The contact

THE CONTACT WEEKLY NEWSPAPER ISSUE - 722, 6 - 12 JUNE , 2017 PH: (905) 671 - 4761 ISIS is vowing a terrifying “bloodbath” leading to total “destruction” as Britain recovers from its third terror attack in three months. The terror group has sent a telegram to a major European country with a chilling image of an AK47 on top of the ISIS flag and a newspaper surrounded by bullets. It warns “what awaits you is even more destructive and more terrifying” including “car bombs, trucks rushed, improvised explosive devices”.

Promising that “all this will become your daily life until you are collapsed”, the document lists eight demands the country must respond to in seven days “in order to stop this bloodbath”.

Among them is the “immediate sales of arms” to ISIS, “the release of all Muslims” arrested on terror offences”, and for “all Muslims to be free to leave and live in the Islamic State”.

Seven people have died after being struck by a van and attacked by knifemen on London Bridge on Saturday night.

Emergency services respond to the scene Members of the public who flee the seen look shocked as they are wrapped in emergency blankets Police rush to the help at London Bridge during the terror attack Armed police stand over two suspects

Windsor Sikhs hopeful Jagmeet Singh will become Canada’s next PM Britain faces ‘different level’ of terror threat after London Bridge attacks shot at the scene of a terror attack outside Borough Market in central London on June 3, 2017 Members of the public, wrapped in emergency blankets leave the scene of a terror attack

looking shaken up Police enter a bar in London screaming at people to get down in safety Members of the public look traumatize as they leave the scene of the London terror attack

The telegraph has been sent to the government and media organisations in France, and comes as the UK recovers from Saturday night’s terror attack on London Bridge. The atrocity was

carried out by three terrorists, who ploughed into pedestrians on the bridge in a white van, before jumping out and stabbing people with 12in-long hunting knives.

Continued on Page 4

London police warns that new strategy to stop jihadi terrorism is needed involving police, MI5, communities and tech companies Britain will need to radically change its strategy to stop jihadi attacks because the threat is now at a “completely different” level of danger, according to the country’s top counter-terrorism officer.

Mark Rowley, the Metropolitan police assistant commissioner, said the changes could cover police, MI5, communities, technology companies, the law and other policies.

Rowley outlined his blueprint as police admitted that Khuram Shazad Butt, the London Bridge attacker pictured in a football shirt with a hoax suicide bomb belt, had been investigated in 2015 but ruled out as a potential terrorist attacker.

The assistant commissioner admitted Butt had been categorised as not posing a

risk of attack two years ago.

Butt, Rachid Redouane and a third man not yet named by police hit people with a van on London Bridge and then went on to stab others on Saturday night. Seven people were killed and at least 48 were injured.

The attackers were killed in a hail of 46 bullets fired by eight police officers.

The attack came after atrocities in Westminster on 22 March and Manchester on 22 May, with suspected attack plots foiled in between, one of which was by chance.Rowley said: “In nine weeks, we’ve had five plots foiled and three successful attacks. That is completely different to anything we have seen for a long time. As the prime minister has indicated, we’re going to need to do some things differently.

Continued on Page 4

Issue - 722 (2)

6 - 12 June, 2017

CBI to revisit Karti link with the Mukerjeas

CBI officials will soon grill Peter Mukerjea and his wife Indrani at Attar Road jail to gather more evidence to establish that Karti Chidambaram allegedly influenced the Finance ministry official to facilitate Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) approval to Mukerjea’s INX Media when his father P Chidambaram was the finance minister. According to senior officials, they want to establish the business link of firms involved in getting FIPB approvals and transaction details to establish that finance ministry officials had ignored company’s violations and illegalities. Karti had allegedly facilitated FIPB approval to INX Media when the Mukerjeas were directors in the company and his father P Chidambaram was then the finance minister. Karti Chidambaram has denied all the charges made against him. Both Indrani Mukerjea and her husband Peter Mukerjea are locked at Arthur Road Jail in Mumbai as they are accused in the Sheena Bora murder case.

The CBI had filed an FIR against Karti and the Mukerjeas on charges of criminal conspiracy, cheating, receiving illegal gratification, influencing public servants and criminal misconduct. Indrani while returning to jail from one of court hearings said, “I know Karti and Chidambaram. But the case I guess is about his investments

and deals. I don’t know much about it though.” Indrani refuted allegations of cheating and corruption in connivance with Karti and described the charges as rubbish. CBI was earlier planning to take the custody of Mukerjeas’ and bring them to CBI headquarters in Delhi but now a team will visit Mumbai and question them about foreign

investment and role of Karti in getting the approval. Sources said CBI wants to know the details of Mukerjea’ business dealings with Chennai-based Advantage Strategic Consulting Pvt. Ltd (ASCPL), indirectly controlled by Karti. CBI in its FIR alleges that FIPB officials entered into criminal conspiracy with Karti Chidambaram, promoter of Chess Management Services Pvt Ltd, which had received money transactions from INX Media allegedly for favours in getting FIPB approvals. “We have enough electronic evidence to prove that Karti was in touch with Peter and influenced the FIPB decision to benefit INX Media,” senior official said. As per records with both CBI and Enforcement Directorate, INX Media had deliberately violated conditions of the FIPB approval.

It has made downstream investment to the extent of 26 per cent in the capital of INX News without specific approval of FIPB, which included FDI by the same foreign investors. It had also generated more than `305 crore FDI in INX Media against the approval of foreign inflow of `4.62 crore by issuing the shares to the foreign investors at a premium of more than `800 per share. CBI sources said they had found documents linking Karti to both Chess Manage ment and Advantage Strategic Consultancy Pvt Ltd (ASCPL), a company where his friends and associates were made directors to “conceal his identity”. Sources added Karti’s email conversations with directors of these companies directly established the link.

Some of the foreign companies involved in the transactions are also linked to ASCPL, according to documents in possession of CBI Officials said once all documents recovered during raids, taken from FIPB unit of finance ministry, income tax department and the ED are analysed, Karti will be called for questioning. This week Karti returned to India from London as he had left for a ‘scheduled trip’ on May 18. His London visit came just a few days after CBI raid at his residence on May 16.

Pressure cooker unit blows the whistle on Punjab terror module

TWO days after discovering a pressure cooker bomb factory in Patiala, Punjab police on Sunday claimed to have busted a terror module by arresting three men from two different locations in the state. Those three men are believed to be the members of banned International Sikh Youth Federation (ISYF). They have been identified as Gurdial Singh, Jagroop Sigh and Satwinder Singh. The police said, the trio was trained by Pakistan based ISYF Chief Lakhbir Rode and Harmeet Singh. “They were trained to carry out terror attacks & target religious leaders and politicians,” a Punjab Police spokesperson told INDIA TODAY. Interestingly, the arrest of two other terrorists, Sher Singh and Man Singh, on May 21 led to the arrest of other three terrorists. The duo was arrested

by BSF with a consignment of arms and ammunition smuggled from Pakistan. “Gurdial hails from Road Majara area of Hoshiarpur whereas Jagroop and Satiwinder are residents of Chandpur Rurki Shaheed Bhagat Singh Nagar District. A .32 bore pistol, with one magazine and 10 cartridges and a .38 bore revolver, with 7 cartridges was recovered from them,” the spokesperson said.

The police said that Gurdial Singh, the chief operative of ISYF terror module, was introduced to Lakhbir Singh Rode, who is currently living in Lahore cantonment, by another terrorist Balvir Singh Sandhu, who is currently hiding in Germany. Police said, Gurdial paid several visits to Pakistan during last six to seven years.

