THE CONTACT WEEKLY NEWSPAPER
ISSUE - 384
21 Dec. to 27 Dec., 2010
PH: (905) 671 - 4761
Punjab Court awards life sentence to father, son in murder case of New Zealand based NRI
FATEHGARH SAHIB: A local court awarded life sentence to a father and his son in murder case of an NRI Jagdev Singh, originally resident of village Wajizpur of district Fatehgarh Sahib. Jagdev was killed by his real brother Purshotam Singh Mann who was member of Zila Parishad, Fatehgarh Sahib at that time. On the statement of the deceased NRI wife Satinder Kaur, the Bassi Pathana police had registered a case against Purshotam Singh, his wife
World's most expensive
XMAS TREE
A hotel in Abu Dhabi put up what it believes to be the world's most expensive Christmas tree. The Emirates Palace hotel says the jewel-encrusted tree in its lobby is worth more than ÂŁ7m, reported BBC. The tree decorated with precious stones in Emirates Palace hotel, Abu Dhabi Items of jewellery studded with scores of precious stones are draped on the branches, along with traditional baubles and lights. Hotel GM Hans Olbertz said the tree itself was worth less than ÂŁ6,500, but the value was in the bracelets, necklaces and watches which contain 181 diamonds, pearls, emeralds and other precious stones. The hotel has an Xmas tree every year, Olbertz said, but this year, "we said we'd do something different". Continued.... Page 5
Paramjit Kaur and son Lakhbir under sections 302, 307, 34 of the IPC and 27, 54, 59 of Arms Act on December 14, 2006. The court of Sessions Judge, Fatehgarh Sahib today pronounced life sentence to father and his son but acquitted Paramjit Kaur. The court also ordered Purshotam Singh to pay fine of Rs 9,000 and in default he will have to go for five months imprisonment. Lakbhir Singh was also ordered to pay fine of Rs 8,000 and in default he will have to go for
five months imprisonment. Satinder Kaur in her statement had told to police that she was married to a New Zealand resident
Jagdev Singh in 1999 and she too arrived in that country in 2000. She said her husband had a joint property and a common
Now, third woman who was seduced by WikiLeaks founder emerges
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, who is at the centre of sex assault allegations by two women, is said to have seduced a third right from under her boyfriend's nose in Sweden. Assange, 39, allegedly walked away with the girl, who had arrived with the
American journalist, as they all dined together at a Stockholm restaurant. An American revealed that he had gone out to dinner at Stockholm's Beirut restaurant with the WikiLeaks Swedish coordinator, the co-ordinator's girlfriend, and the journalist and his English girlfriend.
Liz Hurley 'begs forgiveness'
FROM HUBBY NAYAR
A devastated Liz Hurley is pleading with her
husband Arun Nayar to take her back after she dumped cricketer Shane Warne.The 45-years-old
actress dumped the Aussie love-rat after finding that he had sent more than 100 sex texts to a married woman at the same time he was having an affair with her.According to an Oz man, Denis Angeleri, his wife, Adele, was wooed by Warne with a series of explicit texts like: "Very very horny today thinking of you" and "I want to see you riding me." Continued.... Page 5
The journalist claims Assange ignored him and instead focused intently on his girlfriend, even following her out for a cigarette. "When they hadn't come back after 45 minutes I went to see what was happening. They were standing very close together a little way down the street, and Julian was whispering in her ear," the Daily Mail quoted him as saying. He later saw the two walking hand in hand, and when he challenged Assange, "he dropped into a classic fighter's pose, with his fists up". Continued.... Page 5
house at village Wazidpur and in November, 2006 the couple visited the village to attend a marriage function. Satinder's brother Parwinder Singh marriage was fixed in village Latour on December 11, 2006 and after attending the marriage the couple along with their children reached at village Wazidpur next day. She had stated that Jagdev Singh and Purshotam Singh had conflict over division of land since her husband reached the village from New Zealand. Satinder Kaur had alleged that her husband was joint owner of around 45
acre and all earning from the land was received by Purshotam Singh and his family. She had alleged that on December 13, 2006 Purshotam Singh in an inebriated condition reached at his home around 8 pm and when his husband demanded money for giving him his land on lease and asked to divide the land, Purshotam Singh in presence of his wife Paramjit Kaur and son Lakhbir started to abuse Jagdev and Paramjit Kaur instigating to shoot Jagdev. Continued.... Page 5
'Donkey flights' popular with migrants to UK
LONDON: Thousands of illegal immigrants from India are using "donkey flights" to enter the UK through the back door via other European Union countries, a media report said on Sunday. Using the system known as "donkey flights", unskilled labourers pay travel agents huge amount to provide them with visa to
facilitate them to first move into one of the Schengen zone, according to "The Sunday Times" daily. On arrival in the EU - often in Germany, Belgium or France - they are met by "consultants" who help them to reach Britain. For the migrants willing to pay as much as 16,800, Continued.... Page 5
Issue # 384 (2)
THE CONTACT
21 Dec . to 27 Dec., 2010
Hangover cure? Ewe must be having a laugh SHHH! Last night was Black Friday, the last big party night before Christmas. So millions of Brits are hung over and trying traditional remedies including fry-ups and cans of Coke. But in case the usual British cures aren't hitting the spot, JENNA SLOAN brings you these recipes from around the world. Although, if you're feeling really queasy, you might want to give the pickled sheep's eye a miss. Korea Brave drinkers can ward off a bad head with a bowl of Haejangguk, a soup made from pork spine, dried cabbage, coagulated ox blood and vegetables. Some types also include fermented, salted shrimp and are intended to be drunk with sugared rice wine with flour in.
Ireland The oysters contain Many drinkers swear by zinc, which has libidothe "hair of the dog" to cope boosting qualities. You'll need to get over the headache first, though. Haiti Voodoo priests in Haiti recommend taking your rage out on the bottle itself. To cure a hangover, drop 13 black-headed pins into the bottle from which you've been drinking, or plunge them into the cork if it's wine or champagne. O u t e r Mongolia This one should probably be used only as a last resort. Take a pickled sheep's eyeball, put it in a with the effects of too much glass and fill with tomato boozing. juice. In Ireland it is believed The drink needs to be a pint of Guinness and half downed in one - resist the a dozen oysters will sort temptation to savour the you out. flavour.
Plenty of sex gives men long lives! An active sex life is the key to a longer life for men only if they are faithful to their partners, a new research has found. Italian medical researchers have found that a healthy sex life means fewer cardiovascular problems for men. "What was evident from the research was that men who had active sex lives and were faithful to their partners had fewer cardiovascular complaints and lived longer," the Telegraph quoted Emmanuele Jannini, coordinator of the research, as saying. "Increased sexual activity produces more testosterone, which leads to less depression and a b e t t e r cardiovascular performance which
means an improved metabolism," said Jannini. Jannini said the study has revealed that those who were unfaithful had a poor cardiovascular performance because they were "also coping with the increased stress of their infidelity." She said that an increased amount of testosterone produced during sex was good for men because it burned off excess sugars and reduced the risk of heart disease. "People who have diabetes especially benefit from a healthy sex life and an active sex life also helps avoid prostate problems for men," she added. The Italian Society of Sexual Medicine carried out the study.
At least the gagging will take your mind off the hangover for a while... Poland The Poles reckon sour flavours are the best for curing a sore head. Unpasteurised sour milk is one option, but that would turn most stomachs even when sober. Another choice is to down a glass of pickle juice made with plenty of vinegar. Bottoms up. Ancient Rome The relatively sedate practice of warding off a hangover by wearing a garland of parsley to bed was popular with Pliny The Elder, a general and philosopher who also made a study of hangover cures. But when that wasn't very effective he moved on to swallowing raw eggs and
drinking olive oil and garlic. Russia If you have some cabbages left over from the Korean cure, copy the Russians - who have plenty of hangover experience from the national sport of downing vodka in large quantities. They boil a cabbage,
then down the water and soggy veg in one. The hangovers 700 years ago were just as savage as today's. Drinkers in the Middle Ages relied on dried eels and bitter almonds for tackling the effects of the morning after a skinful of mead.
YOUR IPHONE COULD BE SPYING ON YOU! LONDON: Do you know that dozens of popular iPhone applications could be secretly spying on what you do with them. More than half of the programmes and games for smartphones sent data back to the private company once they had been downloaded, a study has found. It found that of the 101 applications tested, 56 transmitted the phone's individual number to a private company in some way, known as the Unique Device Identifier or UDID. Some 47 sent the phone's location and five sent age, gender and other personal information, reports the Daily Mail. The applications include the
with this wildly popular Angry Birds Armed firms, game and music identifying information, software Shazam, which including Google, track the individuals' movements and sell personalised ad for which they can make more money than regular ones. The research was carried out in the US but it would apply to users downloading applications from anywhere in the world. Michael Becker of the US-based Mobile Marketing comes pre-installed on Association said the advantage of mobile every iPhone. More data was sent phones for advertisers is back about a user's that they are always with location on the Apple's us. "It's always on," he said. iPhone than Google's "In the world of mobile, there Android smartphone, the is no anonymity," he said. research discovered, even The research by the Wall though both companies Street Journal found that have promised not to let smartphone users had no such practices take place. way of stopping the
tracking, unlike on a computer where you can disable the monitoring software, known as 'cookies'. Typical of the problem was Angry Birds which sent the phone's UDID to the game's makers Electronic Arts. Pandora, the popular music application, sent gender, location, age and the phone ID to a string of advertising networks. Android and iPhone versions of a game called Paper Toss, where players try to throw paper wads into a bin, each sent the phone's ID number to at least five ad companies. Applications became wildly popular with the advent of smartphones and when Apple opened its App store in 2008. Now more than 300,000 are available.
Thai smuggler swallowed 1,200 ecstasy pills D E N P A S A R (INDONESIA): A Thai woman swallowed more than 1,200 ecstasy pills wrapped in plastic and tried to smuggle them into the Indonesian resort island of Bali, officials said on Monday. Customs officials said the 24-year-old woman appeared nervous and was found to have a hard stomach during a body search at Bali's international airport as she arrived Thursday on a flight from Bangkok. She was taken to hospital and 1,280 ecstasy pills were found
in her stomach, Bali customs chief I Made Wijaya told a press conference. "The pills were in a number of plastic wraps which she swallowed about 90 times," Wijaya said. They weighed of 402 grams (0.9 pounds) and were worth about 448 million rupiah (USD 50,000), he said. The woman, who claimed to be a dancer in Bangkok, told investigators that an Israeli man had offered to pay her USD 656 to
deliver the pills to Bali, one If convicted she faces of Asia's most popular life imprisonment or death destinations for Western under Indonesia's tough tourists, Wijaya said. anti-drug laws.
Issue # 384 (3)
THE CONTACT
21 Dec . to 27 Dec., 2010
email: sunnyb1971@gmail.com Either it is important or it isn't. Either you mean it or you don't. Either you have got a real commitment or you are keeping up a facade. You don't have to do everything perfectly. You don't have to get it right all the time. Still, though, you must put your heart into what you are doing, else nothing is going to work out. Are you scared of acknowledging a true feeling? Not sure what you really want? Listen more carefully to your deepest, most powerful feelings. Logic alone won't get you from where you are now to where you want to be. Nor will passion. Give a fair hearing to both. You might fall in love. You might find someone falls in love with you. You might make a new friends. You might make a bit of money. You might find a way to spend money well on a genuine bargain. You might get creative. You might dream up an inspiring idea. Or finally see how to proceed with a difficult problem. You might not, of course, do any of this. You might just eat, drink and do your best to be merry at this mad time. But if you find yourself in any situation thinking 'there can be no positive change here..' think again. Your heart can find a way, regardless of what your head has to say. The planet is seemingly full of so many confused people - and uncertain situations. No wonder, if that's the state of our 'shared world', that our individual worlds are similarly mixed up and insecure. You may feel awkward about a sensitive matter at the moment - but, for
many, you are a source of strength and stability. They see you as a rock. And perhaps that's why they demand or expect more from you than you can supply. You hide your vulnerability too well. Continue to hide it as much as you can. If you act with confidence, you'll find your judgement is surprisingly good and that you make wise choices. You can say the same thing a thousand times and persuade a thousand people to say it with you. This may inspire millions more to echo your statement. It won't, though, make it true. Popularity is never a measure of quality - or veracity. You are now up against a 'widely held' opinion. It's tempting to go along with it just for the sake of an easy life. You suspect, though, that it is wrong. What right do you have to be controversial? Every right, and need. Your voice may only be one whisper in the midst of a chanting throng - but, somehow, it must make itself heard. Looked at in one way, everything seems absolutely fine. Looked at in another, there is much that's far from ideal. Probably, you've noticed that too. I expect you are finding it hard to decide how you really feel about a certain person, matter or situation. It is better, though, to be in a state of uncertainty than to be absolutely sure, but totally wrong! I know that this is a bit like asking a chocoholic to cut out sugar, but try not to leap too quickly to too many conclusions. You don't need answers. What you need is to be sure
that you're asking the right questions! Be grateful for what you understand. It may not seem like a lot, but it is precious beyond words. Your time on this planet has been well spent. Never mind what we can or can't measure in terms of money or attainment, if we look at what your heart now knows and what wisdom you have acquired, we can see you are genuinely rich. You can appreciate what others, seemingly, cannot grasp. That deeper knowledge will prove worth its weight in gold. You are on the verge of making a wise decision with potential to serve you in good stead for the rest of your life. You are wrestling with a difficult decision now. You are wrestling with a difficult decision now. You are wrestling with.. Oops, Sorry. The auto-repeat function on my MS Word got stuck. I'll just go back and remove those difficult decisions. Ha! If only it were that easy! Actually, maybe I can help to free you from one difficult decision. It's as if you're going over and over a matter in your mind.. yet on this topic your mind is already made up. You don't really need to justify the choice you have made. You just need to trust it and stop doubting yourself. Your road then, will be easy. Do you feel as if a cosmic spotlight is shining on you? Does it seem as if you are exposed, vulnerable and with no hiding place? Put your best foot forward bravely. You cannot postpone an important engagement. Nor can you put off a muchneeded conversation. But you have nothing
to be ashamed of - indeed you have everything to be proud of. So why worry? See yourself as strong and you will be strong - and, as we move from here, you will start to attain impressive and much deserved rewards for the effort you have expended and the trust you have shown. How can you triumph over adversity if you face no adversity? How can you rise to a challenge if you have no challenge to rise to? Be grateful for your problems. Without them, you'd have nothing to solve. Life would be relaxed and happy for a moment, after which it would become deeply dull. Admittedly, a difficulty on its own does not represent a reason to celebrate. But, if to this we add, a little tenacity, ingenuity and opportunity we soon arrive at a recipe for success. While you have much you can complain about if you wish, you have a way to put right everything that is wrong. There is a time and a place for everything. But you should know that better than anyone. You should also know that if you wait long enough, patiently enough, the right time will come along and most probably, when it does, you will automatically find yourself in the right place. A fundamental law of nature is that everything changes. Every situation. Every arrangement. Every priority. So, be wise and avoid the assumption that your dearest dreams are never going to be fulfilled. What once seemed impossible is now feasible. Don't question this. Be glad of it. And act on it.
Issue # 384 (4)
THE CONTACT
21 Dec . to 27 Dec., 2010
Top 10 Luxury Gifts for Christmas Who'd say no to a present, especially when the festive season awakens the child in us. So with Christmas only five days away, we put together a wish list of luxurious and very giftable things we'd love to receive this festive season. mummy to her chic child. The 12-page Hermes Les 4 Mondes colouring book comes with 24 chic designs for your kid to fill in. Price: $130 Designer Whisky: Tarun Tahiliani teamed up with Johnnie
Customised Prada Glasses: Since Prada is allowing us to turn specs designer, we wouldn't mind getting completely customised glasses. The Prada Private collection glasses come in three colours - black, white and tortoise - along with detachable arms that can be styled with a variety of symbols including letters, hearts, skulls and numbers. Price: $365 Hermes Colouring Book:
It's the perfect Christmas-time indulgence from a yummy
Walker to create the Blue Label Heirloom whisky. The gift pack comes embellished with Swarovski crystals and 18-carat gold electroplating. Or there's the 18-year-old Christian Lacroix for Chivas Regal whisky that comes in a blue treasure box. Price: TT Johnnie Walker Heirloom whisky is Rs. 20,500; Christian Lacroix for Chivas Regal is $495. Chopard Jewellery: The
The The central diamond 'star' is movable. Price: On request. Hand-made Lingerie: Luxury underwear brand La
Perla has gotten designer Jean Paul Gaultier to create some very stylish hand-made underwear for women. Besides your regular bras and panties, the collection also has bustiers and corsets. Prices: $600 -$1200. A Watch Phone: Celsius X
Louis Vuitton. The bag comes with an 'Every journey began in Africa' inscription and a Kenyan hand-crafted charm. Price: On request. Chocolate: It's easily the
most delectable edible Christmas gift any woman could receive. After all, who doesn't love chocolate. Michel Cluizel's chocolates come with centres
Happy Spirit collection from Chopard includes a pendant and ring set made from 18-carat white gold studded with diamonds.
VI II has launched a trendy watch phone. It's basically a flip phone that features the watch with its innards on display - on the top cover. It's GSM complaint and comes with a 3.2 megapixel camera. Price: $3,00,000. The Bono hold-all: U2's frontman Bono designed some very stylish, very manly monogrammed hold-alls for
designer Nicholas Brawer has crafted the perfect gift for men who love their cars and alcohol. He's designed decanters that replicated the grilles of classic cars like the Rolls Royce, Bentley, Jaguar MercedesBenz and Bugatti. Price: On request. Speaker Dock: Bang & Olufsen launched their latest hi-tech speaker dock ahead of the party/Christmas season. The speaker dock is compatible with all sorts of systems including the iPod, iPhone, iPad, MAC or even a regular PC. Price: Rs. 65,000.
like passion fruit pulp, palet au mile (chestnut honey and ganache) and crème brûlée. Price: $855 (Rs 40,400) per box. Chrome Decanters: British
Students get £250 to take rave drug CAMBRIDGE University students were paid £250 to take part in a psychiatric study where they were injected with rave drug KETAMINE. The research was carried out by the Department of Psychiatry to look at different treatments for schizophrenia. People who suffer from mental illnesses sometimes believe that external objects are part of their body — a sensation also experienced by ketamine users. Researchers injected 15 participants with ketamine before testing whether it made them more or less likely to think a fake rubber hand was their own. The hallucinogenic drug, which is legal in liquid form but a Class C drug when converted into a grainy powder, is most commonly used as a horse tranquilliser.
Disturbing One PhD student, who took part in the study, which found links between ketamine and schizophrenia, told how the experience was "disturbing" and "scary". She said: "After they increased the dose I began to hallucinate. It made me feel scared. It felt like the bed was floating up and I felt very disorientated. "I couldn't find my way to the bathroom. It was quite disturbing. I needed the money at the time and I wouldn't do it again." John Mitchell, spokesman for Rehab Guide, an organisation which helps people to find treatment for drug addictions, believes the study was a "dangerous game". He said: "This is encouraging people to use ketamine for monetary reward. It's immoral. That's just a personal opinion but
it's a very dangerous game." The study by Professor Paul Fletcher and PhD student Hannah Morgan is titled "Exploring the Impact of Ketamine on the Experience of Illusory Bod Ownership". The research was submitted to Biological Psychiatry in March this year, the official journal of the Society of Biological Psychiatry, and will be printed in the January 2011 edition. During the study the 15 healthy volunteers were injected with ketamine before being shown a rubber hand being stroked while their own hand was tickled simultaneously. They then repeated the test with a placebo and discovered ketamine made subjects more likely to believe that the fake hand was their own. A statement from Prof Fletcher and Ms Morgan has denied that the study left participants at an
"unacceptable risk" of suffering ill-effects from the drug. It read: "All participants undergo intensive screening beforehand, in terms of their history of physical or mental illness and of past drug abuse. "We would not do this work if we considered that there was an unacceptable risk to participants." However, one participant, who took in the study, did not declare a previous mental illness.
Prof Fletcher and Ms Morgan added: "We ensured that he experienced no subsequent ill effects. "Interestingly, he reported that he had been feeling very well and cheerful since participating in the study, though this is likely to be quite by chance rather than due to any therapeutic effect." Ketamine has been widely used by the NHS as an anaesthetic since the 1970s but its recreational use has increased in recent years. The drug can cause hallucinations and reduce bodily sensation while some users can feel as if their bodies and minds have been separated. Long-term health effects can include panic attacks, depression and exacerbation of preexisting mental health conditions.
Issue # 384 (5)
THE CONTACT
21 Dec . to 27 Dec., 2010
SMILE, YOU COULD BE ON CAMERA! They say one should be careful what one says or does in public because Big Brother is watching. Thanks to technology, the ubiquitous camera in the mobile phone and dozens of other innovative audio-visual paraphernalia that is cheaply available we can be invaded anywhere at anytime. Your vice can be recorded, your calls can be taped and you can be photographed in stills or video anywhere without knowing. As an individual do you have protection against this massive trampling of your privacy? The old empire's dictate that a man's home is his castle no longer holds good. The castle has been breached. We are no longer shocked at the revelations of people saying things on tape and being indicted. When famous Indian journalist Vir Sanghvi talked to a lobbyist
THE CONTACT STAFF: EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Sunny Bains Hon. President : Dr. (Prof.) Darshan Singh Executive Editor: Hon. Kanwaljit Kaur Foreign Editor: Syed Asif Shahkar (Sweden) Sr. Assistant Editor: Prempal Bajwa Special Correspondents: Shazia Syed Lahore Balkar Chatha France Financial Advisor : Sarabjit Singh Sagoo Photographer: Sandeep Brar 647 294 4948 Head Office: 2-7015 TRANMERE DRIVE, MISSISSAUGA ONTARIO CANADA L5S 1T7 For Advertisement : Call Kanwaljit 416-899-2548 Tel: 905-671-4761 TOLL FREE: 1-888-371-2548 FAX: 905-671-4766 EMAIL: AJITWEEKLY@ YAHOO.COM INFO@AJITWEEKLY.COM The Contact Weekly and people associated with it are not responsible for any claims made by the advertisers and don’t endorse any product or services advertised in the Contact Weekly. Please consult your lawyer before buying/hiring/contracting through the ads published in the newspaper. The Contact Weekly is in the business of selling space and claims made by the advertisers are not tested / confirmed by an independent source.
he expected a democratic protection of not being secretly taped. Yet, no one has offered him that option. You and I, we don't want to be taped without our knowledge. It is scary. You are in a hotel room and you might be under scrutiny from a hidden camera. You stay with a friend and he tapes you sleeping and it is not funny. The sordid scenario of young girls being snapped by ugly, mobile phone wielding boys is almost threadbare but a lie can be turned into a harmful 'truth' with photoshop. Even in more benign situations we are being caught on tape and there has to be some choice given to say, no. Guess airports and other sensitive areas cannot be excluded but even private occasions are now invasive. A lady at a party is video-taped coming into the room having deposited her dinner plate. She does not know the camera is on her. She is filmed wiping her hands surreptitiously on her drawing-room curtains. Obviously, she is unaware of her performance. Later, the guest are shown the taping. She is part of the audience. When the segment comes up she is scarlet with embarrassment and leaves the gathering immediately. A lady watching a live TV coverage of a cricket match from her home is surprised to see the camera pan onto the spectators, among them her husband with another lady. At a time when he was supposedly in a very important 'I won't be home till late' meeting with clients. Perhaps she was one but that would have done little to mitigate the warm reception awaiting him at home. A well-known celebrity once kicked a video cameraman for sparking an attack
of migraine by focusing a harsh light on him as he entered a function. In all three cases, the subject was not a party to the recording. We had seen the film in which a tourist accidentally tapes a murder being committed. High drama follows as the murderer attempts to get that tape with his face of it. Well, while not all of us have that horrid experience we do have an irritation factor that is increasing and a cautionary approach which is no fun. If you are letting your hair down you do not want it pasted on facebook. The irritation factor is only part of it and video teams hired for specific occasions tend to usurp all rights, behaving as is they had a free-for-all passage. Go to an average function and these people carrying equipment and trailing snaking cables and mobile lights push and shove and make a thorough nuisance of themselves. By some unspoken conspiracy inspired by the aura of media everyone silently suffers the rudeness and the high handiness because they have a camera and that gives them some inexplicable superiority in the human race. No one ever stops to ask that there might be some guests who are hostile to the idea of being photographed or taped and it would only be good manners to ask their permission first. But balloon this concept into public gatherings and the rights of privacy completely disappear. Why should the purchase of a ticket
to a function ipso facto give anyone the right to film an individual eating, drinking, shouting, jumping, putting up banners or be seen in specific company without paying him royalty for the appearance and contracting with him prior to a telecast? That would be impossible, don't be ridiculous. True, but it still does not change the unilateral nature of the arrangement and the chance appearance of an individual in a public broadcast must provide legal grounds for redress if that airing causes him anguish, distress or compromises his position. He could be photographed shaking hands with a figure whose reputation or image is conducive to needless discomfort. At the risk of being indelicate, a person digging his nose while watching a cricket match is shown across three continents. Intrinsically harmless, yes but what if he is the top executive in his organisation and so recognised on screen. It was not part of the deal. No one asked if they could take his picture digging his nose. There have been no test cases recorded for punitive action or damages arising from such coverage but if one were to be initiated the odds favour the plaintiff.Perhaps the time has come when warnings being issued on all invitations, private and public, that the event will be telecast and the invitee could be in the coverage. That would be a start in the right direction.
