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Sunny day in Delhi, Monday to be the same (Lead)

October 30, 2011 By admin Leave a Comment

New Delhi, Oct 30 (IANS) The week ended on a sunny note for Delhi’s residents with the maximum temperature recorded at 30.6 degrees Celsius, average for this time of the year. The met office has forecast similar weather Monday

The day’s minimum temperature was recorded a notch below average at 15.3 degrees Celsius, an official of the India Meteorological Department (IMD) said.

The humidity levels wavered between a high of 86 and a low of 31 percent.

According to IMD, Monday is likely to witness similar weather and the maximum and minimum temperatures are expected to hover around 31 and 16 degrees Celsius.

Saturday’s maximum and minimum temperatures settled at 30.2 and 15.2 degrees Celsius, respectively — both a notch below average.

Filed Under: International News Tagged With: celsius, india meteorological department, india meteorological department imd, maximum, minimum temperatures, Monday, oct, weather monday

Beyonce to finally perform in Malaysia next month

September 19, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Kuala Lumpur, Sep 19 (ANI): Beyonce Knowles is all set to perform in Kuala Lumpur next month, two years after cancelling her Malaysian concert.

Kuala Lumpur is one of her destinations in the ‘I Am…’ world tour which spans North America, Europe and Asia.

The ‘Baby boy’ singer is scheduled to stage her first concert in Malaysia at the National Stadium, Bukit Jalil, at 8pm on Oct 25, reports the Star Online.

The singer was originally slated to perform in Malaysia in 2007, but cancelled her concert following protests from PAS Youth and she headed for Jakarta instead.

The world tour comes with the release of her third studio album, ‘I Am… Sasha Fierce’, which features hits like ‘If I Were a Boy’, ‘Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)’, ‘Halo’, ‘Sweet Dreams’ and ‘Broken-Hearted Girl’.

Beyonce, along with Black Eyed Peas and Jacky Cheung, will also perform at F1 ROCKS Singapore with LG on Sept 26. (ANI)

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We will not let Commonwealth Games suffer: Shiela Dixit

September 15, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

New Delhi, Sep 14 (ANI): A day after the chief of Commonwealth Games Federation (CGF) Michael Fennel expressed reservations regarding the completion of work and preparations for the 2010 Commonwealth Games, Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dixit on Monday admitted that there was enough room for improvement and it is being taken care of.

“We are monitoring transport carefully, we are also looking for alternatives. But, there may be things we are unable to complete on time. But, the alternatives are being looked after by our PWD (Public Works Department) Minister, our Transport Minister, our power guys, everyone. So, we will not, from our side, let the Commonwealth games to suffer,” Dixit told media after a cabinet meeting in the national capital.

“We are satisfied, but at the same time we are also nervous. There are many things, which we know, have to be done at this time,” Sheila Dixit Delhi CM said.

Fennel has expressed dissatisfaction over the preparations of the Commonwealth Games and has sought Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s intervention in the issue.

Dixit also said that hosting the games was a matter of honour for the nation and Delhi would prove competent in hosting it, but admitted some things might not be complete on time.

She informed that Fennel had visited the Thyagraj stadium and was satisfied with the preparations. He, though, was sceptical regarding the availability of power.

“Mike Fennel did pay me a visit about a month back, he spoke to me about just one thing, he said that, we hope power will be available. So, we said, “yes it would be available”. He had come at a time when there was a power crisis in Delhi. Apart from that, he spoke about Thyagraj, saying that we have been around and we are quite satisfied,” said Dixit.

The CGF General Assembly is due to meet in New Delhi early next month to assess the work a year ahead of the Oct 3-14 games. (ANI)

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KNP to hold Black Day on Oct.22

September 8, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

London, Sep.8 (ANI): The Supreme Council of the KNP held an important meeting in Luton on September 6, which was presided by the party Chairman Abbas Butt. The meeting discussed and analysed the current situation of the Kashmiri struggle and made important decisions.

The Supreme Council strongly condemned the government of Pakistan’s latest attempts to grab territory which is legal part of State of Jammu and Kashmir. The SC said Pakistani governments have never been sincere with the cause of Kashmir and always have formulated policies to snatch Kashmir; and have deliberately deprived people of their fundamental human rights.