He used to visit Pakistan in the name of paying homage to a Sikh shrine. His last visit to Pakistan was from November 12 to 21 ,2016. He was accompanied by Jagroop

Singh. “Jagroop confessed that he was blindfolded and taken to an undisclosed location to meet the ISYF chief, where he got a four-day training course by the ISI, and learnt the handling of AK-47 rifle and smaller weapons. He was also trained to sabotage railway tracks by loosening the securing/fastening mechanisms of fish-plates, nuts and bolts,” police said. The police also said that Satwinder and Jagroop were active members of this module, They were directly in touch with their mentors in Pakistan and

Germany. The Punjab Police has so far arrested five International Sikh Youth Federation terrorists who were trying to revive terrorism in Punjab. Mann Singh and Sher Singh, had told the police that they were trained by Ontario, Canada based Sikh hard-liner Gurjivan Singh and were in touch with their mentors in Pakistan.

The more shocking revelation is that the three terrorists who got arrested on Sunday were in touch with J&K based militant groups. Inputs received by the intelligence agencies, that the ISI can unite the Jaish and Khalistan terrorists, have now been proven true. However, it is clear that the ISI is pushing Khalistani terrorists in Punjab to disturb the law and order and peace. Khalistan terror outfits, located in Europe, Pakistan and various other South-Asian countries, are under pressure from ISI to strike terror. The arrested men said that they wanted to kill people involved in sacrilege of religious books.

Ran with severed thumbs to docs

WHILE working on a paper cutting machine, Mohd Nazim, 27, did not even realise that both his thumbs were severed from his hands. At that moment, he did not feel the pain, but later, it was excruciating. He immediately bandaged his thumbs to prevent blood loss and rushed to hospital for a surgery. In a rare surgery, doctors at Sir Ganga Ram Hospital (SGRH) replanted Nazim’s amputated thumbs. Recollecting the incident, he said, “I was informed by a coworker that my both thumbs were amputated. It was lying on the tip of the paper cutting machine blade.” “Without wasting a moment, I picked the amputated parts of my thumbs and ran

to the doctors here. Even the doctors were shocked,” Nazim, who is now able to write and hold things with his palm, told MAIL TODAY. Dr Mahesh Mangal, chairman of the plastic and cosmetic surgery department at SGRH, who operated Nazim, said, “In this case, both the thumbs were amputated and it becomes very difficult for surgeons to join the blood vessels when the reconstruction of the body part is at a distance from the body.”

“There is only a 50 per cent success rate for such kind of cases and these bilateral thumb replantations are uncommon and require precision surgical skills,” Mangal added. The post-operative period was uneventful and the patient was discharged

after a few days.

“The patient is now able to use his thumbs for all basic daily activities. This would improve further with time and his thumb is functioning like any other body part,” Mangal further said. Experts say that in some cases, a replant is not possible because the part is too damaged or the amputated part is lost. “But this patient acted wisely and brought his amputated parts in a wellpreserved condition. In case it is not possible to reattach the amputated

part, surgeons clean, smoothen and cover the cut end. This is called completion or revision amputation. And this option too gives a better and faster recovery,” said a doctor.

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6 - 12 June, 2017

WORLD UNITES AGAINST TRUMP

DONALD Trump has been heavily crticised by a host of world leaders after pulling the United States out of the Paris accord on climate change.German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Friday vowed ‘more decisive action than ever’ to protect the climate after the US pullout.

“We in Germany, in Europe and the world will band together to take more decisive action than ever to confront and successfully surmount major challenges to humanity such as climate change,” she told reporters. She pledged her country’s continued commitment to the accord, saying it was a ‘cornerstone’ of attempts to protect ‘our creation’. In a short statement to the German Parliament, Merkel said there was no turning back from the path that began with the 1997 Kyoto climate protocol and continued with 2015’s ‘historic’ Paris deal. “The decision of the US President to withdraw from the Paris Climate Agreement is regrettable, and I’m expressing myself in a very reserved way when I say that,” she said, adding that the deal is needed to protect environment.

“To everyone for whom the future of our planet is important, I say let’s continue going down this path so we’re successful for Mother Earth,” she said. President of the European Commission Jean-Claude Juncker said there can be no ‘backsliding’ from the agreement as China, the world’s bigger polluter, said it would like to uphold the ‘hard-won’ Paris Accord. Speaking at a summit with China business leaders in Brussels on Friday. Juncker said, “China and the European Union are aligned on the need for international solutions.

Nowhere is that more important than in leading the global clean energy transition and the implementation, the full implementation without nuances, of the Paris Climate Agreement.” French President Emmanuel Macron delivered a take-down of President Trump’s new climate policy, calling his decision a ‘mistake’ that threatens the world — not long after a phone call where Trump told him about America’s ‘strong record’ on the environment. “Wherever we live, whoever we are, we all share the same responsibility. Make our planet great again. Thank you,” Macron said. North of Washington D.C., Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau also called Trump to express his disappointment at the decision, but said he was inspired by ‘the growing momentum around the world to combat climate change and transition to clean growth economies’.

Five Arab nations sever ties with Qatar

QATAR on Monday slammed the decisions of five nations to sever ties with it, saying they were ‘unjustified’ and aimed to put Doha under ‘guardianship’. The United Arab Emirates, Yemen and Egypt announced they will be joining Bahrain and Saudi Arabia and withdrawing their diplomatic staff from Qatar, over claims that the country supported Islamist groups, earlier on Monday. The diplomatic broadside threatens the international prestige of Qatar, which is set to host the 2022 FIFA World Cup. It has for years presented itself as a mediator for the region’s many disputes.

Emirates, Etihad Airways, Air Arabia, FlyDubai and Saudi Arabian Airlines suspended flights to Qatar, after the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Bahrain said they would cut all air, land and sea links with Qatar within 24 hours. “The measures are unjustified and are based on false and baseless claims,” the Qatari foreign ministry said in a statement. “The aim is clear, and it is to impose guardianship on the state. This by itself

is a violation of its (Qatar’s) sovereignty as a state,” Qatar added. Saudi Arabia also shut the local office of Al Jazeera, Qatar’s influential satellite channel.

Riyadh views Al Jazeera as critical of its government, but the outlet says it is an

independent news service giving a voice to everyone in the region. It wasn’t immediately clear how the cutting of ties would affect Qatar Airways, one of the region’s major long-haul carriers, though the airline suspended all flights to Saudi Arabia on Monday. Abu Dhabi’s stateowned Etihad Airways said it would suspend all flights to and from Doha from Tuesday morning until further notice.

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ISIS vow more attacks if demands not met

continued from page 1 Armed cops arrived on the scene in just eight minutes and shot all three men.

As the country wakes to the trio’s van and knife terror rampage at Borough Market armed police and forensics investigator swarm the area.

The attack was the third in just three months, coming after the Manchester Arena nail bombing on May 22, and the Westminster attack on March 22, in which a similar technique of mowing people down using cars was used.

Last night’s attack has so far left seven dead and 48 injured, 21 of whom are critical.

ISIS’ latest telegram to France urges its new president to adhere to eight demands, which also include “the immediate cessation of the bombing against ISIS” and “the withdrawal of all French troops of all countries of the Muslims”.

The group warns the country it has seven days to respond, saying: “Oh the French

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people, think fast, think well and act quickly, before it is too late.

“If you do nothing, you will see very soon that we will destroy the French State, as it tries to destroy ISIS – otherwise known as Daesh. “But the destruction of the

French State will also by the destruction of the French people.

“You have no idea of what awaits you…”

It warns: “French police, if you continue to obey your government blindly, in oppressing as well your people that the

Muslims, be aware that your bullet-proof vests and your pistols do you not suffice in the face of our Kalashnikov and our seat belts of explosives.”

The telegram concludes: “Oh the French people, you have just to elect a new President supposed to represent you.

“The latter has 7 days to respond favourably to our requests by making a formal declaration.

“In the case of refusal, these next 5 years are likely to be the last that you will live.

“Because the next wave of attacks which will hit the France will be much more appalling than the previous ones. And this will be the last war that you will steer…”

The chilling document also comes after a wave of terror attacks in France in recent years.

In April an ISIS gunman opened fire on three police officers, killing one.

Two months before a terrorist tried to get into the Louvre museum with a machete, and was shot dead by a soldier.

But one of the deadliest attacks was in July 2016, when an ISIS supporter in a lorry ploughed into crowds celebrating Bastille Day in Nice, killing 86 people.