Punjab Court awards life sentence to father, son in murder case of New Zealand based NRI
'Donkey flights' popular with migrants to UK
Continued.... from Page 1
To kill Jagdev when Purshotam Singh had fired from . 12 bore gun Jagdev fell on ground. When she had tried to save her husband, Lakhbir after getting gun from Purshtaom Singh fired on her leg and she was also injured . She had raised an alarm and Purshotam
Singh along with his wife and son ran away . She had given information to her parents with the help of neighbours and they had taken her husband to PGI, Chandigarh in serious condition but he succumbed to his injuries later. (Courtesy PunjabNewsline, By Gurpreet Singh Mehak)
Now, third woman who was seduced by WikiLeaks founder emerges Continued.... from Page 1
"Assange seemed to take pleasure in humiliating me," he added. The incident had taken place just two days before he had sex with Miss A, one of his two accusers, and five days before he bedded the second, Miss W. Assange a high-tech terrorist, says Biden US Vice President Joe Biden has said that WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange was "closer to being a hightech terrorist", and acknowledged the fact that the leak of classified US diplomatic cables have damaged foreign relations. In an interview with the NBC's Meet the Press programme, when Biden was asked if what Assange had done was criminal, the vice president said it would be considered criminal if it could be established that the WikiLeaks founder
had encouraged or helped Bradley Manning, the US intelligence analyst suspected of being behind the leak. Biden said this was different from a journalist receiving leaked material, another media report said. "If he conspired to get these classified documents with a member of the US military, that's fundamentally different than if somebody drops on your lap here... you're a press person, 'Here is classified material'," Biden was quoted as saying. On being told by the show host that a Republican senator considered Assange to be a "high-tech terrorist", while many others say his document release was more like the 1971 publication of the Pentagon Papers on the Vietnam War, Biden said: "I would argue that it's closer to being hightech terrorist than to the Pentagon Papers."
Continued.... from Page 1
pounds, the consultants provide fake documents such as a residency permit or driving licence that can be used to obtain a EU passport. This allows easy entry into the UK. UK has moved to curb immigration and proposed tougher entrance criteria and limits on work as part of a shake-up of the student visa system that is likely to adversely impact Indians seeking to move to Britain.
World's most expensive XMAS TREE Continued.... from Page 1
However, the management apparently has second thoughts after questions arose about whether the opulent tree was innocent good cheer or unfortunate bad taste, and a statement from the hotel said it regretted "attempts to overload" the Christmas tree tradition.
Liz Hurley 'begs forgiveness' FROM HUBBY NAYAR
Continued.... from Page 1
Now, Hurley wants to call off her divorce from her 46-year-old hubby, but her desperate bid to revive the marriage doesn't seem to be working out. "Liz knows she's been a fool and has phoned Arun to say sorry and beg forgiveness. But Arun wants no part of it and is still going for quickie divorce," the Sun quoted a source as saying.
Issue # 384 (6)
THE CONTACT
21 Dec . to 27 Dec., 2010
MANJIT RATTU REMANDED IN
Punjab police custody till Dec 24
CHANDIGARH: Manjit Singh Rattu, an infamous journalist who was Sunday handed over to Punjab police by Haryana counterpart was late on Sunday remanded into police remand upto December 24 by a Jalandhar court where he was produced in connection with a fraud case. The Jalandhar police where some cases of fraud have been registered against Rattu had sought transition remand of Rattu.Earlier Panchkula police had arrested Rattu in another fraud case under sections 420 and 406 of IPC. His two days remand ended today and he was sent to judicial custody before Punjab police sought his custody. The Jalandhar police has arrested him on the complaint of Balbir Kaur who paid him Rs.14.5 lakh to send her son abroad. Rattu while talking to media outside Panchkula court said that Amar Singh Bhullar editor of Hamdard weekly published from Canada and Satinder Bains Editor of Punjab Newsline.com are hatching conspiracy against him. Rattu understood to have cheated score of people on various counts including sending their wards abroad and he had taken lakhs of rupees. His
arrest by Haryana police has opened a pandora's box of allegations against him. Rattu is also allegedly considered the person responsible for blasts in Lahore for which Sarabjit Singh has been framed and given death sentence. Dalbir Kaur sister of Sarabjit Singh has demanded high level investigtion of the case and free Sarabjit Singh who is innocent. Awais Sheikh the lawyer of Sarabjit in Pakistan has filed a mercy petition on the basis of Punjabnewline.com investigation that real cuplrit is Manjit Singh Rattu. The case is being investigated by intelligence agencies in Pakistan and India beside Canada and US police. Manjit Singh Rattu had political aspirations, contested 1992 Punjab assembly, Lok Sabha elections In a fresh revealation about political aspirations of Manjit Singh Rattu arrested by Panchkula police on fraud charges, it has now come to light that he had unsuccessfully contested Lok Sabha election once and 1992 Punjab Vidhan Sabha election boycotted by Shiromani Akali Dal as an independent candidate from Phillaur reserve constituency. He was reportedly supported by certain panthic group having backing of Congress party. It is learnt that Manjit Singh Rattu was among the 35 candidates fielded for Vidhan Sabha elections by a so called Panthic group-all of whome had lost their deposits. Rattu had contested assembly election against former Congress minister Ch.Santokh Singh who
won the election and became minister in the Beant Singh government. After boycott of elections by SAD, the center government had fielded many dummy candidates to legitamize the assembly elections. Rattu who belngs to Chamar caste of United Ravidassia community, was polled only 179 votes and he had lost his deposit. Sanotkh Singh was polled 11787 votes which was 42.8 percent of total polled votes.The others in the fray were Dev Raj Sidhu of BSP who was polled 10333 votes and Dev of CPM was polled 5451 votes.He was also an independent candidate in 1992 Parliament elections from Phillaur seat against Satosh Chaudhary of Congress, who won the election. He was polled only 1101 votes against 99385 votes secured by Santosh Chaudhary. The candidates in the fray were Harbhajan Lakha of BSP who got 93601 votes followed by Bhagat Ram of CPI wih 44457 votes. The iteresting part is that in affidavits submitted to the Election Commission of India he has nowhere mentioned his father's name though he exactly mentioned his name as Manjit Singh Rattu. Manjit Singh Rattu also reported to have filed a criminal suit in a Chandigarh court against Satinder Bains Editor of online news portal Punjabnewsline.com for publishing stories about his (Rattu's) involvement in Lahore Bomb blasts, the case in which Sarabjit Singh has been given death sentence. Ansar Burney to visit India in search of real culprit behind Pak bomb
Shocked Swedish medical students given teacher's body at first autopsy Students at one of Sweden's top medical schools were left in shock after they were given the body of a late teacher in their first ever autopsy. According to news agency TT, the students found the autopsy to have been extremely emotional, especially since it involved someone they had known. "The first autopsy is really, really emotional, and we autopsied
someone we knew," the Telegraph quoted one of the shocked students as saying.Another stated: "I feel something in the routines went a bit wrong." Chief physician Birgitta Sundelin called the event "extremely unfortunate", and said that students were normally informed beforehand whose body they were to examine and that it was also the case this time.
But according to a student, the class did not find out until they saw their teacher's name on the body's toe tag. The head of the department, Tina Dalianis, said she regretted the incident, but added the students needed to learn the tricks of the trade. "It's terrible, but it's part of education sometimes. Unfortunately they have to deal with it," she added.
blasts The Chairman of the Ansar Burney Trust International and Pakistan's former Federal Minister for human rights, Ansar Burney has announced that he intends to visit India next week to gather information on the arrest of Manjit Singh Rattu allegedly involved in acts of Terrorism in Pakistan, the charges on which another Indian national Sarabjeet Singh has been sentenced and facing the death sentence in Pakistan since last 19 years.He called and appreciated the efforts of Satinder Bains of Punjab Newsline.com for his interest and research work to bring the real culprit out of hiding to get justice for innocent Sarabjit Singh. Ansar Burney said that according to reports in the Indian media the man arrested and known as Manjit Singh Rattu was the real culprit behind a series of bomb blasts in Pakistan in 1990, a crime for which Sarabjit Singh has alledgedly wrongly been convicted due to mistaken
identity and for which he has already spent 19 years in a death cell in Pakistan. Ansar Burney, legal representative of Sarabjit Singh, has already applied for a visa at Indian High Commission at London to visit India to investigate the matter in the greater interest of human dignity and hopes the recent arrest of Manjit Singh Rattu may now finally prove Sarabjit Singh's innocence. The United Nations Expert Advisor on Human Rights, Ansar Burney had earlier in 2007 succeeded in obtaining an indefinite curtailment of an order to carry out Sarabjit Singh's death sentence and the human rights activist Ansar Burney now hopes that Sarabjit Singh's innocence may finally be proven.According to reports received by the Ansar Burney Trust International, Manjit Singh Rattu is an infamous journalist who had been wanted for fraud and murder, and arrested on Thursday by Haryana police in Indian Punjab. He is said to have married in
India, Pakistan and Canada; and reportedly also holds Pakistani citrizenship. "This recently arrested Manjeet Singh in India at that period during his stay in Pakistan married to a Pakistani lady and also met with the former Chief Minister of Punjab, Ghulam Haider Wyne and other leaders." Ansar Burney added. Manjit Singh Rattu, according to news reports in India, is also alledgedly the real culprit behind several bomb blasts in Pakistan for which Sarabjit Singh has been w r o n g l y convicted.(Courtesy PunjabNewsline, By Gurpreet Singh Mehak)
Issue # 384 (7)
THE CONTACT
21 Dec. to 27 Dec., 2010
Kung Fu monkeys attack cameraman THESE menacing monkeys could teach Bruce Lee a thing or two with a Kung Fu fighting master class. The lemur monkeys
appeared to launch the martial arts style attack as wildlife photographer Shem Compion tried to snap them. Shem escaped
unharmed but admitted he wouldn't "mess" with the scary beasts again. The highly-skilled primates - called sifakas - look like they're ready for a fight, drilling high kicks, punches, and ducking and weaving around the jungle. The light-footed animals even seem to be launching their moves together, mimicking each other's actions as they perfect their techniques.
Wildlife snapper Shem, 33, from South Africa, said: "It was so funny to watch - they looked just like they w e r e practising Kung Fu. "The sifakas are famous for their sideways motion and are known as the 'dancing sifakas of Madagscar'. Jumping "I managed to take photos of them in all sorts of positions - jumping,
kicking and even holding their arms out looking like they were ready for a fight. "They didn't seem shy at all in front of the camera,
Bones found on Pacific island may belong to
AMELIA EARHART US aircraft history buffs are hopeful that tiny bones along with artefacts from the 1930s found on a remote Pacific island may reveal the fate of pioneering aviator Amelia Earhart. In one of aviation's most enduring mysteries, Earhart took off from Lae, in what is now Papua New Guinea, while attempting to circumnavigate the globe via the equator in 1937 and was never seen again. A massive search at the time failed to find the flyer and her navigator Fred Noonan, who were assumed to have died after ditching their Lockheed Electra aircraft in the ocean, according to the Amelia Earhart Museum. Now aviation enthusiasts from USbased group The International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery (TIGHAR) say they have evidence suggesting the pair made it safely to Nikumaroro Island in Kiribati and lived as castaways. TIGHAR executive director Rick Gillespie said the group, which has carried out 10 expeditions to Nikumaroro over the past 22 years, found three small bone fragments on
the uninhabited island earlier this year. Gillespie said the bones appeared to be part of a human finger, although they could also be from a turtle, and had been sent to the Molecular Science Laboratories at Oklahoma University for DNA analysis.
and quite happily ran right past me. "Besides, I wouldn't want to mess with them now I've seen these moves." Sifakas, whose name derives from their distinctive call "sha-fik", are endemic to the island
of Madagascar and are a threatened species. Tragically, there are very few places left where they can still be seen in the wild, due to deforestation and destruction of their forest habitat. They generally move in an upright position, hopping sideways on their hind legs and leaping up to 5m from tree to tree. The herbivores live in family groups and can be found sunbathing on tree branches, when they aren't busy eating leaves, flowers and fruits. Remarkably, their tail is as long as their body and it has specially adapted claws for grooming.
Killed by one puff A STUDENT plunged to his death from a sixthfloor window after just ONE puff of skunk cannabis, an inquest heard yesterday. Ahmed Shammam, 23, started frothing at the mouth after a "deep puff" on a joint, pals said. They tried to restrain him as he ran into the bathroom - but were unable to stop him falling out of the window. They said he called for his mum before falling 75ft to his death from the flat in Marylebone, central London, in July. Only a tiny amount of the drug was found in Ahmed's blood, the inquest heard. Westminster deputy coroner Dr Shirley Radcliffe said: "This is the first time I have come across a reaction to a very small amount." P a t h o l o g i s t Sebastian Lucas said: "Cannabis can sometimes make people do very strange things very quickly." Libyan Ahmed, a student in Dubai, was in London visiting pals. He was a strict Muslim, and no alcohol or other drugs had been taken. In a statement from his dad Omran Shammam, the court heard the engineering student had a history of hyper-reaction to some medicines. Dr Radcliffe said: "Whether this is an acute reaction as a result of the
psychoactive substance, or whether it is a reaction to another substance in the joint we'll never know." She said there was no evidence Ahmed meant to kill himself and no s u s p i c i o u s circumstances. Verdict: Accident.
Issue # 384 (8)
THE CONTACT
21 Dec. to 27 Dec., 2010
Couple jailed for 7yrs for holding MUM 'CHOPS five Thai women as sex slaves UP HER GIRL' A couple in Australia, who held five Thai women as sex slaves in a Fairfield brothel, has been jailed for at least seven years. Trevor McIvor, 63, and his Thaiborn wife, K a n o k p o r n Tanuchit, 42, forced the women to work at their brothel, Marilyns, seven days a week, to pay back a 45,000-dollar debt each was told was the price for a tourist visa. The women, known by their working names Jasmine, Nicky, Yoko,
Suzie and Sophie, were often abused and
humiliated. They could not refuse clients, were put at risk of sexually transmitted infections and were forced to work when sick, the Sydney Morning Herald reported.Their passports were confiscated, phone
access was restricted and Tanuchit told them their families in Thailand would be harmed if they tried to escape. They escaped after one of the women, Yoko, secretly contacted the Thai consul general in 2006. The police and immigration officials raided the premises the following day and found the women in an unlit locked room. Judge, Johnathan Williams said the two "traded in human misery and poverty" and their punishment would serve
as a warning to others in the "morally reprehensible" sex slave trade. The pair, who has two young children, was the first people in NSW to be convicted under sexual servitude laws in 2008. The conviction was quashed on appeal, but in a retrial earlier this year they were found guilty of five counts of possessing a slave and five counts of using a slave. In the District Court, the defendants were sentenced to a maximum 12 years jail, with a nonparole period of 7 and half years for McIvor and seven years for Tanuchit.
Red Moon: Lunar eclipse will make it a memorable solstice
PARIS: Weather permitting, skygazers in northern America and Europe are in for a treat in the early morning hours of Tuesday, when the first total lunar eclipse in almost three years is poised to turn the Moon pink, coppery or even a blood red.Coinciding eerily with the northern hemisphere's mid-winter solstice, the eclipse will happen because the Sun, the Earth and its satellite
are directly aligned, and the Moon swings into the cone of shadow cast by its mother planet.The Moon does not become invisible, though, as there is still residual light that is deflected towards it by our atmosphere. Most of this refracted light is in the red part of the spectrum and as a result the Moon, seen from Earth, turns a reddish, coppery or orange hue, sometimes even
brownish."The entire event is visible from North America, Greenland and Iceland," says NASA's veteran eclipse expert Fred Espenak, pointing out that for observers in the western US and Canada, the show will start on Monday evening rather than Tuesday morning."Western Europe will see the beginning stages of the eclipse before moonset, while western Asia will get the
later stages after moonrise." The eclipse runs for three and a half hours, from 0633 GMT to 1001 GMT, although the stage of total eclipse-when the Moon heads into the "umbra" cast by the Earth-lasts from 0741 to 0853 GMT. Two factors affect an eclipse's colour and brightness, says the US astronomy magazine Sky & Telescope.
A MOTHER was under arrest last night after her four-year-old daughter was murdered and horrifically mutilated. T h e c h i l d ' s disembowelled corpse was found with her heart and other organs cut out and placed in different rooms of the family's flat. M u s l i m mother Shayma Bharuchi, 35, was allegedly sitting rocking back and forwards next to the remains of daughter Nusayba in their kitchen. She was listening to readings of the Koran being played through her headphones on an MP3 player at ear-splitting volume. The gruesome scene was discovered by Nusayba's father Jerome Negney, 36, when he arrived home at the flat in Clapton, East London, mid-afternoon on
Friendless kids at risk of depression A new study has suggested that kids with no friends can become social outcasts who risk spiraling into depression by adolescence. The study by researchers at Concordia University, Florida Atlantic University and the University of Vermont also suggested that for most shy and withdrawn children, friends could be a form of protection against sadness. "The long-term effects of being a withdrawn child are enduringly negative. Over time, we found that withdrawn kids showed increasing levels of sadness and higher levels of depressive feelings," said lead author William M. Bukowski, a psychologist at the
Concordia Centre for Research in Human Development.A total of 130 girls and 101 boys in the third through fifth school grades, took part in the three-year study. Participants were asked to rate whether they felt shy or preferred solitude.Compared with friendless children, those who had friends
were less likely to report depressed feelings. "Friendship disrupts the negative and long-term effects of withdrawal. Friendship promotes resilience and protects atrisk kids from internalizing problems such as feeling depressed and
anxious," said Bukowski. He added that, "Being isolated and excluded from the peer group can increase levels of depressed feelings in children and those negative feelings can escalate throughout adolescence. The key to avoid peer rejection is to make at least
one friend."Having one friend can be protective for withdrawn or shy kids. Our study confirms the value of having friends, which are like a shield against negative social experiences," the psychologist concluded. The study is appears in the journal Development a n d Psychopathology
Thursday. Shayma is alleged to have stabbed the
child and t h e n dismembered her in a ritualistic-style bloodbath. Jerome, believed to be a Muslim convert, called 999 and paramedics pronounced Nusayba dead at the scene. Her mother thought to have two other children, aged 14 and 16, who were not at home at the time - was arrested. Police confirmed they were not looking for anyone else over the tragedy. Doctors who examined Shayma later declared her unfit for police interview and she was sectioned under the M e n ta l H e a l t h A c t . Ye s t e r d a y s h o c k e d neighbours told how they saw her led weeping from the flat by two police officers. One resident, a mum in her 30s, said: "She always wore a black headscarf, a veil. "Usually you could only see her eyes. "I often heard shouting coming from the flat as she and a man argued. "Their quarrels would become very heated." Yesterday police were keeping watch outside the flat as specialist child abuse officers began their investigation. A woman remained in custody.
Issue # 384 (9)
THE CONTACT
Ok to tweet in court A TOP judge has ruled that people could use social networking site TWITTER while in court. Lord Chief Justice Judge said anyone wanting to do so would need the judge's permission first. But he said that the use of silent equipment for live text updates is unlikely to interfere with the proper administration of justice. He added that the revolutionary decision over the use of the micro-blogging website would be made on a case-by-case basis depending on the risk of interference to the "proper administration of justice". Lord Judge also warned that the risk would be at its highest in criminal trials because witnesses could find out what is being said before giving evidence. He added that the use of Twitter would be limited to journalists, rather than any member of the public, to stop large numbers of mobile phones interfering with the court's sound recording equipment and to prevent other distractions. He said: "The judge has an overriding responsibility to ensure that proceedings are conducted consistently with the proper administration of justice, and so as to avoid any improper interference with its processes. "There is no statutory prohibition on the use of live text-based communications in open court. "But before such use is permitted, the court must be satisfied that its use does not pose a danger of
interference to the proper administration of justice in the individual case. "Subject to this consideration, the use of an
unobtrusive, hand-held, virtually silent piece of modern equipment for the purposes of simultaneous reporting of proceedings to the outside world as they unfold in court is generally unlikely to interfere with the proper administration of justice." He went on: "The normal, indeed almost invariable, rule has been that mobile phones must be turned off in court. "An application, whether formally or informally made (for instance, by communicating a request to the judge through court staff) can be made by an individual in court to activate and use a mobile phone, small laptop or similar piece of equipment, solely in order to make live text-based communications of the proceedings. "When considering, either on its own motion, or following a formal application or informal request, whether to permit live text-
based communications, and if so by whom, the paramount question will be whether the application may interfere with the proper administration of justice. "The most obvious purpose of permitting the use of live, text-based communications would be to enable the media to produce fair and accurate reports of the proceedings. "Without being exhaustive, the danger to the administration of justice is likely to be at its most acute in the context of criminal trials - eg, where witnesses who are out of court may be informed of what has already happened in court." The announcement that he would be giving the guidance was made last Thursday - hours after supporters of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange were banned from posting updates from court while a High Court judge decided whether he should be granted bail. Mr Justice Ouseley, who went on to give Mr Assange conditional bail that day, ruled at the start of the proceedings that supporters and journalists should not send Tweets to give a blow-by-blow account of what was happening. At an earlier bail hearing, istrict Judge Howard Riddle had allowed Tweeting from City of Westminster Magistrates' Court, which some commentators proclaimed as a legal first. He said journalists could send messages as long as they were discreet and did not interfere with the judicial process.
21 Dec. to 27 Dec., 2010
My tango routine is 'full-on sex'
PAMELA Stephenson says she has prepared the sexiest dance ever - but fans will only see it if they vote her into the final two. The psychologist, 61, said of the tango: "It is full-on sex. But unfortunately the way it works with the final is you dance two dances but one couple gets eliminated during the show. "So if I don't get into the final part then I won't get to do the Argentinian dance." Pamela said that one of her dance routines tonight with partner James Jordan, 32, is to a tune that has a very special meaning.
She said: "I've Had The Time Of My Life is a genuine expression of my time on the show. "I know the combined ages of the other two finalists is less than mine. "But in my 20s I couldn't have done the things I've done on Strictly. "I certainly wouldn't have believed I would be flipping over a man's head. "This was a bit of 'me time' that turned into something ridiculous. "I'd love to win but whatever happens I'll be happy - just enormously sorry it's over."
