Month: July 2014

Chief Minister Telangana K Chandrasekhar assured senior leaders of the party that minorities will be given proper representation in connection with the recruitments in government institutions.

KCR convened a meeting of intellectuals and leaders associated with the party and clarified his stand in connection with the recruitments on nominated posts. Inviting the selected leaders to the lunch he made it clear that he is serious in implementing the promises made regarding minority welfare in the election manifesto.

Facebook has clarified their act of ‘altering users’ content’ by saying that they care about the emotional impact of Facebook and the people that use the product.

Facebook data scientist and co-author of the study Adam Kramer said that they felt that it was important to investigate the common worry that seeing friends post positive content leads to people feeling negative or left out. At the same time, they were concerned that exposure to friends’ negativity might lead people to avoid visiting Facebook, The Verge reported.

Rolf Harris has been found guilty of 12 counts of indecently assaulting four girls from 1960s to 1980s.

According to the BBC, the jury deliberated for approximately 38 hours before reaching their unanimous verdicts and found the “touchy feely sort of person”, which Harris had claimed to be, guilty of 12 counts of indecent assault.

A new research has found that young teens who send ‘sex texts’ are 6 times more likely to be sexually active and talk about it.

USC researchers, who defined ‘sext’ in their survey as a sexually suggestive text or photo, have provided a new understanding of the relationship between “sexting” and sexual behavior in early adolescence, contributing to an ongoing national conversation about whether sexually explicit text messaging is a risk behavior or just a technologically-enabled extension of normal teenage flirtation.

The youth wing of Samajwadi Party today held a protest against the fuel price hike announced yesterday by burying their vehicles in the sand and condemning the Narendra Modi led NDA government.

A party worker, Kishan Dixit said, “The BJP promised good days to the people of the country but is fooling the people now. We are against this government’s moves and burying our vehicles in the sand to protest this hike. They are unable to control the inflation in the country.”

The Trinamool Congress (TMC) party has sought a written explanation from party MP Tapas Pal for threatening to send his men to the homes of Communist Party of India (Marxist) leaders to rape their women.

MP Tapas Pal had told a gathering in Krishnanagar, “I will send my boys to their (attackers) homes and ask them to rape their women. If any of our Trinamool men are touched I will ensure that the CPI (M) is finished and ensure that their homes are burnt off.”

Russia is designing a carrier rocket of the super-heavy class, capable to deliver spacecraft for missions to the Moon and Mars, Russian space agency Roscosmos said Monday.

“We’ll hold a meeting in August to discuss the plans to design the rocket carrier,” Xinhua quoted Roscosmos head Oleg Ostapenko as saying, adding that the draft proposals were sent to leading Russian space enterprises.

The super-heavy 120-to-190-tonne rocket will be designed as a separate rocket carrier, not as a modernisation of the Angara rocket, he said.

Dubai the business hub of United Arab Emirates has a sizeable number of Indians. Mr. Khudadad Khan an eminent businessmen of Dubai on the occasion f his Hyderabad visit had invited Mohammed Mahmood Ali deputy chief minister of Telangana and Mr. T Harish Rao minister to attend Telangana celebration in Dubai, which both accepted.

Hyderabadi culture and religious solidarity will be highlighted during the celebration. Invitees will be requested to don Sherwani.

Siasat news

A research by the University of Southampton has found workers in the public sector are more likely to engage in socially motivated activities than their private sector counterparts.

However, their findings also show this is only because public services employ more highly educated and skilled people – characteristics that increase the likelihood of being socially engaged.

Goa’s agriculture department is worried as the rain deficit in the first month after arrival of south west monsoon may pose problems for farming activity in the state.

The meteorological observatory in Panaji has recorded 49 per cent rain deficit in the first month, teamed with the late arrival of monsoon in the state.

The monsoon had arrived on June 11 in Goa as against the scheduled arrival on June 2.

State Agriculture Director Prajapati Tufani admitted that the current trend of rain is worrisome for paddy farming.

“We have to pray to God for showers now,” he said.

It wasn’t exactly the way Joseph Yobo wanted to mark his 100th and final appearance for Nigeria.

With one of his last touches in international football, the man who has held Nigeria’s defense together for the past 13 years scored an injury-time own goal in a 2-0 loss to France in the last 16 of the World Cup yesterday.

“I would have loved to have done it differently,” Yobo said with a wry smile.

A man who used Facebook and other Internet communications to connect with al-Qaida and planned to train its fighters in Pakistan was sentenced today to 13 years in federal prison followed by 10 years of supervised release.

Sinh Vinh Ngo Nguyen, 25,, pleaded guilty in December to one count of attempting to assist a known terrorist organisation.

The rupee recovered by 6 paise to trade at 60.11 against the US dollar in early trade on Tuesday on Interbank Foreign Exchange market amidst sustained foreign capital inflows.