Britain faces ‘different level’ of terror threat after London Bridge attacks continued from page 1 “We’re going to have to think again about the next iteration of our police and security service model, which has constantly had to innovate over many decades.”

He said of Butt: “We will probably discover information on covert communications that were [not in] our knowledge that if we had access to those communications it may have changed our judgment.” At a press briefing with questions mounting about what the authorities knew, Rowley said: “Khuram Shazad Butt was known to the police and MI5. But there was no intelligence to suggest that this attack was being planned and the investigation had been prioritised accordingly.”

Counter-terrorism sources have been warning of an increasing workload since 2014 following the rise of Islamic State and its declaration of a caliphate which 900 Britons are believed to have traveled to.

There are 3,000 people suspected of jihadi activity – Butt was in this pool – and 20,000 former suspects, who included Manchester Arena suicide bomber Salman Abedi.

Rowley said more would be asked of communities to challenge extremism, and of the private sector, believed to be a reference to internet companies. He said the new government would “want to wrestle again with legal and policy issues”. The Met’s commissioner, Cressida Dick, warned of a “new reality” of terrorist threat after the attacks on London Bridge and Borough Market. Into this mix come fears about battle-hardened Britons returning from Isis-held territory in Syria as the terrorist group loses territory, adding to the threat.

Two of the attacks have come since the general election was called, catapulting security into the political debate.

The Labour leader, Jeremy Corbyn, backed calls for Theresa May to resign, saying: “We should never have cut the police numbers”. They fell by 20,000 while she was home secretary.

May responded that she gave police extra powers to deal with terrorism, which Corbyn had opposed when he was a

backbench MP. “Jeremy Corbyn has boasted that he has opposed those powers and opposed the powers for antiterror actions throughout his time in parliament,” she said. “And I also support, absolutely, shoot-to-kill and I think what we saw on our streets on Saturday was how important that was.”

On Monday, 36 people remained in hospital, 18 in a critical condition.

The family of James McMullan, a 32-yearold from London, said they believed he was among the dead. His sister, Melanie McMullan, said police had found his bank card on a body at the scene.

It emerged that Christine Archibald from British Columbia died in the arms of her fiance, Tyler Ferguson. The French government confirmed that a French man was killed and French media reported that seven people from France were injured, four of them critically.

Crowds gathered outside City Hall for a vigil for the victims on Monday night where the London mayor, Sadiq Khan, the home secretary, Amber Rudd, and shadow home secretary, Diane Abbott, laid white roses.

The investigation into the attacks involved

two more raids on Monday in Newham and Barking, east London, as police tried to establish if the three attackers had any help. The Renault van used to stage the attack was hired just before the attack, police said. . Police said all 12 people arrested following the attacks were released without charge.

Police named the second attacker as Rachid Redouane, 30, who claimed to be Moroccan and Libyan. He was not known to police and MI5 before the attack on Saturday. The third attacker has not been named.

Butt is reported to have associated with al-Muhajiroun, the banned extremist group whose leader Anjem Choudary has been linked to the recruitment of more than 100 British terrorism suspects. He featured in a Channel 4 documentary about British jihadis and was thrown out of a mosque in Barking for repeatedly challenging the imam. Rowley said he had seen nothing to suggest mistakes were made in assessing the danger Butt posed in 2015, despite a member of the public complaining about him to the anti-terrorism hotline.

ISIS publicly kills own jihadis after reverses ISIS has executed a British jihadi who had previously been fighting for the terror group in Tal Afar, 40 miles west of Mosul. Iraqi army sources claimed the Briton was lined up in the town’s centre along with eight others — including a Russian, Turk and some Syrians. An unverified photograph posted on an Iraqi news website showed four blindfolded men handcuffed and kneeling on the ground with a group of heavilyarmed gunmen standing behind them. According to Bas News, nine men were killed by the terror group although the reason for their execution has not been disclosed.

Captain Idris alHamdani claimed the nine men executed were leading members of ISIS in Iraq. He said locals in Tal Afar reported the executions to security services and said ISIS in Tal Afar and Mosul is severely divided. Al-Hamdani added, “These executions and splits come against the background of the successive defeats of the organisation’s militants in areas west of Mosul.” Inside Mosul, which has been the terror group’s stronghold in Iraq, the jihadis are being forced back into smaller pockets by government troops backed by US air strikes. Jihadis have blocked an area around the al-Nuri mosque in the Old City. It is the location where ISIS leader Abu Bakr alBaghdadi made his only known public appearance back in 2014. ISIS has forced residents living near the mosque from their homes so they can defend the mosque, where alBaghdadi declared his ‘Caliphate’. One resident, still living in the city said, “The militants are not moving in groups anymore. Majority of them are moving through the houses, using the holes they made in the walls.”

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6 - 12 June, 2017

TIGER’S ROAR GETS LOUDER Conservation body sees jump in big cat numbers

FOR many tiger lovers wandering across India’s 50-odd national parks to get a glimpse of the majestic big cats without success, there is good news.

Next opening of the park gates may bring to you a louder roar of the felines. If the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA), the apex body formulating policies for the conservation of big cats, is to be believed, then the next tiger census due in 2018 is set to show a “significant rise”. The last census done in 2014 put the tiger number at 2,226 and this is set to touch 2,600 or more by the 2018 tigers census, says NTCA chief Dr Debabrata Swain. “Going by the estimated annual growth of 6-7% of tigers being added to current population and the same being corroborated by the ongoing field census by our experts and scientists on ground, about 2,650 tigers could be a reality in 2018,” says Dr Swain, who is also the additional director general of Project Tiger.

A top NTCA insider explained the

encouraging trend. “We conduct the phase 4 exercise towards the end of every census done once in four years..the last was done in 2014. We have fairly good scientific and tech-enabled evidence gathered from the ongoing study, which started in October 2016, showing a possible significant rise in tiger population and there are certain reserves showing proof of ‘sizeable big cats population’ by next census due in 2018. The official, requesting anonymity, told MAIL TODAY: “While the Nagarhole, Bandipore and Biligiri Rangaswamy Tiger (BRT) reserves in Karnataka throw ample evidence of many being added to current numbers, some significant rise is expected from Manas in Assam and Pench in Madhya Pradesh. While Pench, which had about 40 tigers at last count will show up 50-odd and in Manas, where it was about 1314, will show at least 22 to 23, or more by then.’’ Maharashtra, for instance, which counted about

190 tigers last will cross 220 in the next census. The NTCA study to complete the census is still on and that is why the estimates at Corbett, Kanha and Bandhavgarh, all very popular in the itinerary of tiger lovers, cannot be made. However, NTCA members say that these reserves will also see rise in numbers as Ranthambhore and Kaziranga.

The tiger numbers will also get a boost with NTCA moving ahead with repeating the success of Panna and Sariska national parks in at least four national parks – Buxa in West Bengal, Mukundra Hills in Rajasthan, western Part of Rajasthan in Rajaji National Park and Satkosia in Odisha. “We left female and male tigers in the ratio of 3:2 and 5:3 in Sariska and Panna and today we have 14 tigers in Sariska and about 42 in Panna. Both these tiger reserves have shown ‘zero’ in the census. Now we are going ahead with Buxa in West Bengal first, for which the plan is ready and we will get 2 males and

3 females from Assam’s Orang reserve, which has currently the highest density of tigers. We have also finalised for the western part of Rajaji Park, where we also plan to leave tigers in same ratio to breed and add more big cats there. We have about 25 to 30 tigers in the eastern side of Rajaji, but their movement gets obstructed due to Haridwar city in between and disturbances caused by railway line cutting through the two sides,’’ the NTCA officer said. The plan is also to breed tigers in Naxal-infested Palamu Tiger Reserve in Jharkhand where currently there are only two tigers left. However, more big cats also mean more human-tiger conflicts and the latter’s killing by villagers and poachers. ``Indian tiger reserves cannot hold beyond 3,000 tigers…there have been 59 deaths this year alone and nearly 122 deaths in 2016. Only a few die a natural death…we need to think in future for our big cats,’’ Dr Swain concluded.