Issue # 384 (10)
Jat Sikh parents seek a professionally qualified match for their daughter, 26 yrs. old, 5'-5" tall, slim, beautiful, fair, cultured, convent educated, B.A., B.Ed., Post graduate Diploma in Marketing, presently working with a cell phone company & already applied for PR card. Boy should be Jat Sikh, tall, handsome, clean shaven, university graduate, well settled in Canada. Please respond with full biodata & picture to: meenss85@gmail.com ***384*** Saini Sikh parents seeking a suitable match for their son, 23 yrs. old, 5’-9" tall, graduate in B.Pharmacy, residing in India, father govt. employee in Revenue Department, sister married and settled in America. Girl should be educated & slim, at least 5’-4" tall from Saini Sikh family. PR or citizen of Canada/ America. Contact: harpreetsaini302@yahoo.com or call: 905-487-8483 or 011-91-9814327804 ***384-A*** Jat Sikh parents seek a professionally qualified match for their Canadian born and raised daughter, 26 yrs. old, 5’-4", slim, beautiful and cultured, chemical engineer working for a reputable company. Boy should be Jat Sikh, tall, non drinker, non smoker, Canadian born, equally qualified and professionally employed. Please contact by email with most recent picture or call: 416-605-5180 Email: ssingh20101@hotmail.com ***384-A*** Jat Sikh parents seek a suitable match for their Canadian born handsome son, 35 yrs. old, 5'-10" tall, athletic built, family oriented, well versed in both cultures, university educated and professionally employed. Girl should be Jat Sikh, beautiful, slim, well educated and professionally settled. Please send recent pictures and biodata to email: showguy02@hotmail.com or call: 905-913-0824 ***384-A*** Majhbi Sikh (Dhaliwal) govt. employed parents are seeking a suitable match for their daughter, currently residing in India, 25 yrs. old, 5'-3" tall, slim, fair color, GNM, B.Sc. (Nursing). Boy should be well educated, well settled in Canada / US or UK. Caste no bar. Marriage immediately. No divorcee please. Call her aunt between 9 am to 10 pm at: 604585-1663 ***898*** Jat Sikh parents seek a suitable match for their USA citizen daughter, 26 yrs. old, 5'-4" tall, Bachelor Degree holder in Business. The boy should be well educated from USA. Respond with latest pictures and biodata to: sandhum83@gmail.com or call: 011-919041248143 or 011-91-9463969866 ***384-A*** Jat Sikh family seeks professional match for daughter, 30 yrs., 5'-8", beautiful, slim, fair, Hons. B.A. and B.Ed., teacher, born and raised in Ontario. Boy should be Jat Sikh, tall, handsome, clean shaven, university graduate, Ontario resident or re-locatable. Please respond with full biodata and photo. Email: gem2011@hotmail.com ***384-A*** Kashyap Rajput Sikh parents seeking a suitable match for their Canadian citizen daughter, 30 yrs. old, 5'-8" tall, Bachelor in Human Resources and professionally employed, well versed in both cultures. Caste no bar. Please email recent picture and biodata to: alliance101@live.com ***384-A*** Well settled Jatt Sikh parents seek a
THE CONTACT
suitable match for their 28 yrs. old, 5'10" tall, handsome Canadian born son. He is working towards his CMA designation, professionally employed and is well versed in both cultures. Girl should be Jatt Sikh, university educated, family oriented and willing to relocate. Please send biodata and recent picture to: sikh-1981@hotmail.com ***384-A*** Jat Sikh family seeks a suitable match for their son, 33 yrs. old, 6' tall, Canadian citizen, innocently divorced. Non child divorcee considered. Caste no bar. Call: 604-308-5455 ***384-A*** Jat Sikh parents seek a compatible match for their Canadian son, 26 yrs. old, 6’-2" tall, convent educated, graduate from top Canadian university, presently employed with leading American company in Financial industry, have valuable property in India. Seeking slim, good looking, professionally employed girl, preferably MBBS/BDS, who is well versed in both cultures and belongs to respectable and well educated family. Please contact at: sekhonb99@yahoo.com or call: 289-7522529 ***384-A*** Jat Sikh parents seek a suitable match for their daughter, Canadian citizen, 33 yrs. old, 5’-1" tall, never married, beautiful, intelligent, well versed in both cultures, born in India and raised in Canada, family oriented, done 3 yrs. Science program from University of Toronto, RN/OR (registered nurse operating room) & professionally employed in Ontario. No divorcees. Please send a picture and biodata to email: md2015@ymail.com ***384-A*** Well settled Jat Sikh parents seek a suitable match for their Canadian born, 27 yrs.old, 6’-1" tall, clean shaven, handsome, pharmacist son. The girl should be Canadian born, university educated and professionally employed, slim, tall and beautiful. For further information please send recent picture along with bio data to: nsb83@hotmail.com ***384-A*** Lobana Sikh parents looking for a match for their M.B.B.S. daughter, 25 yrs. old, 5’-5" tall. Boy should be doctor or equally qualified either in India or USA/ Canada. Girl is doing job and preparing for M.D. currently. Contact parents in India at: 011-91-9988355654 or brother in Canada at: 647-308-4113 ***384-A*** Well settled Jat Sikh parents seek a suitable match for their Canadian born 27 yrs. old, 5’-11" tall, clean shaven, handsome, athletic built son, graduated in computer engineering, working professionally in his field with large corporation, non smoker, non drinker. The girl must be Canadian, beautiful, slim, tall, fair complexion and a university graduate. Please respond with full bio data and photo to email: sikhengineer@hotmail.com or call: 905-792-2500 ***384-A*** Jat Sikh parents seeking a suitable match for their Canadian born daughter, 29 yrs. old, 5’-5" tall, slim, very family oriented, has done M.B.A. from a reputable school & currently works in a very large corporation in finance. Boy should be well educated, tall, clean shaven born in Canada or USA. Please email to: hkbains80@gmail.com or call: 905-475-8270
21 Dec. to 27 Dec., 2010
***384-A*** Jat Sikh family seeks a suitable match for their Canadian immigrant, 29 yrs. old, 5’-3" tall daughter, M.Sc. Microbiology, medical officer assistant doing job in a company. The boy should be between 2933 yrs. of age, Jat Sikh, tall, clean shaven and employed. Please send recent pictures to email: rsukh@live.com or call: 604-581-6630 ***384-A*** Jat Sikh parents seek a suitable match for their Canadian born daughter, 35 yrs. old, 5’-5" tall, never married, professionally employed. The boy should be Jat Sikh, university graduate, professionally employed and well versed in both cultures. Please call: 647-2745474 (after 6 pm) ***384-A*** Suitable match for Saini Sikh Canadian citizen boy, 37 yrs. old, 6’ tall, divorced, company engineer, holding very good professional position as Cisco certified inter work, expert in Toronto. Caste no bar. Please contact me at: 905756-4189 or email: mpsaini@gmail.com ***384-A*** Jat Sikh parents seek a suitable match for their USA born son, 32 yrs. old, 6' tall, high school graduate, doing a good job in Denver. The girl should be beautiful & from a respectable Jat Sikh family. Please send recent picture and biodata to: pardytyme@hotmail.com or call: 559-271-4816 ***384-A*** Jat Sikh parents seek a suitable match for their daughter, 28 yrs. old, 5'8" tall, slim, beautiful and fair, university graduate from U of T (B.Com.) and CMA designation and professionally employed. The boy should be Jat Sikh, tall, clean shaven, well educated and professionally employed. For more info. please call: 905915-3249 or email: toronto915@live.com ***384-A*** Tonk Kshatriya parents seek a suitable match for their son, 25 yrs. old, 5'-11" tall, B.Tech. in computer engineering and post graduate in tele communications from Canada, currently in Canada on student visa. The girl must be Canadian immigrant or citizen and educated. Caste no bar. Please call: 647705-0985 or 905-956-2053 ***384-A*** Well settled highly qualified, clean shaven, US or Canadian, tall, Jat Sikh match for 79 born, 5'-7", beautiful, slim, highly educated, university lecturer Girl. Girl’s father retired class 1 officer. Girl awaiting US & Canadian immigration. Please respond biodata & latest picture to: bhant8@gmail.com or call: 510-468-2208 (CA) ***384-A*** Matrimonial alliance invited for a professionally qualified, highly educated, handsome Jat Sikh, 81 born, 6'-2" tall boy. The girl should be tall, beautiful, highly educated, US or Canadian Jat Sikh Girl. Boy presently doing MBA in California, awaiting US immigration. Parents US immigrants, sister US citizen. Please send recent picture and biodata to: harrymangat06@gmail.com or call: 510938-2479 ***384-A*** Gursikh Tonk Kashatri parents seek a suitable match for their daughter, 34 yrs. old, never married, 5'-4" tall, fair complexion, family oriented & well versed in both cultures. Father retired army officer. She is working as HR consultant in Delhi & living with parents. Brother settled in US. Call: 408-239-7350 ***384-A***
Gursikh Jat Sikh parents seek a suitable match for their son, 29 yrs. old, 5'8" tall, working as an analyst for federal govt. The girl must be vegetarian, educated and non (hair) trimmer. The family is well settled in USA for a long time. Please email recent picture and biodata to email: siremp@gmail.com ***384-A*** Well established Jat Sikh parents seek a suitable match for their Canadian born daughter, 24 yrs. old, 5'-8" tall, beautiful and well versed in both cultures, currently studying and working. Boy should be Canadian citizen / immigrant, well educated, tall and handsome, non drinker and well settled with strong family background from BC only. Please send a picture and biodata to: dhami5075@hotmail.com or call: 604-864-5075 ***384-A*** Jat Sikh well established family in USA seeking match from a respectable Jat Sikh family for their brilliant and handsome son, working as a lawyer in prestigious law firm, 27 yrs. old, 6' tall, athletic built, born and raised in US, looking for a well educated, tall, slim, beautiful girl with good cultural and family values. If interested, please send a recent picture with biodata to: emmertson@yahoo.com ***384-A*** Saini Sikh seek a match for sister, 24 yrs. old, 5'-3" tall, B.Sc (Biology) slim, born and raised in USA, well settled doctors and engineers family. USA residents only. No divorcees, illigal or non college graduate. Please send picture and biodata with complete family background to email: jsaini@optonline.net or Call : 516-852-7032 ***384-A*** Jat Sikh parents seek a suitable match for their daughter, 1981 born, 5'-3" tall, slim, family oriented, M.A. Economics, B.Ed., PGDCA, born in India, currently on student visa, pursuing business management program. Looking for a Canadian immigrant educated boy. Early and simple marriage. Canadian born and from BC are please don’t contact. Ph: 905-265-7290 or 9855618715 (India) ***384-A*** Jat Sikh parents seek a suitable match for their Canadian born daughter, 25.5 yrs. old, 5'-8" tall, slim and fair, university graduate and working with an insurance company. Boy should be well educated, at least 6' tall and from a reputed family. Serious inquiries only. Please respond with recent picture and biodata to email: harmindar.sandhu @gmail.com or call: 905-497-1143 ***384-A*** Jat Sikh parents seek a suitable match for their 29 yrs. old, 5'-6" tall daughter, professionally employed as an accountant, has a B.Com. degree and doing accounting designation. Ideal match would be a university educated and professionally employed, preferably from Ontario. Boys on student visa or work permit may also be considered. No divorcees please. Call: 647-298-9665 or email: gta8@live.ca ***384-A*** Jat Sikh Canadian parents seek a suitable match for their beautiful daughter, 5'-3" tall, 32 yrs. old, Canadian born and raised, Canadian university graduate and professionally employed in her field. The boy should be from a Jat Sikh family between 30-35 yrs. old, Canadian university graduate and professionally employed in Ontario. Only professionals need to apply. Please email recent picture and biodata to email: kelsoview@hotmail.com or call: 905-320-2411 ***384-A***
Issue # 384 (11)
THE CONTACT
Hero soldier takes bullet in the head to save girl, 10 terrified child as a human shield when he launched an attack from a compound roof. Even though Craig had the insurgent in his sights, he held
A SELFLESS British soldier took a bullet to the head to save a ten-year-old Afghan girl. Military medic Lance Corporal Craig Murfitt was shot at by a Taliban fighter who used the
back on returning fire in case he hit the little girl. Seconds later the Taliban gunman opened up again - and an AK-47 round hit Craig's helmet,
knocking him off his feet. As the 25-year-old soldier lay dazed on the ground, the girl managed to run off. And the insurgent was taken out by C r a i g ' s comrades.
Craig married with a baby boy named Finlay - said: "I knew I could take the
man down. "But being a dad myself, I didn't want to run the risk of killing a kid and undoing all the good work we've achieved. "So I waited, hoping the child would drop down and give me a clear shot." Craig, serving in Helmand with 2nd Royal Tank regiment, added: "I felt the dent in my helmet and said, 'I've been shot in the head.' I tried to stand but had disco legs." Senior officers last night hailed Craig's "courageous restraint". One said: "Holding fire was extremely brave."
Mum-to-be aged 25 in swine flu coma THE family of a pregnant woman suffering from swine flu fear they will have to choose who can be saved - the mother or her unborn baby. Fallon Devaney, 25, is in a coma after being rushed to hospital. She is also now fighting pneumonia, but staff believe the baby, due in April, may be sapping her strength. Yesterday Fallon's mum Linda Fearney, 46, said: "I was taken aside by a doctor and told that either Fallon, the unborn baby, or both of them could die. "The baby is taking a lot of her strength. The doctors have said they might need to do something about it to save Fallon. "They can induce the baby but it is unlikely to survive. "But if Fallon can't fight, then we have a very hard decision to
make." Fallon - who has a five-year-old girl Demi, son Jordan, four, and daughters Alyssa, three, and Lauren, two - was taken from home in Kirk Hallam, Derbys, to the Queen's Medical Centre in Nottingham on Tuesday. She had not received the seasonal flu jab, which also guards against swine flu. Linda said: "All pregnant women should be given the vaccine. If Fallon had it she would not now be lying in a hospital bed almost dead. "She is on a ventilator. The doctors can't tell us how long she could remain in the coma so we just have to take it day by day. We're in a living nightmare. "People seem to think it's only old people who suffer from swine flu
but it's the young as well." Dr Stephen Fowlie, Medical Director at Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust, said: "We encourage all people in at-risk groups to have the seasonal flu vaccine, including pregnant women. They should contact their GP for more advice." And the Government's Chief Medical Officer, Prof Dame Sally Davies, said: "It is particularly important for pregnant women, no matter what stage they have reached, to get their free flu vaccine as soon as possible." Meanwhile it emerged that parts of the North were suffering a shortage of swine flu antiviral drug Tamiflu because of distribution problems. NHS chiefs said the problem was temporary.
Lost post 5,000 miles away SHOCKED Kate Vogelsang got a Christmas card meant for someone with the same address 5,000 MILES away. The red envelope had the same house number, street and town. But instead of web designer Kate's home in Kingston, South West London, it should have gone to Mrs Shirley
Dixons in JAMAICA. Kate, 37, said: "I was absolutely shocked to see that the card meant for someone else so far away ended up with me. "It was in a bundle and I very nearly opened it but saw at the last second it was not for me. I love receiving Christmas cards and I hope it ends up with the right person. "I would love to go out there and
hand-deliver it myself. "I'm going to put it back in the post and it should get there but I'm not sure that will happen before Christmas now." It is estimated that one billion Christmas cards are sent every year in the UK, with 150 million parcels and cards sent daily in the run-up to the festive period.
21 Dec. to 27 Dec., 2010
Underwear? We have it sussed
ALMOST two-thirds of blokes would prefer their partner to wear a sexy basque and suspenders EVERY DAY, a poll has found preferably in black or red. Fellas' favourite materials for the showgirlstyle undies include satin and lace. Only a third prefer their partner to wear pretty vintage-style sets in pink or purple - and just one in 20 favours plain cotton. Instead of waiting for their man to buy them a
sexy knickers and bra set, two in five girls get their own. Nine in ten said sexy frillies made them feel more "playful". George at Asda, which did the poll, said sales of its sexiest undies were up 67 per cent on 2009. SAUCY upmarket lingerie firm Agent Provocateur has seen sales jump 12 per cent to ÂŁ24.7million, bucking the recession, it was revealed yesterday. Profits rose 45 per cent to ÂŁ1.2million.
Issue # 384 (12)
THE CONTACT
GREEN ENVY! MOON shines in reflected glory THIS amazing picture captures the moon's cratered surface in the most intricate detail ever recorded. Many more similar images, which were taken by NASA's Lunar Reconaissance Orbiter, have boosted the resolution of images of the far side of the moon over 100 times. Digital elevation and terrain maps based on the new data reveal the heavily cratered and bumpy surface of the moon in all its complexity. Dr Gregory Neumann of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, said digital elevation and terrain maps based on the new data " will be a fundamental reference for future scientific and human exploration missions to the moon". The brilliant, iridescent green concepts, pictured here, show the
topography of different hemispheres of the moon. Dr Neumann said: " After about one year of taking data, we already have nearly three billion data points from the Lunar Orbiter Laser Altimeter on board the Lunar Reconaissance Orbiter spacecraft. " We expect to continue to make measurements at this rate through the next two years of the science phase of the mission and beyond. Near the poles, we expect to provide nearGPSlike navigational capability as coverage is denser due to the spacecraft's polar orbit." The Lunar Orbiter Laser Altimeter works by sending a laser pulse through an optical lense that splits it into five beams that are each scattered back after they strike the lunar surface. From the return pulse, the Lunar Orbiter
Laser Altimeter determines the time of flight which, accounting for the speed of light, reveals the distance from the spacecraft to the lunar surface. The positional errors of image mosaics of the lunar far side have been
between one and 10 kilometres, Neumann said. The NASA scientist added: " We're beating these down to the level of 30 metres ( almost 100 feet) or less spatially and one metre ( almost 3.3 feet) vertically."
The blind man with a vision
Breaking records has been a way of life for this 30-year-old banker from Mumbai -- be it in life, at work or in sports. But he is a trader with a difference. Ashish Goyal works for J P Morgan Chase as a chief investment officer and is passionate about macroeconomics and the financial markets. And Mr Goyal is blind. A New York Times article says looking at Ashish work one can hardly figure out that he is visually impaired-the speed and accuracy with which he manages billions of dollars of the bank's exposure to risks like foreign exchange fluctuations. Outside his official
assignment, A s h i s h represented the Metro London Sports Club in 2009 in the United Kingdom's domestic blind cricket league. In his very first year, he became a prominent member of the team contributing to winning the UK league. His friends find it difficult to keep pace with his social life that ranges from theatre, music, charity work to Formula F1, tennis and globetrotting to 'watching' cricket matches. Ashish, who was born with perfect vision, suffers from a disease
called retinitis pigmentosa, which robbed him of his sight after the age of 15. He did not lose his vision at one go, but gradually went blind over a period of three years. By 18, he couldn't see anything at all. He was the first blind student to make it to Wharton Business School, Philadelphia, four years ago. If that isn't enough, Ashish cleared his MBA with honours and went on to win the Joseph P Wharton award, given to one student every year who symbolizes Wharton's way of life.
Ashish, who now lives in London, is the first blind trader at J P Morgan, and possibly in any bank anywhere in the world. His near-impossible feat has earned him the National Award for the Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities, 2010, an honour that he will receive at the hands of the President of India this week. Ironically, while Ashish will return to India to receive his award, this country has been a trifle hostile to him during his first attempt at entering the job market. He had a tough time getting a job in India, despite securing a second rank in his batch while doing an MBA at NMIMS.
21 Dec. to 27 Dec., 2010
Fear factor: Sex addicts afraid of intimacy WELLINGTON: Sex addicts feel threatened by intimacy and are more insecure about romantic relationships than the rest of the population, a New Zealand study has found. The survey of more than 600 people found those who indulged in compulsive sexual behaviour felt anxious and insecure about relationships and tried to avoid becoming too emotionally attached to others. Massey University said the study, conducted by psychology honours student Karen Faislander under the supervision of a practising clinical psychologist and an academic specialist, was the first of its type in New Zealand. Faislander said sex addiction, which made headlines this year with
revelations about Tiger Woods' love life, was a complex condition that had not been researched as thoroughly as areas such as or depression. She said the term "sex addict" first emerged in the early 1980s and there were 29 other terms in scientific literature that described the condition, including sexual compulsivity, excessive sexual desire disorder and hypersexuality. The preferred contemporary term is out-of-control sexual behaviours (OOSCH). "It's widely misunderstood and stigmatised," Faislander said. "There's no known effective treatment. We don't know what causes it or how we treat it." Faislander's study used an anonymous online survey to quiz 621 people about their sex lives. In all, 407 identified themselves as sex addicts while 214 were not.
Grasshopper in snack, is now pet A MUM who found a 3in grasshopper in a bag of salad is keeping it as a PET. Karyn Anthoine, 41, bought the fresh Italian style salad from Sainsbury's for lunch. But she got a shock as she prepared her meal when the chirping Egyptian grasshopper leapt out. Kids Marie, 15, and 11-year-old Kieran persuaded her not to put it in the garden as the weather was too cold. Now the family are keeping it at home in M a r k e t Harborough, Leics. Psychology
teacher Karyn said: "I was scared when I first saw it, but the children wanted to keep it. "Marie first named it Jiminy Cricket after the Pinocchio cartoon character. But after we found it was Egyptian, we called it Isis after the goddess." Sainsbury's apologised and launched a probe. A spokesman said: "Incidents like this are very rare."
Issue # 384 (13)
THE CONTACT
21 Dec. to 27 Dec., 2010
Is cleavage at work a distraction?
LAST week, a survey commissioned by Dragons' Den entrepreneur Peter Jones claimed that women who display too much cleavage at work could end up sabotaging their careers. The survey of 3,000 managers found that almost half of bosses had overlooked a woman for promotion if she had regularly worn low- cut tops. Sexist - or just common sense? Daily Mail commissioned four writers engage in the cleavage debate.
Only bimbos use their bodies to get ahead in their careers THERE was a time when I owed my career to my cleavage. In the Eighties, I worked on a maledominated Sunday newspaper: me, my breasts and very little talent or experience. I made terrible mistakes and got away with them because I had a giant cleavage. An example? Well, how about the time the designer Ossie Clark took out an injunction against the paper because I had accidentally faxed him a copy of the profile we were about to run on him before it was published. I should have been sacked on the spot. Instead I survived, and I'm under no illusions that my impressive cleavage played a part in that. Yet in truth, I hated the male attention and the favouritism. I started to walk around the newsroom with something clutched to my breasts to hide them: the Times World Atlas was a favourite.
I despised the women around me who flaunted their breasts to get ahead. One in particular, who had a truly enormous pair, would lean across the editor- in- chief in an almost comical way. Another young trainee, fresh out of Oxbridge, used her breasts to get her straight to the top. She was given all the plum assignments and everyone hated her. I hated her most of all. And so, aged 29, I took drastic action. I had my breasts cut off. This extreme form of self harm was not all about making a strong feminist statement. I hated my big breasts because they made me look fat, made clothes difficult to wear, and jogging nigh on impossible. But I hated, too, what my mighty cleavage represented. I didn't want to get ahead by plonking my breasts on to the editorial conference table. I had come of age believing that women should be treated equally, and as well as being given the same opportunities as men, this also meant not having an unfair advantage over them. If men are no longer allowed to swear and throw their weight around, then women should be banned from acting coy, and blushing, and crying, and simpering..... and wearing tight tops. After my plastic
surgery, I knew that if I was hired it was because of my work, not my cup size. And when I ultimately became a boss on a glossy magazine, I freely admit I discriminated against women who flaunted their cleavages. They were bound to disappear on maternity leave, and flirt with the inevitably male publishing directors and chairmen of the board. Ultimately, a woman who puts it all on show is not only brassy, she is brainless. She usually has a face that is less than beautiful, but she always believes her breasts make up for this shortfall. So my advice is to cover up, and demonstrate instead how funny you are, how hard working... and how serious. - Liz Jones is a Daily Mail columnist and writer
Why can't you be lowcut and yet highbrow? SPEAKING as someone who the Queen's corsetiers Rigby & Peller this year reckoned to be a somewhat breathtaking 32E, cleavage has never done me any harm. I've certainly used it to get ahead at work - and I'd recommend any other ambitious woman to do the same. In fact, in pride of place at my Editor's office in The Lady magazine is a photograph of me on these pages in my tight, blue ' Tory dress' chattering besottedly to David Cameron while he apparently replies to my breasts. I've never minded men staring at them rather than my face. My feeling is, if you wear a low- cut top, you are asking for men's gaze to lock on to your bust rather than listen to you warbling on about nonsense. When I was pregnant with my first child, I was a policy planner in the Foreign Office, and so hopelessly hormonal I could barely write my own name, let alone position papers on trade in SouthEast Asia. The way I got round this was to encase
my inflated breasts in a clinging top and say absolutely nothing in ' prayers' - the Foreign Office morning meeting. I don't think I said anything in any meetings for nine months. Never before or since have I enjoyed a higher reputation in any organisation. ' You were terribly impressive in the FCO,' former ambassadors still tell me, with a downwards glance. So I was thrilled when the then Home Secretary Jacqui Smith gave a statement to the Commons cleavage. Ms Smith told everyone to " get over themselves," saying on Woman's Hour of her ' boob': " Funnily enough, the main thing on my mind when I got up was not: ' Is my top too low cut or not?'" My own view is she knew perfectly well that the sketchwriters the next day would go bonkers over her bosom. Any woman knows that if you want to distract your audience from the possible vacuity of what you're saying, allow them an unimpeded view of your cleavage. It always works, but I might just conclude by saying that if you're going to pull it off, a really good bra is essential. No one wants to stare down your front and see your breasts slumped like two tramps on a bench. Rachel Johnson is the editor responsible for turning around The Lady , a weekly magazine established in 1885 Perfect for parties but banned in the boardroom
THIS whole issue is dear to my heart because during my career in Fleet Street, I was often accused of deliberately wearing lowcut clothes to get ahead. In fact, far from flaunting it, I invariably felt that showing my cleavage would backfire, so hand on heart, I never did. Besides, many of the steps I took up the executive ladder came with the help of some amazing women. I don't think putting my bust on display at interviews would have impressed them very much. But I do know plenty of members of the sisterhood who thought
nothing of unfastening a couple of buttons as they were being summoned into the lair of the big, male boss. The problem is, if you are a big- busted woman ( I'm a 36D) there's only so much you can do to conceal it. I tried minimiser bras, but they were ugly and uncomfortable and made everything look ' squashed'. I even considered breast reduction after giving birth to my daughter, but not a single doctor thought this was a good idea. Of course, there are those who have always believed you should make the most of them, whatever their size. And certainly I saw no harm in dressing more provocatively at social occasions or to boost my confidence when going on lighthearted TV programmes. I enjoyed ( still do) making myself look attractive and, to be frank, using what worked for me. Ask virtually any woman and she will admit to doing the same. And, even though I am now a granny, I hope I always will. I tell my friends that the breasts are all that's left, so I moisturise, avoid the sun and dab a little highlighter on to the old pneumatics. My pathetic belief in keeping this going was confirmed when several years ago I had two lumps removed from my breasts. I was very lucky - they were benign. Just before I was wheeled into the operating theatre my surgeon told me he would ensure that my scars would be minimal: ' We can't mess up a national institution, can we,' he laughed. But the issue, of course, is not whether we should treasure our chests at home, but what is or isn't acceptable in the workplace. And while I hardly think that one whiff of a lacy bra is the worst crime an employee can commit, I DO think that ladies ( like me) who sport a large frontage should keep it under wraps in the office if they want to be taken seriously. Using your talent, your personality and your experience to get ahead is very shrewd; using your body is just dumb. So take a tip from me, ladies: leave the Wonderbra at home or it's your breasts, not your brain, that men will notice. Eve Pollard is a journalist, author and former editor of Sunday Mirror and Sunday Express Woman's brain should be the only asset she needs WHEN I was an editor
of a magazine, I would never have employed a woman who'd come for an interview showing off her cleavage, any more than I would have hired a man
wearing tight shorts with his lunchbox on prominent display. So why do women insist on " putting it all on show"? The answer, regrettably, is because whatever Peter Jones and his survey says, male colleagues do turn in to brain- dead morons at the site of an impressive cleavage. And far from taking a negative view, in their breastobsessed stupor men are not only more likely to hire you, but to forgive any shortfalls. I know this, because I have been on the receiving end of it - and felt horribly demeaned in the process. I recently wore a new dress to a friend's Christmas party that was reasonably low cut. I thought it wouldn't matter. Why would a flash of cleavage make any difference to anything? I couldn't have been more wrong. One really old friend, a bit worse for wear, spent most of the night looking down my top, his tongue hanging out. Another came up and said: " God, if my wife wasn't here, I'd take you to bed." On and on it went. It was bizarre. Usually, I would have expected to stand and talk to these people. We would have discussed the student riots, Julian Assange and WikiLeaks. But my cleavage had turned me in to someone who suddenly had no brain, no opinions, but was centre of attention. I was horrified. The question is, then: even if it may help her career, why would any self- respecting woman want to be treated like that in the workplace? My advice is: put them away, you're embarrassing yourself, and other women. Lucy Cavendish is a journalist, a former editor of The Observer Food Monthly and author of The Invisible Woman.
