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Samy Vellu’s men sweep MIC elections

September 14, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Kuala Lumpur, Sep. 13 (ANI): The team chosen by Malaysian Indian Congress president S. Samy Vellu has won all top four positions at the party elections held on Saturday.

The clean sweep has silenced Samy Vellu’s critics who were saying that the MIC president was losing grip on the party, the Star Online reports.

G. Palanivel led the charge by fighting off a strong challenge from S. Subramaniam to retain his deputy presidency by 82 votes.

The other challenger, S. Sothinathan, also failed to fare any better.

Other three vice-presidents elected are-Dr S. Subramaniam, S.K. Devamany and M. Saravanan.

Nineteen out f 23 central working committee posts were won by Samy Vellu’s men.

Following the result declaration, Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak urged the MIC to re-unite and strengthen itself to face the challenges ahead. (ANI)

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Militants killed three BSF jawans in Manipur

September 12, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Imphal, Sep 12 (ANI): Armed militants near Oksu village in Imphal district of Manipur killed three jawans of the Border Security Force (BSF) on Saturday.

According to sources, heavily armed militants belonging to the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) opened indiscriminate fire on the BSF near Oksu village, 20 km east of Imphal.

According to Manipur police, the militants who were positioned on top of a hillock are reportedly fled with the weapons of the dead jawans. (ANI)

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MIC veep hopeful wants new economic plan for Malay Indians

September 1, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Petaling Jaya, Aug 31 (ANI): Former Federal Territory Malaysian Indian Congress chief, V.K.K. Teagarajan, who is making a second bid for the vice-presidency, wants to draw up a plan to boost the economic status of the Indian community.

“I have 20 years involvement in the Indian Chamber and have the knowledge to contribute positively to the party and the Indian community,” he said.

Teagarajan, 60, who failed in his first vice-presidential bid in 2006 when he came fourth, is more confident of his chances this time although six others’ are vying for the three posts of vice-president.

He said he tried to join the MIC three times since 1972 before then Federal Territory MIC chairman S. Subramaniam offered him a branch in 1986, The Star reported.

Five years later, he contested and won the Federal Territory chairman’s post, defeating P.S. Pillay and went on to hold the post for 13 years.

In the 2003 party elections, Teagarajan submitted his nomination papers for the vice-presidential post, but withdrew within hours at the request of party president S. Samy Vellu. This angered his supporters.

His confidence this time has been buoyed when Samy Vellu introduced him to Pahang delegates on Friday.

“I did not expect it but this has boosted my chances. This time, there is a sense for change,” he added.

Teagarajan said the vice-presidential aspirants endorsed by the president had their official work to do and the extra burden would be taxing. (ANI)

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‘Twittering’, ‘hmm’, and ‘heh’ make it to Collins English Dictionary

September 1, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

London, Aug 31 (ANI): ‘Twittering’, ‘hmm’, and ‘heh’ are among the 267 words that have been added to this year’s Collins English Dictionary, all thanks to teenagers who use such words on social networking websites.

With teenagers increasingly using these grunts and sighs in words on Twitter and other such websites, the need to find spellings for sounds that were traditionally used only in speech has also spawned “meh” (an expression of dissatisfaction) and “mwah” (the sound of a noisy kiss).

Users of social networking sites may also be responsible for the resurgence of “heigh-ho” or “hey-ho” – an exclamation of weariness, disappointment, surprise or happiness – that went out of fashion in the early 20th century.

In fact, Twitter-the microblogging site that allows people to communicate in messages of 140 characters or less-has also been accepted as a verb by the dictionary to describe the act of using Twitter.

Other internet-derived terms include “noob” (short for newbie, a term for someone unfamiliar with web etiquette) and “woot” (an expression of joy conveying a sense of achievement).

New abbreviations used for convenience in text messages such as “OMG” (short for “oh, my God”) “soz” (short for sorry) and wtf (short for “what the f***?”) are also included in the dictionary.

Some new words in the dictionary could make many traditionalists cringe in their seats-new portmanteau words purporting to describe a new trend include “staycation” (a combination of stay and vacation, meaning to take a holiday without going abroad) and “glamping” (glamorous camping).

“Buzzkillers” (someone who stops other people from enjoying themselves), and “beer o’clock” (a time considered appropriate to start drinking) may also take many traditionalists by surprise.