ARMY WIDOW SAYS GOVT INSULTED HER

In a shocker from Kurukshetra, an Army martyr’s wife has alleged that she was subjected to humiliation after she demanded her rights for a job on compensatory grounds. She was asked to give a written undertaking saying she did not marry her late husband’s brother, she says. Prerna’s life has never been the same after her husband Mandeep Singh, a jawan in the Sikh regiment, died while fighting terrorists in Kashmir.

Mandeep’s mutilated body was brought to his village in Kurukshetra last year before Diwali. Lakhs of people and top politicians had gathered to pay respects to the slain hero. Prerna was promised a promotion and a compensatory government job for Mandeep’s brother.

But instead, she says, she got only humiliation. Recently she received a letter purportedly from the Zila Sainik Board — a body under the state administration that looks into the welfare of armed forces personnel and their family members — asking her to declare whether she had remarried. What disturbed her the most was a specific

question: whether she had married Mandeep’s younger brother Sandeep after the martyr’s death. This exercise, she says, was done to ensure that she had not remarried as she would then not be entitled to the benefits. After receiving

have shouldered our responsibility well.

The case for his brother’s job is being taken up and is likely to be passed in a cabinet meeting soon by the chief minister on compassionate grounds. As far as promotion for Prerna is concerned,

the letter, Prerna had to submit an affidavit, which was attested by village elders to prove she had not married again. She says she attached the original Sainik Board letter with her affidavit and submitted it in their office. When we spoke to Col Ravinder Singh, secretary of the Zila Sainik Board, he said, “We have not sent any such letter. Rather we

there is no such policy. Nevertheless it is under consideration on the basis of her application.” Nobody seems to own up to the letter. But Prerna’s woes did not end with the mystery mail. She is a postgraduate and works as constable in Haryana Police. Recently she was deployed for security duty of Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh’s visit to the state.

But at the last moment, without assigning any reason, she says she was removed from the VVIP security duty. She has lodged a formal complaint in this regard with the Haryana police chief. She says, “I don’t understand why I was removed from the duty... maybe because the administration thought I would complain about my plight to Rajnath Singhji.” What makes things more complicated is that Prerna and her in-laws have allegedly started getting anonymous threatening letters. They informed the local police about this and have also sought protection.

“Filthy words were written in the letter.

They were so vulgar that I cannot even describe the contents,” she said. A disillusioned Prerna has now started getting visitors like MS Bitta from the AllIndia Anti-Terrorist Front. Bitta says, “It’s unfortunate to see a martyr’s wife in such a condition. When Mandeep died, their expectations were raised by tall assurances. It’s been seven months since his death and about time the state government lives up to its promises.”

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6 - 12 June, 2017

20 DAYS IN MARRIAGE, 20 YRS FOR DIVORCE Man lived in separation for two decades after learning about wife’s arrest in fraud case; court cites new ground for cruelty

A CITY court has granted divorce in a rare case to a couple following a nearly 20year legal battle between the husband and wife who were together for just 20 days. While delivering the order, principal judge of family court Dharmesh Sharma observed that the slow pace of the justice delivery system “casts a very sickening feeling in my mind” but added that the parties and their counsel too were perhaps responsible for the delay. Millions of cases are pending in India’s courts, draining litigants of resources and pointing towards an urgent need for more judges and judicial reforms. Courts too are encouraging such couples to first try mediation instead of getting into lengthy legal fights. “Unfortunate as it may look, this case is coming up for final decision after nineteen years of its institution initially before the family court. Most unfortunate aspect of this case is that the parties cohabited hardly for about 20 days before calamity struck the newly married bride, having pernicious repercussions on the mindset of her husband,” said the judge. “The marriage has irretrievably broken down despite the fact the parties are quite educated and hail from an affluent class of the society, and I only wish they should have settled their differences in an amicable manner

instead of suffering the agony of a protracted matrimonial litigation.”

Thirumoorthy Ramakrishnan, 53, and Subhashini Bala Subramanian, 49, got married in 1998 after meeting through a matrimonial advertisement in a newspaper. However, cops arrested the wife in Ooty when the newlyweds were on their way to visit South Indian temples as part of a custom that says a couple can’t consummate their marriage unless they have taken their blessings at these shrines. She was allegedly involved in a case of misappropriation of funds.

Wife’s arrest The woman, who was then 29, was brought to Delhi for trial. On the last day of the remand, she told her husband that she was carrying his child. The man moved court, seeking dissolution of marriage on the grounds that following the arrest of his wife, he was interrogated by the police on a number of occasions.

Inquiries were conducted at his workplace and his accounts were checked, causing deep mental and physical cruelty, making him subject of ridicule among his friends, colleagues and relatives, he argued. The husband also told the court that he learnt later that his wife had hidden her professional qualifications and other important details.

A SERIES of shocking portraits has shown what the world’s leaders would look like if their skin was removed.

Australian artist Alex Wadelton and retoucher Marcus Byrne have created creepy portraits which include United States President Donald Trump and Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull. Other world leaders depicted include British Prime Minister Theresa May, Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korean leader Kim JongUn. The portraits were made as part of the One Millimetre project which aims to motivate viewers to look beyond skin colour, ethnic background and gender. Wadelton said the ‘one millimetre of skin’ that covers each human is all that separates people, including powerful political leaders. “If

you remove this one millimetre, we reveal that we are all the same, we are all humans. The political leaders of the world are no different,” he said. “Their rhetoric can divide us or bring us together. Stripped of their skin we see that they are all creatures of the same race.” Wadelton said the world is on a ‘knife edge’ and that he wanted to show the fragility of humanity through the portraits. “I believed in the idea straight away, even if I didn’t know immediately how to make it possible, “Through days of experimenting, I finally came up with a technique involving finding existing state portraits of the world leaders layered upon human body schematics, with multiple shots of different cuts of meat to build the imagery.”

WHEN MASKS ARE OFF

He said the incident left him in constant tension, apprehending that he may be called by the police at any time for further investigation and sought divorce on the grounds of “cruelty”. The wife though claimed that all the allegations against her were false. She also said the couple had consummated before the completing the religious ritual. The wife did not deny the criminal proceedings initiated against her but said she was being falsely implicated in the case by her employer.

She also said that her husband not only abandoned her at a time when she needed him the most but also abandoned the child born in wedlock and left them to fend for themselves. The court granted divorce, saying that the arrest, detention and criminal prosecution of the wife, whether innocent or not of the charges, so early into their marriage caused the husband exceptional hardship and was inflicted with intolerable mental cruelty.

“Protracted legal battles in our system end up spoiling a person’s life,” Subhash

Chauhan, counsel for the husband, told MAIL TODAY. “A marriage going bad is an accident. It can happen to anyone.

Had the divorce been granted in a year or two, my client could have remarried and have had a family now and led a normal life. He is an old man now and not in a state to marry. Instead of getting relief, the long battles themselves become the problem.” MAIL TODAY has learnt that the husband has moved abroad and works in a bank while the wife is working as an accountant. Their daughter passed class 12 this year and scored 94 per cent in the board examinations. Anil Sharma, counsel for the wife, told that they have moved the high court in appeal.

“The charges levelled by the husband on my client also amount to cruelty. The husband abandoned the wife and daughter when they required him the most. He also never took care of the daughter’s expenses. The woman has brought up the girl singlehandedly,” he said.

THE FRENCH CONNECTION Prime Minister Narendra Modi and French President Emmanuel Macron hold hands in the garden of the Elysee Palace in Paris following their meeting on Saturday.

Issue - 722 (7)

6 - 12 June, 2017

New York officer pleads not guilty

in mentally ill woman’s death

New York A police sergeant was charged with murder Wednesday in the shooting of a 66-year-old mentally ill woman wielding a baseball bat, a death the mayor called tragic and unacceptable. Sgt. Hugh Barry pleaded not guilty at an arraignment Wednesday to charges that also included manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide in Deborah Danner’s October death.

He was released on bail.

