Month: July 2013

Floods in Assam sweep away 300 villages, destroy homes and crops

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Heavy monsoon rains caused floods in Assam forcing thousands to flee as the overflowing Brahmaputra river burst its bank and heavy flow of water washed away homes and destroyed crops in 300 villages in eight districts. The worst impact of the floods was felt in Morigaon and Dhemaji districts. Villagers have accused officials of draining off the funds meant for flood risk projects. The quality of work, they complain, has been of low quality and embankments get regularly breached.

Obama ‘deeply concerned’ by Egyptian army’s removal of Morsi from power

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U.S. President Barack Obama is deeply concerned by the Egyptian Armed Forces’ decision to remove President Mohamed Morsi from power.

Following the move on Wednesday, Obama hopes to see the military quickly return authority to a democratic government.

Obama, in a statement released nearly four hours after the Egyptian military announced it had removed Morsi from his post, said the U.S. is monitoring the very fluid situation in Egypt, and they believe that ultimately the future of Egypt can only be determined by people in Egypt.

Casual sex could lead to higher levels of anxiety and depression

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University students, who engage in casual sex – having intercourse with someone whom you have known for less than a week –suffer from higher levels of general anxiety, social anxiety and depression, researchers have claimed.

3,900 straight students in the age group of 18 and 25 from 30 different US colleges were questioned about their sex lives and mental well-being.

Oz artist marries 600-year-old French bridge

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An Australian artist got married to Le Pont du Diable – a 600-year-old bridge in Southern France – on June 17.

Jodi Rose travels the world and records the vibrations of bridge cables for her ‘Singing Bridges’ music project.

The wedding ceremony on June 17 was held at the entrance of her groom with 14 guests in attendance; the mayor of Saint-Jean-de-Fos, a neighbouring town, also attended the event, the Huffington Post reported.

According to Oddity Central, Rose wore a floor-length ivory dress and carried a beautiful bouquet during her marriage to the bridge.

Morsi held at military intelligence facility post coup dӎtat

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Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi is being reportedly held at the military intelligence facility after military chief made a televised announcement that Morsi has been ousted and his powers will be taken upon by the chief justice of the constitutional court, Adli Mansour. Morsi had refused to bend down to the 48-hour ultimatum provided by the army to ‘meet the demands of the Egyptian people’ and had said that he wouldn’t be dictated internally or externally as he is a democratically elected president.

PCB interim chief Sethi says Pak cricket at `lowest ebb`

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Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) interim chief Najam Sethi has said that cricket in the country has reached its lowest point due to a string of scandals involving cheating players, teams not touring the country and court cases. According to the Daily Times, Pakistan”s national team suffered a humiliating exit from the elite eight-nation ICC Champions Trophy in England last month, while four Pakistan players – Salman Butt, Mohammad Asif, Mohammad Aamir and Danish Kaneria – are banned for spot-fixing.

Now, millions more could get HIV treatment

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A landmark study by researchers in Australia could help millions more get access to life-saving HIV drug therapy.

Australian researchers based at the Kirby Institute at the University of New South Wales (UNSW) found that a lower daily dose of an important HIV drug therapy is safe and as effective in suppressing the virus as the standard recommended dose.

Health benefits of happy marriage revealed

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People, who are in happy marriages, don’t fall sick often and enjoy more good health, a new research has suggested.

In a 20-year longitudinal study tracking health and marriage quality, Brigham Young University family life researcher Rick Miller found that as the quality of marriage holds up over the years, physical health holds up too.

He said that there is proof from previous research that marital conflict leads to poor health and his study showed that happy marriages have a preventative component that keeps people in good health over the years.

Recipe: Ginger Biscuits

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Ingredients

115 gms (4 oz) Butter
200 gms (7 oz) White Sugar
1 tbsp Golden Syrup
1 Egg
225 gms (8 oz) Flour (Maida)
1 tsp Baking Powder
3 tsp Ginger Powder
2 tsp Mixed Spice
½ tsp Baking Soda

How to make

Preheat oven to 180°C, 350°F or gas mark 4.

In a large bowl, blend the butter and sugar, add golden syrup and egg to mix them thoroughly.

Add the flour, baking powder, ginger powder, mixed spice and baking soda and mix until well combined.

Roll into small balls and place on lined baking tray allowing room to spread. Do not flatten the balls.

Exercise makes brain more resilient towards stress

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Exercising helps reorganize the brain so that its response to stress is reduced and there is no interference with its normal functioning, a research team has claimed.

The researcher team based at Princeton University report in the Journal of Neuroscience that when mice allowed to exercise regularly experienced a stressor – exposure to cold water – their brains exhibited a spike in the activity of neurons that shut off excitement in the ventral hippocampus, a brain region shown to regulate anxiety.

Suriya to start production house D2 Entertainment

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Tamil actor Suriya Sivakumar has decided to venture into production and as a producer he reportedly plans to back small and interesting films.

He is expected to make an official announcement soon.

“He has named the production house D2 Entertainment after his children – Dev and Diya. He will make the official announcement soon and he is planning to produce low-budget, interesting films,” a source close to Suriya said.

Suriya`s cousins run a production house called Studio Green.

IANS

`Gumrah 3` to show ways to prevent tragedy

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After trying to sensitise the society with its first two seasons, “Gumrah: End of Innocence” returns with the third season and this time the motto is to tell people how to prevent crime.

“The theme of the season is – `be aware, be prepared, be safe`,” Prem Kamath, general manager and executive vice president, Channel V, told reporters at the launch of the show Thursday.

The show, set to go on air July 7, will tell people how to prevent crime by acting right.

