much of the genetic research on Alzheimer`s centers on amyloid-beta, a key component of brain plaques that build up in the brains of people with the disease.
In the new study, the scientists identified several genes linked to the tau protein, which is found in the tangles that develop in the brain as Alzheimer`s progresses and patients develop dementia.
Bird flu in China appears to have mutated, and the virus has genetic markers that would help it infect people, a report has said.
So far the flu has sickened nine people in China and killed three.
It`s not clear how they became infected, but there`s no evidence that the virus is spreading easily among people.
However, it can evidently move through poultry without making them sick, experts said, making it difficult to track the germ in flocks, the Japan Times reports.
Obesity is associated with the widespread epidemics of diabetes and heart disease, but a lesser-known fact is that the weight can also lead to autoimmune disease.
Now, researchers have shed light on how that damaging immune response happens and how it might be stopped.
The key, they showed, might be to block an important element known as AIM (for apoptosis inhibitor of macrophage) in the bloodstream and, ultimately, the production of antibodies that attack the self.
Researchers in Japan have found a way to “read” dreams after using MRI scans to predict the images that people see when they enter into an early stage of sleep.
They reported that they could do this with 60 percent accuracy.
The team now wants to see if brain activity can be used to predict other aspects of dreaming, such as the emotions experienced during sleep, the BBC reported.
Global population data spanning the years from 1900 to 2010 have enabled researchers to predict that the number of people on Earth will stabilise around the middle of the century, a report has said.
The results, obtained with a model used by a research team from the Autonomous University of Madrid, coincide with the UN`s downward forecasts.
A sixth person has died of H7N9 bird flu in China, state media said Friday, after authorities culled poultry at a Shanghai market where the virus was detected.
The 64-year-old farmer died in Huzhou, in the eastern Chinese province of Zhejiang, local officials said according to the official Xinhua news agency.
He is thought to be among 14 human cases of H7N9 that were previously confirmed, and is the second person from the Zhejiang to die from the strain, with the other four fatalities coming from the commercial hub of Shanghai.
Cutting down on salt and, at the same time, increasing levels of potassium in our diet will have major health and cost benefits across the world, a new study suggests.
Such a strategy will save millions of lives every year from heart disease and stroke, experts said.
Much evidence shows that reducing salt intake lowers blood pressure and thereby reduces the risk of stroke and heart disease.
Less is known about the potential benefits of increasing potassium intake, but lower potassium consumption has been linked with elevated blood pressure.
Minister TG Venkatesh is at it again. He said that TRS president K Chandrasekhar Rao cannot bring Telangana whatever be his strategy.
KCR is only interested in furthering the cause of his family members and has no sincerity on Telangana issue, he said.
Reiterating that the division of the state is impossible, he said, TRS should leave the agitation path and join the development path. (INN)
MLAs loyal to YS Jagan Mohan Reddy wrote to the Speaker N Manohar to disqualify them from the House.
The 13 MLAs, belonging to Congress and TDP, have defied the whip and vote in favour of the No Confidence Motion following which the two parties have complained to the speaker to take action against them.
The speaker served notices on them.
Before the next move, the MLAs had written an open letter seeking immediate disqualification u/s 151 (a) which paves way for the by-election.
There need to be one year gap between the general election and any by-election. (INN)
The Telangana Joint Action Committee will take the fight to Delhi to mount pressure on a solution to the Telangana issue.
The TJAC leaders who met here chalked out an action plan for expediting the statehood issue, decided that they should agitate at the national capital.
They will conduct agitation programmes at Delhi on April 24 and 25.
The previous programme was sadak bandh which evoked mixed response.
While they tried to block the Hyderabad Kurnool traffic earlier, their plan of blocking the traffic going towards Vijayawada is yet to take off. (INN)
The birth anniversary of freedom fighter and former deputy Prime Minister Babu Jagjivanram was celebrated by YSR Congress Party here today.
After paying floral tributes to leader of the masses, Party honorary president YS Vijayamma said that Babuji has worked for the uplift of downtrodden and described him as a leader of the masses. He always stood for the cause of dalits and has won their hearts, she said. (INN)
The Press Council of India (PCI) Friday asked the Tamil Nadu chief minister to suspend 30 policemen involved in the illegal arrest of an editor of a daily nearly three years ago, or resign.
Taking serious note of the government’s inability to comply with earlier orders in the case, PCI chairman Markanday Katju directed the state administration to immediately suspend, chargesheet and arrest the policemen. The PCI chief said a chief minister should resign, if he or she is unable to rule in accordance with the constitution.
TRS slammed Chief Minister for the revision of power tariff saying that it was just a jugglery of figures.
“The chief minister has been cheating the poor once again. What he reduced is a meager amount when compared to what he has increased,” TRS MLA T Harish Rao said here today.
The Chief Minister did not explain whether he is abolishing the Fuel Adjustment Surcharge (FSA) or not. While the amount he reduced or did not increase to consumers up to 200 units is paltry, he did not mention about FSA.
It is the FSA which is the main issue, he said.
US astronaut Sunita Williams here Thursday said she was looking forward to India’s participation in various space programmes in a big way.
“I am really looking forward to India’s participation in space programmes in a big way. A space programme requires a lot of creativity and imagination. Follow your dreams to realise your creative potential,” she said while addressing about 300 students from various Mumbai schools.
Journalists need to have a minimum qualification.
A committee to decide the minimum qualification will be set up soon.
This was announced by Chairman of Press Council of India, Markandeya Kattu here today.
The Committee will be headed by Press Council Member Shravan Garg and will submit its recommendations, he said. (INN)