Issue # 384 (14)
THE CONTACT
NEANDERTHALS
crafted first tool
Scientists have discovered the earliest known tool made from human boneâ€" and it was apparently crafted by Neanderthals. They have identified a human skull fragment dating back at least 50,000 years that bears signs it was used as a sharpener. It was found in a Neanderthal deposit â€" the first time our relatives were discovered making tools from human bone, reports Live Science. The scientists note
that as of yet, they have no way to prove or disprove whether the Neanderthals who made the tool did so intentionally â€" for instance, for rituals or a f t e r cannibalization. The bone was first discovered in 1926 at the La Quina site, a former rock shelter at the foot of a limestone cliff flanking the left bank of the Vo u l t r o n River in southwest France. It was discovered with artifacts from the Mousterian industry, a method of making flint tools linked with Neanderthals. These fragments did not yield
much information about the anatomy of these individuals, so they were mostly ignored at the museum at Lyon, France, for years. T h e n paleoanthropologist Christine Verna at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany, reinvestigated all the human remains at La Quina. U s i n g microscopic analysis of the bone fragment, she and her colleague Francesco d''Errico at the University of Bordeaux in France found evidence it was used to retouch stone tool edges.They also detected scraping marks on the fragment, possibly
explicit photos of them together to her work colleagues. Appearing
before San Diego County Superior Court, he apologised for the attack and said he wanted to go to prison. He said: "I want to do whatever I need to do to make sure I make right from the wrong that I did. "Kendra Beebe did not deserve anything that happened to her. I can't even begin to imagine what she has been through." Ms Beebe had earlier
told the court his testimony during the trial had been "lie after lie after lie". She said: "During the course of the trial it became clear he was an actor, but not a very good actor at that." Taking account of time already served and good behaviour prosecutor Keith Watanabe said Malil, 45, could be freed in as few as nine years. Malil - who played Haziz in the hit movie starring Steve Carell stabbed her with a kitchen knife. They had started dating in 2007 when Ms Beebe answered a dating advert. Two days before the attack, Malil left Ms Beebe and her cousin stranded at a beach and returned to her home where he stole marijuana and other items before locking her out of the house. His attorney
Mini mini that can fit under a bed! Wellington: A retired mechanic spent three months making his Mini car even smaller - so that it fits in the hold of his motor home. Lester Atherfold, 67, from New Zealand, trimmed the 10ft long British classic car to a mere 7ft 10ins. He sliced 2ft from the middle, narrowed the chassis, and fitted a new transmission, subframe, clutch and dashboard. The transformation
cost just £95 and the 1100cc mini Mini still does
75mph. Atherfold, of Napier, bought the 1964 Mini 850 for the equivalent of £200
in 1988. He said: "It's fantastic. It gives us total freedom from the motor home when we are away on holiday. "The Mini was the only car in the world that would fit in the motor home, all the others were too big and tall. "We can see and do things that would otherwise be impossible. What other car would fit under your bed?"
Dog born with male and female sex MEET SAIRA THE STAFFORDSHIRE BULL TERRIER WHO WAS BORN WITH BOTH MALE AND FEMALE SEX
resulting from cleaning of the skull before it was broken into pieces. The bone likely came from a Neanderthal,
as only they were found at Mousterian deposits at La Quina.A number of animal bones on the site, including a reindeer jaw and a horse tooth, also showed evidence they were used as retouching tools.However, none of the other retouchers from this site or any other known Mousterian site was ever made from skull fragments, apparently making this new discovery unique and perhaps suggesting the human bone was intentionally chosen for use as a tool.
Star jailed for life AN actor from blockbuster comedy The 40-Year-Old Virgin has been jailed for life after stabbing his ex-girlfriend more than 20 times. Indian-born Shelley Malil launched his attack after finding her at home with another man. He was convicted by a jury of attempted premeditated murder and assault with a deadly weapon. His victim Kendra Beebe suffered punctured lungs and injuries to her neck, chest, back and arms in the 2008 assault. Malil will have to serve at least 12 years before applying for parole. He said during his trial that he had only gone to her house in San Diego, California, to apologise for taking personal items from her home and to warn her that he had sent sexually
21 Dec. to 27 Dec., 2010
argued that he never intended to kill her. After the sentencing, Ms Beebe told reporters she believed justice had been done.
Owner John Conchie, 46, had no idea his beloved pet was a hermaphrodite until he took it to the vets for a routine check-up. Warehouse worker John said: "I was stunned to be told she was a hermaphrodite. But there was never any doubt in my mind that Saira was a girl. She's always been interested in the boy dogs." Vet Richard Weston said he has never seen a canine hermaphrodite in his 30 years in practice. Son James, who assisted the op at Anrich Vets in Wigan, Greater Manchester, added: "Saira should be able to live a normal life and
could even have pups." The condition is so rare no statistics on it exist in the UK. Two months ago, the Mirror revealed hermaphrodite dog Georgie had a sex op to make her female. Manchester Dogs' Home said the condition put people off homing the bull terrier cross.
Issue #384 (15)
THE CONTACT
Julian Assange vows to clear name, expose more details London: WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has said that his stay in jail has made him more angry and determined to continue his secret-spilling work. “It has not altered my position, in fact it has confirmed my position to me personally that we are on the right path. It has given me enough anger about the situation to last me 100 years,” Assange said. “Now that I am back to assist directing of our ship, our work will proceed in a faster manner. But as we have seen with my absence, things are well set up to proceed even without my direct involvement,” Assange said. He said that he vowed to clear his name as he enjoyed his first day of freedom on Friday. He thanked “all the people around the world who have had faith in me, who have supported my team while I have been away.” Speaking of his joy on being released, Assange said, “It is very nice to be free for Christmas and to smell the fresh air.” He criticised his stringent bail conditions, which include wearing a security tag and being under curfew, telling the BBC, “It is a very Orwellian situation when you are under hi-tech
house arrest.” He also said that he is preparing for indictment on US espionage charges. Media reports quoted him as saying that the American legal action “had yet to be confirmed” but was “extremely serious”. “We have heard today from one of my US lawyers that there may be a US indictment for espionage for me coming from a secret grand jury investigation. There are obviously serious attempts to take down the content by taking us down as an organisation and take me down as an individual,” Assange said. He also declared that he is the victim of a smear campaign. “One only needs to look at the sneering smile of defence secretary Gates upon hearing of
my arrest... to understand the value to opponents of this organisation,” he said. Gates described Assange’s arrest as good news last week.
21 Dec. to 27 Dec., 2010
Lady Gaga’s ‘meat dress’ voted most iconic outfit London: Pop diva Lady Gaga’s meat dress which raised eyebrows at the recent MTV Video Music Awards has topped the list of the most iconic outfit of 2010. The eccentric Poker Face hitmaker, who is known for her outrageous fashion sense created ripples with her meaty outfit which has sweeped a poll by website MyCelebrityFashion.com. “What’s everyone’s big problem with my meat dress? Next time, I’ll wear a tofu dress and the soy milk police will come after me,” said the 24-year-old singer who lashed at her critics over her meat ensemble. Meanwhile, Kate Middleton’s blue wrap dress which she wore in the photocall after her
engagement to Prince William came second, while former ‘Spice Girls’ singer Victoria Beckham’s sleeve banded minidress clinched the third position. “It wasn’t surprising to see that Lady Gaga’s infamous ‘meat dress’ clinched the top spot, especially after all the controversy it caused; but the dress worn by Kate Middleton during the engagement announcement, has clearly made a big impression in a short space of time,” marketing director Andy Barr of the poll. Others to make it to the top ten included: pop singer Katy Perry, Sarah Jessica Parker’s Sex and the City alter-ego Carrie Bradshaw and X-factor judge Cheryl Cole.
of homosexuality” to the race issue 50 years ago. “The country is getting acclimated to a
Former Bill Clinton adviser and interviewer James Carville then wondered, ‘How do we
president who might be female, who might obviously, now be black and who might be, as well, a gay person,” he said.
know we haven’t had one?’ America has had one bachelor president, James Buchanan, from 1857-61.
America ready to elect gay president: Jimmy Carter New York: Former US president Jimmy Carter says America is ready to elect a gay president. And the 39th president predicts it will happen in ‘near future’. “I think the entire population of America has come tremendous strides forward in dealing with the issue of gays,” the New York Daily News quoted him as telling the website BigThink.com in an interview. “And I would say that the answer is yes. I don’t know about the next election, but I think in the near future.” The Nobel Peace Prize winner likened the “issue
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Issue #384 (16)
21 Dec. to 27 Dec., 2010
With Uranus emphasised at the moment you want to throw everything up in the air and create a stir. But you may regret this later and want life to settle down to its normal pace again. So don’t ruffle too many feathers. Though your energy level is not very high so basically all you really want to do is put your feet up in a chair and daydream.
You could be feeling rebellious today because you don’t want to put up with compromises anymore. The things you’ve been gritting your teeth about and secretly resenting, now you realise you’re not doing to put with anymore. Be sensible and downto-earth about what is possible and what is not. Put limits on your aims and aspirations.
Give yourself more elbow room today. If you are around people too much you could feel too crowded. With Uranus emphasised at the moment you can suddenly leap to conclusions, go off and do something wild which could get you into trouble. Find time for some quiet reflection, trying also to be as helpful as you can.
There will be surprises today in relationships, which you will cope with better if you expect the unexpected. Treat whatever happens as an adventure. If you cling on too possessively there’s a restless kind of energy in there that’s going to break free one way or another. Whoever you come into contact with today is going to feel better.
There may be fireworks in the air today in terms of everyone’s mood. Don’t try to suppress what you want to say or do, but don’t let it all out in too dramatic a way either. Though there are also very sensitive influences around which will make you aware of the subtle undercurrents in life. But it may also be that you are too self-sacrificing.
There may be conflicts and disagreements today but you need to try to regard them as useful. They will bring hidden tensions out into the open so you can clear them out of the way. If you go charging into some very strenuous task, you may feel a bit discouraged. Nothing practical will work out as you planned as your energy won’t last.
This is not a time to hang on to security at all costs and insist on keeping life the way it always was. Try to open up to new experiences. If you dig your heels in too much you may find a partner makes a break for freedom. Whereas if you hang loose you could find everyone brightens up. Don’t be discouraged if you have odd worries.
One of the side effects of having strong Uranus aspects around can be that mechanical equipment breaks down. Fuses fly and tempers get frayed. So today take everything cautiously. Maybe it’s important to go off by yourself and meditate. Get a clearer idea of what everything is doing in your life and where you want it to go from now.
This is not a time to follow normal routines since you are too restless. You don’t want to put up with other people telling you to do this or do that. They may say you’re being difficult but you see it as standing up for your rights. This is not a day to try to start some vast project. You will be very sensitive to undercurrents in relationships.
It is important to let the restless spirit within you come out today. Don’t feel obliged to be stuck with anyone else’s agenda. Frankly you are not in a mood for it. So stand up for what you want as an individual. Popularity is not everything. You will at one point drift off into daydreams, but staying in touch with reality will help as well.
Don’t go flying into action in too impulsive a way. You may be rushing in where angels fear to tread and then two days later wish you hadn’t been quite so hasty. So try to pause for thought, count up to 25 and then proceed steadily. Luckily the Sun is now in a very positive aspect to Neptune so this can be a very creative, spiritual day.
Uranus at odds with the Sun at the moment can be rather disruptive. The general mood tends to be very switch on and switch off. You just have to be willing to open up to some risk and grasp new opportunities which come along. But the Sun is also in flowing aspect to Neptune so you will want to really be closer to other people.
Madoff investor’s widow to return $7.2bn London: THE estate of the late Jeffry Picower, a former investor in Bernard Madoff’s Ponzi scheme, has agreed to hand over $7.2 billion. It is by far the largest amount recovered by Irving Picard, the trustee acting for investors who got burned in Madoff’s Ponzi scheme, and brings the total available to his victims to nearly $10b, roughly half the total thought to have been lost by investors. The settlement was arrived at after months of negotiations with lawyers for Picower’s estate and the extraordinary intervention of his widow, Barbara, who said that her husband had been “committed to overcoming the devastation resulting from Bernard Madoff’s fraud by reaching a fair and generous settlement”. US attorney Preet Bharaba announced that the seized billions would be distributed “as fast as humanly possible.” Although 72-year-old Madoff squandered about 65billion dollars on paper, the actual cash losses amounted to about 20billion dollars. The windfall was recovered from the estate of philanthropist Jeffry Picower, who drowned after having a heart attack in the swimming pool of his beach front Palm Beach, Florida mansion in October,
2009. Picower was a philanthropist and investor who died in 2009 of a heart attack while swimming at his home in Florida. He had been sued by special trustee Irving Picard for more than $7 billion, an amount Picard said represented improper profits taken from Madoff’s operation. Federal officials said Picower invested a total of $619 million with Madoff and withdrew $7.8 billion starting in the 1970s until December 2008. The $7.2billion figure is the estimated amount of bogus profits he drew from his Madoff accounts in the two decades since he first invested with the company. The money was supposedly made from stock trades, but investigators maintain it was simply stolen from other investors.
US won’t have objections to Pak-China N-deal Islamabad: The US ambassador to Pakistan Cameron Munter has said that the US will not object to any civil nuclear deal between Pakistan and China if it abides by international rules of such agreements, adding that the chances of the US making such a deal with Pakistan too cannot be ruled out. Munter said that the US had recently made a civil nuclear deal with India and the chances of such a deal with Pakistan also cannot be ruled out, the Express Tribune reported. Munter made the remarks while talking to media in Islamabad. Answering a question on
Pakistan’s efforts to fight terrorism, he said the US wants Pakistan to launch a military operation in North Waziristan soon, but would leave it to the Pakistan Army to decide when to launch such an operation. The army has assured the US that they will take action in North Waziristan at the right time. Pakistan has long been under pressure from the US to launch a military offensive in North Waziristan. The foreign office, however, has denied being under US pressure to launch an offensive in the northwestern region which the US calls a “hub of militant activity”, saying that the operation will be launched only if it is in Pakistan’s
“interest”, the report said. Last month, the daily reported that the government had authorised army chief Ashfaq Parvez Kayani to take a final decision on when and how to launch a military operation in the North Waziristan tribal region.
Jihadi ‘joker’ gets his own talk show Sydney: The first person charged and acquitted under Australia’s anti-terrorism laws, Zaky Mallah, has now become a television host. The 27-year-old, once deemed at risk of becoming a suicide bomber, said the first people he rang to tell of his idea was the spy agency ASIO. “They were laughing,” he told the Sydney Morning Herald. The first time Mallah made a video, in 2003, he was arrested under newly introduced anti-
terrorism laws. His show The Zaky Mallah Show, he said, is a mix of Dr Phil, Jerry Springer and Beauty and the Beast. The latest episode has been posted on YouTube and his site www.mds.ucoz.com. “I’ve become more entertaining, a clown ... What terror suspect has turned himself around and created his own TV show?” Mallah made a jihad-style video after he was refused a passport to travel to Lebanon. He
told a police officer he wanted to take foreign affairs and ASIO officers hostage, kill them and himself in protest. He served two years in jail for the threats.
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21 Dec. to 27 Dec., 2010
Eye on 2012, Palin warms up to media Washington: Sarah Palin has started cautiously cooperating with some of the same media outlets she and her supporters have accused of unfair and inaccurate coverage.
The move comes as Palin openly weighs a bid for the 2012 Republican presidential nomination. “This is just about getting the press to characterise the
governor accurately. And, if that can be accomplished through governor Palin and some of the people around her talking to the press, we’ll try that,” Politico quoted Tim Crawford, a top Palin aide, as saying. Palin’s effectiveness as Republican John McCain’s 2008 vice-presidential pick was undercut by the bad press she generated, particularly from her stumbling TV interviews. After that experience — and particularly since her resignation as governor last year, which she says was prompted partly by unrelenting media scrutiny — Palin has mastered a highimpact, if unconventional, communication style that circumvents traditional media. She’s relied on conservative media outlets from which she is unlikely to face tough questioning.
Miss India USA winner Natasha Arora of Texas flanked by first-runner up Rafeiya Hussanin (R) and second runner-up Shreya Sood (L) in New Jersey. Natasha will represent USA in the 20 th Miss India Worldwide contest in Dubai
103-year-old woman is Facebook’s oldest user
London: Briton Lillian Lowe still logs on to Facebook at the grand old age of 103 — making her the oldest person in the world to have an account on the social networking website. The centenarian from Tenby, Pembrokeshire, 300 km from London, uses her iPad to check her Facebook account and keep in touch with her seven grandchildren and 13 greatgrandchildren, The Sun reported on Thursday. “I love it, it’s very exciting. It’s a wonderful way of finding out about things. I recommend it for any grandparents to keep in touch with family,” Lillian said. The former hotelier, who can remember the Titanic sinking in 1912, has 34 Facebook pals. She also chats often with great-granddaughter Kaylee, 10, and loves seeing her photos. Lillian was first shown the website by grandson Steve, 47, a mechanic who also lent her his iPad. “She’s very keen to know what young people are doing. She might raise an eyebrow at a few of the teenage antics she sees on Facebook, but she takes it all in her stride,” Steve said. Ivy Bean, of Bradford, who died aged 104 in July, was thought to be the previous record-holder as the oldest Facebook user. A Facebook spokesman said, “We can’t confirm if this lady is the oldest, but Lillian shows you can never be too old to join Facebook.” Meanwhile, a man accused of luring Hong Kong women into having sex with him using the Facebook website as well as offers of money that he never paid might have worked his scam on up to 70 people, a newspaper reported. The 28-year-old turned
himself in to police on Wednesday after a 15-year-old complained he tricked her into sex through the socialnetworking site, the Hong Kong
having sex four times, the newspaper said. When he failed to pay up, she reportedly tracked him down with a friend and seized
trace the man, identified only by his surname Tang and screen name Ah Dick, and were questioning him on suspicion of having sex with an underage girl. Other women listed on his phone claimed they also fell for his scam, the Hong Kong Standard said. Separately, Facebook has named ‘HMU’, which stands for Hit Me Up, as the top status
update trend of the year. According to the Facebook Blog, in 2009, HMU was virtually unheard of, with just about 20 people posting it a day in May 2009, but by the end of the year, it had risen to 1,600 posts a day. But in 2010, the number of posts including the acronym increased by 75% each month until it reached 80,000 mentions by end of summer.
Arab nations blacklisted spielberg over donation Standard reported. The man allegedly met the teen on Facebook and promised her $6,000 to take part in rituals in October to rid him of bad luck, which involved
his mobile phone, which contained photos and videos of around 70 other women and girls he allegedly tricked into sex. Police issued an appeal to
London Oscar winning Hollywood director Steven Spielberg’s films were banned by the Arab League, whose members include Pakistan among others, after he made a $1 million donation to Israel, according to a leaked US diplomatic cable released by
WikiLeaks.The donation was made during the 2006 conflict between Israel and Lebanon and during a meeting of the Arab League in April 2007, representatives from 14 member countries voted to pass the ban, according to the leaked cable posted in The Guardian.
will be excluded. The guest list is still being drawn up and could change, but as things stand it’s right (to say Obama will not be invited),” said a senior courtier. Conscious of the credit crunch and rising unemployment rates in UK, William has vowed to have a wedding that is not as
‘ostentatious’ as his parents’ St Paul’s Cathedral ceremony, with 3,500 guests. But the couple still want to encourage a ‘street party’ atmosphere to sweep the country – and Kate’s dress is expected to cost considerably more than Princess Elizabeth’s £1,200 gown.
Royal snub: No invite for Obamas at Prince William’s wedding London: In a break from tradition, US president Barack Obama and his wife Michelle are unlikely to be on the guest list when Prince William marries Kate Middleton next year. Royal sources revealed on Thursday that the president and his wife are not among the congregation, as the royal wedding is not classed as a ‘state occasion’ — because the prince is not yet heir to the throne. Courtiers suggested they are more eager to ask ordinary citizens and charity workers than foreign dignitaries and VIPs at the ‘people’s wedding’, the Daily Mail reported. Reports are also abuzz that the couple are said to feel no pressure to
fill the 2,000 seats at Westminster Abbey. Despite the Obamas not being invited, a number of heads of state are likely attend the ceremony on April 29 in line with previous royal weddings, possibly including France’s president Nicolas Sarkozy and his wife Carla Bruni. But the decision to exclude the US president from the celebrations is a break from tradition. Prince Charles and Princess Diana invited then US president Ronald Reagan and his wife Nancy to their 1981 ceremony. They were also invited for the wedding of Prince Andrew to Sarah Ferguson in 1986. “It is certainly not the case that all foreign heads of state
Issue #384 (18)
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US students defy ‘boobies’ bracelets ban L o s A n g e l e s : Tw o middle-school students in the US have defended their decision to defy a school district ban of the popular ‘I [heart] boobies!’ bracelets, saying they did it for breast cancer awareness. But one district is calling the slogan a sexually charged double entendre. Brianna Hawk, 13, and Kayla Martinez, 12, were suspended from a Pennsylvania school in October for wearing the bracelets, which administrators had imposed a ban based on the district dress code. “I think the school took the meaning of the bracelets out of context,” the Los Angeles Times quoted Hawk as saying. Both girls were represented by the American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania, and they said on the stand that they used the
word “boobies” at home to refer to breasts and considered it a harmless slang. They also testified that breast cancer awareness was
The purpose of the hearing was for US district judge Mary A McLaughlin to decide whether to temporarily overturn the district’s
important to them because the disease had affected members or friends of their family. But lawyers for the Easton Area School District argued that the word, specifically when used in the phrase ‘I [heart] boobies!’ is lewd, vulgar and has no place in a middle school.
bracelet ban as the case continues. Her decision could also send a signal to school districts a c r o s s t h e c o u n t r y, which enacted similar bans.Hawk said that after purchasing the bracelets, she researched the Keep a Breast Foundation, the non-profit group that
stand for?’ and I could explain to them what it’s about and what it’s for,” Hawk said. “I could influence them to be aware of breast cancer and buy bracelets and raise money for the foundation,” she explained. The Keep A Breast Foundation marketing manager Kimmy McAtee said, “It’s very much a personal preference. Some older people may problems at other not feel that it resonates European airports some with them.” 30 flights had been cancelled by late morning. Delays and cancellations also forced about 700 passengers to sleep on camp beds at the airport Saturday n i g h t , Snoerwang said. Ireland was battered by its worst snow in d e c a d e s Saturday, but airports in Belfast and Dublin remained open though warning on their websites of cancellations and delays. Airports in Spain, the Netherlands and Denmark also reported cancellations or delays to flights Saturday. Horse racing meetings and dozens of soccer games in England and Scotland were called off as a result of the conditions, including a high-profile match scheduled for Sunday in London between Chelsea and Manchester United. Bad weather also forced the Dutch football association to postpone the league classic between archrivals Ajax and Feyenoord.
Snow disrupts air travel in Europe Paris: Heavy snow and freezing temperatures shut down European runways and slowed road traffic on Sunday, cancelling flights and leaving cars skidding
hundreds of travellers told by airport staff to go back and call their airlines for updates. At Frankfurt airport, Germany’s biggest, more than 500 flights were cancelled
down icy streets. Heavy snow blanketed Paris — a rarity that has occurred several times in recent weeks in an unusually cold winter. A quarter of flights were cancelled at the Charles de Gaulle airport until at least 4 pm local time. London’s Heathrow Airport was not accepting any arrivals Sunday and was allowing only a handful of departures after snow and ice forced the closure of runways, but was preparing for a full reopening on Monday, a statement on its website said. There was chaos in the tunnels leading from the underground station to Heathrow terminals, with
Sunday out of a planned total of 1,330 departures and arrivals. While the runways at Frankfurt itself were clear, flights were disrupted by problems elsewhere in Europe, with some passengers left waiting for their flights since Friday. Germany’s Lufthansa cancelled several domestic and regional services to and from its main hub, though longhaul flights were little affected. In Amsterdam, Schiphol spokeswoman Mirjam Snoerwang said the airport’s snow plow teams had cleared three runways and planes were arriving and leaving. However, because of
created the bracelets and breast cancer in general. “In school, people would ask me, ‘What’s the bracelet for? What’s the bracelet
21 Dec. to 27 Dec., 2010
German admits to having sex with Dewani German admits to having sex with Dewani London: A 39-year-old German man, working as an escort, has said he had kinky sex with Indianorigin Briton Shrien Dewani, accused of murdering his newlymarried wife in a carjacking incident in Cape Town. The escort, from Munich, told the Metropolitan Police’s special crime directorate that the British tycoon paid him a total of £1,100 in cash for kinky sex sessions in the Midlands and West London between September 2009 and April 2010, according to The Sun. Shrien Dewani, 30, a businessman from Bristol, is accused of organising his bride Anni’s death during their honeymoon.
Anni, a 28-year-old engineering graduate of Ugandan-Indian descent from Sweden, was killed in Cape Town when two men hijacked the car she and Shrien were travelling in. Shrien was let go by the attackers. Dewani allegedly offered a taxi driver £ 1,400 to arrange for Anni to be shot dead in a staged carjacking, according to claims outlined by a prosecutor in South Africa. The German escort from Munich reportedly contacted the British police after recognising Shrien Dewani’s picture on television news bulletins.Dewani’s spokesman, publicist Max Clifford, said, “It is categorically denied. Shrien Dewani has never had a sexual relationship with a man in his life.”
Issue #384 (19)
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Liz ‘dumps Shane Warne over sex text scandal’ Melbourne: Liz Hurley has apparently dumped Shane Warne after learning that the cricketer had sent sexual text messages to a married Australian woman. An Australian man, Denis Angeleri, claims his wife, Adele, was wooed by Warne with a series of explicit texts, according to the News of The World and The Sunday Mirror. The pair had met when Warne called into her leather goods shop opposite his office at the Shane Warne Foundation in Melbourne. According to the paper, they exchanged numbers and Warne began texting her, becoming progressively more suggestive. Adele grew worried and eventually told her husband, Denis, on December 3. Warne had begged him to keep the matter secret for the sake of his family. However, Warne was “also clearly terrified Liz would discover his doubledealing”. “There weren’t that many texts anyway,” The News of The World quoted Warne as telling Angeleri. But the paper said Warne sent her more than 100 messages, while simultaneously cultivating his relationship with Hurley.
