Month: June 2013

Dikshit mocks Kejriwal on power bills

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Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit Friday took a jibe at Aam Admi Party (AAP) chief Arvind Kejriwal for his agitation against “inflated” power bills, by saying that people who use air-conditioners would have to pay high tariff.

“In the last few years, the sale of generators has declined in Delhi and the sale of ACs (air-conditioners) has risen sharply. If you use an AC, you will have to pay its electricity bill. But Kejriwal does not talk about that,” Diskhit said.

115 Andhra pilgrims still missing in Uttarakhand

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Over 100 pilgrims from Andhra Pradesh are still missing in flood-hit areas of Uttarakhand, officials here said Friday.

Officials of the disaster management department said out of 2,785 pilgrims who went to the hill state, 1,879 returned safely while another 778 have informed their families that they are safe. 13 pilgrims have died.

Commissioner (Disaster Management) T. Radha said the missing pilgrims include 38 from Hyderabad and 35 from Ranga Reddy district.

Salman’s own decisions have led his career: Arbaaz Khan

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Salman Khan, one of Hindi film industry’s commercially most successful actor, completes his silver jubilee in Bollywood this year. His younger brother, actor-filmmaker Arbaaz Khan says Salman’s own decisions have helped his career to flourish all through the years.

“Salman has had a flourishing career by making his own desisions,” Arbaaz told reporters here Thursday at the launch of Gillete Fusion Power.

Arbaaz says it’s not wise to pinpoint the failures in one’s career.

Forgery case against Raja Bhaiyya, wife

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Former Uttar Pradesh minister Raghuraj Pratap Singh alias Raja Bhaiyya’s former public relations officer has lodged a case against him and his wife Friday for fraud and forgery, police said.

The case was lodged by Rajiv Yadav, who alleged that Raja Bhaiyya, his wife, his driver Rohit, his wife and the branch manager of a private bank had cheated him.

Yadav claims that the former food and civil supplies minister and the four had forged papers in his name to open an account in HDFC Bank and used it for “illegal” transactions without his knowledge or consent.

UK energy minister to visit India next week

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Seeking to explore opportunities in India in the field of low carbon technologies and business, Britain’s Minister of State for Energy and Climate Change Greg Barker will visit the country next week.

During his four-day visit between June 30 and July 3, Barker, who is also Minister for Business Engagement with
India, will hold discussions with ministers and business leaders in New Delhi and Hyderabad focusing largely on the Bangalore Mumbai Economic Corridor (BMEC) project.

MAMI festival to don a new logo

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The 15th edition of the premier Mumbai Academy of Moving Image (MAMI) film festival will sport a new logo, giving the cinematic event a contemporary edge and a fresh visual identity.

This year, we have an exciting new logo that incorporates both the city of Mumbai and the iconic gateway of India,” Shyam Benegal, Filmmaker and Chairman of MAMI, said in a statement here.

The icon is a contemporary and edgy interpretation of the city’s iconic monument, the Gateway of India and is a
carefully crafted homage to Mumbai’s art deco era of talkies.

British Muslim leaders sermonise against sexual grooming

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Imams from at least 500 mosques across Britain used the Friday sermon to condemn the sexual grooming of children, a day after five Pakistanis were jailed for a series of child abuse charges.

Their speech highlighted how the Quran condemns all forms of sexual indecency.

The movement organised by the Together Against Grooming (TAG) group urged Muslims to protect children and vulnerable people in their communities.

“We have been horrified by the details that have emerged from recent court cases and as Muslims we feel a natural

Husband, 4 family members acquitted in dowry harassment case

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A man and his parents have been acquitted of the charges of murdering and harassing his wife for bringing insufficient dowry by a Delhi court which said it was a case of suicide and false allegations of torture were
levelled against them.

Additional Sessions Judge (ASJ) K S Pal also acquitted the man’s brother and his wife of the charges of subjecting the woman to cruelty.

12-year-old girl murdered after sexual assault by teenager

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A 12-year-old girl was allegedly sexually assaulted and murdered by a teenager in Chittoor district of Andhra Pradesh, police said today.