“English is very good at absorbing new words. [But] in three or four years a lot of these words may have fallen out of use and might well come out of the dictionary,” Times Online quoted Elaine Higgleton, the Editorial Director for Collins, as saying. (ANI)

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Rajasthan Government demands lion’s share in Cairn project

August 29, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Barmer (Rajasthan), Aug.29 (ANI): The Government of Rajasthan on Saturday demanded a lion’s share of the value added tax (VAT) that would be generated from the extraction of crude oil from the Mangala Processing Terminal ( MPT) here.

According to sources, the issue will be settled later when state government representatives meet the officials of this Cairns Energy India-ONGCjoint venture.

ONGC Chairman R.S. Sharma said that it would take at least four years to meet this demand of the Rajasthan Government, which was made by Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot. Sharma said that the approach of the state government would determine the way forward on the issue of revenue sharing.

Officials attached with the joint venture said they are leaving no stone unturned in doing their bit for the local people.

The media contingent accompanying the Prime Minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh, on the inaugural visit to the project site were shown the entrepreneural centre where various social projects for local people are showcased.

Cairn India CEO Rahul Dhir emphasised the point that the maximum number of labourers are locals, and added that out of the 700 contractors, a majority are local people.

Inaugurating the project, Dr. Singh said the present venture is an indication that foreign investment in the country will grow and that the Indian Government will honestly provide all facilities to attract foreign investment.

He also congratulated the technical personnel for successfully finding oil reserves.

It maybe recalled that the Dutch firm Shell had abandoned the search for oil in this desert area. cairn india then stepped in, and after four years of continuous labour, was able to discover oil. arlier, Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister Murli Deora described the activation of the Mangala Processing Terminal ( MPT) as a historic achievement, as the crude oil production from this block will meet about 20 percent of the nation’s current crude oil production.

He said this will enable the country to save seven percent of the crude oil import bill and reduce import dependence.

Deora also emphasised the need for stabilising crude oil prices for ensuring the sustained economic growth of the country, Deora said the MPT find is a significant step towards achieving this goal.

Cairn has invested about Rs.10000 crores in the area.

The total investment in this project will be more than Rs. 20000 crores. The government will get Rs. 46000 crores as profit petroleum revenue over the life of the project and will provide job opportunities for more than 6000 people.

According to company sources, the supply terminal to the Mangala field, the second largest oil discovery in the country in two decades, will be a giant step towards curtailing the country’s oil import bill.

With an initial 30,000 barrels capacity per day (bpd), Cairn India plans to add another 1,00,000 bpd over the next 18 months.

Mangala oil field officials are confident of reaching the target of producing 1,75,000 bpd in the next 20 months.

The project would contribute more than 20 per cent of India’s domestic crude oil production by 2011, the company sources said. By Pankaj Chaudhary (ANI)

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Oz Govt. not taking action on call for banning raunchy videos

August 21, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Melbourne, Aug 21 (ANI): The Aussie Government is said to have decided not to take any action on banning raunchy music videos and sexual images that have been described as being too sexually explicit for children.

A Senate committee wanted stricter advertising controls and tighter classification laws on videos and ads.

According to the Herald Sun, the Government’s response to the committee was described by child development experts, and family and women’s groups last night as “pitiful” and “wishy washy”.

Raunchy videos including Jessica Simpson’s ‘These Boots are Made for Walking’, Christina Aguilera’s ‘Dirrty’, and Kylie Minogue’s ‘Spinning Around’ are among those cited by groups as being popular with children but having over-the-top sexualised dance music.

But the television and advertising industry will continue to be mostly self-regulated, and raunchy videos will still be allowed.

The Government said there was a “low level” of community concern about music videos, and said it had no power over the Advertising Standards Board, a private organisation.

Barbara Biggins, of the Australian Council on Children in the Media, said young children’s exposure to sex-charged videos was a serious concern.

“Children are increasingly exposed to a hyper-sexualised media in what has been described as the ‘pornification’ of our culture,” News.com.au quoted her as saying.

“This report does little to allay community concerns about the sexualisation of children in the media,” she said.

Julie Gale, of Kids Free 2B Kids, said the response showed a continued reluctance to respond to concerns about the sexualisation of children.

“It also fails to address many of the concerns of child development professionals and increasing evidence from research,” she said.

Family First senator Steve Fielding said the Government had gone soft on the issue.

