Month: September 2014

India’s M.C. Mary Kom secured a berth in the gold medal bout of the women’s flyweight (48-51kg) after a convincing win in the semi-final of the 17th Asian Games.

The 31-year-old Indian beat Vietnam’s Le Thi Bang by a unanimous 3-0 decision to enter the final.

The five-time world champion was in fine form and her speed and guile was just too much to handle for the Vietnamese fighter. Mary Kom peppered her opponent with multiple combination punches and didn’t give her anytime to gain a foothold.

The Indian women’s kabaddi team on Tuesday brushed aside South Korea 45-26 to top Group A and enter the semi-finals of the 17th Asian Games.

The Indian team, which thrashed Bangladesh on Sunday, put in another dominating performance to trounce the hosts at the Songdo Global University Gymnasium.

The women’s team, with the starting line-up of Kavitha Selvaraj, Kavita Devi, V. Tejeswini Bai, Abhilasha Mhatre, Priyanka, Mamatha Poojari and Kishori Shinde, rode on its brilliant first half when it zoomed to 27-10 lead.

The benchmark BSE Sensex rose over 90 points late morning trade today after the Reserve Bank kept key interest rate unchanged in its bi-monthly monetary policy.

This is the fourth consecutive time that the RBI has kept key interest rates unchanged despite clamours from the industry to cut rates to boost economy.

After commencing 30 points lower, the 30-share index was up 90.07 points, or 0.34 per cent, to trade at 26,687.18 at 1145 hrs.

Similarly, the broad-based National Stock Exchange Nifty recovered by 18.40 points, or 0.23 per cent, to 7,977.30.

Reserve Bank Governor Raghuram Rajan today left all key rates unchanged citing increased risks to inflation and difficult external situation especially on the geopolitical front.

This is the fourth consecutive time that the RBI has kept key interest rates unchanged despite clamours from the industry to cut rates to boost economy.

The short-term lending rate (repo) rate now stands at 8 per cent, and the cash reserve requirement of banks at 4 per cent. The statutory liquidity ratio (SLR) has also been retained at 22 per cent.

Participating in the Thirteenth Meeting of Foreign Ministers ahead of the Second UN Conference on LLDCs in Vienna, Kazakhstan has listed four steps that need to be used for establishing a framework of new goals and targets.

In his address, Kazakhstan’s Deputy Foreign Minister Yerzhan Ashikbayev said that the past decade has been a period of significant economic and social progress.

Apple has issued a patch for its OS X Lion, Mountain Lion and Mavericks software to protect against the Shellshock security flaw.

The company on Monday said that it had created a site for users to download the Bash update, CNET reports.

The announcement comes even as Apple last week said that majority of Mac users were safe from the security vulnerability known as the Bash or Shellshock bug.

An Apple spokesperson said in a statement to iMore earlier that the vast majority of OS X users were not at risk to recently reported Bash vulnerabilities.

A new phone app has been created to solve the problem of date rape and sexual assault by allowing users to give ‘consent’ prior to sex.

The Good2Go app, which is free on both iPhone and Android devices, will ask the potential sexual partner a few questions before sex, starting with “are we Good2Go?”, News.com.au reported.

The app created by Lee Ann Allman, who was inspired to make it after talking with her university-aged kids about sexual assault and noticing how confused they were, gives out three possible answers, that is, “No thanks,” “Yes, but we need to talk,” or “I’m Good2Go.”

Toshiba Corporation today announced that it has begun production of vegetables at the Toshiba Clean Room Farm Yokosuka, a plant factory in Yokosuka, Kanagawa prefecture.

Shipment of the first crop is scheduled for the end of October.

Located in a formerly idle facility, Toshiba’s closed-type plant factory uses state-of-the-art technology to raise crops and operates under almost aseptic conditions.

Accepting the unchanged current credit policy of RBI announced today, the market experts Nirav Vakharia and Akash Jindal said here on Tuesday that RBI has already indicated that until the target of six percent inflation is not achieved they are not going to budge from their interest rate line.

Not much surprised by the fourth bi-monthly monetary policy, Chandrajit Banerjee, Director General of CII said that RBI’s decision to maintain status quo on policy rates is not fully unexpected.

Banerjee said, “RBI’s decision to maintain status quo on policy rates is not fully unexpected as in the growth-inflation dilemma, the concern is to guard against the anticipation of upside risks emerging from inflationary expectations.”

A new research has revealed that opioid painkillers carry higher risk of death, overdose, addiction or serious side effects than benefits in chronic, non-cancer conditions like headache, fibromyalgia and chronic low back pain.

Opioids, or narcotics, are pain medications including morphine, codeine, oxycodone, methadone, fentanyl, hydrocodone or a combination of the drugs with acetaminophen.

The US has reportedly released a hit list of terrorists thought to be ringleaders in the Islamic State militant group.

According to News.com.au, the countdown of the world’s most wanted identifies the most dangerous terrorists, and comes with orders to block their assets and makes it a crime for any US person to come into contact with them.

Amru Al-Absi, who “has been in charge of kidnappings” as “a principal leader of Islamic State in Syria”, is on top of the most wanted list.

Protests were carried out today in Chennai and Bangalore in support of jailed AIADMK supremo J. Jayalalithaa, even as the Karnataka High Court on Tuesday adjourned her bail plea hearing till October 6.