According to the paper, it was only a few days after his confrontation with Angeleri that Warne met up with Hurley in London. Warne, now in Perth commentating on the third
Ashes Test for Channel Nine, hit social networking site Twitter to lament the latest saga. “The journey of life is about riding the ups/downs,” the Daily Telegraph quoted him as Tweeting. “We all
21 Dec. to 27 Dec., 2010 are childish, immature at times. It’s about how you bounce back when things are tough.” On Friday night he tweeted, “4.45am here in Perth. Not really a wink of sleep. Tossed and turned all night, feeling extremely grumpy.” Hurley also wrote on Twitter to shut down reports that she would spend time with Warne in
Australia in the coming weeks. And, in a further blow to Warne, she said she had no plans to divorce her estranged husband, Indian textile heir Arun Nayar any time soon. “Bored now of silly speculations; no one is divorcing anyone yet, no one is fighting over money and I have no plans to go to Australia. Enough!” she wrote.
Videos of nude women to scare migrants away Melbourne: A Danish politician has come up with a unique way to scare away immigrants. Peter Skaarup, foreign policy spokesman for the Danish People’s Party, said that footage of women sunbathing topless at Danish beaches should be included in tourism videos to scare away immigrants. He is in fact calling on the government to consider the idea. He said that including the shots of sunbathing women in a video screened as part of an immigration test would emphasise the point that Denmark is an open, free society. “Topless bathing probably isn’t a common sight on Pakistani beaches, but in Denmark it is still considered quite normal,” Skaarup said.
“I honestly believe that by including a couple of bare breasts in the movie, extremists may have to think twice before deciding to come to Denmark.” However doubts have been raised about the idea, with Naser Khader, a member of the Danish parliament and founder of the Moderate Muslims movement, say it wouldn’t work. “A pair of naked breasts is no protection against extremism,” Khader wrote on his Facebook page. “It’s quite the opposite, fundamentalists are so obsessed with sex that they will be pouring in over the borders.” Skaarup said that a similar documentary in Holland showed bare breasts, and that Denmark should follow their example.
Snow in Europe hits Mom's voice 'plays vital role flights, strands cars in activating child's brain'
Heavy snow disrupted European air travel over the weekend and stranded hundreds of drivers in cars as far south as Italy, as a white Christmas appeared increasingly likely. Britain was hit by blizzards that shut its b i g g e s t airports on the b u s i e s t weekend for travellers before Christmas and hit road and rail traffic. Heathrow, the world's busiest airport, reopened Sunday after being closed for most of Saturday, but only a few flights took off. A man crosses a snow-covered road in London. If the second half of the month is as cold as the first, this will be the coldest December on record in Britain since 1910 Rail routes and trunk roads were also affected. Eurostar, which operates highspeed passenger trains linking London with Paris and Brussels, was operating with speed restrictions, and hundreds of people spent the night in cars. Temperatures dropped as low as minus 17 degrees Celsius north of Norwich. Gatwick was minus 11C. Winston Churchill's statue is
blanketed in snow at London's Parliament Square Sports events were also postponed, including Sunday's English Premier League clash between title rivals Chelsea and Manchester United. Frankfurt a i r p o r t cancelled some 490 flights Sunday with hundreds of passengers spending the second night in a row at airport terminals Four runways of Paris' Charles-de-Gaulle airport closed Sunday and quarter of scheduled flights were cancelled. In the Netherlands several hundred people spent the night at Amsterdam-Schiphol Airport, where air traffic continued to be severely disrupted on Sunday morning, while in Italy the situation was improving after two days of chaos on roads and in airports.In Belgium, 1,500 people, most of them on 18 flights bound for London, spent the night at Brussels airport. The snowfall even reached as far south as Algeria, where two people died in a road accident and traffic ground to a halt on several major roads. The snowstorm is moving south over Europe, but the cold is expected to continue across much of the continent into next week.
WASHINGTON: A mom's voice plays vital role in activating her newborn child's brain responsible for language learning, says a new study. Researchers from University of Montreal and Sainte- Justine University Hospital Research Centre claim to have made the discovery after performing electrical recordings on the infants within the 24 hours following their birth. The brain signals also revealed that while the infants did react to other women's voices, these sounds only activated the voice recognition parts of the brains. "This is exciting research that proves for the first time that the newborn's brain responds strongly to the mother's voice and shows, scientifically speaking, that the mother's voice is special to babies," said lead researcher Dr Maryse Lassonde of the University of Montreal. Brain exploration had never before been undertaken on such young participants. "We applied electrodes to the heads of 16 babies while they were sleeping," Lassonde explained, "and we asked the mother to make the short 'A' vowel sound-like in the French word 'allô'. "We then repeated the exercise with the female nurse
who brought the baby to the lab. When the mother spoke, the scans very clearly show reactions in the lefthemisphere of the brain, and in particular the language processing and motor skills circuit. "Conversely, when the stranger spoke, the righthemisphere of the brain reacted. The right-hemisphere is associated with voice recognition," he said. "Motherese"-the special voice mother's use to communicate with their babiesis scientifically recognised. The researchers took this into account by involving a nurse who is herself a mother,
and they also countered the "novelty" aspect by arranging for the mother to meet with the nurse at regular intervals before the birth. Finally, speech analysis was used to ensure that the mother's voice and the voices of the other woman were sufficiently comparable. "This research confirms that the mother is the primary initiator of language and suggests that there is a neurobiological link between prenatal language acquisition and motor skills involved in speech," Lassonde said. The findings have been published in the latest edition of the 'Cerebral Cortex' journal.
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Now, give charity by shopping and earn ‘karma’ points London : In a holiday giving season ruled by economic uncertainty, it’s tempting to skip the charity bin this year. But what if you could contribute to the cause just by shopping? Turns out shoppers can now give to charity without actually giving, with check-in applications like Foursquare, Gowalla, Loopt and the latest major player to join the ranks, Facebook Places. The applications allow users to broadcast their locations using their mobile devices. For example, each time someone checks in to a Hard Rock Cafe in the US using Facebook Places, Hard Rock International donates a dollar to WhyHunger, a charity fighting global poverty and hunger. The effort continues through the end of the month, or up to $1,00,000. Bill Ayres, a talk radio host who is executive director and a founder of WhyHunger, said the development was an exciting for charities like his. “This promotion signifies a new direction for organisations like ours to embrace social technologies and reach a wider audience with an easy way to
get involved and give back,” he said. Charity apps are nothing new. But the concept of giving with no money from the user has only recently built steam.
Other check-in apps have proved fertile ground for charitable partnerships. Melanie Mathos, a manager at Blackbaud, which provides fundraising technology to about
Within two days, the effort counted 371,804 check-ins, saw 2,683 Twitter messages and raised $15,000. Foursquare and Facebook Places do not arrange relationships between businesses and charities. Business owners simply join the network and promote special deals at will, some of them charitable. At the Gap, customers who check in get 30% off purchases. But for every check-in, the Gap
also donates a dollar to CampInteractive, a charity that helps poor children explore technology. Bridget Forney, a marketing executive from Baltimore, said she had no idea she was donating to charity when she checked in at the Gap. “I’m spending money at Gap, but they’re taking care of the donation and I don’t have to do as much work,” Forney said. “I just have to spend money and shop.”
Mistletoe also cures cancer side effects The idea takes its cue from CauseWorld, which began around this time last year. Users check in to common shops and grocery stores to earn ‘karma’ points, which are later donated to dozens of select charities of the user’s choice, like the National Breast Cancer Foundation or the American Red Cross. Sponsors like Kraft, Citi and Proctor & Gamble match the karma with money.
24,000 nonprofit groups, pointed to Foursquare’s efforts at last spring’s South by Southwest music and film festival in Austin, Texas. Each time someone checked in on Foursquare from any business in Austin, or sent a specific hashtag on Twitter, Microsoft and PayPal 25 cents combined together donated 25 cents to Save the Children’s Haiti relief effort.
US, Europe on al Qaeda’s terror radar this Christmas
Washington:Al Qaeda terrorists are planning suicide attacks in the US and Europe over the Christmas period, insurgents captured in Iraq have reportedly claimed. News of their suspected confessions came from Iraqi officials as an American intelligence source confirmed the threat as credible. Among the alleged plots revealed by rebels was last weekend’s failed bombing in Stockholm where the suicide attacker detonated a device in a car and then killed himself in a separate blast. Two bystanders were injured in the second explosion and police are looking at the possibility that the Iraqi-born Swedish bomber Taimour Abdulwahab al Abdaly was radicalised in Britain. But Iraqi interior minister Jawad al Bolani said the insurgents made the claim about the Stockholm
21 Dec. to 27 Dec., 2010
incident after the bombing happened. Mr al Bolani and Iraqi foreign minister Hoshyar Zebari said Iraq has alerted US and European authorities as well as the Interpol about the suspected plots. But neither official has specified which European country or countries are facing potential danger — and it is not possible to verify the insurgents’ claims. However, Western counter-terrorism officials generally are on high alert during the festive period. This time of the year is particularly in focus after the failed attack by Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the socalled underwear bomber, who tried to blow up a Detroit-bound airliner on Christmas Day 2009. Al Bolani said several insurgents claimed to be part of a cell that took its orders directly from al Qaeda’s central leadership. He said at least one of the captured suspects was a
foreign fighter from Tunisia. The confessions were the result of recent operations by Iraqi security forces that have seized at least 73 suspected operatives in the last two weeks, al Bolani said. An Iraqi intelligence official said the threat information appeared to indicate that Denmark might be attacked, but refused to give details. Also, a senior US intelligence official in Washington said authorities were closely watching two people in an unspecified European country suspected of being linked to the alleged plot. The pair did not appear to be socalled homegrown terrorists, according to the US official who would not say where they were believed to be from. Both officials spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the ongoing investigation.
London: Mistletoe ‘magic’ may seal romance, bestow fertility and bring peace to warring spouses, according to folklore. Now the plant has also been credited with the power of healing and is currently being harnessed to combat the sideeffects of chemotherapy and radiotherapy. A new outpatient unit at the independent Raphael Medical Centre in Kent, which offers integrated cancer care, uses mistletoe to fight the undesirable effects of chemotherapy and radiotherapy such as fatigue, nausea, weight loss, low mood and infections, the Daily Mail reports.
Advocates believe the herb boosts the immune system and may even help kill tumour cells, particularly in breast, gynaecological, colo-rectal, pancreatic and lung cancer, along with lymphomas and leukaemia. Treatment is usually by injections — two a week for two years. Patients inject at home after initial treatment by medical staff to monitor effects.
Larry King hangs up his suspenders New York: Early last June, CNN celebrated 25 years of Larry King Live with a week of shows whose A-list guests included president Barack Obama, LeBron James, Bill Gates and Lady Gaga. Then, at the end of June, King suddenly announced he was retiring from his show, a weeknight fixture since June 1, 1985. He told viewers, “It’s time to hang up my nightly suspenders” after Thursday’s edition. The lineup for this farewell was expected to be stellar, though no names were announced. But until now, it’s been an oddly subdued leave taking. The promotion machine at a network can make noise over anything. CNN isn’t bothering. Having paid King his tribute last June, before he even said he would be stepping down, CNN now is treating him as a chapter the it is rushing to move past.
The focus is on Piers Morgan, whom CNN named as the new guy in September. It is busily promoting his January debut. Morgan, a 45year-old British journalist and TV personality known mainly in the US as a judge on America’s Got Talent, promises that Piers Morgan Tonight will be “exciting and slightly dangerous”. He is the future, or so CNN hopes. King, who has never been exciting or dangerous, is clearly seen by CNN as yesterday’s news. Sure, it would be easy to argue that the 77-year-old King waited too long to end his show. Once the leader in cable TV news, he now ranks third in his time-slot. His show was seen by 7,00,000 viewers this year, less than half the nightly audience in his peak year, 1998, when Larry King Live drew 1.64 million viewers.
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21 Dec. to 27 Dec., 2010
World’s worst nuclear accident site to become tourism hotspot Kiev: Chernobyl, an abandoned city in northern Ukraine where the world’s worst nuclear accident happened, could now become a tourism hotspot. Ukraine’s emergency situations ministry have started working on a plan to open the area around the defunct plant where a reactor exploded on April 26, 1986, spreading radiation to then Soviet states of Ukraine, Belarus and Russia. According to the Australian newspaper, the ministry said radiation levels in certain parts of the so-called exclusion zone, which stretches 30km around the exploded reactor, were now returning to normal levels. They want to open the area by next month, and visitors will be able to see the nuclear plant, as well as towns and villages that were abandoned in the disaster’s aftermath. Yulia Yurshova, a spokeswoman for the emergency situations ministry said official tour operators would have to meet strict criteria to be allowed to operate. Reason being that straying from the route could prove
dangerous because of the threat of collapsing buildings and varying radiation levels. “The Chernobyl zone isn’t as scary as the world thinks. We want to work with big tour operators and attract Western tourists, from whom there’s great demand,” Yurshova said. He added that tours to Chernobyl and the sealed area around the plant, many of which are run illegally, attract about 6,000 visitors and cost about $150.70 for a day trip. The plan has received the support of UN development program leader Helen Clark. “There is an opportunity to tell a story here that can convey a very important message,” she stated.
Strasbourg: The European Court of Human Rights ruled against Ireland on Thursday for stopping a Lithuanian cancer sufferer from terminating a pregnancy, in a blow to the predominantly Catholic country and its tough abortion laws. In a final ruling, the rights court found Ireland had not respected the privacy and family rights of the woman, who was living in Ireland and feared a pregnancy could trigger a relapse of her cancer, in remission at the time. The court, based in the eastern French city of Strasbourg, ordered Ireland to pay 15,000 euros ($19,840) in damages to the woman, who was forced to travel to Britain, where the laws are more liberal, to terminate her pregnancy. Terminating a pregnancy has long been a fraught issue in Ireland, where some of the toughest abortion laws in Europe allow terminations only when the mother’s life is in danger. The European court said Ireland had failed to ensure the Lithuanian woman’s legal right
to a termination. “The Court concluded that neither the medical consultation nor litigation options, relied on by the Irish government, constituted effective and accessible procedures which allowed (her) to establish her right to a lawful abortion in Ireland,” said a statement on the ruling. The court rejected appeals by two other women, both Irish, who also had travelled to Britain in 2005 for abortions. One was an unemployed, former alcoholic who was suffering from depression, living in poverty and trying to recover custody of four children from foster care when she got pregnant. The other did not want to become a single parent and feared an extra-uterine pregnancy. Ronan McCrea, a law lecturer at Britain’s University of Reading, said the Irish government had been procrastinating on abortion rights ever since an early1 9 9 0 s ruling.
In 1992, Ireland’s supreme court overturned a ruling stopping a 14-year-old girl, who had been raped, from having an abortion.
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21 Dec. to 27 Dec., 2010
Woman gives Rs 1 lakh supari to kill hubby
Saila Khan suspected that her husband was eyeing her 17-yr-old daughter. She kept an eye on his movements and caught him red-handed in a compromising situation Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned. A 42-year-old woman plotted and had her husband killed after she caught him red-handed in a compromising position with his stepdaughter. Saila Khan, a resident of Trombay, had a 17year-old daughter from her first marriage. She married Bilal Khan (45) alias Billu two years ago and the trio lived together. Saila suspected that her husband had an eye on her daughter. She kept a watch on
his movements and one fine day caught him red-handed having sex with her. Enraged, she plotted to have him killed. Saila, then contacted Kamruddin Sheikh (37), with whom she was having an extramarital affair, and roped him into the murder plan. Together they hatched the plot and offered Rs One lakh supari to two contract killers from Uttar Pradesh to bump Billu off. The contract killers murdered
Billu and dumped his body in a gunny bag on the highway near Mankhurd. The cops found the body with several injuries on the head and the limbs tied with a rope. When a police team reached Saila’s residence to inquire about Billu, they were in for a surprise. Saila said that Billu had been missing since for over a week. What made the cops suspicious is that no family member had filed a missing person’s complaint. Assistant police inspector, Haridas Kumbhare from Trombay police station said, “On December 10 we found a body of an unknown person which had severe head injuries and the limbs of the body were tied. Only after five days of investigation we came to know that the body was of Billu, who had been missing for the past few days.”
After catching her husband sleeping with her daughter, an enraged Saila called a contract killer and give him a supari to kill her husband
The contract killers killed Saila’s husband and dumped his body on the highway near Mankhurd. The cops discovered the body five days after the murder
Kumbhare revealed that during the interrogation, Saila spilled the beans on the entire plot. He said, “Billu was having sex with her daughter, and that made Saila decide to kill him.” Saila revealed that she had no remorse over the murder of her husband. The police have arrested her and Kamruddin over charges of criminal conspiracy and murder. The cops are still looking for the contract killers and a team has been dispatched to UP to hunt for them.
Will the Queen ’s head be removed Indian-origin man Queen’s
from British stamps? sheds kilos, wins big London: It has emerged that the Queen’s head would soon disappear from British stamps if the government goes ahead with its controversial plan to sell off the Royal Mail. Postal affairs minister Ed Davey said the proposed sell-off rules will let future private owners, including German mail operator Deutsche Post, to stop using a representation of the monarch’s head that has appeared on every British postage stamp since Sir Rowland Hill invented them in 1840, reports the Daily Mail. Ministers are now locked in frantic talks with Buckingham
Palace officials to discuss how the Queen will be represented “if
at all” on future stamps if a legislation to privatise the Royal Mail is passed in the parliament. Ministers have failed to include a provision in the Postal Services Bill, designed to raise 8 billion pounds for the cash-
strapped government, ensuring that the Queen’s head retains its historic position on British stamps “either in a full profile of the monarch or a small silhouette in the top corner of themed stamps”.Royal insiders said there were ‘angry’ at the Palace over the omission and said it could try to delay the legislation until after the Queen’s 2012 Diamond Jubilee, when a range of special stamps are expected to be produced. “The Palace doesn’t like this privatisation at all but they are particularly keen to delay it until after the Jubilee if they possibly can,” said an insider.
Singapore: An Indian-origin man in Singapore has won 1,00,000 US dollars after he was crowed the winner of The Biggest Loser Asia 2, a popular
to inspire others who want to lose weight,” the Star Online quoted Raj as saying. Raj, who was dubbed “the snake” in the competition due
weight-loss reality TV series. Vivega-nandam Deveraj (Raj), 24, lost 67kg from his starting weight of 144kg, making him the contestant with the highest percentage of weight loss (46.53%) over a six-month period. “Being on the show has taught me that anything is possible and I want
to his scheming ways, plans to set up a charity organisation to help combat the rising obesity rate in Singapore. “Obesity is prevalent here, especially among young children due to their sedentary lifestyles,” he said. “I believe I can help them with the knowledge I have now.”
Obese Kiwis bear down on cemeteries New Zealanders' expanding waistlines are creating a weighty problem for funeral directors, who cannot fit cadavers in their crematories and have resorted to selling double burial plots. Funeral Directors Association of New Zealand president Tony Garing said the size of the standard coffin had increased as obesity rates soared. "Caskets are getting wider to accommodate people, so it is the width that is the issue," he
said adding the standard coffin was now 58 centimetres (23 inches) at the shoulder, up from 48 centimetres.Noelene Mudgway, manager of Auckland's Manukau Memorial Gardens, said cremation was not an option for some families saying their last farewell to a supersized loved one."Our cremators aren't wide enough to take people who are severely obese," she said.Mudgway said the cemetery tried to
accommodate large coffins by burying them in plots at the end of a row, where they would not encroach on other graves.But she said the solution sometimes involved selling families two adjoining plots, each 1.2 metres wide, at a cost of $1,865 each.Onein-four Kiwis is obese, according to the health ministry, rising to almost two-in-three among the country's Pacific Islander communities.
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In damage control mode?
After giving up her sports career midway, actor Deepika Padukone joins her dad’s support group for Indian athletes like Saina Nehwal and Gagan Narang
Actor Deepika Padukone is following her dad and former badminton champion Prakash Padukone’s footsteps. For the first time, a Bollywood actor has been made a director of the Olympic Gold Quest (OGQ) — the biggest apex support group for Indian athletes and sportspersons founded by billiards champ Geet Sethi and Prakash Padukone. The other members of the board are eminent sports people like Leander Paes, Vishwanathan Anand and former India hockey captain like Viren Rasquinha among others. Deepika dreamt of being a badminton champ like her dad once, but gave it up for midway. She admits that had it not been for the faulty infrastructure, she might have continued with the sport. After opting to preserve the stem cells of their own twins, actor Sanjay Dutt and his wife Maanyata seem to have suggested to a lot of their friends the advantages of preserving stem cells. “Baba (as Sanjay is fondly referred to among his friends) is telling everybody about the benefits of preserving stem cells. After the news got out that he has decided to preserve the stem cells, a lot of his fellow actors have texted him and congratulated him for this act. Baba texted all of them (even those who are not married) back saying that they should also consider it,” says a friend of the actors. In fact, after the news got out that Sanjay and Maanyata have preserved stem cells, a lot of other stars have also called or texted Sanjay saying that they too have done the same. “Farah Khan, Hrithik Roshan, Raveena Tandon, Madhavan and many others have preserved stem cells,”
21 Dec. to 27 Dec., 2010
“I used to be a (badminton) player myself, so I know what the athletes have to go through (in terms of infrastructure and coaching). I always felt that there is a need to create a proper infrastructure and support group for the Indian athletes. I had wanted to do something myself but then this opportunity came along,” says Deepika. Through the OGQ, Deepika will be collecting and mobilizing funds for the athletes who have a big chance to bring home a medal at the 2012 Olympic Games to be held in London. Tennis champ Saina Nehwal, boxing champ MC Marykom and shooters Gagan Narang and Tejaswita Sawant are the sportspersons who are being supported by the OGQ for the next Olympics. “I know being a part of such
an effort is a huge responsibility and I am feeling mature for sure. I feel that one must do something to improve the facilities and infrastructure for the Indian athletes. I will do my best to ensure better facilities to the Indian athletes since they need our support and attention. I’m so happy that so many people have come forward to encourage the athletes like Gagan and Marykom who have struggled so much to make it to the top today,” she adds. Deepika’s father Prakash was of course beaming with joy as a proud joy standing just beside her when Deepika was saying these words. According to him, today’s sportspersons of the country should get all the support that he never got when he was playing for the country.
After actor Anil Kapoor quite ‘accidentally’ revealed on a talk show that Shilpa Shetty had a botox disaster during the shooting of a film, she seems to have gone on into damage control mode. Close on the heels of Anil’s explosive revelations, Shilpa will be the special guest on a show where she will reveal her beauty secrets. “It is a show that talks about Shilpa’s natural beauty and it will stress on the fact that she is one of the most beautiful women around. Officially, there’s no connection between the timing of the show with Karan Johar’s show,” says a source. “Mini Mathur and Rakshanda Khan will talk to Shilpa about her hair and her beauty and about her personal life too.adds the source. Shilpa Shetty, till date, has not reacted to reports of her going under the knife, when After Hrs had mentioned it earlier, she had laughed it off. Shilpa has also not reacted to Anil Kapoor’s remarks so far and going by Shilpa’s nature, a reaction is also unlikely, say her aides.
Bollywood claps for Dutt couple informs a friend close to the Dutt’s. “We feel truly blessed with our double bundle of joy. When Maanyata was pregnant, we came to know about stem cell banking and the potential it holds for our children in the future. Many of our friends have also opted for this service and hence we decided to go for it. We strongly recommend this service as the best gift that parents can provide to their children for a secure and healthy future,” said Sanjay, when contacted. Maanyata seconds Sanjay, “Since it is a once in a lifetime opportunity, we didn’t want to miss out on it. We read about
many successful stem cell treatments across the world and we were amazed. That is why we didn’t even think twice while taking this decision.” The umbilical cord stem cell banking procedure is a service wherein the blood from the umbilical cord blood tissue is collected and then sent to the laboratory where it is tested, processed and preserved at 196 degrees Centigrade for potential medical use in the future. The baby’s umbilical cord blood and tissue are a rich biological resource of stem cells, with potential to treat over 75 serious ailments, till date, through the innovative concept of stem cell therapy.
After actor Anil Kapoor’s unsavoury remarks on Shilpa Shetty’s botox treatments, the actor comes on TV to talk about her beauty secrets
Actor Sanjay Dutt and wife Maanyata are flooded with congratulatory texts and calls after they decide to go for stem cell preservation
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21 Dec. to 27 Dec., 2010
‘Ajay can’t beat superman’
Actor Kajol has always remained a fan of superheroes and like most other kids, she has always doted on Superman since her childhood. “I have always loved Superman. I always used to read his (comic) books when I was a child. He is my favourite superhero,” says Kajol matterof-factly. At a time, when she is supposed to go ga-ga over Ajay Devgn playing a superhero, Kajol says that he wouldn’t be able to match Superman ever. “They (Superman, Batman, etc) are eternal classics. Nobody can beat them, not even Ajay who plays a superhero,” she adds. Kajol says that she was also a huge fan of Phantom other than Superman. Kajol is also aware
of the Indian superheroes. “I also used to read Tinkle and Bahadur comics. I loved reading them equally.”
According to Kajol, what makes the superheroes such a hit is the fact that everybody can connect with them and they too have weaknesses like
humans. “Only thing is Superman is not real. I feel viewers need to identify with the superhero. He has to be real and humane. He has to have his own weaknesses,” the actor adds. Kajol also reiterates that this is just a matter of choice that she and Ajay are being seen on the big screen after a long time. According to Kajol, she rejects most of the scripts bought to her by Ajay as ‘boring’. “Whenever Ajay feels that there’s a workable script for us, I end up feeling that it is too boring and finally end up rejecting it,” she ends. Ajay and Kajol were last seen together three years ago in his directorial debut U Me aur Hum.