“The response is weak. Someone’s got to them,” Senator Fielding said.

Women’s advocate and author Melinda Tankard Reist was also disappointed.

“It appears as though industry has got off lightly again,” she added.

Dozens of submissions to the committee charged that over-sexed media images were contributing to eating disorders, depression, anxiety, body image dissatisfaction, self-harm, low self-esteem, and children acting sexually. (ANI)

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Teens exposed to too much alcohol advertising on cable TV

August 21, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Washington, Aug 21 (ANI): A new US study has revealed that ads for beer, spirits and ‘alcopop’ are frequently aired when more teens were watching television.

This is the first study to demonstrate an association between ad placement and teen cable TV viewership.

“Alcohol advertisers have pledged to avoid audiences made up of more than 30 percent underage viewers – such as children’s programming,” said David H. Jernigan, director of the Centre on Alcohol Marketing and Youth and an associate professor at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

“However, many other shows have adolescent appeal. This research suggests that ads are aimed at groups that include a disproportionate number of teens and that the alcohol industry’s voluntary self-monitoring is not working to reduce adolescent exposure to ads,” he added.

The study showed that audiences with a higher percentage of youth between the ages of 12 and 20 were exposed to a higher frequency of alcohol ads, even after accounting for other factors that might explain ad placement decisions.

Each 1-percentage-point increase in adolescent viewership was associated with a 7-percent increase in beer ads, a 15-percent increase in spirits ads and a 22-percent increase in ads for low-alcohol refreshers/alcopops – flavored alcoholic beverages that taste similar to juice or soda.

However, wine ads decreased by 8 percent with each 1-percentage-point increase in adolescent viewership.

This finding suggests that alcohol advertisers can, in fact, successfully avoid adolescent audiences.

“This study did not examine whether alcohol advertisers are intentionally overexposing adolescents,” said lead study author Dr. Paul J. Chung, assistant professor of pediatrics at Mattel Children’s Hospital UCLA and a senior natural scientist at the RAND Corp.

“The alcohol industry has consistently denied actively targeting teens, and our study isn’t designed to test that claim. However, the ultimate effect of their advertising strategies, intentional or not, appears to be greater exposure than might be expected if adults were the sole targets of ads,” he added.

The study appears online in American Journal of Public Health. (ANI)

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Coaching should be aimed at honing cricketers’ natural skills: Rashid Latif

August 9, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Karachi, Aug. 9 (ANI): Former Pakistan captain Rashid Latif has said that coaching techniques aimed at honing the natural skills of a player are more effective than those that fidget with the abilities of a player.

Speaking ahead of the start of the three-week NCA coaching camp, Latif said that he and his colleagues would ensure that the players were trained keeping intact their natural abilities.

As many as 28 players, who would attend the camp were picked on their potential and performances during the last domestic season, The Nation reports.

Latif recalled how a young fast bowler Ateeq-ur-Rehman was advised to change his bowling style, which eventually resulted in him losing the effectiveness that nature had given him.

He said Wasim Akram became the greatest left arm pacer because he was allowed to bowl in his natural style though some felt that his delivery style was not ideal for a left armer.

Hoping that the selected players would be mentally tougher at the end of the three weeks camp, Latif said special stress would be laid to teach the players about benefits of having a positive attitude. (ANI)

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Nirvana’s ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’ voted best song of all time

July 13, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Melbourne, July 13 (ANI): Nirvana’s ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’ has been voted as the best song of all time in a new poll.

The song sung by late Kurt Cobain has topped Triple J’s ‘Hottest 100 of All Time’ list.

Two more songs from Nirvana’s 1992 groundbreaking album Nevermind, ‘Come As You Are’ and ‘Lithium’, made it to the top 100, at 40th and 74th positions, respectively.

‘Killing in the Name’ by metal band Rage Against the Machine (RATM) came second, followed by ‘Hallelujah’ by Jeff Buckley at the third.

‘Love Will Tear Us Apart’ by Joy Division and ‘Paranoid Android’ by Radiohead wrapped up the top five.

“After all these years that scream hasn’t diminished one bit,” News.com.au quoted Triple J’s Richard Kingsmill of Kurt Cobain’s searing voice after broadcasting the winner.

Nirvana was out ahead for much of the vote, Kingsmill added.