AIADMK supporters staged a protest outside the Parappana Agrahara jail in Bangalore, where party leaders had paid a visit earlier today to meet Jayalalithaa.

Meanwhile in Chennai, Tamil film stars, including actor and leader Sharath Kumar, came out in Jayalalithaa’s support and staged a silent protest.

An Indian, who spent almost nine years in jail in Saudi Arabia in connection with the murder of a Pakistani worker, has been deported to India after he was acquitted of the charges.

Abdul Rahman Punnoth, who hails from Kozhikode, was acquitted by a Riyadh court. He was deported yesterday.

Punnoth was working as labourer in Riyadh since 2003. Sabir Khan, who was a watchman at the warehouse of the company’s store, was found dead on April 2006, Saudi Gazette reported.

In a life-saving surgery, doctors in Kyrgyzstan have removed a massive 4 kg hairball from a teenager’s stomach.

The hairball was formed because the 18-year-old girl chewed the tips of her hair, and even ate hair and bits of wool she found on the carpet at home, doctors said.

Ayperi Alekseeva from Batken Province in Kyrgyzstan, had to be transported to a hospital in the capital city of Bishkek for treatment after she could not even drink water without being sick.

Medics treating Alekseeva found a massive hairball blocking her digestive system, ‘metro.Co.Uk’ reported.

Akashdeep Singh scored a brilliant field goal to help a spirited India beat hosts Korea 1-0 and enter the final of the men’s hockey competition of the 17th Asian Games for the first time 12 years, in Incheon on Tuesday.

After a barren opening half, it took a gem of a goal from Akashdeep to break the deadlock in the 44th minute of the match. Indian men’s hockey team, which last made it to the final of the Asiad way back in 2002 Busan Games, will now face the winner of the other semifinal between arch-rivals Pakistan and Malaysia in the summit clash on Thursday.

Government will involve business and industrial chambers, residents welfare associations and NGOs among others to create mass awareness about its ambitious ‘Clean India’ campaign.
Besides, the central government ministries have been asked to be in touch with their counterparts in states and union territories to emphasize upon the need for cleanliness in public places.

Scientists have come across a tooth lodged in a thigh bone of a giant ancient reptile, which has shed light on how the animals lived 220 million years ago.

Till now, it was thought that animals at the age of dinosaurs, where some lived on land and others in water, didn’t much interact. But the tooth, which was found by a University of Tennessee, Knoxville, researcher in the thigh of one of these ancient animals, has challenged the belief.

Bacteria that metabolise ammonia, a major component of sweat, may improve skin health and could be used for the treatment of skin disorders, such as acne or chronic wounds, scientists say.

In a study conducted by AOBiome LLC, in Massachusetts, human volunteers using the bacteria reported better skin condition and appearance compared with a placebo control group.

Ammonia-oxidising bacteria (AOB) are ubiquitous in soil and water and are essential components of the nitrogen cycle and environmental nitrification processes.

Popular Bollywood actor, writer and director Kader Khan is in Mecca to perform Haj along with his two sons.

Khan, 78, arrived in Mecca with his two sons, Sarfaraz and Shahnawaz, who is also an actor and has been seen in films like Tere Naam. Shahnawaz is also accompanied by his wife.

“Kader Khan is very happy to be in Mecca,” Indian Haj official Omer Khan told PTI. He said that right now he is staying in Azizia, Mecca.

“When he drank zam zam (holy water) he gave me a lot of blessings. His health is not very good, he is wheel-chair bound but is very elated at performing Haj.”

Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh and Water Resources Minister Uma Bharti today participated in a cleanliness drive of drying and polluted Gomti River in Lucknow.

The ministers said all required efforts would be made to rejuvenate the water body.

Singh said countries with dying rivers cannot develop and cited the example of development of London after the rejuvenation of Thames River.

“She (Uma Bharti) promised us that she will take all attempts to turn Gomti into a clean and beautiful river exactly the way Sabarmati was developed,” said Singh.

From shooting in seven different locations across the globe to performing strenuous stunts, Katrina Kaif has done it all in action thriller ‘Bang Bang’ which the actress says was the most difficult film to work on.

The 31-year-old actress says she has been hard at work for over a year along with the team to bring the Rs 140 crore film to the big screen.

Archaeologists in Turkey believe they have unearthed dungeons that once held Dracula.

According to reports, restoration works in the Tokat Castle in Turkey have discovered a secret tunnel leading to the Pervane Bath and a military shelter and two dungeons in the castle, where Wallachian Prince Vlad III the Impaler, who was also known as Dracula, is said to have been held as political hostage in the early 15th century by the Ottoman Turks, News.com.au reported.

Kolkata Knight Riders off spinner Sunil Narine has been reported for a suspected illegal bowling action following his side’s 36-run win over the Dolphins in the Champions League Twenty20 Group A match on Monday.

The on-field umpires Anil Chaudhary and Chettihody Shamshuddin along with third umpire Kumar Dharmasena laid the charges on the West Indies bowler and specifically relates to Narine’s quicker ball.

Expecting some concrete results from the Prime Minister Narendra Modi and U.S President Barack Obama’s meeting, former Indian ambassador Surendra Kumar said here today that the U.S is looking for a huge market which India now has.

Kumar said, “It is a great thing and was a very huge meeting. He (PM Modi) made a very important speech as he covered everything that was necessary. U.S is looking for a huge market which now India has.”