Back to her roots
‘Deepika is my hubby’s fave, not me’ It was in 2008’s Sorry Bhai that actor Chitrangda Singh made her much-talked about comeback in Bollywood after a selfimposed hiatus of three years. Incidentally, it’s taken the actor almost another three years since her last release to hit the big screen again. Keeping her busy were several endorsements, some with biggies, including one with her self-admitted crush Shah Rukh Khan. “But I’m hoping to make up for the lost time in the next year,” says the actor who has four films lined up in her kitty including Yeh Saali Zindagi, Desi Boyz and Prakash Jha’s next based on sexual exploitation. “The wait has been long, but the films have been worth it,” she adds excitedly. Te a m i n g a g a i n w i t h mentor Sudhir Mishra in Ye h . . . , s h e h o p e s t o recreate the magic of her debut film Hazaaron Khwaishein Aisi that had won her much acclaim. “But it’s hard to top a Hazaaron... and it’s not fair to compare
…says actor Chitrangda Singh while rubbishing all rumours of a rift in her marriage the two either,” adds the actor who’s been juggling a family back in Delhi and work in Mumbai. “It isn’t easy,” admits Chitrangda, “but thanks to the support I have from my husband and family that I am managing the two just fine.” Talking about hubby, ace golfer Jyoti Randhawa, she rubbishes rumours of any rift between the two. “Just because we don’t attend filmi parties together, it’s unfair to say that there’s any trouble brewing. He’s a superstar in his own right and is definitely not awed by his actor wife, but it doesn’t mean he’s not supportive of my choices,” she asserts. But there’s no smoke without fire? “Well, both Jyoti and I have professions that require
The reclusive yesteryears star Suchitra Sen acknowledges that her grand-daughter Raima Sen looks very much like her. The comparison only flatters Raima.
us to travel. And when it comes to managing a family, there are bound to be adjustment issues, just like most couples with children do. But all’s well with the marriage,” she reiterates. So, is she his favourite actor? “No, I’m afraid that would have to be Deepika (Padukone), though I wish it was me,” she laughs. On a serious note she adds, “He’s not into Bollywood at all.” Ta l k i n g a b o u t h e r o w n journey back, Chitrangda reveals that she’s happy with its pace. “I’m in no race to reach anywhere. All I want is to be able to do interesting work and that’s what I am doing. So no complaints! Though I’m keen for good work, I’m not desperate, so I don’t feel any pressure either,” she says. “But yes, I do hope to work with Shah Rukh some day. I don’t think any actor can claim to have a rewarding Bollywood career if she hasn’t worked with him. That’s my Bollywood dream too!” she smiles.
“She (Suchitra) tells me that I look like her. I feel so flattered when people say that I resemble her. She also loves the fact that I resemble her, though, I personally feel that my mother (actor Moon Moon Sen) looks more like her than me. I think it’s a huge compliment because my grandma has always been regarded as one of the best looking women of her times,” says Raima. Raima, who has just come back from Shivraj Singh’s (son of Maharaja Gaj Singh of Jodhpur) wedding in Jaipur, says that the entire event was like a dream wedding. “We were put up at the Rambagh Palace and it was a like a dream wedding for any girl. The royal palaces, the fineries and traditional costumes make you feel that you have been transported out of this world. We know him (Shivraj) for so long now, so a wedding in the family (Raima traces her roots to the Tripura Royalty) is a time
to get back to your roots and connect with your childhood again,” she adds. Raima is of course very enthusiastic about her forthcoming film where she is plays a dual role of a character from a fable and a modern woman. “Vinay (director Vinay Shukla) has made a wonderful film. The film revolves around four short stories subjected on issues of women emancipation, based on a story from the Panchatantra which travels in its various versions to modern times,” she says. So, does she feel that some women are indeed deceiving like the way it’s portrayed in the film? “It’s take on women and sexuality. I wouldn’t say it portrays men in a bad light. But it’s just a take on how they behave in certain situations. But yes, if you ask me who’s better when it comes to handling a dicey situation or being in control, it’s definitely women. No doubt about it,” she signs off.
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21 Dec. to 27 Dec., 2010
Priyanka roots for girl power!
The actor is gearing up to lend support to a new cause — that of the girl child
Actor Priyanka Chopra is taking her role of a philanthropist quite seriously. After lending her support to causes that are close to her heart, she’s taken up another one recently — that of educating a girl child in India. Joining hands with WAVE, an organisation that works for women against violence, Priyanka got together with entrepreneurs Ashi Dua and Aliya Rashid to help raise money for educating the girl child. Elaborating on the issue, she says, “Education is the most important thing for an individual — not just formal education acquired at schools and colleges. Even if you teach someone to be self-reliant by teaching them a skill — like sewing or crafting, it is enough. But yes, sending a girl to school is the best possible thing to do. And if you can’t, then at least teach her a way to fend for herself,” the actress asserts. Priyanka also feels that as a celebrity, it is doubly necessary to address issues of social concern. “Being a known face is, definitely, a plus point. As actors, we have a fan following and if you can put that to good use to garner support for a cause, then why not? In fact, I think more public figures should be out there, standing up for causes they believe in.” About her role in teaming up with the organisation, she elaborates, “I shall be performing at the concert that is being organised in the near future. I am an actor and a performer, and I know how to do just that. As an entertainer, I will do what I can in my capacity, and that is to entertain all of you!” The actor is all for gender equality and thinks that
That was apparently what Hollywood actor Elizabeth Hurley told husband Arun Nayar’s family when she came down to Mumbai to announce their separation
It’s apparently all over for the threeyear-old marriage of Hollywood actor Elizabeth Hurley and businessman Arun Nayar. Following her dramatic Twitter update (see box below), it is learned that Liz had come and personally apologised to Arun’s parents and announced her decision to split from her husband at their Mumbai home a few months back. “Liz came to Mumbai with her son and stayed at a hotel. She then came and saw Arun’s parents and announced that she intends to separate from Arun. It was a brief meeting that barely lasted for half an hour,” says a family friend of the Nayar’s. Arun’s father Vinod was particularly
hurt by the announcement, which sources say, was apparently made without any emotion. “Liz was very matter-of-fact. She just said that there are certain irreparable differences between her and Arun and that she intends to separate from him. She also said that she has already separated from him and the children are all living with him. She told them that she’s sorry,” says the family friend. “She never got along with Arun’s mother (Joanne). In fact, after the wedding was over, Vinod was apparently willing to testify against Liz when someone by the name of Vishnu Khandelwal of Jodhpur accused them of breaching Hindu
boys and girls both should be given their fair share of opportunities for education. “Ram padhai kar, Sita paani la’ is something that’s still being taught in the primary schools in the country. It goes a long way in creating a mindset that advocates boys should be educated as they are the breadearners, while education is not important for girls and should be relegated to household chores. This kind of mindset needs to change and harp on how important the education of the girl child is.”
customs and threatened to move court against them. At that time, Vinod apparently revealed to HM Saraswat, the prosecuting lawyer, that Liz didn’t agree to remove her shoes while entering the shaadi ka mandap. The feud between the in-laws and Liz never really took a break,” the family friend added. When After Hrs called the Nayar residence in Mumbai, we were told by a member of the family on condition of anonymity that they were prepared for the announcement but what they were not prepared for was the involvement of Shane Warne (see box below). “They (Liz and Arun) have already drawn up the divorce settlement. It will be an amicable settlement with no party giving out large portions of money to anybody. Liz doesn’t want Arun’s money and neither is Arun interested in her wealth. But she never mentioned that she is seeing anybody when she met her in-laws,” said the family member from the Nayar residence. Arun’s father Vinod and his wife Joanne are officially out of the country. “Liz also wanted to issue a joint statement with Arun but he is not interested in that. Besides, we feel that Arun was never happy when Liz was around. She had some weird demands, for example, she insisted that her former boyfriend (Hugh Grant) accompany her when they went for a beach holiday. Ultimately Liz won and Hugh accompanied the couple to the beach holiday and she spoke about it also later. The family is actually glad that they have
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21 Dec. to 27 Dec., 2010
Issue # 384 (27)
PORN could be automatically blocked from every computer in Britain under government plans to protect kids, it emerged today. The radical move would force people to ask internet service providers (ISPs) to lift restrictions before they could log on to saucy sites. Ministers hope the idea will stop children being exposed to sex at an early age. Communications
block on PCs
Minister Ed Vaizey revealed: "This is a very serious matter. "I think it is very important that it's the ISPs that come up with solutions to protect children. "I'm hoping they will get their acts together so we don't have to legislate, but we are keeping an eye on the situation and we will have a new communications bill in the
Distance wreaking havoc on Hurley, Warne's romance
Distance seems to be wreaking havoc on the alleged romance between actress Elizabeth Hurley and former cricketer Shane Warne. The two lovebirds have been posting updates about their relationship on Twitter, but recently Warne, 41, who is in Perth for the Ashes, has been sounding a bit glum as he tweeted from his hotel room."Still no sleep ... so got up out of bed, now staring at the water here in Perth, sulking and feeling grumpy!! Need cheering up today!" the Age quoted him as having tweeted around 9am. In an earlier tweet, he
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had posted: "445am here in Perth,Not really a wink of sleep,Tossed&turned all night,feeling extremely grumpy any tips to get a couple of hours at least." It looked like Hurley, 45, was not faring any better, as she vented out her frustration about the rumours that had been going around."Bored now of silly speculations: no one is divorcing anyone yet, no one is fighting over money and I have no plans to go to Australia. Enough!" she had tweeted.She later posted: "An all time low; tonight's VLS (vodka, lime and soda) is actually a VTS. No limes and too slothful to shop. T for tangerine."
next couple of years." Mr Vaizey has summoned some of the UK's biggest broadband firms, including BT, Virgin Media and TalkTalk, to a meeting next month for talks. He hopes they will agree to ditch the current "opt-out" system - where people have to turn on computer "parental controls" to block porn - in favour of the "opt-in" idea. TalkTalk, which also operates Tiscali and Aol.co.uk, is launching a free service next year which will only give access to sites on a cinema-style rating system. Parents can also choose to give the ISP a list of adult sites they want to view. It comes after an operation by several ISPs to stop people accidentally viewing child porn online. Campaigner Miranda
Suit, of charity Safermedia, said: "In the past, internet porn was regarded as a moral issue or a matter of taste. "Now it has become a mental health issue because we know the damage it is causing. "We are seeing perverse sexual behaviour among children. "Legislation is both justifiable and feasible." TalkTalk executive director Andrew Heaney said: "If other companies aren't going to do it of their own volition, then maybe they should be leant on. "Legislation is a sledgehammer but it could work." A Virgin Media spokeswoman added: "We're able to block sites, so it would be possible to do the same on the internet. "It is just a question of finding the right approach."
21 Dec. to 27 Dec., 2010
Rail lad survives against all odds
A BOY of ten hit by a train was hailed a "walking miracle" yesterday - after defying doctors who expected him to die. James How was left fighting for life with massive head injuries when the train ploughed into his grandad's car on an unmanned level crossing. As he lay in intensive care, shattered parents Matt, 45, and Petra, 40, were told he had a one in 20 chance of survival. Months later he earned himself the hospital nickname
"Amazing James" - by going back to school. Medics were astonished at him overcoming brain damage that robbed him of his speech. James, of Earsham, Norfolk, is not only up and about - he is talking again. Relieved mum Petra said: "His recovery has gone way past what the doctors expected." Grandad Richard escaped with cuts in July's crash near his Suffolk farm. Petra said of her son: "He's a walking miracle."
Brit 'drug mum' faces death BRITISH mum Shivaun Fadilah is facing execution in Malaysia after a ÂŁ16,000 drugs bust. Cops seized the 41-year-old, her husband Abdul, 46, their 18year-old adopted daughter and 225g of heroin. Any discovery of 15g or more of the substance carries the automatic death penalty by hanging in the South-east Asian country. Officers also found cannabis, amphetamines and ecstasy tablets at the Ranting Resort beach complex which the couple run Police said Mrs Fadilah of Bangor, North Wales, and her husband were arrested after a tip-off. They are held in cells. Chief Roslan Abdul Wahid said: "It has been our biggest bust in three years. The value of the
drugs haul was put at $25,000 (ÂŁ16,000). "Initial investigations show the couple have been hard-core addicts for almost 15 years and we believe they started distributing drugs in the past ten years." He said Mrs Fadilah had admitted cannabis plants found in her room were for her use. It is believed her husband told police the heroin was his. Five cars were also seized. It is alleged Mr Fadilah got his wife hooked when she threatened to return to Britain. Mr Wahid added: "If the heroin, after analysis, tests positive, then anything over 15g carries the death penalty." Mrs Fadilah met her husband in Malaysia after leaving the UK in 1991 to travel. They have two sons, now 14 and 16, and are based at Cherating, 170 miles from Malaysia's capital Kuala Lumpur. Mrs Fadilah's dad Mike Orton died aged 73 last year. He worked at the Atomic Weapons Research Establishment in Aldermaston, Berks. His wife Shirley, 67, of Harlech, North Wales, said last night she had had no
contact with their daughter for five years. She said: "She had been taking drugs and was psychotic. We did not even have a phone number for her. Before he died my husband tried to make contact with her but was unsuccessful." The British High Commission in Kuala Lumpur confirmed the arrest.
Issue # 384 (28)
THE CONTACT
21 Dec. to 27 Dec., 2010
Consensual flirting can get dangerous When does 'consensual flirting' become sexual harassment? We ask those in the know to define the fine line Lisa Rundle, a former Penguin employee, recently crashed into our consciousness when she alleged that Indian publishing poster boy and novelist David Davidar sexually harassed her. In his defence, with blow by blow details of whatshe-did and what-hedid, Davidar called t h e i r relationship a consensual flirtation. Have you been yoyoing about which side to be on? Have you caught yourself thinking back to something you said or did in office that could be construed as harassment? Have you been wondering if something someone said or did was harmless or illintentioned?
Relax. The line between flirting and harassment is not as thin as it may appear. It is, in
more time at work than home. Traditional norms of behaviour at the workplace are getting more relaxed. You tend to form relationships at office. Even then, the distinction between flirtation and harassment is not amorphous. In case of flirtation, there is a tacit understanding between two people. It does
fact, a thick bold boundary, according to sociologist Maithili Ganjoo, who believes that it is important to address this urban phenomenon. "We are spending
happen that an agreement to flirt, like in a marriage, sometimes breaks down. In case of sexual harassment, one person's dignity gets hurt. But a person in a responsible
Mohamed Haneef has returned to Australia and is seeking substantial damages from the Federal Government after his wrongful detention on terrorism charges in 2007. The Gold Coast-based Indian doctor was arrested and jailed in Brisbane in 2007 in connection with botched terrorist attacks in the UK. He was later cleared of any wrongdoing and returned to India. Dr Haneef is now suing the Federal Government over his wrongful detention and arrived in Brisbane for mediation talks last night. Today he told a press conference a litany of errors by the Australian Federal Police and the Federal Government had
stained his reputation and career prospects.He said he was currently working as a doctor in the United Arab Emirates but wanted to resume his training and eventually work as a specialist physician in Australia.And he said his treatment has damaged Australia's reputation for fair play. "My career and reputation continues to suffer as a result of the events which occurred in 2007," he said. "I have taken steps to rebuild my life and my medical career. However, I regret missing out on the opportunity to continue my studies and my career to become a specialist doctor in Australia, as I had
planned earlier. "I am very pleased to be back here in
position should know better than to abuse his power," she says. It's about power You've heard this before. Remember the Demi Moore-Michael Douglas starrer Disclosure? Sexual harassment is not about sex, it's about power. Writer Vandana Shah agrees with the adage. "Nine times out of ten it is about dominance. A friend of mine was in a relationship with a superior. After they broke up, he started harassing her. He made her work life miserable. Finally, when he ordered her transfer, she sued him, and eventually won," Shah says. This usually means that you can have a flirtation with an equal but harassment tends to come from someone who has a social advantage over you and can exploit it. You can tell Talking about the jungle, you should trust your instinct. It is your basic instinct - when something is not right, you can feel it. The dynamics are nuanced and you have to watch out. An ad professional, who was witness to a harassment case at her workplace, says if it bothers you, then it is harassment. "I keep begging with a colleague
to marry me," she says. "But he knows it's a joke." Similarly, if you've cracked a joke with innuendoes and the person who it was intended for is not particularly amused, you must immediately know that you've taken them outside their comfort zone. It's basic etiquette to respect the other person's opinions and feelings. What you say or do turns into harassment when it is not accepted in the same spirit that it was intended. It's unwelcome What is acceptable for one person may not hold true for another. In the midst of that subjectivity, the only way to keep yourself on the right side is get the social cues. Lawyer Mihir Desai says the single most important characteristic of harassment is that it is unwelcome. "Different people have different
comfort levels. The point is not to adhere to some form of Victorian morality but to respect how another person feels," says Desai. That is, if someone says no, get the point. Be empowered As for women, you are well within your rights to say no if you don't like something. So, recognise the power. You can flirt in the workplace without feeling that you're becoming an evil person. Feminist Jane Gallop makes a distinction between 'power feminists' who are pro-sex and what she calls 'victim feminists' who are not. She argues that sexual harassment, which used to be about sexism, should not be about anything that's sexual. Ultimately, you must be your own moral police. A fair amount of flirting never hurt anyone. But if it hurts, remember it's much beyond flirting.
HANEEF RETURNS FOR COMPENSATION TALKS
Australia. My family and I love it here, love living here and still many of my friends are here in Australia. "My wrongful
arrest and detention in 2007 was a traumatic experience for me and my family. It has impacted on all areas of my life. "I'm grateful to the A u s t r a l i a n Government and to the Australian people for their ongoing support and I'm hopeful that the upcoming mediation will be an opportunity to resolve this matter and give my family and me a chance to move forward." He said an apology from Prime Minister Julia Gillard would be "too late", but positive steps towards mediation would help repair Australia's reputation overseas. "It's a very fair place to live in - I've enjoyed
my work and living here. I have a lot of friends here," he said."Basically at the moment we are here for the mediation and hopefully we would expect the Government to be engaged with the mediation and hopefully the matter will be resolved." "It is a fair place but recently because of certain episodes, this reputation has been damaged, especially in India, and I hope that by resolving my matter, it will help repair the damage." His lawyer, Rob Hodgson, said the compensation sought by Dr Haneef would be "substantial". "The compensation which will be sought for Dr Haneef will be significant, and it will be commensurate with the
effect upon his career, his reputation and on his life in general," he said. "This is a case without precedent and s u b s t a n t i a l compensation is warranted for the way Dr Haneef was treated in 2007. "I believe [this case] has done immense damage to Australia's reputation, both domestically and internationally. "We do have a reputation as a fair place in which to live and work. That reputation was stained by these events and this is an opportunity to undo a measure of that damage. "The precise damage of that level internationally is impossible to empirically measure but I believe that damage was done."
Issue # 384 (29)
THE CONTACT
Manoj blames Salman for his Bigg Boss ouster?
Manoj Tiwari takes on Salman Khan, sends team to Delhi to search for original Munni Badnaam composer's family; wants Sallu to cough up compensation Bhojpuri star Manoj Tiwari blames Salman Khan for his ouster from Bigg Boss 4. The actor believes that his ouster against a 'weak' contestant like Ashmit Patel to be a slap on his face, given his thousands of fans. He is aware that the Bigg Boss host Salman sent text messages to his friends and urged his fans to save the Patel boy. Now the insulted actor is determined to get Salman and Arbaaz Khan to cough up compensation money to the family of Tarabano Faizabadi for the original version of Munni Badnaam Hui that went a long way into making the Khans' Dabangg a blockbuster. Tiwari has deputed men to track down Tarabano's family who live somewhere in Delhi. He has taken up the task of getting them 'justice' from the Khans.
Though Salman and Arbaaz have made their displeasure about the Bhojpuri actor's interest in the matter
quite clear, he isn't cowing down. Says Tiwari, "This is not about me and Salman and Arbaaz Khan. It's about creative rights and compensation to a family in dire need. Tarbanoji composed the original song more than 12 years ago and passed away unsung. It's only natural that her family get their dues." Tiwari had raised the issue before the release of Dabangg. Says the regional actor, "When I heard Munni Badnaam Hui, I knew it was a rehash of the old popular number
THE BEAUTY OF A GOOD NIGHT'S SLEEP! LONDON: If you want to look attractive and healthy, the best thing you can do is get a good night's sleep, say researchers, backing the "beauty sleep" concept. A new study by the Karolinska Institute in Sweden has found people who have a good night's sleep, eight hours of shuteye daily, look more beautiful and healthy than those who don't, the 'British Medical Journal' reported. For the study, the researchers recruited 23 healthy adults aged 18 to 31 -- all young enough to get away with the odd bad night. The subjects were photographed after some eight hours of sleep and again after being kept awake for 31 hours after a
few hours' sleep. The pictures were shown to 65 untrained observers, who ranked them on a scale of how healthy, attractive or sleep -deprived the subjects looked. Those who went short of sleep were rated as less healthy and scored an average of 63 points, compared to 68 points after a full night's sleep. They were also seen as more tired and less attractive, leading the researchers to conclude that there really is such a thing as beauty sleep. "The concept of beauty sleep has lacked scientific support, but the biological importance of sleep may have favoured a sensitivity to perceive sleep-related cues in others. "Sleep disorders are increasingly common in today's 24-hour society and often co-exist with some common health problems, such as hypertension and inflammatory conditions," the researchers were quoted by the 'Daily Express' as saying.
Launda Badnaam Hua by Tarabano. I don't know why Jatin Pandit claims to have composed it. I took it up with Arbaaz Sir. He shut me up accusing me of creating trouble for his film." But Salman's comment on the night of his eviction from Bigg Boss has convinced him to fight for what is right. He says, "When I was evicted Salman Sir said, 'Now the mask would come off Manoj
Tiwari's face.' What mask? I am the m o s t transparent person. T h a t remark made me realise keeping quiet
about what I believe in is not right. I'll fight for Ta r a b a n o j i ' s family to get their due." He admits, "I've deputed a man to track down Tarabanoji's family. I'll take T-Series' help to get them compensation. I've heard they're staying in utter penury in a pokey locality of the capital. I want them to come forward and make their claims. Salman Sir and Arbaaz Sir have made crores and crores with that hit song. What's R6 lakhs of compensation money to them? But this sum will c h a n g e Ta r a b a n o j i ' s family's life. We owe them that much." (By: Subhash K Jha)
21 Dec. to 27 Dec., 2010
"WHATEVER" VOTED MOST IRRITATING WORD IN POLL NEW YORK (Reuters) - Whatever you think about using grating words, at the end of the day it's actually better not to say whatever, if you know what I mean. For the second consecutive year "whatever' topped a Marist poll as the most annoying word or phrase in the English language. Nearly 39 percent of 1,020 Americans questioned in the survey deemed it the most irritating word, followed by "like" with 28 percent and the phrase "you know what I mean' at 15 percent. "Perhaps these words are introduced
through popular culture, for example movies ... so they catch on," said Mary Azzoli, of Marist. "It has a lot to do with how accepted and how popular they become in every day speech." Azzoli said words like "whatever" can be quite dismissive depending on how they are used. "It's the way they are delivered and inherent in that delivery is a meaning. The phrase "to tell you the truth" and "actually" were also unnerving to many people. But for younger Americans, aged 18 to 29, "like" was the word that annoyed them most.
you know what I mean
whatever
Japan couples eye lowkey Christmas dates TOKYO: What's your idea of a romantic Christmas? For Japanese couples it's often dinner and a movieyet many will likely forego a big evening on the town this year in favour of a silent night at home, a survey showed. That's a big change from the go-go days of Japan's bubble economy 20 years ago when couples preferred to splash cash on fancy dinners, go driving and even visit Tokyo Disneyland, according to the survey by Internet research firm Macromill. Christmas Eve is traditionally a big couples night in Japan and seen as a key romantic event-akin to Valentine's Day in some countries-with many women expecting to be wined and dined by their partners in a lavish night on the town. But Christmas, a
mostly secular affair in Japan where businesses stay open as usual, has had a lower-key feel in
recent years as couples seek out inexpensive date options in these thrifty economic times. To compare dating rituals between the generations, Macromill asked single people in their 20s and 30s how
they have spent Christmas in the past few years, and asked those over age 40 how they passed the holiday during the years 1986-1990. Only 39 per cent of those in their 20s and 30s have been out for a fancy Christmas dinner, down sharply from 67 per cent in the late 1980s for the over-40 group, the survey showed. Meanwhile, 32 per cent in their 20s and 30s have had a "home date"cooking and watching a movie at home with their partner-up from 22 percent in the late 1980s. And 54 per cent of those in their 20s cited staying at home as their ideal Christmas date, far outpacing going to a p r i c e y restaurant, shopping for presents and staying
at a hotel. Regardless of the economic climate, however, some things never lose their romantic spark. About half of the 20- to 30- somethings have been on recent dates to see Christmas illuminations around town, unchanged from two decades ago. Macromill conducted the poll in late November. It based the results on a sample of responses from 500 people from the greater Tokyo area in their 20s through their 50s.