The top ten ‘Hottest 100 of All Time’ are:

1. Smells Like Teen Spirit, Nirvana

2. Killing in the Name by Rage Against the Machine

3. Hallelujah, by Jeff Buckley

4. Love Will Tear Us Apart by Joy Division

5. Paranoid Android by Radiohead

6. Bohemian Rhapsody by Queen

7. Last Goodbye by Jeff Buckley

8. Under The Bridge by Red Hot Chili Peppers

9. Everlong by Foo Fighters

10. Stairway to Heaven by Led Zeppelin (ANI)

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Both good, bad movie characters’ smoking encourages teens to take up the habit

July 2, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Washington, July 2 (ANI): Smoking in movies encourages teens to take up the habit regardless of whether the smoker is a ‘good guy’ or ‘bad guy’, a new research has revealed.

“Previous studies have confirmed a link between smoking in movies and the initiation of smoking by adolescents, and we wanted to dig deeper into the data to see if the type of character who is smoking matters.

Is it ‘good guys’ or ‘bad guys’ that have more of an influence?” said Susanne Tanski, the lead author on the study, and an assistant professor of paediatrics at Dartmouth Medical School.

“It’s true that ‘bad guys’ are more often smokers in the movies, but there really are not that many ‘bad guys’ compared to ‘good guys’.

Episode for episode, youth who saw negative character smoking were more likely to start smoking, but since overall there is so much more exposure to ‘good guy’ smoking, the net effect is similar,” Tanski added.

The researchers also found that low-risk teens, based on sensation-seeking behaviour, are more strongly influenced by ‘bad guy’ movie smoking.

“This suggests that it’s alluring for ‘good’ kids to emulate the ‘bad’ characters on the movie screen,” Tanksi said.

The study has been published in the July 2009 issue of the journal Paediatrics. (ANI)

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Ageing honeybees’ learning ability remains intact when social roles are switched

July 1, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Washington, July 1 (ANI): While scientists have been aware of the fact that cognitive function among humans declines as they get older, a research team in Germany have found that ageing honeybees can keep their learning ability intact or even improve it by switching their social roles.

Experts at Technische Universitat Berlin are now planning to use honeybees as a model to study general ageing processes in the brain, and hope that they may provide some clues on how to prevent them.

Dr. Ricarda Scheiner, leader of the research team, says that the oldest bees in a colony are the foragers – a task that demands a high amount of energy.

The researcher reveals that with increasing foraging duration, their capacity for associative learning was found to decrease.

According to Scheiner, no decline was observed in nurse bees that remain inside the hive taking care of the brood and the queen, even though their age was the same as that of their foraging sisters.

When a subset of these foragers were artificially forced to revert to nursing tasks, the researchers found that their learning performance improved again, demonstrating a remarkable plasticity in their brain circuits.

“The honey bee is a great model because we can learn a lot about social organisation from it and because it allows us to revert individuals into a ‘younger’ stage. If we remove all of the nurse bees of a colony, some of the foragers will revert to nursing behaviour and their brains become ‘young’ again. We thus hope to study the mechanisms responsible for age-dependent effects, like oxidative damage, and also to discover new ways to act against these aging processes,” says Dr. Scheiner. (ANI)

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An all-women consultative meet for peace held in New Delhi

June 26, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

New Delhi, June 24 (ANI): Professional women from northeast India recently shared a platform to discuss ways to bring peace, ensure justice and political rights ruptured by decades of conflict in the northeast region of the country.

The occasion was the first ever-consultative conclave of women from northeast organised by the Manipur Women Gun Survivors Network in collaboration with the India International Center in national capital.

With the theme “Northeast Women Initiative for Peace”, the meet was an effort to look at conflict issues in a holistic and strategic way.

Women, in the northeast, have played a major role in several social movements.

“Meetings like this is to say we can make a difference, every person can make a difference, every man, woman in the region can make a difference and this is what we are trying to say,” said Binalakshmi Nephram, Founder of the Manipur Gun Survivor Network.

“There are so many women groups all over Nagaland, all over northeast, all working for on the same issue; peace, conflict prevention. Why we are having this meeting is because this is a platform where we can all converge together and work for a bigger issues because when we look around, women organisation in all seven states, if we all come together on a powerful base, we can reach out to a bigger movement,” said Elizabeth Imti, Parliamentary Affairs Coordinator, Control Arms Foundation, India.