6% American adults online now use Reddit: Study

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A new study has revealed that 6 percent of American adults online reportedly use Reddit, a self-proclaimed first page of Internet which allows users to submit links and vote them up or down based on their quality, novelty or general ability to generate amusement,

According to the study by Pew Center’s Internet and American Life project, the six percent of people who frequent the site put Reddit at par with with Tumblr as compared to Twitter which is used by 1 6 percent of American adults online and 67 percent of those who use Facebook, Washington Post reports.

New system will unveil even the most hidden crime scene fingerprints

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Scientists have developed a new system for visualising “hidden” crime scene fingerprints.

Despite several enhancement techniques already in use, only about 10 percent of fingerprints from crime scenes are of sufficient quality to be used in court.

The technique is based around fluorescent chemical “tags” and works on metal surfaces, meaning it could be used on knives, guns or bullet casings, the BBC reported.

Early bombardment history on Mercury revealed

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A team of scientists has revealed that the oldest visible terrains on Mercury have an age of 4 billion to 4.1 billion years, and that the first 400 to 500 million years of the planet’s evolution are not recorded on its surface.

To reach its conclusion, the team measured the sizes and numbers of craters on the most heavily cratered terrains using images obtained by the MESSENGER spacecraft during its first year in orbit around Mercury.

US spent $630,000 to ‘buy’ Facebook fans

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The US State Department was on Wednesday under fire for spending USD 630,000 over two years to win millions of “likes” on its Facebook pages at a time of severe government austerity measures.

A scathing report by the department’s independent watchdog took the coordinators of its social media outreach policy to task saying it needed to “direct its digital advertising to specific public diplomacy goals”.

RBI backs FM’s call to banks to cut lending rates

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Endorsing Finance Minister P Chidambaram’s call to banks to pass on the benefit of rate cuts to customers, RBI Governor D Subbarao on Thursday said the central bank is also “very conscious” of the need to be supportive of economic growth.

A day after Chidambaram nudged banks to cut minimum or base lending rate in line with periodic interest rate cuts being made by RBI, Subbarao said lending rates have be to reduced to attract investments.

Ajit Singh meets Sonia Gandhi amid controversy over Jet-Etihad deal

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Civil Aviation Minister Ajit Singh on Thursday met UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi amid a raging controversy over the Rs 2,058 crore deal between Jet Airways and Etihad.

However, the sources said the meeting was of political nature as Gandhi is UPA Chairperson and Singh’s RLD is part of the ruling coalition.

The issue of Jet-Etihad deal is understood to have come up during the meeting.

We are opening our arms and hearts for Indian students: France

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At a time when the UK is mulling hefty visa cash bond raising concerns here, France today announced a slew of India-specific measures easing visa norms for those wanting to pursue higher education, a move that is expected to increase the inflow of Indian students to that country.

“There is no competition between the UK and us. We have our own visa policy, they (the UK) have their own visa policy,” French Ambassador to India Francois Richier said here.

France, he said, is not challenging anybody but has introduced a number of measures to enable Indian students to study in his country.

Not all eligible applicants may get bank licence: Subbarao

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Asserting that it will accelerate the process of issuing new bank licences, Reserve Bank Thursday said it was possible that not all eligible applicants will be granted a licence.

“We will try to accelerate the process … We will look at the applications and then decide. It is still possible that not all eligible applicants might get licences,” RBI Governor D Subbarao told reporters here.

Railgate: CBI names former minister P K Bansal as witness

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Former Union Railway Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal, whose nephew Vijay Singla and nine others have been chargesheeted by the CBI in the Rs 10 crore cash-for -post railway bribery case, has been named as a prosecution witness.

The agency has filed a list of 90 prosecution witnesses along with the charge sheet in a special CBI court here and Bansal has been named as the 39th witness.

Don’t provoke China with new trouble: PLA General warns India

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Hours before the arrival of Defence Minister A K Antony here for high-level talks, a hawkish Chinese General today warned India against provoking “new trouble” by increasing its military deployment at the border.

“There is no denying that there are tensions and problems between China and India particularly at the border areas,” Major General Luo Yuan, Executive Vice President and Secretary General of China Strategy Culture Promotion Association, said.

Bomb kills four girls at Afghan wedding: Officials

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A bomb attack killed four girls attending an Afghan wedding, officials said Thursday, blaming the attack on Taliban rebels intending to target government employees at the event.

The children, aged between seven and 12, died when an improvised explosive device (IED) detonated as they collected water from a river during celebrations in the southern province of Helmand.

“The children were at the wedding party and this morning they went to collect water when the IED exploded on a footpath,” provincial administration spokesman Omar Zwak told AFP.

BJP to observe ‘black week’ in Bansal’s constituency

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BJP has decided to observe “black week” in protest against non-inclusion of the name of former Railway minister Pawan Kumar Bansal in the rail gate scam CBI charge sheet.

Chandigarh BJP president Sanjay Tandon, while addressing a press conference here, said that the party has prepared a ‘citizens’ charge sheet’ that will reach every household of the constituency.

Former Chandigarh MP Satya Pal Jain said,”If CBI feels that the bribe was not for Bansal then who was it for?”

Manoj, 2 others in Asian Championships quarters

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Commonwealth Games gold-medallist Manoj Kumar continued his fine form to enter the quarterfinals along with two others as Indian boxers rounded off an all-win day at the Asian Championships in Amman, Jordan.

The light welterweight (64kg) boxer was joined by Mandeep Jangra (69kg) and Sukhdeep Singh (75kg) in the last-eight stage.

Manoj, playing his second bout in a bid for the continental crown, hardly broke a sweat against Sri Lankan opponent Mohamed Dilshan.