Month: January 2015

Sunanda Pushkar death probe: SIT to question Amar Singh today

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Delhi Police Commissioner B S Bassi on Wednesday said that a Special Investigation Team of the Delhi Police will question former Samajwadi Party leader Amar Singh in connection with Sunanda Pushkar death probe, after the latter claimed to have some information about the case.

“The SIT has told me that Amar Singh will be questioned over the case of Sunanda Pushkar after Amar Singh said that he has some information about the case. We will now formally talk to him. He has been called today and he must have arrived till now. SIT would be taking information from him,” said Bassi.

Pakistan may keep Shoaib Malik, Azhar Ali, Sohail Tanvir in reserves ahead of World Cup

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Pakistan all-rounder Shoaib Malik, batsman Azhar Ali and pace bowler Sohail Tanvir have reportedly been informed that they would be kept as reserves as the team continues to grapple with injuries ahead of the World Cup.

The decision has reportedly been taken after consulting the chief selector Moin Khan and the team management in New Zealand. A PCB official said that Malik, Azhar and Tanvir had been told to be on standby so that if some players had fitness issues in World Cup, the team management wanted to be sure they could get quick replacements if required, the Dawn reported.

Microsoft may introduce enhanced features in upcoming Internet Explorer browser

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Microsoft has reportedly announced plans to introduce features that would support extensions in its next Internet Explorer browser, a report said.

Microsoft’s browser development team broke the news on Twitter by saying, “we’re working on a plan for extensions for a future update to Project Spartan,” reported The Verge. Currently codenamed Spartan, the new browser is expected to be released as part of Windows 10 across PCs, phones, and tablets.

Hike Messenger introduces free voice calling

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Home-grown chat application firm Hike Messenger has rolled out free voice-calling Hike Calls, a company statement said Wednesday.

The introduction of this feature will allow its users to call each other for free, over 2G, 3G and Wi-Fi and across the globe in over 200 countries. The introduction of such calls has come within a month of its first acquisition of a free calling app – Zip Phone.

India high on US investors’ agenda after Obama visit: Jaitley

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Finance Minister Arun Jaitley Wednesday said President Barack Obama’s visit to India has helped forge a new commercial relationship between India and the US.

“President Barack Obama’s visit to India has helped forge a new commercial relationship with India. The conclave of Indian and American CEOs (chief executive officer) exhibited a strong confidence about India. The desire of American businesses to invest in India was great,” he said in his Facebook post.

Angelina Jolie writes op-ed piece about Iraq camps

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Just days after Angelina Jolie was photographed on a visit to northern Iraq, the “Unbroken” director has written an impassioned opinion article about her trip.

The 39-year-old is a special envoy of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and co-founder of the Preventing Sexual Violence Initiative. She wrote through the columns of the New York Times after her trip to a refugee camp in Khanke in Iraq Sunday, reports usamagazine.com.

PM Sharif discusses counter-terrorism, energy crisis with ministers in ‘favourite’ hill station Murree

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Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif held two key meetings with top ministers in his favourite hill station residence in Murree recently.

A four-paragraph official statement released by the Prime Minister’s Office said that the Prime Minister and his key Cabinet colleagues discussed the National Action Plan against Terrorism and Extremism, besides the ongoing energy crisis.

Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif, Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan and Finance Minister Ishaq Dar attended the meeting, which reportedly dealt with several thorny issues.

Karnataka start favourites against UP in Ranji

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Champions Karnataka go up against Uttar Pradesh in their seventh round of the Group A Ranji Trophy league match commencing here Thursday with an opportunity to get back to winning ways after two consecutive draws.

With 29 points after six matches, Karnataka are virtually assured of a berth in the knockouts but their performance against Baroda at Mysuru in the previous game last week left a lot to be desired and the hosts were rather lucky to force a draw.

Daily fizzy drinks cause ‘early puberty’, increase ‘breast cancer’ risks in girls

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A new study has revealed that girls who drink a can and a half of sugary cola, lemonade or other fizzy drinks a day are increasing their risk of breast cancer.