Police were responding to a 911 call about an emotionally disturbed person when Barry, who has been with the New York Police Department for eight years, encountered Danner in her Bronx apartment. Danner had been diagnosed with schizophrenia. Officers had been called to her home several times before to take her to the hospital during psychiatric episodes and had been able to take her away safely, Mayor Bill de Blasio

Man shoots self, bullet goes through head, kills girlfriend WASHINGTON: A man attempted suicide by firing a bullet to his head but it went through him and fatally struck his girlfriend while leaving him severely wounded, according to US prosecutors.

Victor Sibson, 21, from Anchorage, Alaska, has been accused of killing his girlfriend while attempting to kill himself.

He appeared in court on Sunday and a grand jury indicted him on a charge of second-degree murder.

Police responded to a 911 call in at a club at an apartment complex in Midtown last month, and found Sibson, and 22-yearold Brittany-Mae Haag suffering from critical gunshot wounds.

First responders transported both to a local hospital, but Haag died later in the day.Prosecutors believe the incident involved a single bullet.

“He had an entry wound on the left side of his head, he had an exit wound on the top of his skull,” assistant district attorney James Fayette told KTVA.He said evidence shows the bullet likely hit Haag, striking her vital organs, after it exited Sibson’s skull.A month after the shooting, Sibson turned himself in to Anchorage police.

said at the time.

On Oct. 18, Barry persuaded Danner to drop a pair of scissors she had been holding, police said.

But after she picked up a

baseball bat and brandished it toward him, he shot her twice in the torso, Bronx District Attorney Darcel Clark’s office said.

Danner was black. Barry is white. Assistant District Attorney Wanda PerezMaldonado said Barry had disregarded his training on handling people with mental illness. He had a stun gun, but did not use it.His lawyer, Andrew Quinn, said that the sergeant confronted a woman “armed with a deadly weapon, a bat.”

Sgt. Ed Mullins, the head of the Sergeants Benevolent Association, said Barry “did not go to work intending to kill anyone.” Mullins called the murder charge “obscene.”

“Officers risk their lives going into these situations.

It’s a split-second decision,” the union leader said, predicting Barry would be acquitted. But a relative of Danner’s said the indictment marked a start

toward getting justice. Still, the family is watching to see how the case plays out in court, cousin Wallace Cooke Jr. said.

“If he’s guilty _ which he is

_ of killing Debbie, he should serve time,” Cooke said, adding that he himself is a retired police officer. “It was totally unnecessary for him to shoot her.” Barry, 31, who had never fired his weapon before, has been suspended from the force while the criminal case plays out. He was suspended without pay for 30 days.

New York City police respond to tens of thousands of calls about emotionally disturbed people each year. Officers and commanders, including sergeants, have been gradually getting training on how to deal with mentally ill people that includes instruction in techniques to “deescalate” a situation, rather than resort to force.

Danner’s shooting sparked protests and a rebuke from the mayor. “Our officers are supposed to use deadly force only when faced with a dire situation. It’s very

hard to see that standard was met,” de Blasio said the day after the shooting.

“Something went horribly wrong here.”

New York police Commissioner James O’Neill, meanwhile, said at the time that his department failed by not using means other than deadly force. Officials and police reform advocates who had condemned Danner’s killing commended Barry’s arrest, which followed a two-month grand jury investigation.

“We have full faith in the district attorney to lead a fair and thorough prosecution,” said de Blasio. He and the DA are Democrats. The head of Black Lives Matter of Greater New York, Hawk Newsome, praised the DA for prosecuting the sergeant “like any other citizen” accused of a crime. Civil rights activist the Rev. Al Sharpton called the arrest “a good step in a long walk toward justice.”

Danner’s death evoked memories of the 1984 police killing of another black Bronx woman, Eleanor Bumpurs, who was shot after waving a knife at officers while being evicted from her apartment. Danner had been ill since her college years, Cooke said. She had done some computerrelated work at one point and was a book-lover and artist, often sketching the people around her, a former lawyer of hers has said.

Donald Trump appoints Amul Thapar as Judge on the US Court of Appeals

WASHINGTON Amul Thapar, an IndianAmerican legal luminary, has been appointed a judge on the US Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit by President Donald Trump, the White House has said.

Before his appointment to the Court of Appeals, Judge Thapar served on the District Court for the Eastern District of Kentucky.Thapar, 48, was confirmed last week by the Senate 52-44 in a vote on party lines.The son of Indian-American immigrants, Thapar was the Nation’s first Article III judge of South Asian descent.In addition to his career on Federal bench, Thapar has served as the US Attorney for the Eastern District of Kentucky and as an Assistant US Attorney in the Southern District of Ohio and the District of Columbia.Trump has nominated 10 judges to lower courts, including Thapar, who is Trump’s first judicial nominee to be confirmed by the Senate, apart from Judge Neil

Gorsuch to the Supreme Court.Thapar began his legal career in private practice, after clerkships with Judge S Arthur Spiegel of the District Court for the Southern District of Ohio and Judge Nathaniel R Jones of the Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit.He received his BS from Boston College in 1991 and his JD from the University of California, Berkeley.Thapar is a member of The South Asian Bar Association of North America’s (SABA) National Advisory Council, and has served as a keynote for the Annual Convention and for many of our chapters. SABA awarded him it’s Pioneer Award in 2010.

He has also taught at the University of Virginia School of Law, Vanderbilt Law School, and the Northern Kentucky University Chase College of Law. Thapar received his undergraduate degree from Boston College and his law degree from the University of California, Berkeley.

Issue - 722 (8)

6 - 12 June, 2017

Indian origin former CEO Kathy Griffin loses CNN deal after photos with fake severed Trump head charged with fraud in US Los Angeles CNN fired comedian Kathy Griffin from its annual New Year’s Eve broadcast on Wednesday after she drew strong criticism for

posing in photographs holding up the likeness of a bloody, severed head resembling US President Donald Trump. The network announced the termination after earlier criticizing the photos as “disgusting and offensive.” Griffin posted a videotaped apology on Tuesday night amid a public outcry from Republicans and Democrats alike over the images, including condemnation from Trump. “Kathy Griffin should be ashamed of herself,” Trump wrote. “My children, especially my 11-year-old son, Barron, are having a hard time with this. Sick!”

The US Secret Service, responsible for presidential security, has opened an inquiry into the posting of Griffin posing with the severed-head replica, a spokesman in Los Angeles said when asked whether the agency was looking into the incident as a potential threat on the president’s life. “We’re aware of it and we’re investigating it,” the

spokesman, George Fernandez, told Reuters. He declined to elaborate.

Griffin, 56, a two-time Emmywinning performer known for her

deliberately provocative brand of humor, has appeared since 2007 as co-host of CNN’s New Year’s Eve broadcast from Times Square in New York with anchor Anderson Cooper. CNN did not make clear whether it was cutting its New Year’s Eve deal with Griffin for just the upcoming 2017 broadcast or for good.

The furor also cost Griffin a show at the Route 66 Casino Hotel outside Albuquerque, New Mexico. Management of the Laguna Pueblo tribe-operated establishment decided to cancel a one-night appearance by Griffin scheduled for July 22, a spokesman said. Griffin apologized profusely in a video message posted to her official Twitter account late on Tuesday, saying that as a comic she routinely seeks to “cross the line” but realized in this case, “I went too far.” “The image is too disturbing. I understand how it offends people. It wasn’t funny. I

US asks visa applicants for social media handles

WASHINGTON The United States has begun asking some would-be visitors applying for visas to provide their identities on social media, among other more vigorous screening methods.

A State Department official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told AFP new security procedures had gone into effect on May 25 for travelers deemed to present a risk.

In a March 6 memorandum, President Donald Trump vowed to tighten controls on who can enter the United States, the better to ferret out extremists who might pose a

threat.According to the US official, consular officers can now demand extra information from applicants they deem to require “more rigorous national security vetting.”“Such visa applicants will be asked to provide additional information, including their social media handles, prior passport numbers, additional information about family members, and a longer history of past travel, employment, and contact information,” she said.Nevertheless, she added, these changes will “affect only a fraction of one percent of the more than 13 million annual visa applicants worldwide.”

get it,” she said, adding that she was seeking to have the images taken down from social media.