The SC said people of Gilgit Baltistan deserve to have their basic human rights which have been denied since 1947; but no one should be allowed to implement their imperialist designs in name of giving rights to people of the region. The KNP leaders said, if Pakistani authorities were sincere they could have discussed the issue with the people of the region and given these rights without making the region a ‘province’ of Pakistan.

PPP government claims to advance rights of people and democracy, but their policies are designed to deprive people of basic rights and advance undemocratic and unconstitutional practises. They tried to make Pakistani Administered Kashmir a province after the Shimla Pact and they plan to make Gilgit Baltistan a province and pave way for division of Jammu and Kashmir.

KNP leaders said some people of Jammu and Kashmir hold Black Day on 27th October, as that is the day when Indian army landed in Kashmir. KNP leaders said in our opinion their wisdom is misdirected. We have to look at the root cause. Indian army came after the tribal invasion and subsequent ‘Provisional Accession’.

KNP Supreme Council said, ‘It was the Pakistani tribesmen supported by the Pakistani government of the time which violated the Standstill Agreement and invaded parts of the State territory. It was these tribesmen which contravened the State sovereignty and killed thousands of innocent Kashmiri men and women. It was because of this unprovoked and unjustified attack on our sovereignty which seriously threatened life, honour and property of people that the Maharaja was compelled to seek help from India.

KNP leaders said we have serious issues with India on their Kashmir policy, as we believe Kashmir is not their internal part; but as for the Black Day is concerned we should have Black Day on 22 October because this is the day when our troubles and miseries started.

KNP SC has decided to take a lead on this matter and hold a BLACK DAY on 22 October; and in this regard various responsibilities have been given to Dr Shabir Choudhry and Nawaz Majid who will liaise with other like minded people and parties. The meeting was addressed by ZubairAnsari, Nazam Bhatti, Nawaz Majid, Asim Mirza, Abbas Butt and Dr Shabir Choudhry.

Earlier KNP held an Iftar Party in which more than eighty people were present; among them were leaders and political activists of various Kashmiri parties who spoke against the new package for Gilgit and Baltistan and condemned designs of Pakistani government. In the meeting pro Pakistan and nationalist leaders were present, and they all strongly spoke against this new package and demanded that it must be taken back.

A unanimous resolution was passed which strongly criticised the new package and demanded from government of Pakistan to withdraw it as it will seriously damage our struggle for right of self determination. The resolution fully supported fundamental rights of people of Gilgit Baltistan; but added that the State of Jammu and Kashmir is one political entity and it must not be divided. (ANI)

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Novel method to make safer human stem cells uses just one gene

August 29, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

London, Aug 29 (ANI): Inching closer to curing diseases like Parkinson’s using cells generated from a patient’s own body, researchers have successfully reprogrammed human nerve cells back to an embryo-like state by using just a single gene.

It is known that embryonic stem cells are pluripotent – they can develop into any of the body’s cell types.

But such cells are not available in large numbers, as they can only be harvested from a donated egg or embryo, and, for ethical reasons, most countries have laws restricting their use.

In 2006, Shinya Yamanaka and his colleagues at Kyoto University in Japan successfully made mouse cells pluripotent by reprogramming skin cells into a state like embryo cells.

They did so by using retroviruses to insert four genes – known as “factors” – into the cells’ DNA.

They repeated the trick a year later with human cells.

However, using genes and retroviruses in this way increases the risk of the cell becoming cancerous, not just because tinkering with DNA has that effect, but also because two of the four factors are known to cause cancer.

In a bid to make these promising cells in a safe way, Hans Scholer’s team at the Max Planck Institute for Molecular Biomedicine in Münster, Germany, has been working to achieve pluripotency using fewer factors.

Last year, they did this with the two factors that do not cause cancer, and now they have simplified the recipe further, doing it with just one.

“Remarkably, it turns out that three of these four essential factors are already expressed in human neural stem cells – although not in skin cells – so we only needed to add one factor, OCT4,” New Scientist quoted Boris Greber, a member of the team, as saying.

He said that the cells from neural tissue are much easier to reprogram than skin cells, and are less prone to mutations.

It is much harder to get a sample of neural stem cells than skin cells, as it can be done via extracting the cells from the dental pulp of teeth, said Greber.

Inserting even one gene into the chromosome of a cell still permanently modifies its DNA, which is why the new method will remain a lab tool instead of being allowed in the clinic.

However, the researchers are hoping that it will help them improve methods for producing embryonic stem cells.