The study at Harvard Medical School found that around half a litre a day of sugary cola, lemonade or other fizzy drinks cause early puberty and increases breast cancer risks in girls by 5 percent for each year they mature earlier, the Mirror reported.

Researcher Karin Michels said that their study adds to increasing concern about the widespread consumption of sugar-sweetened drinks among children.

Snakes may have first appeared 167m years ago

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Newly discovered snake fossils have recently revealed that snakes may have first appeared 167 million years ago, which pushes back its origins by nearly 70 million years.

Fossilized remains of four ancient snakes have been dated between 140 and 167 million years old, nearly 70 million years older than the previous record of ancient snake fossils.

The oldest known snake, from Southern England, near Kirtlington, Eophis underwoodi, is known only from very fragmentary remains and was a small individual, though it is hard to say how old it was at the time it died.

Snapchat introduces new feature that will allow users to ‘Discover’ fresh content from CNN, ESPN, others

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Snapchat has reportedly launched a new feature, Discover, that will allow users to see content from brands like ESPN, CNN, Vice and Warner Music.

According to the blog post and the video released by the company, the new feature will enable users to watch stories compiled by artists, publishers, and even Snapchat’s own editorial staff, reported Tech Crunch.

The blog post said that the stories will have “full screen photos and videos, awesome long form layouts, and gorgeous advertising.”

Researchers study surface composition of ‘mountain-sized’ asteroid that flew past earth

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Researchers studied the surface composition of mountain-sized asteroid 2004 BL86 that flew past earth recently.

Remotely operating the NASA Infrared Telescope Facility (NASA IRTF) on Mauna Kea, Hawai’i, Planetary Science Institute researchers Vishnu Reddy and Driss Takir studied infrared sunlight reflected off the asteroid to determine its composition. They were part of a team of astronomers from around the world studying this object.

Ebola virus toll nearly 8,800: WHO

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The number of people killed by the Ebola virus disease has reached 8,795, the World Health Organisation (WHO) has said.

A total of 22,057 cases of the Ebola virus disease have been reported, WHO said in a statement Tuesday.

In line with statistics, the maximum number of Ebola-related deaths has been registered in Liberia. There have been a total of 3,686 cumulative deaths and 8,622 cumulative cases in the country. Liberia is followed by Sierra Leone (3,199 deaths and 10,518 cases) and Guinea (1,910 and 2,917, respectively).

JAL to purchase 32 MRJ aircraft

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Japan Airlines (JAL) on Wednesday announced that it has signed an agreement and letter of intent with Mitsubishi Aircraft for the purchase of 32 firm Mitsubishi Regional Jet (MRJ) aircraft.

JAL rates the performance of the next-generation MRJ aircrafts very high is considering Mitsubishi Aircraft’s proposals for operational support following the delivery of the aircrafts. Mitsubishi has so far 407 MRJ aircrafts (223 firm, 160 option, 24 purchase rights) are on order, including 32 from JAL. Deliveries to JAL are scheduled to commence in 2021.

Sensex, Nifty scale new intra-day highs, end flat

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Positive global and domestic cues led the two major indices of the Indian equities markets to scale new highs in Wednesday’s intra-day trade.

However, the two major indices closed the day’s trade flat on the back of profit-booking.

The 30-scrip Sensitive Index (Sensex) of the S&P Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) touched a new high of 29,786.32 points in the intra-day trade Wednesday — surpassing its previous high of 29,618.59 points touched only the previous day.

The Sensex, however, closed the day’s trade flat. It ended 11.86 points or 0.04 percent down at 29,559.18 points.

Felling of trees: HC notice to Delhi government

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The Delhi High Court Wednesday further stayed the felling of trees on a road in Vasant Kunj locality of south-west Delhi to facilitate the proposed widening of a major road.

Justice Rajiv Shakdher, who had earlier asked the Public Works Department (PWD) not to cut any trees on the road, Wednesday directed it to maintain status quo after residents objected to cutting of trees as it would shrink the green space, and add to more traffic and chaos.