Increased selling of the dollar by banks and exporters amidst sustained inflows of foreign funds supported the rupee, dealers said. Besides, a higher opening in the domestic equity market also helped the rupee but dollar’s gain against other currencies overseas capped the rise, they added.

The White House said Monday that the Islamic group known as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) is fighting to “destroy Iraq”, promising continuing delivery of weaponry to the embattled Arab country.

Spokesperson Josh Earnest, in response to ISIL’s declared establishment Sunday of a caliphate in areas under its control in both Syria and Iraq, described it as “a campaign of terror or of gross acts of violence and repressive ideology that pose a grave threat to Iraq’s future”, Xinhua reported

A new study has revealed that common type of ocean bacteria is natural source of producing compounds, which are nearly identical to man-made toxic fire retardants.

Among the chemicals produced by the ocean-dwelling microbes, which have been found in habitats as diverse as sea grasses, marine sediments and corals, is a potent endocrine disruptor that mimics the human body’s most active thyroid hormone.

A new research has revealed that tennis strawberries have killer bugs hidden in them.

According to the European research, both fresh and frozen varieties of the Wimbledon’s favorite fruit may contain bugs that increase the risk of serious salmonella and norovirus contamination as a result of farming techniques, the Daily Star reported.

Researchers have warned that a lack of hygiene in the packing and freezing process may spread the potentially killer germs.

According to sources, Wimbledon fans alone will be guzzling almost 10,000 punnets a day. (ANI)

The American Academy of Ophthalmology has again established that they do not recommend using marijuana for treating glaucoma.

Based on analysis by the National Eye Institute and the Institute of Medicine, the Academy found no scientific evidence that marijuana was an effective long-term treatment for glaucoma, particularly when compared to the wide variety of medication and surgical treatments available.

Ophthalmologists also caution that marijuana has side effects which could further endanger the user’s eye health.

Researchers can now foresee the aggressiveness of cancer tumors in people, thanks to a study which was being done on mouth cancer in mice.

Ravindra Uppaluri, MD, PhD, said that all patients with advanced head and neck cancer got similar treatments, and they were interested in finding out why some of the patients do well on standard combinations of surgery, radiation and chemotherapy, while some don’t.

In a recent incident, tables were turned when a truck driver pulled over a policeman and accused him of speeding and using a mobile phone while driving.

According to a YouTube video, though the officer first tried to defend himself and even threatened to give the driver a ticket for honking to get his attention, as soon the driver disclosed that he was recording the conversation on his phone, the policeman changed his tone saying the he understands that the driver was only “trying to help him drive safely”, Metro.co.uk reported.

American teen tennis ace Nick Kyrgios is of the opinion that he can beat World No. 1 Rafael Nadal to send the Spaniard tumbling out of Wimbledon on Monday, as long as he steers clear of Canadian rapper Drake.

The world No 144, who is making his debut at the All England Club, is relishing the prospect of facing the two-time champion and said that he has nothing to lose in the battle for a place in the quarterfinals.

The criticism on England captain Alastair Cook is bringing his team mates together to produce a winning performance against India.

England bosses are now convinced that the squad is behind Cook and are determined to give their hundred percent against India to help the captain come out of the strong criticism.

There are plenty around the team who were left stunned at the level of the attack launched by Shane Warne and Kevin Pietersen.

Meanwhile, teammates are supporting the captain and showing faith in him.

Fifth seeded Stanislas Wawrinka marched to the fourth round of the Wimbledon Championship after defeating Denis Istomin of Uzbekistan 6-3, 6-3, 6-4.

The Australian Open champ smashed 12 aces and 33 winners during the match.

Wawrinka will next face Spain’s Feliciano Lopez, who defeated USA’s John Isner 6-7(8-10), 7-6 (8-6), 7-6 (7-3), 7-5. (ANI)

After much delay due to the row over the controversial four-year undergraduate programme (FYUP), admissions into colleges under Delhi University will begin on Tuesday.

Around 2.7 lakh applicants have applied for admission to 54,000 seats in academic session 2014-15 in Delhi University, one of the oldest and premier universities in the country.

Pakistan’s military launched a ground offensive against insurgents in the Miramshah area of North Waziristan tribal region, killing at least 15 militants.

A statement issued by the Inter Services Public Relations (ISPR) said that three soldiers were injured in an exchange of fire between militants and security personnel.

According to Dawn, the army’s infantry troops and Special Services Group (SSG) conducted door-to-door searches in Miramshah town to ensure that the civilian population had evacuated the area.

Sikhs and Hindus living in Afghanistan have reportedly urged the Indian Government to bail them out of the discrimination they are facing in the Muslim-dominant nation.

These Hindus and Sikhs had migrated to Kabul in Afghanistan in search of jobs and livelihood, but now say that they are being discriminated against.

A Sikh ,Raj Singh Kapoor, who is staying with his family in Kabul, felt that they have become a football between India and Afghanistan, where both shirk their reponsibilities.