“Ideally, we will be able to find a chemical that does the same job of expressing the factor without the need for a gene,” said Greber.

Earlier this year, researchers in California managed just that when they reprogrammed mouse fibroblasts using a cocktail of proteins.

That technique did not involve inserting genes, and, thus, shouldn’t raise the cancer risk. But that was far less efficient.

“Without stable intervention using viruses, the frequency of reprogramming goes down and you have to wait a long time. We don’t have the perfect method yet,” said Greber.

The study has been published in the journal Nature. (ANI)

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Indian cricket team toils at Bangalore conditioning camp

August 29, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Bangalore, Aug 28(ANI): The Indian cricket team sweated hard on Friday, the second day of a four day conditioning camp that is being held at the M Chinnaswamy stadium here.

The conditioning camp before team’s trip to Sri Lanka is being held under the watchful eyes of coach Gary Kirsten, fielding coach Robin Singh and trainer Ramji Srinivasan.

Apart from regular exercise sessions, the players played football as part of their fitness regime.

India will participate in a tri-series in Sri Lanka that features New Zealand from Sept. 8-14. It has not lost a one-day series in the past year following a surprise tri-series victory in Australia last February.

India has recalled Rahul Dravid to the one-day team for the first time in almost two years to bolster their batting in Lanka and on pacy South African pitches at the Sept. 22-Oct. 5 Champions Trophy.

Batting maestro Sachin Tendulkar has also returned after opting out of the one-day series in the West Indies, which India had won 2-1.

Ishant Sharma will spearhead the five-man pace attack in the absence of experienced left-arm pacer Zaheer Khan, who has been ruled out of action until the end of the year following surgery on an injured shoulder.

The selected team for Sri Lankan series includes Mahendra Singh Dhoni (captain), Yuvraj Singh, Sachin Tendulkar, Gautam Gambhir, Rahul Dravid, Suresh Raina, Yusuf Pathan, Harbhajan Singh, Ashish Nehra, Rudra Pratap Singh, Ishant Sharma, Dinesh Karthik, Praveen Kumar, Amit Mishra and Abhishek Nayar. (ANI)

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Global warming still looms large as threat to Polar Bears

May 26, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Washington, May 26 (ANI): In a new research, scientists have strengthened the forecasts of polar bear populations and their likely responses to climate change, by refuting criticisms of the scientific basis for listing the polar bear under the Endangered Species Act.

The research, by a team of scientists from the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI), University of Alaska, University of Maryland, Canadian Wildlife Service and the US Forest Service, refutes point-by-point a widely publicized critique of polar bear population predictions.

The new rebuttal reinforces the reports written by the scientists and accepted by the Department of Interior in its May 2008 decision to list polar bears as a threatened species on the U.S. Endangered Species Act.

“The decision to list the polar bear as threatened was politically charged, and the scientific research on which it was based attracted some criticisms,” said WHOI biologist Hal Caswell, an author on two of the USGS reports and of the rebuttal.

“Our new study shows that the critique is incorrect and based on misconceptions about climate models, the Arctic environment, polar bear biology, and statistical and mathematical methods,” he added.

The rebuttal was published in the journal Interfaces online on April 22, 2009, and will be published in the July-August print edition.

In 2007, when the Department of the Interior was considering listing the polar bear under the Endangered Species Act, it asked the USGS to assemble an international team to analyze information on polar bear populations.

The team estimated the probabilities of future polar bear population growth or decline.

The USGS-led group presented its reports in fall 2007, and in May 2008, the Department of Interior listed the polar bear as a threatened species under the US Endangered Species Act.

Following that listing, a critique of the USGS reports was published in the Sept.-Oct. 2008 issue of the journal Interfaces.

“After going through their report, however, we decided we needed to do a rebuttal of this, and in the end, we went point by point to refute their criticism,” said Caswell.

According to Caswell, “We began by explaining why the sea ice habitat of polar bears is declining and showing how climate models, outputs from which we used as inputs to our analyses, are reliable for forecasting the future climate.”

“Finally, we took a look at their principles of forecasting, and found they are too ambiguous and subjective to be used as a reliable basis for auditing scientific investigations,” he said. (ANI)

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Bullion Update and Market Outlook: Nirmal Bang

April 21, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Precious metals extended the loss on Friday on Comex as dollar strengthened sharply against Euro after the comment from ECB president gave a hint they might cut interest rate by quarter basis points led to correction in precious metals.