“I beg for your forgiveness,” she concluded. “I made a mistake and I was wrong.”

‘VILE AND WRONG’ Celebrity news website TMZ published a behind-the-scenes video on Tuesday of Griffin posing with the model head for a photo shoot. She was seen reviewing the images with photographer Tyler Shields and jokingly saying, “We have to move to Mexico today because we’re going to go to prison, federal prison.” TMZ posted an image from the shoot on Twitter.

“This is vile and wrong,” Chelsea Clinton, daughter of former President Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, wrote on Twitter. “It is never funny to joke about killing a president.”

Trump’s oldest son, Donald Trump Jr., called on sponsors of Griffin to condemn the comedian. At his daily briefing with reporters in Washington, presidential spokesman Sean Spicer declined to answer directly when asked whether it was appropriate for Trump to have hosted a White House visit by rocker Ted Nugent last month despite violent remarks the musician made in 2012 about then-President Barack Obama.

Secret Service agents met with Nugent after the performer told a National Rifle Association convention in St. Louis that he would be “dead or in jail” if Obama were re-elected.

NEW YORK A 49-year old Indian origin former CEO of an IT firm has been charged with fraud in the US for allegedly misrepresenting facts that his company supported customer operations in nearly 20 countries, including in India.

Adesh Kumar Tyagi of California is the former CEO, sole director, and majority shareholder of Systems America subsequently renamed Cloudeeva.

The US federal regulator Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) complaint, filed in the US District Court for the Northern District of California on May 31, has alleged that Tyagi falsely claimed in press releases he issued between July 2010 and September 2011 that the company had hundreds of customers and supported customer operations in nearly 20 countries.

Systems America said it provided services to Fortune 500 clients and had operations in India as well as the US. However, it had only two main clients in 2010 and did not support operations in any foreign

countries in 2010 and 2011.

Tyagi also allegedly falsely claimed in an initial disclosure he published on behalf of the company in July 2010 that he was not a party to any material litigation.

In annual reports he published on behalf of Systems America, Tyagi claimed that no officer or director of the company had been named as a defendant in a criminal proceeding, when he had been named as a defendant in two pending criminal proceedings at the time of each publication. The complaint also alleged that Tyagi failed to file with the SEC required disclosures of his holdings and transactions in company securities.The complaint seeks permanent injunctions, an injunction prohibiting Tyagi from participating in transactions of any security of an entity of which he is an officer, director, owner, significant shareholder, or control person, disgorgement of illgotten gains plus pre-judgment interest, penalties, and officerand-director and penny stock bars.

Indian American envoy defends Kushner, says he will continue to do his work WASHINGTON President Donald Trump‘s top adviser and son-in-law Jared Kushner, on the firing line for his reported attempt to set up a “back-channel” with Russia, has received support from US ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley.“If you know Jared, he’s a very calm, stable voice,” Haley told MSNBC. The Indian-American envoy’s defence of Kushner, 36, came after the American media reported last week that he discussed to open a secret “back-channel” between Russia and Trump’s presidential transition team in a meeting with the Russian ambassador to the US, Sergey Kislyak, last December.

“There is not a lot that rattles him. So I suspect that he’ll continue doing his work like he always has. He’s said that he will totally comply with the investigation and give every ounce of information that they need. And I think we can expect that,” Haley said in response to a question. She said she did talk to Kushner often, but has not since the news came out last

week that he wanted to open a secret line of communication with Russia bypassing formal channels.

“Well, I haven’t talked to him since all of this came out,” Haley said. The White House too has

defended the role of Kushner, who is married to Ivanka Trump.

“I would just say that Kushner’s attorney has said that Kushner has volunteered to share with Congress what he knows about these meetings, and he will do the same if he’s contacted and

connected with any other inquiry,” White House press secretary Sean Spicer told reporters.

Both secretary of state Rex Tillerson and national security adviser Lt Gen HR McMaster

have discussed that, and “in general terms, back channels are an appropriate part of diplomacy,” he said.

Issue - 722 (9)

6 - 12 June, 2017

US Supreme Court sets deadline for travel ban filings

Washington The US Supreme Court has set a 10-day deadline for the challengers of President Donald Trump’s controversial travel ban on citizens from six Muslimmajority countries to respond to the government’s emergency request to let the order take effect.The court announced yesterday a deadline of 3:00 PM on June 12 to address the Justice Department’s filings on Thursday night urging the high court to review the legality of the travel ban and to allow it to go into force while the litigation goes forward.A key part of the order — a 90-day suspension of issuance of visas to citizens of six majority-Muslim countries (Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen) — is currently blocked by two different district courts, one in Maryland and the other in Hawaii, the Politico reported. The Hawaii order also

blocked a 120-day halt Trump planned to refugee admissions to the US from around the globe.

Last week, the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals voted, 10-3, to uphold the Maryland-based judge’s injunction. A three-judge panel of the 9th Circuit is considering the Hawaii injunction but has not yet ruled on it.Trump’s March order was his second go-round on the travel ban. The first one, issued in January, was quickly halted by courts after the initial implementation of the directive prompted chaos at various US airports. After the 9th Circuit failed to revive the order, Trump decided to re-draft it rather than taking the issue to the Supreme Court at that time.

The Trump administration had yesterday urged the SC to reinstate its travel ban, elevating a divisive legal battle involving national security and religious discrimination.

US: Chicago man gets nine years sentence for Indonesia slaying role Chicago An Illinois man who typed out emoji and other text messages to advise his cousin thousands of miles away on how to kill a wealthy Chicago woman vacationing in Indonesia was sentenced on Friday to nine years in prison. At Robert Bibbs’ sentencing in Chicago federal court, a prosecutor placed the fruit-stand handle used to bludgeon Sheila von WieseMack at a Bali beach resort by the judge’s bench. Relatives cried later as prosecutors displayed a photograph of the 62-year-old’s body in a suitcase, where her killers stuffed the body. Bibbs, 26, of Chicago, told Judge Rebecca Pallmeyer he’d been depressed in 2014 when his cousin Tommy Schaefer sought guidance on how he and his girlfriend, Heather Mack WieseMack’s daughter should commit the murder. For his help, Bibbs hoped for a cut of the mom’s inheritance. “To this day, I don’t recognize the person in those messages,” he said about his texts, standing in court shackled at the ankles. And he added: “I never expected them to do something so horrific. Judge Pallmeyer scolded Bibbs for describing his advisory role as “a mistake.” “A mistake is leaving your keys in the car,” she told

World slightly more peaceful than last year NEW YORK Levels of peace around the world have improved slightly for the first time since the Syrian war began, but harmony has decreased in the US and terrorism records have increased, a Sydney-based think-tank has found. The Institute for Economics and Peace published its Global Peace Index on Thursday for the

rate. The delayed effect of the US and UK withdrawing troops from Afghanistan also made itself felt in the research. But the overall trend was not borne out inside the US, where an increase in murders and a higher level of perceived crime pushed peacefulness down.

And while terrorism levels jumped in Europe, it remained the most

10th year running.

Researchers said conflict costs had an enormous impact on economies worldwide. They called for more money to be spent on peace building. Their report found that the world became 0.28% more peaceful over the past year.

This was driven by a drop in statesponsored violence, including torture and extrajudicial killings, and a decrease in the murder

peaceful region on the planet.

The number of countries seeing a record number of deaths from terrorism rose to 23. Among those were Denmark, Sweden, France and Turkey. Researchers found that 60% of countries now have a higher rate of terrorism than they did 10 years ago. The research did not cover the time period of the attack on Manchester in the UK last month. Increased support for

populism in Europe corresponded with a deterioration in peacefulness levels, the report suggested, as wealth inequality rises, media freedoms decrease and people’s acceptance of the rights of others diminishes. In Colombia, the ceasefire between the Farc armed group and the government was reflected in improved scores, notably in the number of deaths from internal conflict, but the country’s peacefulness score was held back by ongoing activity by a smaller armed group, the ELN. Researchers used a multifaceted index of peace indicators - they measured the homicide rate, the ease of access to weapons, the impact of terrorism and the number of armed services personnel in the population, among other things.