The conclave gave an opportunity to discuss and plan out several strategies based on problems faced especially by women due to rise in armed conflicts and violence in the region.

The meet also looked at measures in building peace and understanding among the different communities.

“In northeast, we have stereotype ideas about different people. So when we come together, those stereotype breaks. When you get together, when you talk, discuss. It’s through dialogue, there is better understanding and that’s how you should go forward and I’m sure something will come out of it,” said Uddipana Goswami, Media Consultant and scholar from Jawaharlal Nehru University.

“The efforts taken up by ‘Women Gun Survivors Network’ are worth praising. In this interactive programme, we got chance to interact with other activists and we take up issues related to northeast. That way, we can share our views. We need such initiatives in future as well,” said Malem Ningthoujam, a member of the Manipur Student Association in Delhi.It’s good we are having conclave and seminars like this because most people are not aware of what is happening in Manipur and northeast states. So with women taking this initiative, I think it is a good message to the men out there who are taking up their guns and fighting and not actually thinking about peaceful talks like this. I am very happy to be a part of this,” said Hommiza Raman, a participant.

The meeting drew up policies for women to strategize action plans in bringing peace and justice in the region. It also looked at the efforts taken up at local, national and international level to end violence in northeast.

The peace conclave will be held in the different northeast states throughout the year. By Kaikho Paphro (ANI)

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Robert Pattinson’s taxi-collision reports ‘exaggerated’

June 20, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

London, June 20 (ANI): Movie bosses have claimed that reports saying that Robert Pattinson was running away from fans when he was hit by a taxi are completely false and “exaggerated”.

The ‘Twilight’ star was mobbed by fans on Thursday, while shooting for his new film ‘Remember Me’ in New York.

But internet gossip columns claimed that Pattinson was clipped on the hip by a yellow cab while he was trying to run across a road in downtown Manhattan in order to escape the swarm of teenage girls.

According to the Daily Express, a report on RadarOnline.com says that a bodyguard checked the 23-year-old for injuries before screaming at fans: “You see what you did, you almost killed him!”

However, a spokesperson for the movie’s production company has downplayed the reports, claiming that the film’s shooting is continuing normally after the drama.

“The reports are exaggerated. It was not caused by his fans. Production continues,” Vivian Mayer told the New York Daily News. (ANI)

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Patients with irregular heartbeat 44pct more likely to develop Alzheimer’s

May 16, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Washington, May 16 (ANI): A new study from Intermountain Medical Centre in Salt Lake City has found that people with atrial fibrillation, a fairly common heart rhythm disorder, are 44 percent more likely to develop dementia.

The study involving more than 37,000 patients has showed a strong relationship between atrial fibrillation and the development of Alzheimer’s disease.

The research team also revealed that younger patients with atrial fibrillation were at higher risk of developing all types of dementia, particularly Alzheimer’s.

And atrial fibrillation patients under age 70 were 130 percent more likely to develop Alzheimer’s.

The study showed that patients who have both atrial fibrillation and dementia were 61 percent more likely to die during the study period than dementia patients without the rhythm problem.

In addition, younger atrial fibrillation patients with dementia may be at higher risk of death than older AF patients with dementia.

“Previous studies have shown that patients with atrial fibrillation are at higher risk for some types of dementia, including vascular dementia. But to our knowledge, this is the first large-population study to clearly show that having atrial fibrillation puts patients at greater risk for developing Alzheimer’s disease,” said lead researcher and cardiologist T. Jared Bunch.

Currently, the known risk factors for Alzheimer’s are age, family history and genetics, though injury may also be linked with the disease.

“The study shows a connection between atrial fibrillation and all types of dementia. The Alzheimer’s findings – particularly the risk of death for younger patients – break new ground,” said Bunch.

“Now that we’ve established this link, our focus will be to see if early treatment of atrial fibrillation can prevent dementia or the development of Alzheimer’s disease,” said cardiologist Dr John Day, director of heart rhythm services at Intermountain Medical Center and a co-author of the study. (ANI)

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Pak ‘most dangerous country in the world’: MacKay

May 12, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Ottawa (Canada), May 12 (ANI): ‘Extremely concerned’ by the current volatile situation in Pakistan, Canadian Defence Minister Peter MacKay has termed Pakistan as the ‘most dangerous country in the world.’