The world’s largest gold-backed exchange-traded fund, the SPDR Gold Trust, said holdings fell to 1,105.98 tonnes as of April 17, down 13.45 tonnes or 1.2 percent from the previous day. It was the biggest one-day decline since Oct. 3.

The dollar neared a one-month high against the euro with the single currency under selling pressure due to uncertainty over what policy steps the European Central Bank will take next.

ECB President Trichet signaled the bank’s likely next move, saying it could cut its interest rate but only by an additional 25 basis points. Noncommercial net long positions in gold futures listed in New York rose to 129,895 lots as of April 14, up from 127,812 lots a week earlier, weekly report by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission showed.

Gold and silver both expected to trade sideways to down during the day. Strengthening dollar and equity markets might go gainst precious metals and we might see precious metals trading down during the day. If tonights leading indicators reports turn out to be better than expected then we might see further correction in precious metals.

We have seen that Gold has made a double bottom formation at $864/oz, breaching that we might see Gold prices even testing $850/oz.

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New Issue-Spain’s ICO sells 50 bln yen in Samurai bonds

April 18, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

TOKYO, April 17 (Reuters) – Spain’s Instituto de Credito
Oficial (ICO) [ICO.UL] sold 50 billion yen ($503.2 million) in
Samurai bonds in two tranches, lead manager Daiwa Securities SMBC
said on Friday.

Details are as follows:

1. Five-year fixed-rate bond:

Issue amount: 22.9 billion yen

Coupon: 1.67 percent

Issue price: par

Maturity date: April 23, 2014

Coupon payments: April 23, Oct. 23

Payment date: April 23, 2009

Lead managers: Daiwa Securities SMBC

Mitsubishi UFJ Securities

Mizuho Securities

Ratings: Aaa (Moody’s)

AA+ (S and P)

AAA (Fitch)

Spread: 60 basis points over yen swaps

2. Five-year floating-rate bond:

Issue amount: 27.1 billion yen

Coupon: 0.68 pct point above 3-month yen Libor

Issue price: par

Maturity date: April 23, 2014

Coupon payments: Jan. 23, April 23, July 23 and Oct. 23

Payment date: April 23, 2009

Lead managers: Daiwa Securities SMBC

Mitsubishi UFJ Securities

Mizuho Securities

Ratings: Aaa (Moody’s)

AA+ (S and P)

AAA (Fitch)

ICO, which is guaranteed by the Kingdom of Spain, provides
financial backing to small and medium-sized businesses.

Samurai bonds are yen bonds issued in Japan by non-Japanese
entities.
(Reporting by Naoyuki Katayama and Hiroyasu Hoshi: writing by
Rika Otsuka)

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Malaysia IOI sees CPO price rising to RM2,600-2,800/T

April 13, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

KUALA LUMPUR, April 13 (Reuters) – Malaysia’s IOI Corp (IOIB.KL), the world’s third-largest listed palm oil producer, said that the price of crude palm oil would rise to 2,600-2,800 ringgit per tonne in the remainder of the year.

Malaysian crude palm oil futures hit a 7-month high on Friday as a slew of industry data warned of tightening domestic inventories, with the benchmark June contract KPOc3 on the Bursa Malaysia Derivatives Exchange closing at 2,299 ringgit ($636.3) per tonne.

“Six months ago I foresaw prices would likely surpass 2,000 ringgit a tonne,” IOI’s Executive Chairman Lee Shin Cheng told Monday’s Business Times newspaper.

IOI shares have rallied along with other planters as palm oil prices have recovered. The stock closed at 4.30 ringgit on Friday, up from an Oct. 28 12-month low of 2.08 ringgit.

(Reporting by David Chance, editing by Kim Coghill)

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Slain Patna youth’s father moves court for CBI probe

April 10, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Patna, April 9 (IANS) The father of Rahul Raj, the youth from Bihar shot dead by the police in Mumbai last year, filed a petition in the Patna High Court Thursday demanding a probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) or an autonomous inquiry committee, following the clean chit given to the policemen involved.

K.P. Singh said he filed a petition in the court, seeking a CBI probe into his son’s killing after Mumbai Police’s crime branch Tuesday cleared the police officials involved in shooting.

Contending that Mumbai Police probe was in violation of the National Human Rights Commission guidelines, he said the investigation team should have sought the opinion of the family members and close relatives of the person facing any charge.

