Month: August 2013

Rs 10 L ex-gratia for Har residents killed, missing in U’khand

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Haryana government today said an ex-gratia of Rs 10 lakh each would be given to the next of the kin of those hailing from the state who died or went missing in the recent natural calamity in Uttarakhand.

A total of 113 persons have either died or went missing in calamity struck Uttarakhand, and an exgratia of Rs 10 lakh each would be provided to their kin, an official spokesman said.

Out of total ex-gratia grant, Rs 5 lakh would be given by Haryana government from the Chief Minister’s Relief Fund, he said.

Happy to break silence, not feeling intimidated : Shobhaa De

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Celebrated author and journalist Shobhaa De today said after the large scale protests by political parties which her latest tweet had evoked, she was happy to break her silence and was not feeling intimidated.

“This (her tweet) is something which has to be strenuously defended and am happy to break the silence and I am not feeling intimidated.

“I am also happy about the public support which I have received (for the tweet) and the Mumbai police has been very proactive in this regard”, De told reporters here on the sidelines of a FICCI Ladies Organisation (FLO) event here.

Seemandhra on boil, protests continue for second day

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Rayalaseema and Andhra were on the boil with protests and shutdowns continuing for the second day Thursday against the central government’s decision to divide Andhra Pradesh to carve out a separate Telangana state.

Shops, business establishments and educational institutions remained closed while buses were off the roads for the second consecutive day in all major towns of Seemandhra, as the two regions are called.

Centre assures justice to suspended IAS officer Durga Nagpal

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The Centre on Thursday assured that justice will be done to suspended IAS officer Durga Shakti Nagpal, who had clamped down on the mining mafia in Gautam Budh Nagar area of Uttar Pradesh.

The assurance was given by minister of state for personnel V Narayanasamy during a meeting with delegation of all-India IAS officers’ association.

“The minister assured us that he will look into all facts. I have been assured justice will be done,” association’s secretary Sanjay R Bhoos Reddy told reporters here after the meeting.

Parties concerned over SC’s criminal candidate order

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Political parties united Thursday against a Supreme Court order on criminals in politics and wanted the government to address the issue during the monsoon session of parliament.

Leaders belonging to the Left parties, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the Janata Dal-United (JD-U) and the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) expressed concern over the implications of the court order that disqualifies a legislator if convicted in a criminal case and bars him from contesting the polls if under arrest.

Modi will be India’s next PM: Yashwant Sinha

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A confident Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Yashwant Sinha has said Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi will be the country’s next Prime Minister.

“I am saying with full confidence that Narendra Modi will be the country’s next Prime Minister,” he told media here.

According to certain media reports, Modi could be appointed as the BJP’s Prime Ministerial candidate as early as September.

BJP assures support to Telangana bill during Monsoon Session of Parliament

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Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj, on Thursday said that her party has asked the UPA Government to present the Bill on forming a separate state of Telangana during the Monsoon Session of Parliament so that the struggle for its creation ends.

“We have demanded that the Telangana Bill should be brought forward in this session because the decision so far has been of the Congress Party and the government decision will be considered only after the bill is brought forward,” she said, while asserting that the BJP would fully support the Telangana Bill.

Sujatha Singh takes charge as India’s new foreign secretary

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Sujatha Singh assumed charge as India’s next foreign secretary on Thursday.

Singh, an officer of the 1976 batch of the Indian Foreign Service, succeeds Rajan Mathai who superannuated from the service yesterday. Mathai is expected to go to London as India’s High Commissioner.

Prior to taking over as the foreign secretary, Singh served as India’s envoy to Germany (2012-13) and the country’s High Commissioner to Australia (2007-12).

Shakira’s secret to sexy curves is zumba

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Shakira has revealed that she is doing the zumba dance in order to get rid of her baby fat.

The 36-year-old pop star made the revelation after Ellen DeGeneres asked her what she did to get back into shape.

Shakira, who is in a relationship with Spanish footballer Gerard Pique, said that Zumba has been actually really great for her, the Huffington Post reported.

She added that even during pregnancy, she kept doing it until almost the end. (ANI)

Meet the Oz teenager behind Apple products’ pre-release revelations

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An Australian teenager has been reportedly found to be the source behind Apple products’ revelations before they are officially unveiled.

Sonny Dickson from regional Victoria has been found to be leaking and selling prototypes of Apple products online months or weeks before the original ones hit the market, Stuff.co.nz reports.

Ex-PM Narasimha Rao’s son passes away

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Former Prime Minister P.V. Narasimha Rao”s son P.V. Ranga Rao, died of heart attack at his residence in Himayatnagar here on Thursday. He was 73.

Ranga Rao, a bachelor, is survived by two brothers and four sisters.

According to media reports, he was ailing for some time and the end came at around 2 a.m. on Thursday.
Rao was a two time MLA from the Hanamkonda Assembly constituency. He also was Andhra Pradesh”s Education Minister during the chief ministership of Kotla Vijayabhaskar Reddy.

OJ Simpson gets parole in 2008 `kidnapping and armed robbery` case

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Former football star OJ Simpson has reportedly been granted parole on some charges rising from his 2008 kidnapping and armed robbery convictions involving the hold-up of two sports memorabilia dealers at a Las Vegas hotel room.

According to the Independent, although Simpson”s parole has been approved, he still cannot leave the Lovelock Correctional Centre, where he has been incarcerated. The report further said that Simpson was convicted on multiple charges and faces at least four more years in prison.