“I’m extremely concerned. The instability in Pakistan in my view makes Pakistan the most dangerous country in the world,” the Globe and Mail quoted MacKay, as saying.

Addressing a press conference at St. John’s, MacKay said it was very difficult for the Pakistan Army to quell the insurgency that has engulfed the North West Frontier Province (NWFP) of the country.

“As long as insurgency is allowed to foster and to incubate inside Pakistan, the problem remains very real, very difficult,” he added.

acKay said the operation against the Taliban and Al-Qaeda in Afghanistan would not yield the desired results until the extremists are rooted out from Pakistan, and some greater strides are made in taking on the insurgency in Afghanistan as well.

He also highlighted that beside a surge in deployment of troops in Afghanistan, it was also very necessary to cut -off the supply lines of the Taliban, as only then peace and stability could return to the country.

The Pakistani army initiated an offensive against the Taliban last month after insurgents in Swat Valley tried to impose their reign on other neighbouring areas.

The Taliban had established its writ over the Swat Valley about two years ago.

Canada’s ‘concerns’ are obvious as it also has deployed some 2,800 troops in Afghanistan as part of the US led ‘war on terror’ in the country. (ANI)

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Footballers ‘are seedier than criminals’

May 9, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Melbourne, May 9 (ANI): Football stars are more likely to have alcohol problems, be more verbally aggressive and more sexually promiscuous than criminals, a new study has shown.

The study, which was published in the Australian Psychological Society’s journal InPsych, based its findings on responses of 50 AFL footballers.

In the research, volunteers were subjected to personality tests and their results were compared to the results of similar tests conducted on 940 convicted criminals, The Courier Mail reports.

According to News.com.au, the study found footballers scored significantly higher than both the social average and the offenders in measures of alcohol problems, anxiety, verbal aggression, sexual promiscuity and anti-social behaviour.

“The data suggested that AFL footballers were most likely to offend in the context of alcohol usage, through offences such as drunk and disorderly, drink driving, or violent or reckless behaviour,” the study authors reported.

“The relatively high sexual promiscuity scores suggested AFL footballers may potentially place themselves at greater risk for sex-related offences and vulnerability to scandal,” it added.

Professor Bob Montgomery, president of the Australia Psychological Society, said: “Very often to become a high profile person, you’re a risk taker. You’re willing to take a chance that other people might turn their back on.”

He said the group mentality of young men in football teams was also part of the problem. (ANI)

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A film song similar to national anthem turns controversial

May 9, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Mumbai, May 9 (ANI): Bollywood filmmaker Ram Gopal Varma has said that he wouldppeal against a ban on the title song of his upcoming film ‘Rann’, which has whipped up a controversy.

The censor board has decided to ban the title song that appears similar to the national anthem in its tune, but with different lyrics.

“Rann” (Battle), delves into the highly competitive world of television news reporting in India, putting the spotlight on the media industry’s insatiable appetite for advertisers and viewers.

The film is touted as a behind-the-scenes look at how news channels greedy for ratings are being manipulated into sensationalizing stories to grab eyeballs.

“If the censor board like they said, if they don’t want to pass, I will go to the tribunal advising committee and whatever the procedures allow me I will do that,” Varma said.

He said that the critics did not really understand the context of the song, adding that he was ready for a debate.

“I think the people who are having a problem are in minority and they are not listening seriously to what exactly the song is saying. I like to have a conversation with them,” Varma said.

With more than 60 English and regional-language news channels in India beaming into TV-owning homes, the film comes at a time when broadcasters are scrambling to provide exclusive content. (ANI)

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Suicide bombing part of Jihad, justified from Prophet’s days : Afghan Taliban

May 7, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Lahore, May 7 (ANI): Suicide bombings are justified in Islam from the days’ of Prophet Mohammad, the Taliban has said.

Spokesperson of the reclusive leader of Afghanistan Taliban Mullah Omar, Zabiullah Mujahid said the Taliban is working for the sake of Islam.

“They sacrificed some people, friends of Muhammad, for the sake of Islam. This is part of the jihad and part of the fighting. We will fight them and we will target them,” Mujahid said.

He said the Taliban would continue to fight against the foreign forces present Afghanistan’s soil until they are removed completely, and that their primary motive was to establish Sharia in the region.

“This is our country, we have to govern it,” The Daily Times quoted Mujahid, as saying.