Issue # 384 (30)
THE CONTACT
21 Dec. to 27 Dec., 2010
LIZ-ARUN'S SHAADI CASE STILL PENDING IN JODHPUR While couple is on verge of separation, lawsuit filed against them in 2007 for hurting religious sentiments still remains. Amid reports of actress Elizabeth Hurley and businessman Arun Nayar's separation, there is a court case pending against the two in Jodhpur. The case was filed against them at the Jodhpur Metropolitan Magistrate court on March 13, 2007, soon after their royal wedding in Jodhpur in 2007. They are said to have hurt the religious sentiments of Hindus during their wedding. Vishnu Khandelwal, a Jodhpur resident, had filed the case against the couple in 2007 stating that they had deliberately insulted Hindu religion during their marriage. There are three witnesses who have been examined in the case, but the case still needs an approval from the state to proceed further. If the prosecutors get the required permission, Hurley and Nayar
will be produced in the court when the charges are framed against
them. "The two were wearing shoes during the wedding rituals. Nayar sat on the horse while he was drunk just for the sake of climbing the horse. Also, the couple sat on the sofa when the pundit was chanting mantras near the fire,"
said Hastimal Saraswat, the advocate representing Khandelwal. "All these actions are against the Hindu dharma. The two have hurt the sentiments of the Hindus and hence they should be punished for their actions." He said that they were drunk and were also kissing each another during the rituals. "The two had married abroad and just to humiliate Hindu religion they got married again in Jodhpur. They should be punished severely," said Khandelwal. The case was filed against the couple under section 120(B) for criminal conspiracy and section 295(A) for deliberate and malicious acts intended to outrage religious feelings. While the witnesses were examined and the court was to take cognisance of the offence, the prosecutors had to get an approval from the State or Centre
Japanese salmon species thought extinct 70 years ago found in lake near Mount Fuji
A Japanese salmon species thought to be extinct for 70 years is alive and well in a lake near Mount Fuji, a science professor said Wednesday. The black kokanee, or "kunimasu" in Japanese, was thought to have died out in 1940, when a hydroelectric project made its native lake in northern Akita Prefecture more acidic. Before then, 100,000 eggs were reportedly transported to Lake Saiko but the species was still thought to have died off. But Tetsuji Nakabo, a
professor at Kyoto University, said his team of researchers found the species in Lake Saiko, about 310 miles (500 kilometres) south of the native lake."I was really surprised. This is a very interesting fish - it's a treasure. We have to protect it and not let it disappear again," he said. He posed for pictures and video with a specimen that was dark olive with black spots on its back. The kunimasu grow to about a foot (30 centimers) in length. Nakabo said the lake had sufficent kunimasu for the species to survive if the current environment is maintained, though he said in interviews he hoped fishermen would not
promised her 6,000 US dollars to take part in rituals in October to rid him of bad luck, which involved having sex four times, the newspaper said. When he failed to pay up,
the permission, we will proceed and prosecute the offenders before a court of law." Liz-warne affair Elizabeth Hurley and
i n the public records of the Environment Ministry. Yobukaze Naniwa, an official at the ministry, said Nakabo's claim would be investigated before records are due to be updated in 2012. Other species, including shellfish and plants, have also been discovered in Japan after being declared extinct, Naniwa said.
she reportedly tracked him down with a friend and seized his mobile phone, which contained photos and videos of around 70 other women and girls he allegedly tricked into sex.Police issued an appeal to trace the man, identified only by his surname Tang and screen name Ah Dick, and were questioning him on suspicion of having sex with an underage girl. Other women listed on his phone claimed they also fell for his scam, the Standard said.
Australian cricketer Shane Warne were spotted in a passionate embrace last week as they waited for their coats before returning to the Bentley Hotel in London where they spent the night together. Last week they also dined at the exclusive San Lorenzo restaurant before heading back to the hotel. They were spotted sharing a joke and looking out of their hotel window together the next day after spending all morning in the hotel. The pair met up after posting flirty tweets to each other on Twitter for months after a chance meeting at Goodwood races in West Sussex in July.
Women's salaries grow faster than men, but still
Earn Less
catch it. Lake Saiko is in a region popular with tourists for its Fuji views and hot spring baths. The salmon is still listed as extinct
THIS MAN USED FACEBOOK TO BED 70 WOMEN A man accused of luring Hong Kong women into having sex with him using the Facebook website as well as offers of money that he never paid might have worked his scam on up to 70 people, a newspaper reported on Thursday.The 28-year-old turned himself in to police on Wednesday after a 15year-old complained he tricked her into sex through the socialnetworking site, the Hong Kong Standard said. The man allegedly met the teen on Facebook and
to prosecute them.Saraswat said, "We are just waiting to get the permission from the State. As soon as we get
Women's earnings across Canada increased at twice the rate of their male counterparts between 2000 and 2008, but still lag behind in total income, StatsCan reported in The Daily newsletter. Statistics released Thursday show the average income for women in 2008 was $30,100, which is a 13 per cent increase from 2000 when the average income was $26,300. During the same eight years, men's incomes increased seven per cent to $47,000. One reason cited for the income gap was the fact women were less likely to work full time than men. However, the earnings gap was narrower for women who opted to work full time on a fullyear basis, StatsCan reported.
Still, women working full time, year round earned about 71 cents for each dollar earned by men. But even among full-time workers, women clocked fewer hours than men, which accounts for some of the discrepancy, the report stated. It was noted the average annual earnings were directly related to a person's level of education, with the greater difference among women. For example, a woman with a university degree earned an average of $62,800 in 2008, compared with $20,800 for a female with less than a Grade 9 education. A male with less than a Grade 9 education earned an average of $40,400 compared with $91,800 for a man with a university degree.Women with a university education who worked full time, year round earned about 30 per cent less than men with similar qualifications, StatsCan found.As the education and income levels for women increased over that period, there were more dual income families where the woman earned more than the husband. In 1976, about 12 per cent of wives were making more than their spouses, but that's increased to about 29 per cent. Interestingly, average total income was less in a situation where the wife earned more.
Issue # 384 (31)
THE CONTACT
Toronto councillors kill CAR TAX, CUT BUDGETS
City council has delivered on two of Mayor Rob Ford's election promises - killing Toronto's hated $60 vehicle registration tax and slashing councillors' office budgets. The tax will officially die on Jan. 1, 2011, after council voted 39-6 Thursday to repeal it. At council's first full meeting, on its first full day, the office budgets for individual councillors were also reduced to $30,000 by a vote of 40-5. In 2010, councillors' were allowed to spend $51,300 on their offices. But it was the issue of the vehicle tax that took up most of the day. In the debate leading up to the vote, councilor
after councillor stood up to denounce the tax the previous council imposed in 2008. Coun. Glenn De Baeremaeker spoke for many Torontonians when he called it "the most unpopular tax we've ever seen." Deputy Mayor Doug Holyday said candidates heard "loud and clear" during the municipal election campaign "that people didn't like it." "The sooner we get out of it the better," he said. The vehicle registration fee is an annual $60 expense for most passenger vehicles and $30 for motorcycles. Doing away with the tax is expected to cost the city about $64 million annually. But it was a tax that was detested by Toronto car owners, and it became a hot-button issue
during the election. Ford promised to wipe the tax off the books. After the vote, Ford said it was a "great day" for Toronto taxpayers. Opponents to removing the tax said they couldn't support the move because Ford hadn't given them any information on how the $64 million will be replaced.
FACEBOOK NAMED BEST US EMPLOYER
Social networking site Facebook is just as popular among its employees as it is among its users. The Silicon Valley start-up was named the best US employer Wednesday by employment website Glassdoor.com, which conducted a survey among its users. The company was so small last year that it did not even feature on the annual list, which was topped by Southwest Airlines in the past two years. But Facebook has been
growing rapidly by poaching employees from rivals like Apple and Google. Besides offering handsome salaries a n d princely benefits, Facebook also offers employees the real prospect of becoming millionaires when the company, which is valued at $43 billion, goes public. Many employees have already joined the elite millionaires' club by selling their shares in the company to private investors. No wonder then that chief executive Mark Zuckerberg, who was named Wednesday as Time Magazine's Person of the Year, was almost universally liked by his company's employees, who gave him a 95 percent approval rating. Facebook's overall
Pamela Anderson sets new 'Playboy' record Pamela Anderson has graced the cover of Playboy for the 13th time. The former 'Baywatch' babe graced the cover by channeling actress Anita Ekberg's famous scene in the 1960 film La Dolce Vita. In the scene, Ekberg's character cavorts half-naked in Rome's Trevi Fountain in a slinky black dress, similar to the one Anderson wears.
Anderson made her debut in the men's glossy in 1989 and with the latest one; she has a record number of covers in the magazine's 57-year history, reports the Herald Sun. In October, Playboy head Hugh Hefner tweeted that Anderson was shooting the pictorial in the Mansion swimming pool in a tribute to the famous Italian film.
satisfaction rating among employees signed on to Glassdoor was 4.6 out of 5. Just behind Facebook were Southwest Airlines, with 4.4 out of 5, and Bain & Company, with 4.3 out of 5. The Glassdoor survey was based on eight criteria including work/life balance, recognition and, of course, compensation and benefits.
21 Dec. to 27 Dec., 2010
THEY WERE TRYING TO STOP CAMERAMEN FROM TAKING PICTURES OF THEIR GURU
Frustrated over swami's Nithyananda's sex romp wide coverage, disciples of Swami Nithyananda scuffled with the media camera crew to stop them videotaping their guru, during his appearance at the court. Shot to fame: Disciples of Swami Nithyananda tangled with a media camera crew to stop them videotaping their guru outside the Ramnagar session court, where the swami was presented yesterday. The incident occurred at Ramnagar session court when Nithyananda along with his associates appeared before the Ramnagar sessions court. Nithyananda has been summoned to appear before the sessions court after the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) filed a chargesheet against him, accusing him of having sex romps with his disciples, criminal intimidation and hurting religious sentiments recently. When Nithyananda stepped after the court posted the case to the next hearing, a group of media persons tried to take his video for which his associates tried hard to stop to whisk him away. During the melee, an associate, identified as Ishwar,
scuffled with a camera crew leading to heated arguments followed by a scuffle. Sensing danger, Nithyananda hurried towards his SUV and sped away leaving his associates behind. However, no complaint has been filed in this regard. Ramnagar Superintendent of police said, "Though there is a general security cover in the court premises, we have not received any information on this incident," he said adding that the police were not even informed about Nithyananda's visit to the court yesterday. It may be recalled that a local schoolteacher had hurled a slipper at Nithyananda while he was brought to the session court by the CID, a few months ago.
Arizona teacher claims $95.3 MILLION LOTTERY JACKPOT PHOENIX - Ending nearly two weeks of suspense, a 64year-old substitute teacher and single parent from Arizona claimed a $95.3 million Powerball jackpot. Sheila Verke, a Fort Mohave resident, presented the single-winning ticket to lottery officials in Phoenix on Monday. She opted to take a lump sum payment of $49.9 million, saying she plans to buy a recreational vehicle and travel the country. "It's going to change my life and the life of my children and my grandchildren and my friends," said Verke, who was joined by friends and financial advisers at a press conference. A single parent with two children and five grandchildren, Verke said she used a well-worn strategy to
win the December 1 top prize -picking a set of numbers and staying with them each week for years. Her winning combination of 510-11-12-20, with a Powerball number of 2, is a combination of her birthday and that of her two children, she said. "I picked these numbers at least 6-and-a-half years ago and stuck with them. Even if I had to gather quarters, nickels and dimes, I bought them," she told reporters. Verke bought the winning ticket at a Safeway supermarket in Fort Mohave, which is about 200 miles northwest of Phoenix. She is Arizona's
third-largest winner of Powerball, a game played by residents in 42 states, the District of Columbia and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Her odds of winning were more than 1 in 195 million. (Reporting by David Schwartz, editing by Tim Gaynor and Greg McCune)
Issue # 384 (32)
THE CONTACT
21 Dec. to 27 Dec., 2010
Is a Desi Guru behind Brangelina's shaadi? GURU RAM LALJI SIYAG FROM RAJASTHAN IS SAID TO HAVE TAUGHT THEM YOGA AND MEDITATION TECHNIQUES TO SAVE THEIR RELATIONSHIP AND HELP EASE THE STRESS OF THEIR HECTIC LIVES JAIPUR: According to reports, the wedding of Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt will take place in Jodhpur, Rajasthan, and be blessed by Hindu priest said to have saved their relationship through 'couples' yoga'. The priest, known as Guru Ram Lalji Siyag (83), is unique as his followers believe he will fulfil prophecies from the Holy Bible. Siyag, who began his spiritual journey as a young railway clerk in B i k a n e r , Rajasthan, is reported to have taught t h e Hollywood stars yoga and meditation techniques during a tour of the
United States. According to a friend, it has helped ease the stress of their hectic lives
they are raising six children while t r a v e l l i n g constantly for film and charity commitments. "They've been practising his Siddha yoga and they start and end the day by chanting a sacred word he's g i v e n them. It's transformed t h e i r relationship. They've
both cut back on drinking and no longer argue," said a friend. They are now understood to be planning a Hindu wedding at the Guru's Adhyatm Vigyan Satsang Kendra ashram in Jodhpur in January. Officials said that the couple may arrive in the city to celebrate New Year's Eve and marry soon after. The first auspicious day in the Hindu calendar following that is on January 14. A disciple of the guru at his Jodhpur ashram said he could neither confirm nor deny any wedding plans or that Brangelina had ever met him. "Guruji is a humble and simple person; he never aspires to have celebrities around him and even if has celebrity
followers, he never boasts about it," the disciple said. When Siyag had premonitions of his own death and sought reassurance from a local guru who said he could only be saved if he chanted a Hindu prayer, the 'Gyatri Mantra' 1.25 lakh times. When he finally completed his mission, he felt his body radiating a powerful white light. He was later told by Hindu priests that the 'divine glow' he had experienced was a blessing from the Goddess Gayatri, a special divine power known as a 'Siddhi'. He became a devotee of Baba Shri Gangainathji, a popular local guru in Rajasthan, who, he said, continued to send him messages from the afterlife.
But his most curious religious experience followed a series of dreams in which the Gospel of St John, which he had never read or heard, was revealed to him. His followers now believe Guru Siyag draws on common themes of Christianity, Hinduism and Judaism. "Guruji has been spearheading a quiet spiritual revolution since the 1985. His disciples worship him as living incarnation of God and believe that he will fulfil prophecies of Bible," one of his disciples said.
New Year bonanza: Nearly 20 Two Indians charged in Chilliwack opium pc jump in hiring, fatter pay! POPPY BUST
Bountiful days are in store on job street in the New Year, as in-bloomagain industry is expected to accelerate hiring by as much as 20 per cent and reward employees with an identical hike in salaries. Notwithstanding a cautious start, hiring activities gathered momentum in the second half of 2010 and companies are estimated to have created over a million jobs in the organised sector alone. Led by fast-growing sectors such as telecom, consumer durables and real estate, HR experts feel that hiring is most likely to jump 20 per cent in 2011. With escalation of the talent war between companies, pay packets too are expected to climb at a rate of about 20 per cent, they opined. "There would at least be 20 per cent more hiring at the starting level and may be 10 per cent more at midmanagement level as compared to second half of 2010. Almost all sectors of Indian economy would hire (in 2011)," s t a f f i n g services firm Futurestep's
Country Manager Asim Handa said. Futurestep is part of global HR firm Korn/Ferry International. Improving economic conditions, coupled with many companies' aggressive expansion plans, are expected to further fuel hiring activities, especially in the first half of 2010. Recruitment firm Te a m L e a s e
Services' V i c e President, Rituparna Chakraborty, said the average h i r i n g increase would be "anywhere between 10 to 18 per cent across sectors next year". Global consultancy firm Deloitte
India's Leader (Human C a p i ta l A d v i s o r y Services) P Thiruvengadam said recruitment levels have significantly improved in all sectors this y e a r. The s e c t o r s definitely creating jobs (next year) would be
healthcare, l i f e sciences, r e t a i l , infrastructure a n d manufacturing, among others, he added. Online job p o r t a l M o n s t e r. c o m ' s M a n a g i n g Director (India/ Middle East/ South East Asia), Sanjay Modi, said India is going to emerge as a huge
sourcing ground for global jobs across segments, positions and profiles. M e a n w h i l e , compensation is also likely to sail northward in 2011, as entities would mainly look to retain talent. "I do not anticipate huge increases in salaries (in 2011), but performance would be rewarded and the levels of increase could be of the order of 11 t o 1 8 p e r c e n t , " Deloitte India's Thiruvengadam said. TeamLease Services' Chakraborty said the hiring sentiment would be positive, especially for sectors such as consumer durables, FMCG, real estate and telecom. "Salary growth will range anywhere from 10 to 20 per cent across these sectors next y e a r, " she noted.
Two men arrested in a Chilliwack opium poppy field in August have now been charged. Tehal Singh Bath, 31, of Abbotsford and Mandeep Singh Dhaliwal, 29, of M i s s i o n appeared in C h i l l i w a c k provincial court on Tuesday to face charges. Both have been charged with production of a controlled substance and possession of a controlled substance for the purpose of trafficking. They are next scheduled to appear in court on Jan. 27 for an arraignment hearing. The two were arrested on Aug. 23 after an investigation by RCMP uncovered an estimated 60,000 poppy plants that were being grown in a seven-acre field in Chilliwack. The field is believed to
be the largest opium crop ever located by police in Canada. The crop was estimated to be worth hundreds of thousands of dollars. Investigators believed the opium was being grown to produce a substance known as doda, a powder which is often taken with tea or hot water to produce a quick high. Police said other more potent drugs, such as heroin, can be refined from the plants.
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Women better drivers than men, say children LONDON: The age-old stereotype of women being bad drivers than men seems to have been quashed by a new survey of their most frequent passengers-children. In the survey, children claim that their mothers are better drivers than their fathers-it is not just their driving that makes women best, but because they have better in-car entertainment. Four in 10 children say they feel safer with their mother at the w h e e l during a rush-
hour journey to the shops or the school gate, according to the survey. Fathers are seen as risktakers by seven in 10 children who think they are more likely to speed, suffer from road rage and have the most near-misses with other vehicles, the 'Daily Express' reported. The Budget car hire firm, which polled 1,000 children between the ages of six and 15, revealed that the majority of children prefer their mother at the wheel because she plays better music (37 per cent), joins in car games (26 per cent) and tells jokes (24 per cent) more often than their father.Keeping children involved throughout the journey goes hand-inhand with them feeling safe, with children preferring mum driving
(40 per cent) to dad (26 percent) for this reason. Sixtyeight per cent of children believe dad is more likely to have an accident than mum. They also believe their dads are more likely to speed (71 per cent), be fined more often (70 per cent) and take the most risks (72 per cent). But while mothers may be the drivers of choice, children say fathers are better at reversing (64 per cent) and parking (61 per cent).
21 Dec. to 27 Dec., 2010
'MIRACLE' BLOOD TRANSPLANT
CURES MAN OF HIV An American man living in Berlin has reportedly been cured of his HIV infection with the help of an unusual blood transplant. T h e man, in
his 40s, had a blood stem cell transplant in 2007 to treat leukaemia and his donor apparently had a gene mutation that confers natural resistance to HIV.Three, years hence, the recipient has no signs of leukaemia or HIV infection. But the doctors have said the approach is not practical for wide use. "It's an
interesting proof-of-concept that with pretty extraordinary measures a patient could be cured of HIV," the Daily Express quoted Michael Saag of the University of Alabama, as saying. However, he added that it is far too risky to become standard therapy even if matched donors could be found."We can't really apply this particular approach to healthy individuals because the risk is just too high," especially when drugs can keep HIV in check in most cases, said Saag. U n l e s s someone with HIV also had c a n c e r, a transplant would not likely be considered, he added. The findings were reported in the journal Blood.
Vancouver crime E-crimes up, but women among worst in reluctant to file complaints North America There has been a spurt in cyber crimes against women in the city, but the police say the victims are reluctant to file a FIR. This makes it difficult to investigate cases of profile defacing or stalking. At a function to inaugurate the Cyber Safety Week 2010, Commissioner of Police Meeran Borwankar said most victims were "highly-educated" and "professionals". The number of cyber crimes registered by young girls is increasing everyday. "We can not share the details of the case nor are the cases registered," Borwankar lamented. "Everyday on an average at least two women come and meet me. They are reluctant to register cases but want us to take action against the suspect. We are finding it difficult to address such cases."
WASHINGTON: The CIA agreed to cover at least USD 5 million in legal fees for two contractors who were the architects of the agency's interrogation program and personally conducted dozens of waterboarding sessions on terror detainees, former US officials said. The secret agreement means taxpayers are paying to defend the men in a federal investigation over an interrogation tactic the United States now says is torture. The deal is even more generous than the protections the agency typically provides its own officers, giving the two men access to more money to
finance their defenses. It has long been known that psychologists Jim Mitchell and Bruce Jessen created the CIA's interrogation program. But former US intelligence officials said Mitchell and Jessen also repeatedly subjected terror suspects inside CIA-run secret prisons to waterboarding, a simulated drowning tactic. The revelation of the contractors' involvement is the first known confirmation of any individuals who conducted waterboarding at the so-called black sites, underscoring just how much the agency relied on outside help in its most sensitive interrogations.
Borwankar said the police had combined two teams for speedy action in such cases. "We have now formed a new team by combining officers from the Cyber Crime Cell and Women Assistance Cell (WAC) to counsel such girls and to take action against the s u s p e c t , " Borwankar said. "The victim is asked to write an application to the WAC after which the police start preliminary investigations." The suspect is identified and warned. After six months, the case is reviewed. If the victim is still vulnerable, then further action is initiated."I have observed that young girls and
women from Pune are forward looking. While interacting with the girls, the boys pretend to be broad-minded. They then induce the girls to share obscene pictures and other information," Borwankar said.
CIA gave waterboarders USD 5M legal shield A new report says that although the number of crimes in B.C. has fallen sharply over the past decade, Vancouver still has one of the highest crime rates on the continent. The data came in a report issued Thursday by the B.C. Progress Board, which was set up to advise the provincial government on social and economic progress. Vancouver has the third highest crime rate of 17 major North American cities surveyed, the report said. The figures show people are far more likely to have their car stolen or be the victim of a break
and enter in Vancouver than in New York City. "I think that's one of the most shocking things about this [report]," said New Democrat MLA Mike Farnworth. "People think New York and other places are dangerous and they forget that in Vancouver, we have a disproportionately high rate of property crime." Property crime in Vancouver, while lower than in previous years, is still more than twice as high than in Toronto or New York. The report also said B.C. is first among Canadian provinces in health and the environment
but worst when it comes to poverty. That means B.C. has had the highest rate of poverty in Canada for the entire time the Liberals have been in power, said NDP finance critic Bruce Ralston. Ralston said the B.C. Liberals, including almost all of the current leadership contenders, have refused for a decade to take action to address issues like child poverty. Middle class families are also suffering, he said, pointing to a section of the report that says personal income fell by $469 last year, the secondbiggest drop in the country.
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14-yr-olds are UK's youngest parents THE CHILDREN BEGAN DATING LAST SEPT BUT ARE NOW CONFUSED OVER THE FUTURE OF THEIR RELATIONSHIP London: A pair of school kids, both aged 14, have become UK's youngest parents. The baby was born last month weighing 8lb 14 oz, but the news of the birth was announced on Friday. The two children, who are both still in school, are believed to be the youngest parents in the history of the country. April Webster delivered a boy after getting pregnant when she and the child's father Nathan Fishbourne were just 13, The Sun said of Webster who lives in Caerphilly, South Wales.
The four-week-old child, Jamie, is living with Webster and her parents. But Fishbourne said: "I'd love to have him at weekends - and April can have him five days during the week." The teenagers, who began having unprotected sex after they started dating in September last year, are also confused over the state of their relationship. Webster said, "He has not turned his back on the baby but he's asking to do things like have him stay over at his house and that has caused some
arguments." Fishbourne also admitted: "I've not thought about our future yet as that's a long way off." However, the
determined mum said, "Jamie wasn't planned, but I'm going to be a great mum for him. He's perfect and I'm going to give him everything he ever wants."
21 Dec. to 27 Dec., 2010
Italian PM bans racy car advert from television
Silvio Berlusconi's television channel has refused to air a new advert for the Renault Twingo as it features a seductive bedroom scene between two women. va-va vroom: The ad has caused great furore forcing PM Berlusconi to ban the advertThe 30-second commercial begins with two attractive women exchanging smouldering glances at a party before heading off to a bedroom. At no point during the advert are there any interior shots of the car or any detail of technical specification. Even the price is not mentioned, as it ends with the caption: "New Twingo Miss Sixty It's a Girl Thing." The advert was made by Italian firm Publicis but the
Prime Minister's Mediaset empire have refused to air it with Sky being the only broadcaster showing it.The advert has outraged gay groups in Italy and has become a topic of debate on forums with many claiming that it is "offensive to lesbians" while some did say it was a "pleasant change." Daniele Tranchini, of Publicis in Milan, said, "We wanted to create an advert that was original, enjoyable and at the same time not vulgar and I believe we have achieved that."Luciano Ciabetti, a spokesman for Renault, said, "We think it's a great advert, is very open minded and continues the theme of previous
adverts which always play on irony."
Man unwittingly becomes getaway driver in robbery Minnesota: A wellmeaning man in the US has found himself embroiled in a bank robbery, after giving an elderly woman a lift to the Elysian State Bank in Minnesota. Sandra Leanne Bathke asked 26-year-old Luke Weimert for a lift to the bank, and he agreed thinking the 70-year-old wanted to withdraw cash to pay her rent. But Weimert was the unwitting aid to a robbery. On arrival at the bank, Bathke allegedly went
inside and demanded cash from the staff, telling them she had a gun, while Weimert waited in his car. Less than five minutes later, she walked out with a bag of cash. But even as he drove her home Weimert remained none the wiser. The first inkling something was wrong came when police officers were waiting for the pair outside Bathke's apartment block. Weimert said Bathke simply said 'Oh no' when police ordered them out of
the vehicle at gun point. Weimert said, "I was lost. I had no idea what was going on.There was nothing‌ nothing different about her when she walked in there and walked out," he said. "She was talking about the weather, her family. Just same old Sandra," said Weimert, whose mother is the manager of Sandra Bathke's apartment building. It wasn't until an hour into his interview at the local police station that he realised his good deed of giving an old lady a lift
to the bank had potentially helped her rob it. Police Chief David Ulmen said, "It's the strangest bank robbery I've ever heard." The Star Tribune reported Weimert was arrested on an unrelated driving while intoxicated charge, while Bathke was remanded in the Le Sueur County Jail.