Syria is the least peaceful country in the world for the fifth year running. Before the outbreak of civil war there, it was the 65th least peaceful. Its fall has been the starkest of the past decade.

The other four most violent countries are Afghanistan, Iraq, South Sudan, and Yemen.

The combined Middle East and North Africa was the least peaceful region in the world.

Iceland remained the most peaceful country in the world, a spot it has occupied since 2008.

The other four most peaceful countries are New Zealand, Portugal, Austria, and Denmark.

him. “A mistake is not standing by and encouraging an unjustified murder.”

Autopsy photos showed to the judge showed Wiese-Mack’s body with deep gashes across

face the maximum penalty.

Prosecutors had asked for up to 11 years.

Indonesian authorities arrested Schaefer, now 24, and Mack, 21, after the bloodied suitcase was

her face and wounds on her arms that prosecutors say resulted from her desperate bid to fend off the blows. Within minutes of his cousin texting on August 12, 2014, that the murder was done, Pallmeyer also noted that the men traded casual messages about NBA basketball news. One of Bibbs’ texts incorporated a “high-five” emoji to indicate he approved of their bid to kill Wiese-Mack, who was a widow of highly regarded jazz and classical composer James L. Mack, who died in 2006.

Another time, Bibbs said Schaefer could smother WieseMack, texting: “Go sit on her face wit a pillow.” Bibbs pleaded guilty in December to conspiracy to commit foreign murder of a US citizen, which carries a sentence of up to 20 years. But Bibbs lack of a previous criminal record and other factors meant he wouldn’t

found in a taxi. In 2015, a court in Indonesia sentenced Schaefer to 18 years in prison for the murder; Mack received a 10-year term for helping. WieseMack’s youngster sister, Debbi Curran, also spoke at Bibbs’ sentencing. She described how she had searched the internet the day she learned of her sister’s death in Bali — only to see a crime photo online of the suitcase that still contained her sister’s body.“I can’t look at a suitcase (now) without thinking of my sister’s half-naked body … in a suitcase,” she said. “This will haunt me for the rest of my life.”

Bill Wiese told the court about his sister’s love of classical music and opera, and how she supported the arts, including by opening her home to aspiring musicians. “I only wish I could have protected her from this brutal murder,” he said.

LEO Varadkar is on course to succeed Enda Kenny as Ireland’s Prime Minister after the ruling Fine Gael party elected

retirement in May. He received the publicly declared support of almost two-thirds of the parliamentary party, who account for 65 percent of the vote. Bar any unexpected development, the former doctor will be voted in as Ireland’s Prime Minister when Parliament next sits on June 13. He said this week, “If somebody of my age, of my mixed race background and of all the things that make up my character can potentially become leader of our country, then I think that sends out a message to every child born today that there is no office in Ireland that they can’t aspire to.”

Varadkar’s father Ashok, who is also doctor, was born in Mumbai in India. He met his wife Miriam, an Irish nurse, in England in the 1970s before moving to Ireland, where their son was born. On his 36th birthday in January 2015 during an interview on Ireland’s RTÉ Radio, Mr Varadkar spoke publicly for the first time about being gay.

Son of Indian immigrant to be Ireland’s first gay PM

the 38-year-old as leader. The former social protection minister will be the Catholic country’s first openly gay Prime Minister, its first of Indian descent and the youngest person ever to hold the office. Varadkar beat housing minister Simon Coveney to become the new Fine Gael leader after Kenny, who led the party for 15 years and had been Irish PM since 2011, announced

Issue - 722 (10)

Hindu Canadian citizen boy, unmarried, born in India in 1977; brought up in India, Middle east and Canada, 5'-11" tall, medium built, specialist Doctor working in Brampton/Toronto area. The girl should be educated, slim, fair, beautiful, maximum 33 yrs. old, 5'-3" or above tall, Hindu or Sikh with family values. Please call 647 853 9372. *** 724 *** Exceptionally good looking, handsome, United Kingdom boy, belonging to Jat Sikh Aujla family, educated from U.K. A level standard in advanced business studies, March 1981 born, 5'-10" tall, down to earth, fluent in Panjabi, well versed in both cultures. The girl should be Canadian/American Immigrant or citizen, family oriented, willing to relocate to Brampton. On. Nursing professional preferred.

Please send your bio-data and a recent picture to: haujla614189024@aol.com or call 011-44-7751246775 *** 724 *** Jatt Sikh Sandhu family seek a suitable match for their daughter, 25 yrs. old, 5'-6" tall, M. Tech.

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6 - 12 June, 2017

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Please send your biodata & recent picture to: S A N D H U R I S H T A @hotmail.com or call: 647 875 9342 *** 724 *** Hindu Brahman parents looking for a suitable match for their daughter, 27 yrs. old, 5’-4” tall, Canadian Citizen, University educated, professionally employed. The boy should be Canadian/Amarican professionally educated, employed, non-drinker, nonsmoker, vegetarian with family values. Please email recent pictures and bio-data to: matrisearch7325@gmail.com *** 724 *** Match for Jat Sikh Dhillon girl, 1985 born (looks like 24-25 yrs old), 5’-5" tall, beautiful, wellcultured, canadian pr, B. Tech (india), Post graduate project management (canada), working in admn. dept in canada. Brother & Parents in USA. The boy should be Jat sikh, equally qualified, clean-shaven. Only serious inquiries via email (no sms/what’s app). Contact father. Please send your biodata & recent picture to : dhillonintl@yahoo.com call: 1718-414-4618 *** 722 *** Well settled & established business Jat Sikh family seek a suitable match for their only son, 26 yrs.old, 5’-11” tall, certified professional accountant, doing last year of M.B.A. (Schilich school of Business) working a top class company. The girl should be Canadian immigrant or citizen, professional, homely, beautiful.

Call: 647-290-9267 *** 724 *** Jatt Sikh parents seek a suitable match for their canadian born daughter, 24 yrs. old, 5'-7" tall, university graduate. The boy should be living in the Ontario Canada, well settled, belong to Jatt Sikh family, under 28 yrs. old, graduate. Call: 416-6692144 or 647-574-2434 *** 724 *** USA settled wealthy Jat Sikh family seek a m suitable match for theirson, 25 yrs. old, 5’-11” tall, handsome, clean shaven, Convent educated, studying in Australia, having decent commercial & Agricultural property bac home consider him well settled in U.S.A. The girl should be Canadian/American Immigrant or Citizen & from Jat Sikh family. .Please send you recent pictures and bio-date to: ss202@yahoo.com Or Call : 1317-918-1718 (Whatsapp) *** 724 *** Jat sikh family seek a suitable match for their beautiful daughter, 24 yrs. old, 5'-4'’ tall, Indian born, Master’s of Science in Education from Canadian university, working in teaching profession. The boy should be Jat sikh, Canadian immigrant/

citizen, well educated, professionally employed, well settled , having good family values. Please send your biodata & recent picture to :jatsikhmaterimonial @gmail.com or call: 1-289-5691895 *** 724 *** Jat Sikh parents seeking a suitable match for their Medico daughter, 35 yrs. old, 5’-9” tall, U.S. Citizen. The boy should be American/Canadian, clean shaven, well educated and from Jat Sikh family. Please email recent pictures and bio-data to: srsingh191@gmail.com *** 724 *** Jat Sikh parents invite matrimonial alliance for their Canadian born son, 28 yrs. old, 6’ tall, handsome, working as power engineer, family is well settled in Vancouver area and belong to Jalandher. The girl should be good looking, educated with good family values.