Bill and Melinda Gates thank India for Padma Bhushan

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Philanthropist couple Bill and Melinda Gates Wednesday thanked the Indian government for naming them for Padma Bhushan, one of the country’s top civilian honours, saying they were excited to see the progress India was making.

“We are honoured to receive the Padma Bhushan award for social work alongside so many distinguished awardees and thank the government of India for conferring this high distinction upon us,” they said in a statement.

Chilled Chocolate Slice

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Ingredients

250 gm digestive biscuits or graham crackers

175 gm unsalted butter

150 gm good quality plain chocolate, broken into small pieces

100 gm walnuts, chopped

200 gm raisins

Method

Put the butter and chocolate in a small pan and heat gently until the butter and chocolate have melted. Leave to cool.

Crush the biscuits to make fine crumbs. The easiest way to do this is to put them in a polythene bag and then crush them with a rolling pin.

Palak Murg Ke Korma Kebab

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Ingredients

500 gm chicken leg, boneless

100 ml oil

4 onions, chopped

1 tsp turmeric powder

1 tsp ginger garlic paste

1 tsp chilli powder

1 tsp coriander powder

6 Tbsp yogurt

2 tsp salt

1 bunch of spinach, shredded

1 tsp green chilli, chopped

2 tsp ginger, chopped

4 tsp fresh coriander, chopped

2 Tbsp ghee

2 tsp fresh mint, chopped

1 tsp garam masala powder

3 Tbsp roasted chana dal powder

For Hung Yogurt Chutney:

10 Tbsp hung yogurt

Seven killed in a road mishap on Bangalore Highway

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Seven persons were killed and five injured in a ghastly road accident when the driver apparently lost control on the vehicle after hitting a road divider near Addakal and crashed into an Innova, on the Hyderabad-Bangalore national highway early Tuesday.

The five passengers in the Innova were returning home from Rajiv Gandhi International Airport. The victims were identified as Jadav Madhav (52), Venkat Sambaji (42), Pothedar Sankar (45), Rajeswar Sankar (43), Pothedar Balaji (35), and Kottorvar Srinivas (42) from Maharashtra and Chandi (50) from Kerala.

Andhra bus catches fire, 35 passengers have narrow escape

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Passengers of a private bus in Andhra Pradesh had a narrow escape when their vehicle caught fire in Prakasam district early Wednesday, police said.

The bus, with 35 passengers onboard, was on its way from Chennai to Hyderabad. The vehicle suddenly caught fire at Chagallu area of the district on National Highway 5, about 350 km from here.

Noticing the smoke in the rear end of the bus, the passengers alerted the driver who immediately halted the bus. The passengers rushed out in panic. No one was injured.

Chettinad Masala

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Ingredients

1 dry grated coconut

10 gm sabut lal mirch

15 gm sabut dhania

5 gm cinnamon

5 gm chhoti elaichi

5 gm cloves

3 gm star anise

3 gm kalpasi bark

3 gm kadhi patta

2 gm turmeric powder

Method

Dry roast and coarsely powder all the ingredients.

Drop words ‘secular’, ‘socialist’ from Constitution: Shiv Sena

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The words ‘secular’ and ‘socialist’ be dropped permanently from the preamble of the Constitution, the Shiv Sena demanded Wednesday, a day after a controversy erupted over a central government Republic Day advertisement.

Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut welcomed the exclusion of the words from the R-Day advertisement issued by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, which raised a furore.

‘Twitter accounts for only 17% of Indian social network users’: report

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As Twitter in India clocks a double digit growth rate, the micro-blogging site accounts for only 17% of the total social network users in one of the world’s largest Internet market.

According to a report by market research firm eMarketer, Japan will boast of the largest Twitter population in Asia Pacific at 26 million followed by India at 22.2 million users.

Last year, the research firm had forecast that India will have 18.1 million Twitter users by 2014.