He also warned that the Taliban would target the forthcoming elections in Afghanistan.

“The ‘selections’ are going to be from White House. We want to disturb this election,” Mujahid said.

He asserted that the Afghanistan and Pakistani faction of the Taliban were two different forces, but there are ‘sympathies between the two sides’.

“We do not want to interfere in the Pakistan Taliban affairs,” Mujahid added. (ANI)

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Social networks may help find connections between people behind terrorist attacks

May 5, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Washington, May 5 (ANI): Researchers have developed a new approach to analyzing social networks, which could help find the covert connections between the people behind terrorist attacks.

The approach involves revealing the nodes that act as hubs in a terrorist network and tracing back to individual planners and perpetrators.

Dr Yoshiharu Maeno, Founder Management Consultant of the Social Design Group and Dr Yukio Ohsawa, Associate Professor at the School of Engineering, University of Tokyo, Japan, explain that their analytical approach to understanding terrorist networks could ultimately help prevent future attacks.

Terrorist attacks can cause significant loss of life, have intense social and environmental impacts, and large economic losses.

Maeno and Ohsawa explain that responding to a terrorist attack is akin to dealing with a natural disaster, with one important difference.

Disaster recovery management is required with both, but in the case of a terrorist attack, there is the added pressure of short-term responses to the terrorists themselves and in the long-term the need to identify and weaken the covert foundation underpinning an organized attack.

According to the team, by combining the prior understanding of expert investigators with graph theory and computational data processing, it should be possible to analyze a terrorist network and reveal latent connections and patterns.

The researchers have carried out such an analysis of the network responsible for the 9/11 attacks in 2001 in order to evaluate the performance of their approach.

Fundamentally, their technique is a mathematical one involving “node” discovery.

The nodes of a network are the hubs at which different members of the network are connected.

Usually, ordinary members have one or two connections, nodes can have several and the critical nodes, the hubs, have many more.

Major hubs, such as the big search engine companies, such as Google and Yahoo, news sources like CNN and the BBC, and social media networks such as Facebook and MySpace have many connections.

These big nodes act as the hubs through which individual and smaller sites are interconnected.

The team’s computational analysis of the terrorist network associated with the 9/11 attacks revealed nodes that were not apparent to security experts in advance of the attacks.

Such latent nodes appear to have been critical to the attacks, but superficially do not appear to be particularly important individuals acting as hubs.

Having network insights sooner rather than later would allow investigators to gather information on associates, friends, and relatives of a suspect terrorist and so bring the perpetrators to justice that much sooner or perhaps even unravel a network plotting future attacks. (ANI)

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Van Gogh’s ear was lopped by pal Gauguin with a sword, claims new study

May 5, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

London, May 5 (ANI): Vincent Van Gogh’s ear was cut off by his friend Paul Gauguin during an argument, and the Dutch artist may have cooked up the story that it was his own doing to protect his pal, claims a new study.

It has been previously believed that Van Gogh lopped off part of his left ear in 1888 following a breakdown in his friendship with Gauguin after which he suffered recurrent bouts of mental illness, which led to his suicide.

German art historians have always cast a shadow of doubt over the true nature of events, which were never revealed as both the men kept a “pact of silence” over the incident.

And now experts Hans Kaufmann and Rita Wildegans, in Van Gogh’s Ear: Paul Gauguin and the Pact of Silence, allege that it was the sword assault, not Van Gogh’s madness, which drove him to suicide two years later.

The historians, in Hamburg, cited correspondence between Van Gogh and his brother, Theo, in which the Post-Impressionist painter seemed to suggest what happened without directly dropping the “pact of silence”.

“He writes that it’s lucky Gauguin doesn’t have a machine gun or other firearms, that he’s stronger than him and that his ‘passions’ are stronger,” the Telegraph quoted Kaufmann as saying.

The boffins further drew attention to one of Van Gogh’s sketches of an ear, with the word “ictus”, the Latin word meaning a hit in fencing, and suggested the zigzags above the ear were Gauguin’s Zoro-like sword-stroke.

But many other experts have reasons to disagree with the new account since the historians confessed having no “smoking gun” to validate their claims.

Nina Zimmer, the curator of a major Van Gogh exhibition in Basel, told Le Figaro: “Perhaps they’re right, but all the hypotheses are valid given the lack of material.” (ANI)

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