Singh said that he would challenge the inquiry report of Mumbai Police and would demand the formation of the autonomous inquiry committee. He said that he had also requested Mumbai Police to send a copy of the first information report (FIR) lodged in that case.

The police shot dead Raj, 25, Oct 27 after he allegedly attacked the conductor of a bus in Mumbai and fired at a passenger with his revolver. Before being shot dead, he had said that he wanted to kill Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) chief Raj Thackeray for inciting party workers to attack youths from Bihar who were in Mumbai for a railway recruitment examination.

The killing sparked a row between politicians of Maharashtra and Bihar with several parties demanding a judicial probe into the incident. Maharashtra Chief Secretary Johny Joseph is conducting an independent probe into the incident while Mumbai Police’s crime branch was conducting an internal enquiry into it.

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End terror, Guwahati’s voters urge politicians

April 8, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Guwahati, April 8 (IANS) They have lived under the shadow of bomb blasts for a long time. Voters in Assam’s principal city of Guwahati, also known as the ‘gateway to northeast India’, are crying for an end to the terror trail as elections approach.

Blasts have almost become a way of life for Guwahatians, with the latest attacks – here and in four other parts of the state – having taken place as recently as Monday, claiming at least 10 lives and injuring nearly 60.

Right from columns in vernacular newspapers and journals to television debates to coffee table discussions, Guwahati residents have chosen to talk repeatedly on the issue, so that political parties are pressed to do something to end three decades of insurgency in Assam.

‘We want an end to the bloodbath. Why does the common man on the streets of Guwahati not feel safe? We have to think twice before venturing out, to avoid becoming a victim of bomb blasts,’ said popular poet and columnist Samir Tanti.

‘We want the political parties to take the issue seriously. Mere rhetoric is not enough. Moreover, not a single party, neither the Congress nor the Asom Gana Parishad (AGP), has spoken anything about its stand on the issue in the coming elections,’ Tanti told IANS.

Youngsters, mostly college-goers, are aghast that major political parties – Congress, the ruling party in the state, and the AGP, which has ruled the state twice from 1985 to 1989 and from 1996 to 2001 have no clear cut agenda in place to tackle terror.

‘It is beyond our understanding as why the political parties are silent on the issue of terror in the state. Only when a bomb blast happen, the leaders of both the parties engage themselves in a dirty game of mud slinging, instead of working on a formula to end terrorism,’ said Pranab Kakoty, an undergraduate student.

Pranab’s friend, Jyoti Bora, a student of mechanical engineering in Assam Engineering College, said progress would come once terrorism comes to an end in the city.

‘We’re lagging behind in economic development in comparison with rest of the country. Terrorism is the cause of all the ills in the state. The political parties need to ensure that the city and the state at large will be peaceful and prosperous,’ said 20-year-old Bora.

Assam goes to polls in two phases on April 16 and 23 for its 14 Lok Sabha seats.

Septuagenarian social activist and scholar Anima Guha, a resident of the city for the past four decades, agreed with the views of the younger lot.

‘The young and old alike are all tired of regular incidents of terror strikes in Assam. We need peace. Only peace will lead us to progress and prosperity. It hurts to see Assam bleeding everyday – for the last 30 years. If politicians want to call themselves our leaders, they have to end terrorism,’ said Guha.

Guwahati had a brush with terror last week too, in which one person was killed and 16 were injured in a powerful explosion. The blast occurred minutes before External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukerjee was to address an election rally, close to the blast site.

Assam experienced one of its worst terror strikes when around 81 lives were lost and over 300 injured in 12 coordinated explosions in Guwahati and the western districts of Barpeta, Kokrajhar and Bongaigaon Oct 30, 2008.

Assam has long been a cauldron of violence triggered by insurgency and ethnic clashes, since the state’s first rebel group, the United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) was formed in 1979. An estimated 25,000 people have been killed and hundreds more maimed for life since then.

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Madagascar sets presidential election for Oct 2010

April 5, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Madagascar plans to hold a presidential election in October 2010 to restore democracy after Andry Rajoelina took power last month in a transition branded a coup by foreign leaders.

A roadmap agreed during a two-day conference in the capital Antananarivo envisages changes to the constitution and electoral code this year followed by a parliamentary election next March and then the presidential vote in October.