The girl, a student of class 7th, was returning home from school at TVNR Puram village in Palasamudra mandal last
evening when the 16-year-old boy sexually assaulted her in a field before hitting her with stone, resulting in her
death on the spot.

Police are searching for the accused.

——————–PTI

Now, space software to identify Alzheimer’s

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Software for processing satellite pictures taken from space may help medical researchers to establish a simple method for wide-scale screening for Alzheimer’s disease.

Used in analysing magnetic resonance images (MRIs), the AlzTools 3D Slicer tool was produced by scientists at Spain’s Elecnor Deimos.

The researchers drew on years of experience developing software for European Space Agency’s Envisat satellite to
create a programme that adapted the space routines to analyse human brain scans.

Aditya Pancholi booked for assaulting neighbour

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For the second time in six months, Bollywood actor Aditya Pancholi is in trouble for allegedly punching and assaulting his neighbour, police said here Friday.

This time, Pancholi, 48, has been booked – but not arrested yet – for attacking his 55-year-old neighbour and educationist Bhargav Patel Thursday, an official of the Versova police station said.

Pancholi has been slapped with various charges following a CCTV footage of the incident provided by Patel, the complainant.

Two get 10 yr jail for minor’s rape and abetment

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A Delhi court has sentenced a man to 10-year imprisonment for raping a minor girl, besides handing the same jail term to the victim’s maternal aunt for abetting the crime.

Additional Session Judge M C Gupta also imposed a fine of Rs 12,000 and Rs 10,000 respectively on Delhi-resident Manoj Kumar and the victim’s maternal aunt.

The judge dismissed their contentions that they were falsely implicated, saying the girl’s testimony regarding the incident was “trustworthy”.

testimony of prosecutrix (girl) on careful perusal and analysis is found to be natural, clear, cogent,

Shinde lauds rescue efforts in flood-hit Uttarakhand

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Union Home Minister Sushi Kumar Shinde on Friday lauded the rescue efforts made by military and paramilitary personnel in flood-hit Uttarakhand .

“Weather has not been good, but all rescue officials have shown excellent coordination in rescue measures,” Shinde told media here

“There is excellent coordination between rescue teams. Our first priority was to evacuate more and more people and take them to safer areas. That job is almost done now and our focus is to clear debris and take out buried bodies,” he added.

Attack on Abu Salem in jail: 4 cops suspended

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A day after gangster Abu Salem was shot at in Taloja jail, four security personnel were on Friday suspended pending a high-level probe even as his lawyers are planning to move Portuguese authorities for his repatriation.

An attempt to murder case was also registered against his assailant Devendra Jagtap alias JD.

State’s home minister R R Patil said additional DG (Prisons) Meeran Borwankar will hold an inquiry into the incident and officials found responsible for the lapse would face action, including dismissal from service.

High resolution mapping technique unveils brain’s complex networking

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Scientists at the Gladstone Institutes and the Salk Institute have found a way to untangle the complex neural networks of the brain by using an innovative brain-tracing technique.

Their findings offer new insight into how specific brain regions connect to each other, while also revealing clues as to what may happen, neuron by neuron, when these connections are disrupted.

‘Social networking’ monkeys learn new methods successfully

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Researchers have found that the power of social networks didn’t start just in the digital age and monkeys, who have strong social networks, adapt to new method very quickly.

The researchers, led by Andrew Whiten of the University of St Andrews, made the discovery by combining social network analysis with more traditional social learning experiments.

By bringing the two together, they offer what they say is the first demonstration of how social networks may shape the spread of new cultural techniques. It’s an approach they hope to see adopted in studies of other social animals.

Key bookie in spot-fixing scam arrested

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Suspected key bookie Jitendra Singh alias Jeetu was today arrested by the Delhi Police in the IPL spot-fixing scandal from Ahmedabad, 40 days after the scam surfaced.