Fortunes of major parties likely to change after AP division

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Division of Andhra Pradesh will see not just a change in the geographical profile of the state but will also totally alter the political landscape across the regions and re-write the fortunes of all major parties.

What gains it accrues in Telangana region by agreeing to divide Andhra Pradesh is a matter of conjecture but the ruling Congress is expected to find the going tough in the Andhra-Rayalaseema regions.

Afridi advises Pak to `savour` Windies victories amid alleged fixing row

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Pakistani all-rounder Shahid Afridi has advised Pakistan to savour their one-day and Twenty20 wins over the West Indies and forget allegations of fixing. According to the Daily Times, Pakistan beat the West Indies 3-1 in the five-match one-day series, and clinched both the Twenty20s on the tour, which finished on Sunday.

Boycott says `pigs might fly` before Oz can regain Ashes hopes

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England cricket icon Geoffrey Boycott has slammed the theory of Australia recovering enough to win the next three Tests and regain the Ashes, saying that ”pigs might fly” before something like that happened in this series. According to the Sydney Morning Herald, such an event happened once before in Australia in 1936-37, when England lost the Ashes series after losing the last three Tests despite winning the first two.

Exposure to chemical in plastic linked to human infertility

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Researchers have suggested that exposure to common environmental chemical BPA (Bisphenol-A) could be a factor as to why some infertile couples have difficulty conceiving.

Dr Catherine Racowsky, PhD, director of the Assisted Reproductive Technologies Laboratory at Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH), said that because exposure to BPA is so ubiquitous, patients and medical professionals should be aware that BPA may cause a significant disruption to the fundamentals of the human reproductive process and may play a role in unexplained infertility.

Actress Nandita Das joins hands with Save the Children to promote breastfeeding

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The first hour of a baby’s life is often the most magical; but it is also the most fragile. It is when the baby is at greatest risk of developing complications and breathing difficulties. And, it is also when they are in danger of not getting what they need the most: the first breast milk.

In India, only 41 percent mothers initiate early breastfeeding. Lack of information and substituting breast milk with baby food products are the leading reasons for low breastfeeding rates in the country.

Violence in Kashmir will get worse

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All the signs are that situation in Jammu and Kashmir is going to get worse, which means more violence, more political and economic instability, more hatred and more suffering for the ordinary people.

It looks that there are powerful forces which want the Kashmir pot to keep on boiling as that is in their best interest. Peace in the divided State of Jammu and Kashmir does not suit a powerful lobby that has its tentacles on both side of the divide.

Fertility therapy does not lead to cardiovascular disease in women

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Women who gave birth following fertility treatment had no long-term increased risk of death or major cardiovascular events compared to women who gave birth without fertility therapy, a new study has found.

The findings, by the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences (ICES) and Women’s College Hospital, are the first to show fertility medications, which can cause short-term pregnancy complications, are not associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular disease later in life.

Exercising may not help cut hot flashes

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Even though exercise has proven health benefits, easing hot flashes isn’t one of them, a new study suggests.

After participating in a 12-week aerobic exercise program, sedentary women with frequent hot flashes had no fewer or less bothersome hot flashes than a control group.

The 248 women in the trial, from the MsFLASH Research Network, were either approaching menopause or were postmenopausal; 142 of them continued to go about their usual activities, and 106 participated in aerobic exercise training three times a week for 12 weeks at a fitness center.

New diabetes breakthrough could change lives of moms and offspring

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Research on the genetics of diabetes could help women get to know their risk of developing gestational diabetes before getting pregnant – and lead to measures being taken to protect the health of the offspring.

Gestational diabetes affects 18 percent of pregnancies but usually disappears when a pregnancy is over. Babies born to women with gestational diabetes are typically larger at birth, which can lead to complications during delivery.

They are at an increased risk of developing metabolic diseases, like diabetes, in childhood and adulthood.

Lewinsky told Clinton she was ‘too cute’ to ignore ‘popping her over’

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Monica Lewinsky, in a never-before-heard audio tape recorded during her affair with former President Bill Clinton, is heard telling him that he cannot refuse her as she is too cute.

In the three-minute, 47-second audio tape recording, which was made after the one-time White House intern Lewinsky had already hooked up with Clinton but before the scandal had broken out, the New York Daily News reported.

`Love Hormone` affects men and women differently

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Scientists have found that men and women are affected differently – by ‘the love hormone’ – in social contexts.

Prof. Simone Shamay-Tsoory from the Dept. of Psychology at the University of Haifa, who led the research, said that these findings are in agreement with previous studies on the social differences between the sexes: women tend to be more communal and familial in their behaviour, whereas men are more inclined to be competitive and striving to improve their social status.

Ishrat case: Accused cops demand more documents from CBI

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Two accused police officers, charge sheeted by CBI in the 2004 Ishrat Jahan alleged fake encounter case, today sought copies of all previous statements of witnesses as recorded by the earlier probing agencies.

The accused police officers, G L Singhal and Tarun Barot, today filed an application through their advocate
Brijrajsinh Jhala, before the court of Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate (ACJM) H S Khutwad, who fixed the hearing on August 5.

Six accused policemen in the case, out of seven who were named in the charge sheet filed by CBI on July 4, have

Mystery behind Saturn’s water ice jets revealed

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NASA’s Cassini spacecraft has found that the intensity of jets of water ice and organic particles that shoot out from Saturn’s moon Enceladus depends on the moon’s proximity to the ringed planet.

The finding adds to evidence that a liquid water reservoir or ocean lurks under the icy surface of the moon.

This is the first clear observation the bright plume emanating from Enceladus’ south pole varies predictably.