“The transition will therefore be 19 months rather than 24,” Rajoelina told delegates on Friday. “No one wants to remain president of the state’s (transition) authority for long, but it is a responsibility.”

He had previously pledged to hold elections within two years of his rise to power but foreign leaders have been calling for quick elections to restore constitutional order.

Madagascar has been suspended from the African Union and the Southern African Development Community (SADC). A defiant Rajoelina said this week it was not in the country’s interests to be a SADC member anyway.

The party of former President Marc Ravalomanana boycotted the two-day conference.

“We appeal for mediation from SADC or international forces,” said party member Fetison Andrianirina. “We will seek meetings with those who have different views to us, but that will only happen with international mediation.”

Ravalomanana stepped down after intense pressure from Rajoelina’s supporters and army chiefs. He fled to Swaziland and pledged last month to return to Madagascar soon.

Last week, his supporters held daily protests in the capital. At least 34 people were injured on Saturday when demonstrators clashed with the security forces.

THE PEOPLE KNOW BEST

The transition timetable starts with a national conference before June 26 to confirm the provisional roadmap. A new electoral code will be adopted in July followed by a referendum on constitutional changes in September.

Despite widespread international condemnation of Rajoelina’s accession, few donor countries have suspended development aid to the Indian Ocean island where many eke out a living on less than $2 a day.

France, the country’s biggest bilateral donor, on Friday denied reports it was suspending aid. It repeated calls for a return to constitutional rule.

“The change of government in Madagascar two weeks ago did not prompt any suspension of programmes because France did not wish to further penalise the people of Madagascar,” the government said in a statement.

The crisis has scared off tourists and unnerved foreign investors in the booming mining and oil exploration sectors.

Rajoelina said this week his administration was reviewing all contracts with foreign investors because the country was receiving too little revenue from the companies.

These include Total, Rio Tinto and Sherritt International, although their operations were not affected by the unrest because they are located in rural areas.

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Nano can come back to Singur if Tatas want: official

April 2, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Kolkata, April 1 (IANS) West Bengal may have lost a chance to nurture world’s least expensive car but there is a possibility of the project coming back to its original site Singrur if the makers Tata Motors decide so, a top official said here Wednesday.

Principal Secretary (Industry) Sabyasachi Sen’s comment followed news reports quoting him as saying that the Nano ‘will definitely be made in West Bengal as the low-cost car needs at least four to five plants’.

Sen said he had only talked about the possibility of the car project coming back to the state.

‘I said we have lost the chance of being the first production unit of Nano. However, there may be a possibility of Singur later, if local objections can be resolved through dialogue. Because ultimately Tata Motors may go for more than one production unit in India. This decision rests with Tata Motors,’ Sen clarified.

Nano was scheduled to roll out from Singur in Hoogly district, 40 km from here.

But Singur turned into a battleground for about two-and-a-half years from May 2006 after the state government announced the project.

The opposition Trinamool led a violent protest demanding the return of 400 acres of the acquired 997.11 acres to farmers. But the Tatas were against any relocation of ancillaries in the integrated project.

On Oct 3 last year, the company announced that it had scrapped its plans to bring out the small car, priced at Rs.100,000, from the facility in Singur. The plant was shifted to Sanand in Gujarat.

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Musharraf playing cards, enjoying life as Pak reels under tensions

March 24, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Islamabad, Mar 24 (ANI): Within six months of his resignation and being declared one of the most hated men in Pakistan, former President Pervez Musharraf spent Pakistan Day participating in a bridge tournament at the Islamabad Club, in a setting of almost no special security.

Oblivious of the tensions and insecurity that his 10-year term of power have unleashed on the rest of the nation, the former dictator was relaxed, enjoying the company of his friends, playing cards and exchanging jokes.

The News reports there was no one to stop or check the identity or purpose of entry into the room, which was almost open to anyone.

A bureaucrat present on the occasion remarked: “Hardly within six months of his dramatic resignation, Musharraf is once again a free man as he was before staging the coup on Oct 12, 1999.”

Musharraf had no worry about the repeated warnings of Interior Adviser Rehman Malik that there was a big chance of suicide bombing or terrorist activity in Islamabad, which also turned out to be partly true on Monday, almost at the same time when the retired general walked out of the card room.

One visitor of the club observed that Musharraf was enjoying his life, because his successors had surpassed him in becoming unpopular within six months.