The top 10 tweets of 2010!
Haiti earthquake, Gulf oil spill and Britain's Prince William's engagement -these are among the top 10 most powerful topics which dominated the 25 billion tweets this year, according to Twitter. In the micro-blogging site's list of the top 10 trends of 2010, 'TODAY' show anchor Ann Curry's 50-character message imploring the Air Force to allow physicians to land in Haiti to administer aid to the injured and dying came in No 1. Other top tweets included Russian President Dmitry Medvedev saying hello to the world; a disabled triathlete's plea for help; the announcement of Prince William's
engagement to Kate Middleton, and a parody about British Petroleum's response to the Gulf oil spill. Here's the list: 1. Ann Curry: "@usairforce find a way to let Doctors without Borders planes land in Haiti: http:// bit.ly/8hYZOK THE most effective at this." 2. The White House: "Welcome to @twitter President Medvedev! RT @KremlinRussia_E: Hello everyone! I'm on Twitter, and this is my first tweet." 3. Cyclist Leigh Fazzina: "I've had a serious injury and NEED Help! Can somone please call Winding Trails in Farmington, CT tell them I'm stuck bike crash in
woods." 4. BP's Fake PR Account: "Catastrophe is a strong word, let's all agree to call it a whoopsie daisy." 5. Ecuador's President: "Gobierno declara estado de Excepci n #Ecuador #30S" 6. Clarence House, the office of the Prince of Wales: "The Prince of Wales is delighted to announce the engagement of Prince William to Miss Catherine Middleton -w w w . p r i n c e o f wales.gov.uk" 7. Sun's CEO: "Today's my last day at Sun. I'll miss it. Seems only fitting to end on a #haiku. Financial crisis/ Stalled too many customers/CEO no more"
8. Idaho's John Foster: "Congratulations to Raul Labrador on a hard-earned win, and best of luck as Idaho's next Congressman." 9. Spain's defender Carles Puyol: "Gran ambiente en la rua!!orgulloso de ver a
tanta gente feliz. http:// twitpic.com/ 24qkg5?" 10. Conan O'Brien: "Hey Internet: I'm headed to your town on a half-a ed comedy & music tour. Go to http://TeamCoco .com for tix. I repeat: It's
half-a ed." "We tried to find a nice cross-section between tweets that really show the power of an information network and tweets that show taste," Twitter co-founder Biz Stone was quoted by the media as saying.
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SHINE SHINE ON ON YOU YOU CRAZY CRAZY DIAMOND DIAMOND There is something very special about the bat with which Tendulkar scored his 50th Test hundred yesterday. The piece of wood appears to have passed its use-by-date a long time ago. There's a thick layer of fibre tape strapped around the shoulder of the willow to paper over a crack which has been filled with glue. There's some more serious layer of the same tape towards the toe end to avoid it getting chipped further. For someone who is very choosy about his bats, Tendulkar's choice of weapon to fight-off the circling South Africans in the second innings
of the first Test was interesting. A casual inquiry with people close to him revealed the big secret of the worn out bat. It's with this very timber that the master has scored his last 12 international hundreds in the last couple of years, including the double hundred against the Proteas in a one-day international at Gwalior earlier this year. Tendulkar is not superstitious about this willow; it's just that he feels invincible with this bat in his hand. The worn-out willow didn't let him down as he not only scored his 50th Test hundred on Day Four, but also lead a
and Gujarat captain Parthiv Patel, too, made a strong statement grabbing his chances with both hands in the last two
ODIs against New Zealand and is expected tobe named in the World Cup squad. In both the ODIs, Parthiv cameup with impressive knocks asan opener. The probables list may not have too many surprise inclusions, which would be pruned when the final squad for
Tendulkar's innings was mixture of caution and aggression as he struck 13 boundaries and danced down the track to loft left-arm spinner Paul Harris for six to move to 95 from 89. Squirting cover and extraover he notched up his 50th Test ton that had become a national obsession. "I wasn't under any kind of pressure. It was you guys who laid the foundation stone of pressure. I just built around that foundation stone," he said in jest.As always it was tempting to ask how he would rate this knock compared to his previous hundreds. He said that the Perth hundred (in the 1992 series against Australia) was the best and he ranked it at par with the 136 against Pakistan
in the 1999 Chennai Test. "I think my knock of 136 against Pakistan at Chennai was toughest. Wicket was really deteriorating and quality of bowling attack was outstanding." Asked about the secret behind his stupendous form, he said, "It's a state of mind. For the last two years, I have been doing well. I have been really enjoying my batting. I believe doing well is a habit and a good habit. So if you have this good habit, you shouldn't let it go. "It was extremely important for us to do well and send a strong message. "The wicket was difficult to bat on in the first innings. We needed to remain positive and confident."
spirited fightback to try and save India from the humiliation of an innings defeat. "Normally a bat doesn't last that long. You may get one bad awkward ball which keeps low and the bat gets broken in the toe. I have been lucky as far as this bat is concerned. I know that this bat is not in best of condition as I have been using it for so long. I have few bats absolutely ready for matches. But the moment I pick this bat I feel that no one can get me out," Sachin said. The South Africans threw everything they had to roll over India. But Tendulkar and MS Dhoni stood in their way and denied the inevitable.
Yusuf, Ashwin expected to be in WC probables Swashbuckling all-rounder Yusuf Pathan and off-spinner R Ashwin are expected to be included in India’s 30-member strong World Cup probables list to be announced here on Saturday. Pathan’s moment of reckoning was his unbeaten 123 off 98 balls studded with seven sixes and as many fours in the fourth one-day international at Bangalore against New Zealand on December 7. He also took wickets at crucial junctures throughout the series with his offbreaks. Meanwhile, Tamil Nadu offspinner Ashwin was the top wicket-taker (nine) in the fivematch ODI series against the visiting New Zealanders. Former India wicket-keeper
21 Dec. to 27 Dec., 2010
the mega event will be named. The final team is to be declared a month before the commencement of the World Cup as per the rules of the International Cricket Council (ICC). Meanwhile, the BCCI’s working committee is also set to meet on Saturday in what sources said would be a ‘routine meeting’ to ratify decisions taken by its sub committees — including the IPL Governing Council (GC) — after its last meeting. Among others, it would ratify the GC’s decision of December 5 to allow franchise Kochi Cricket Pvt Ltd to take part in IPL-4 after the owners buried their differences following hectic parleys to the satisfaction of the T20 league’s authorities.
Sachin's 50th ton raises hopes for cancer kids MUMBAI: Housemaid Suman Wadtele's world came crashing down when her 10-yearold son, Durgesh, was diagnosed with blood cancer six months back in Pune's KEM Hospital. The medical bill was one of the many worries that the widowed mother was grappling with when a cheque for Rs 15,000 towards Durgesh's chemotherapy arrived from an unexpected quarter: a fund started by none other than willow wizard Sachin Tendulkar aka Batman Forever. "When I applied to various charity organizations for financial support, I didn't know that one of them had a Sachin Tendulkar connection. My happiness at the thought that my son would get treatment after all was doubled due to the cricket connection," says Wadtele. Durgesh is one of the 20 cancer-affected children whose
treatment is in part being financed by a fund set up from sale of Tendulkar memorabilia in May. When the master blaster scored his record 50th century, it was an extra-special occasion for these 20 families spread across Maharashtra and its neighbouring states. "Like most Indians, I too was ecstatic to hear about Sachin's 50th century. It was my misfortune that I couldn't catch it on television," said Mr M Ghazni, father of a Hyderabad-based patient. With the record, the fund's goals too have moved. "To commemorate Sachin's 50th century, we want to help 50 children undergo complete treatment for cancer. We want to spend at least Rs 1 lakh for each child before June 2011," said Dr P Jagannath, cancer surgeon whose NGO, indiacancer.org, organized a fundraiser to combat cancer.
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21 Dec. to 27 Dec., 2010
US air force blocks 25 websites over WikiLeaks Washington: The US air force has blocked employees from visiting media websites carrying leaked WikiLeaks documents, including the New York Times and the Guardian. Major Toni Tones, a spokeswoman at Air Force Space Command in Colorado, said it had blocked employees whose computers are connected to the air force network from accessing at least 25 websites that have posted WikiLeaks documents. The air force “routinely blocks air force network access to websites hosting inappropriate materials or malware (malicious software) and this includes any website
that hosts classified material and those that are released by WikiLeaks,” she said. The US government is seeking to minimise the damage from WikiLeak’s release of 2,50,000 state department cables through some media outlets and on its own website. The cables released last month, which reveal blunt, sometimes derisive depictions of foreign governments and leaders, have been an embarrassment for Washington. “It is unfortunate that the US Air Force has chosen not to allow its personnel access to information that virtually everyone else in the world can
Reveals statistics from recent survey by American NGO; top bosses agree women are bound by societal and family pressures The term ‘glass ceiling’ does not seem to be just a misconception or an exaggeration. There are definitely impediments for working women to grow and prosper. A recently published survey by American NGO Catalyst
women. “Our mythology gives us a Sita who sacrifices all for her husband. This thinking pattern affects women when it comes to their careers. Most women are willing to sacrifice their careers for the sake of their families and hence, we have only a few women leaders.” The report also states that according to 55 per cent women, the main reason for taking a temporary leave from
access,” New York Times spokesman Robert Christie said in a statement. “It seems like a comical, clumsy attempt to deal with a real issue,” Ken Doctor, an analyst with Outsell Research, who covers the media, said of
the move. “It is almost like something out of Dr. Strangelove.” Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb is a 1964 satirical film about a US Air Force general who ordered a nuclear attack on
awards last week, said, “While interviewing, I often ask interviewees where they see themselves professionally in the next five years. Most women are unable to answer as they are brought up in an environment where it is decided that once married, they’ll quit their jobs to take care of the family.” Singh said that well-known female corporate leaders are generally successors like wives or daughters of successful businessmen. “We need role models from the meritocracy to inspire the middle class women,” said Singh. The survey also predicts a talent gap of more than 5 million by 2012 considering Indian
“Recognising that women are
economy’s growth rate. Ilene H Lang, president & CEO, Catalyst said,
essential to business can benefit corporate India.” An HR manager with a
11% of India Inc CEOs are women
titled ‘Leadership Gender Gap in India Inc: Myths and Realities’, analyses the status of women in corporate leadership roles in the country. The comparison with roles of women in other countries has revealed that only 11 per cent of India Inc’s CEOs are women. The report by Deepali Bagati and Nancy Carter has busted some popular myths about Indian women in the work force. According to the report, India ranks 114th among 134 countries surveyed in the Global Gender Gap Index. India is also second last, just a position above from Pakistan, in Asia when it comes to gender equality. The Contact spoke to a few women CEOs and human resource officials to find out if the survey reflects the truth.Abha Singh, director of Postal Services (Maharastra & Goa), well known as a finalist of the Lead India campaign, said that societal pressure and social conditioning hold back
work was to take care of family. While pursuing interests not related to career was the reason stated by 50 per cent men for taking temporary leave. Rinku Appalwar, director finance of Emmbi Polyarns who won the ‘Leader in Manufacturing’ award at the Women Leaders in India
Brit man breaks quickest meat pie eating record A man in Britain has become the quickest eater of meat pies after he broke the world record in 23.91 seconds. Neil Collier won The World Pie Eating Championships at Harry’s Bar on December 14 in Wigan, England, by eating the saucer-sized meat pie in an incredible 23.91 seconds, smashing the previous record of 35.86 seconds. The championship attracted the biggest field yet - with 18 competitors vying
for the prestigious trophy and all the adulation that comes with it. “He just seemed to open his throat and down it went,” The Daily Telegraph quoted organiser Tony Callaghan as telling The Guardian newspaper in the UK. “He’s from Bolton, mind, which is a crying shame for a Wiganer to have to say, but he’s certainly learned how to eat his pies somewhere. Probably Wigan,” he added.
the Soviet Union. “It’s really putting established publishers into the category of miscreants,” said Emily Bell, director of the Tow Centre for digital journalism at the Graduate School of Journalism at Columbia University. The Pentagon had already prohibited its employees from viewing WikiLeaks, but it has not blocked access to websites that post leaked cables. Pentagon officials have instructed employees they “shouldn’t access the WikiLeaks site because the information there is still considered classified,” said Colonel David Lapan, a Pentagon spokesman.
media house said that while hiring gender does matter at times. “Working hours, shifts, etc. are things to be taken into consideration. As for women leaders, their thought process tends to be very organised.” Ameya Joshi, senior human resources manager with an advertising agency, said, “In advertising, most women leaders I have come across have an inborn ability to multitask and are great at team management.”
Sudan’s president may have stolen $9 billion London Sudan’s President Omar al-Bashir may have looted up to $9 billion from public coffers and deposited it in British banks, according to a diplomatic cable leaked to The Guardian. The cable released by the whistleblowing WikiLeaks site detailed a conversation between
International Criminal Court Chief Prosecutor Luis MorenoOcampo and a top US diplomat in March 2009. The cable was sent shortly after the ICC issued an arrest warrant for al-Bashir for alleged war crimes carried out during years of conflict in Sudan’s Darfur province.
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21 Dec. to 27 Dec., 2010
Please don’t stop the music Hoteliers have appealed to the Home Ministry to keep all establishments open till 5 am on Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve This Christmas and New Year’s Eve, there are chances that you won’t have to say, “Please don’t stop the party.” In a bid to party late, the Indian Hotel and Restaurant Association (AHAR) has written to the State Home Ministry, appealing them to extend the deadline to 5 am from the usual 1.30 am deadline on December 24, 25 and New Year’s Eve. Hoteliers claim that extending the deadline will result in greater revenues for the state government as well In a letter submitted to the home department (a copy of which is with MiD DAY), the association has sought an extension of timings on the aforementioned days not only for party-holder licensees and permit room holders (bars) but also for fine-dining establishments. Narayan Alva, president of
AHAR, confirmed that the letter had been sent to the home ministry for the extension of the deadline for the following days. “Last year all permit room holders were permitted to stay open till 5am, whereas vegetarian restaurants which are in great numbers had to close down by 1.30 am. At least, on these three days the government should allow restaurants and permit rooms to stay open till 5 am. In our letter to the ministry
we have clearly mentioned that all restaurants, pubs and hotels should be treated at par.” Alva added that extension of deadline would bring in extra revenue and help boost tourism too. Extending the deadline by three and a half hours means an astounding earning (excise revenue and VAT) of over Rs 13.42 crore approximately for the state too. Iqbal Mulla, treasurer of Travel Agents Association of
India (TAAI) echoed Alva’s sentiments. “During winter, we get more tourists coming in from various countries as the temperature in India is favourable and they prefer partying late in Mumbai. Around the world people celebrate December 25 and 31 with great vigour and the government should use these days to lure more tourists.” Many hoteliers feel that the deadline extension is a must for New Year ’s Eve bashes. “Extension of the deadline is definitely required especially when people are in a celebratory mood. Patrons always want to party more but, unfortunately, we have to ask them to leave as we have to shut down,” said Kamlesh Barot, director of Encore Hotels. Another vegetarian hotel owner elaborated further saying that it was unfair that hotels were allowed to stay open during Ramzan through the night at no extra cost but when it came to New Year’s Eve, they had to
shut down. “We have sought an extension and have to pay Rs 250 per hour to stay open post the deadline. Why are we being discriminated against?” “During New Year we usual dine after 12 am but with 1.30 am been the closing time, restaurants do not permit us to enter the venue stating it is shutting down. At least during these days the government should allow restaurants to remain open till 5am,” said Reshma Maisheri, resident of Mulund. “We celebrate New Year after 12 pm. But the fear is that we won’t get any food after midnight forces us to order food in advance,” said Lindsay Fernandez, a BPO employee. The Other Side A senior official from the excise department said, “We have received a verbal appeal, but nothing is in our hand. Only if we get the approval from the ministry we will be able to extend the deadline.”
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21 Dec. to 27 Dec., 2010
SGPC to set school in name of two
Facebook, best place to work, says survey
FATEHGARH SAHIB: Taking forward the spirit of secularism, the root of which was laid by Sai Mian Meer while laying foundation of Golden Temple in Amritsar, the Shiromani Gurdawara Parbandhank Committee (SGPC) has decided to honour the two true Muslim humanitarians who stood for Sikh values. The SGPC would set up a Senior Secondary School at Machiwara near Samrala(district Ludhiana) after the name of Gani Khan and Nabi Khan who stood after tenth Sikh Master Guru Gobind Singh during the time of crises. Disclosing this on Monday after visiting the site and holding meeting with Samrala MLA Jagjivan Singh Kheernia, Dr.Gurmohan Singh Walia Director Education of the SGPC said that the school would be setup over six acres of land near Gurudwara Charankamal Sahib. He informed that when Guru Gobind Singh after leaving Gari of Chamkaur Sahib reached at Machiwara Nabi Khan and Gani khan provided him shelter and than held a lot in going out of the clutches of Mughal sena by projecting him as the "ucch da peer ". He said that in this coeducation school quality education would be provided to the
New York: Facebook is the best large US company to work for, according to a survey by a career website published on Wednesday. The social network company placed ahead of Southwest Airlines and management consultants firm Bain & Company on the list compiled by Glassdoor, an online site where users publish feedback on employers. Employees seemed most unhappy when there is poor communication in a company, while the most highly rated companies have “a very solid and distinct company culture,” said Robert Bohman, Glassdoor’s chief executive. Glassdoor asked its users to rate their workplaces on such factors as pay and boss competency. Placing fourth on the list was General Mills, and public relations firm Edelman was in fifth place. Rounding out the top ten were Boston Consulting, software company SAS Institute, Slalom Consulting, online retailer Overstock.com and Susquehanna International Group, private equity investors. Glassdoor said it compiled the survey based on some 1,50,000 employee reviews
MUSLIM UMANITARIANS
students of Machiwara and around sixty villages of the area. Dr Walia said SGPC is presently running 65 schools and 35 colleges. Dr Walia said that the establishment of Directorate of Education was a big achievement in the SGPC which was continuously making efforts to tie up with foreign universities besides streamlining the working of SGPC-run colleges. He was that it was the vision of the SGPC president Jathedar Avtar Singh that the educational institutions of the SGPC should be world standard towards . He informed that at SGPC has opened a new vista of opportunities for higher education for the students of SGPC run colleges by signing an MoU with Sheriden College Institute of Technology and Advanced Learning in the Oakville campus. He said a leading educational institute of New Zealand-the University of Waikato has not only expressed keen interest in admitting meritorious scholars from SGPC educational institutes in various research based Ph.D programmes but also offered to provide work permit to their accompanying spouses. . ( C o u r t e s y PunjabNewsline, By Gurpreet Singh Mehak)
submitted during 2010 on companies with more than 500 employees. Meanwhile, Mark Zuckerberg, founder and chief executive of Facebook, that has more than half a billion users, was named Time magazine’s 2010 Person of the Year on Wednesday. Time defines the Person of the Year as the person who, for better or for worse, does the most to influence the events of the year. “This year they passed 500 million users. ... The scale of Facebook is something that is transforming our lives,” Time editor Richard Stengel said. “It’s not just a new technology. It’s changing the
way we relate to each other. I actually think it’s affecting human nature in a way that we have never even seen before.” Zuckerberg was a 19-yearold sophomore at Harvard University in 2004 when he started a Web service called Thefacebook.com from his dorm. Now he is one of the world’s youngest billionaires and his privately held company is projected to have revenues of $2 billion, Time said. At 26, Zuckerberg is the youngest winner since Charles Lindbergh was named the magazine’s first person of the year in 1927 when he became the first pilot to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean.
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Bread Ingredients: Oven temp: 400 F-204 C 2 cups flour, 1 tsp dry yeast 1/2 tsp sugar, 1 tsp oil, lukewarm water to knead dough, greased loaf tin, 1 eggslightly beaten Method: Dissolve sugar in 1/ 2 cup lukewarm water and sprinkle yeast over it. Leave in a draught-free place to froth. When frothy, add salt, oil and yeast to flour and knead to a soft dough with the lukewarm water and leave to rise in a draught-free place covered with cling film or wet cloth. When risen and doubled, punch and knead again and leave to rise again. When risen second time, knead a bit and shape to fit into the baking tin and leave to rise for half an hour.
THE CONTACT
Noodle Fry Ingredients: 300 gm cooked noodles 1 tbsp oil 1 large sliced onion 2 tsp garlic paste 1 tsp finely chopped ginger 8 water chestnuts - peeled and sliced 1 tbsp soya sauce 50 ml strong chicken stock 200 gm cooked chicken 150 gm ham 200 gm prawns - cooked with the tails 150 gm bean sprouts 200 gm baby corn 2 limes - quartered 2 tbsp chopped coriander Sweet and Sour Ginger dip 4-5 red chillies - seeded and chopped 1 chopped onion 1 1/2 tsp garlic paste 3/4 tsp ginger paste 2 tbsp sugar 1/4 tsp salt 3 tbsp vinegar Method: Heat the oil. Fry onion,
Pav Bhaji
Ingredients: 1 cup potatoes chopped and boiled 2 cups mixed vegetables chopped and boiled green chillies - chopped 1 cup grated onions - ground with 1 tsp garlic and ginger each, 1 cup tomato - grated 1 cup tomato puree 1 cup oil, 2 tsp cumin seeds 1/2 tsp turmeric 1 tbsp salt or to taste 1 tsp pav bhaji masala 1/2 tsp red pepper - powdered 6 pav breads 6 tbsp butter - for the bread 1200 W Microwave Method: Mix together the oil, cumin seeds and cook covered at HI for 3 minutes. Mix in the onion paste and cook covered
21 Dec. to 27 Dec., 2010
garlic and ginger until they soften. Add chestnuts, sauces and meats. Cook for 1 minute. Add noodles, bean sprouts and
To serve, heat some butter, slit the bread horizontally and fry in the butter till brown. Serve with the vegetables
Ingredients: 1/2 kg green tomatoes 1/2 cup chopped coriander 2 rounded tsp chopped garlic 2 tbsp chopped onion 1/2 tsp rock salt 2 chopped green chillies Method: Place whole tomatoes in a pan with enough water to cover them. Simmer for 5 minutes. Place 1/2 cup of the cooking water into a blender. Add tomatoes and blend for a few seconds to break them up. Add remaining ingredients. Season well and serve with Nachos, sticks of raw vegetables, cooked vegetable cases
Indonesian Chicken Lollipops Baked Chicken
at HI for 5 minutes, stirring once till fat separates. Cook for some more time if it does not. Add the potatoes, mix vegetables and green chillies and cook at HI for 5 minutes, stirring once. Add the tomatoes and tomato puree, green chillies, turmeric, salt, pav bhaji masala and red pepper and continue cooking at HI, stirring every 4 minutes, till the fat separates. Keep mashing the vegetables as they cook.
baby corn. Stir and fry for 3-4 minutes. Serve hot. For the Ginger Dip, combine all the ingredients together and serve with the noodles.
Salsa Verde
Ingredients: 1 stick lemon grass 4 dried red chillies 5 tbsp lime juice 1? tbsp grated jaggery 2 tsp salt 1/2 tsp turmeric 1/2 tsp chilli powder 1 skinned chicken 250 gm chopped red capsicum 2 large chopped onions 1.5 “ chopped ginger 2 tbsp garlic cloves 1 tbsp cashew nuts 1.5 tsp coarsely ground black pepper 5 tbsp oil Method: Crumble red chillies into water. Add chopped lemon grass. Set aside for 1 hour. Combine 3 tbsp limejuice, 1 tbsp grated jaggery, 1 tsp salt, turmeric and chilli powder. Pour over chicken. Marinate for 2-3 hours. Grind remaining ingredients except oil together. Heat oil and fry paste for 20 minutes. Spread over and inside chicken. Place in a covered dish. Bake at 180 degrees C for 11/2 hours. Serve hot.
Ingredients: 6 chicken wingscut off one bone and collect all the flesh at one end 1 egg-slightly beaten 1 cup cornstarch / cornflour 1 tsp garlic paste 1 tsp ginger paste 1 tsp salt oil for deep-frying Method: Mix together the chicken, egg, cornflour, garlic and ginger paste, 1 tsp salt and enough water so that the chicken pieces are ‘coated’ with the batter. Leave thus about 1 an hour. Heat the oil and deep-fry the chicken wings over high heat to begin with and then lower the heat till wings are almost cooked through. Drain on absorbent paper. Just before serving, heat the oil again and fry the wings in
hot oil till brown, drain on absorbent paper and serve
Spicy Chicken Saute Ingredients: 1/2 kg boneless chicken breast 2 tbsp oil 1/2 tsp cumin seeds 1/2 crushed coriander seeds 1/2 onion seeds 1/2 fennel seeds 1/2 mustard seeds 1/2 fenugreek seeds 16 curry leaves 2 onions- finely chopped 1 tsp ginger paste 1 tsp garlic paste 1 tsp mild chilli powder 1/4 tsp turmeric 2 tbsp thick tomato puree 1 tbsp chopped coriander leaves lemon juice
Method: Cut the chicken into strips. Heat oil and fry seeds. Add leaves, onions, ginger, garlic, chilly and turmeric powder. Stir in puree. Moisten with a little water. Stir and fry chicken for 3 minutes. Lower heat and continue cooking until tender. Add the chillies and coriander and finish with lemon juice
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THE CONTACT
21 Dec. to 27 Dec., 2010