The sleuths of elite Special Cell of Delhi Police arrested Singh from Ahmedabad after zeroing on him in the wake
of arrest of three cricketers — S Sreesanth, Ajit Chandalia and Ankit Chavan along with several of bookies and fixers.

The police claimed that it had transcripts which shows Singh being in constant touch with Chandresh Patel alias Chand and was fixing deals ahead of every cricket match.

South Asians more at risk of diabetes than whites: UK study

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South Asians may have to exercise more than white Europeans to achieve the same levels of fitness and reduce their risk of diabetes, new research says.

Researchers at the University of Glasgow have found that lower fitness levels in middle-aged men of South Asian origin are contributing to higher blood sugar levels and increased diabetes risk compared with white men.

The research, published in Diabetologia, the journal of the European Association for the Study of Diabetes (EASD), suggests that physical activity guidelines may need to bechanged to take ethnicity into account.

ADHD drug may treat cocaine addiction

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A single dose of a commonly-prescribed attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) drug helps improve brain function in cocaine addiction, scientists have found.

Researchers from the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York found Methylphenidate (brand name Ritalin) modified connectivity in certain brain circuits that underlie self-control and craving among cocaine-addicted individuals.

Film music thwarting growth of indie musicians

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Gone are the days when independent musicians or bands were on centrestage and music lovers revelled in songs like “Mai ri” and “Sayonee”. Now, “manipulated” Bollywood hit numbers not only whet the appetite of listeners but also overshadow non-film music and budget constraint makes survival tougher, musicians say.

The 1990s were ripe for music bands and independent musicians. The era saw the emergence of bands like Euphoria, Silk Route, Aryan, Junoon and Stereo Nation which carved a niche for themselves.

Pakistani daily appalled over secret letter to the Swiss

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The revelation that a secret letter regarding President Asif Ali Zardari’s money-laundering cases was written to the Swiss authorities, which ran counter to an earlier letter at the behest of the Supreme Court, “really does have more than a whiff of conspiracy about it”, said a Pakistani daily Friday.

An editorial in the News International admitted that “transparency, honesty and accountability have never loomed large in the national political life of Pakistan”.

US Senate approves immigration reform

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The US Senate voted 68-32 Thursday to approve the biggest immigration reform since 1986, opening the way for legalization and possible citizenship for an estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants.

Although the reform faces resistance in the Republican-controlled House of Representatives, the wide margin of approval in the Senate enormously increases the pressure in favour of an accord.

Fourteen Republican senators voted for the bill, including Florida Cuban-American Marco Rubio, seen as a possible 2016 presidential hopeful.

Eating fish can lower breast cancer risk

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A new study has found that fatty acids found in fish is associated with lower risk of breast cancer.

The results show that each 0.1 g per day or 0.1 percent energy per day increment of intake of n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acid derived from fish was associated with a 5 percent reduction in risk.

To achieve this risk reduction, intake of oily fish such as salmon, tuna or sardines should be 1-2 portions per person per week.

Breast cancer is one of the most common cancers, accounting for 23 percent of total cancer cases and 14 percent of cancer deaths in 2008.

Assange says NSA whistleblower’s exposé ‘tip of the iceberg’

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WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange who has been holed up in the Ecuadorean Embassy for a year has claimed that NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden is expected to reveal much more information about the US surveillance programme and till now what all had been exposed was just a ‘bird”s-eye perspective’. Assange has claimed to have helped Snowden escape Hong Kong and claim for an asylum in Ecuador. He believes that ‘fine details’ to the leaks are necessary to have lasting political impact, The Age reports.

Pak govt reluctant to give timeframe of Musharraf’s trial

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The Pakistan Government is reluctant in giving a specific date about the completion of special FIA team’s investigations against former president Pervez Musharraf for imposing emergency on November 3, 2007.

Attorney General of Pakistan (AGP) Munir A Malik told a three-member bench of the apex court, headed by Justice Jawwad S Khawaja, that giving a specific time would be a speculation.

The counsel for the petitioners has expressed concern over the government’s hesitation to give a timeframe for the completion of the investigation.