Musharraf inaugurated the card tournament in the Islamabad Club, accompanied by his friend Tariq Aziz, who was the only person worried about his security, as he was seen actively guarding the main gate of the card room.

“Look, Tariq Aziz is the only commando who is guarding his friend in the card room gate without any fear of any threat to the former president,” one onlooker said. (ANI)

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Orissa to swap power to meet shortfall

February 25, 2009 By Dinesh Leave a Comment

Bhubaneswar, Feb 25 (IANS) Power trader PTC India will swap power with Orissa to help it overcome the power shortage it is facing currently, an official said Wednesday.

PTC – formerly Power Trading Corp of India – will supply about 150 MW daily to Grid Corp of Orissa (Gridco), the bulk supplier of electricity in the state.

Under a short-term agreement signed Tuesday, PTC will make the supply from Feb 25 to March 31, and get back 5 percent more than what it supplies between Sep 1 and Oct 15, Gridco director (commercial) A.C. Mallik, told IANS.

PTC will source the energy from New Delhi Power Ltd, a distribution company controlled by Tata Power.

Orissa is facing a daily shortfall of 110 MW after one unit of the Talcher thermal power plant developed a technical snag. The state government is at present meeting the shortfall drawing electricity from Orissa Hydro Power Corp.

According to Mallik, Orissa requires about 2,800-3,000 MW during peak periods, particularly in summer, and about 2,300-2,500 MW during off-peak periods.
Indo Asian News Service

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Yasin Malik weds his Pakistani girlfriend

February 22, 2009 By Dinesh Leave a Comment

Rawalpindi, Feb 22 (IANS) Kashmiri separatist leader Yasin Malik Sunday married his Britain-born Pakistani girlfriend Mushaal Mullick in this Pakistani garrison city.

The marriage ceremony was attended by a number well known people, including politicians, Pakistan’s Geo TV reported.

Mullick, a post-graduate from the London School of Economics and an artist, is the daughter of Rehana Hussain, chief of the Muslim League (women’s wing). Her father, the late M.A. Hussain Malik, was an internationally renowned Pakistani economist.

Yasin Malik, 40, chairman of the pro-independence Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front, met Mushaal during one of his tours to Pakistan two years ago.

The wedding dates were fixed during Malik’s current visit to Pakistan. The couple got engaged Oct 24 when the JKLF leader was in detention for launching a poll boycott campaign in Kashmir.

It was the third high-profile cross-border wedding in the Kashmiri separatist camp after Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, who married a US citizen of Kashmiri origin, and Sajjad Ghani Lone, who wed the daughter of JKLF supremo Amanullah Khan from Pakistan-administered Kashmir.
Indo Asian News Service

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Old gastrointestinal drug may offer anti-aging treatment

January 7, 2009 By Rajiv Gupta Leave a Comment

Washington, Jan 7 (ANI): An 80-year old drug, once used to treat diarrhea and other gastrointestinal disorders, may help slow down the aging process, say researchers.

Recent animal studies have shown that the drug, clioquinol, can reverse the progression of Alzheimer”s, Parkinson”s and Huntington”s diseases.

However, scientists had a variety of theories to attempt to explain how a single compound could have such similar effects on three unrelated neurodegenerative disorders.

Now, researchers at McGill University have discovered that clioquinol acts directly on an aging gene called, CLK1, often informally called ‘clock-1.’

“Clioquinol is a very powerful inhibitor of clock-1,” said Dr. Siegfried Hekimi, McGill”s Strathcona Chair of Zoology and Robert Archibald & Catherine Louise Campbell Chair in Developmental Biology.

“Because clock-1 affects longevity in invertebrates and mice, and because we”re talking about three age-dependent neurodegenerative diseases, we hypothesize that clioquinol affects them by slowing down the rate of aging,” Hekimi added.

Hekimi said that the exact mechanism of how clioquinol inhibits CLK-1 is till under investigation.

“One possibility is that metals are involved as clioquinol is a metal chelator,” he said.

Chelation is a type of binding to metal ions and is often used to treat heavy metal poisoning.

Hekimi said he is optimistic but cautious when asked whether clioquinol could eventually become an anti-aging treatment.

“The drug affects a gene which when inhibited can slow down aging. The implication is that we can change the rate of aging. This might be why clioquinol is able to work on this diversity of diseases that are all age-dependent,” he added.

The advance online edition of the study was published in Oct. 2008 in the Journal of Biological Chemistry. (ANI)

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