Please Call : 1-604-724-0079 Or 1-604-244-0094 *** 724 *** Well educated Jat Sikh parents invite a matrimonial alliance for their son, DOB 1991, 6’ tall, turbaned, B.Tech in Computer Science from Thaper University, Patiala (India),working in one of the top ranking MNCS in Delhi, earining handsome salary, nondrinker, non-smoker. The girl should be Canadian/US Citizen/Immigrant, well educated, beautiful with family values. Canada prefered.

Sister’s family well settled in Canada. Please Call : 647-5696787 (Whats app) Or 011-9198726-56787 (Whats app) *** 724 *** Ramgarhia Sikh parents invite matrimonial alliance for their daughter, 31 yrs. old, 5’ tall, B.Sc. Nursing degree from India, residing in India, beautiful, fair and from good family background. The boy should be Canadian/American, Immigrant/ Citizen, educated with family values. Please email recent pictures and bio-data to: bloorkiplinggac@gamil.com Or Call : 647-829-5872 *** 724 *** Ramgarhia Sikh parents invite matrimonial alliance for their son, 27 yrs. old, 5-8”’ tall, Dental Surgeon in India, at present on visitor visa in USA. The girl should be American Citizen/ green card holder, faimly oriented. Please email recent pictures and bio-data to: sukhjits031@gmail.com Or Call : 1-662-347-9532 *** 724 *** Jat Sikh parents seeking a suitable match for their daugter, 30 yrs. old, 5’-5” tall, currently living in Canada. The boy should be educated and must have received ITA in express entry.

Family well settled in Canada.

Please Call : 905-462-5927 *** 724 *** Well settled Chandigarh based

Arora Sikh family seek a suitable match for their son, 33 yrs. old, 6’ tall, clean shaven, M.B.A. (USA) working as a programme Manager in Amazone (Sansfrancasco based). The girl should be beautiful educated, family oriented. Please send you recent pictures and bio-date to: jashanbathla@gmail.com Or Call : 1-480-646-2882 *** 724 *** Jat Sikh parents seeking a suitable match for their only son, 30 yrs.old, 5’-11” tall, Canadian citizen, well educated, running his own business. The girl should be Canadian immigrant or citizen, educated, beautiful with family values. BC area prefered.Girl on student visa/work permit may also be considered. Call: 1-778-5520316 *** 724 *** Jat Sikh parents invite a matrimonial alliance for their son, 31 yrs. old, 6’-2” tall, Canadian Citizen, professionally educated, running his own successful business. The girl should be from USA/Canada, educated, beautiful, tall, family oriented with good family values.

Please Call : 1-778-344-0303 *** 724 *** Looking for suitable match for 34 yrs. old, Canadian born male, 5’-5” tall, with athletic built, minor physical disability, however fully independent and capable. The girl should be from Canada/America only.

Divorced may also be considred. Please Call : 1604-722-0279 Or : 1-604-525-8062 *** 724 *** Jat Sikh parents seek a suitable match for their daughter, 26 yrs. old, 5’-2.5” tall, American Citizen, Registered Nurse (RN). The boy should be professionally e d u c a t e d . S e a t t l e ( U SA), Malwa (India) prefered. Please email recent picture and bio-data to: rurkaps08@yahoo.com Or Call : 1-206-391-8477 *** 724 *** Tonk Kshatriya Punjabi Sikh parents seeking a suitable match for their Canadian Citizen daughter, 28 yrs. old, 5’-7” tall and slim, family oriented, B.Sc. in Nursing, working as a Regisered Nurse in a hospital. The boy should be Canadian Citizen or PR, well educated, professionally settled with family values. Caste no bar. Please email recent pictures and bio-data to: infomatrimonial27@yahoo.com Or Call : 647-296-5065 *** 724 *** Jat Sikh parents seeking a match for their son, 38 yrs. old, 6 tall, born in Canada, athletic, never married, graduated from university of California, works in entertainment industry as writer and producer. The girl should be tall, educated, cultured and family oriented. Please send your recent pictures and bio-date to: bina2247@yahoo.com Or Call : 1-310-261-1460 *** 724 ***

Issue - 722 (11)

6 - 12 June, 2017

Sikh group to use UN convention in Sikh community joins Muslims to defamation case against Amarinder Singh distribute iftari in Ramzan in Pakistan Toronto In a legal gambit that will involve the Indian government and a state administration, the hardline activist group Sikhs for Justice

(SFJ) plans on using an international convention to have papers relating to a defamation case in an Ontario court served upon Punjab chief minister Capt Amarinder Singh.

SFJ filed the defamation case against Singh last year, in which it claimed damages of $1 million and a permanent injunction against publication of any statement that linked it to Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agency.

The complaint related to Singh mentioning an “ISI-SFJ nexus” and stated, “The defamatory statements have caused reputational damage to the SFJ’s status as a non-profit organisation and...have hindered its ability to address ongoing issues of significance to Sikh

for serving the statement of claim against Singh has been extended till October 18.

SFJ’s legal advisor Gurpatwant Pannun said their lawyers would use a United Nations convention to serve the necessary papers upon the chief minister: “We have to send it to the ‘Central Authority’ created by India under the Hague Convention and our lawyers will forward the summons and complaint to them in Delhi. And The Hague service is complied with when central authority receives the papers.”

The Hague Convention on the Service Abroad of Judicial and Extra Judicial Documents in Civil or Commercial Matters came into being in 1965, though India only signed on to it in 2007. The “Central Authority” identified in

India is the department of legal affairs in the law ministry.

If this central agency accepts the papers, it will then be responsible for serving them upon Singh. A clause in the convention states that India has the option to “refuse to comply therewith only if it deems that compliance would infringe its sovereignty or security”.

However, Pannun argued, “The defamation lawsuit is not against India, its against an individual, Capt Amarinder So India can not refuse to comply with the request.”

While the process is considered complete once the papers have been served and a certificate to that effect issued to the party which contacted it, even otherwise SFJ plans on going ahead, as Pannun said, “Once our lawyers send papers to the central authority of India and they receive the papers; our part as per Hague Service is done.

We do usually wait for the final response, otherwise we can file the affidavit as per Hague.”

SFJ has targeted Singh in the past, preventing him from undertaking a scheduled visit to Canada last spring, when it filed a private prosecution based on an affidavit of a person allegedly tortured during Singh’s previous tenure as Punjab chief minister.

Now, it appears, after his return to that post, SFJ wants to take that confrontation international.

encouraging discrimination, hatred and even violence towards the minorities,” said transgender activist Nisha Ayub from the Seed Foundation, a charity working with transgender people.

The ministry described gender identity disorder, also known as gender dysphoria, and cited examples of people who are gay, lesbian, transsexual and tomboys. The contest guidelines added that the videos must include elements showing the “consequences” of being LGBT, as well as how to “prevent, control and seek help” for them.

“The health ministry should look into health issues, but now they are giving out prizes for people to post such videos. This is sending a very negative message to our society,” Ayub told the

Thomson Reuters Foundation.

A spokesman for health minister Subramaniam Sathasivam said he was not aware of the contest and declined to comment. Other ministry officials could not immediately be reached.

The contest also includes categories on cybersex and sexual reproductive health, citing examples such as pre-marital sex, teen pregnancy and the impact of “free sex”.

Winners of the contest, which kicked off on Thursday and runs until August 31, will be awarded cash prizes from 1,000 ringgit ($230) to 4,000 ringgit ($935).

Homosexuality is taboo in Malaysia, where gay sex is criminalised, punishable by up to 20 years in prison, caning or a fine. In 2012, authorities issued guidelines and held seminars aimed at helping teachers and parents spot signs of homosexuality in children.

According to the guidelines, signs of homosexuality in boys include preferences for tight, Vneck shirts and large handbags, while girls with lesbian tendencies like to hang out and sleep in the company of women.

Authorities in the northeastern state of Terengganu in 2011 organised a camp for “effeminate” boys to show them how to become men.

Canadians.”

The Ontario Superior Court in Toronto has issued an order to SFJ’s lawyers, Goldblatt Partners, stating that the period

Peshawar The Sikh community has joined Muslims here to distribute ‘iftaris’, the sunset meal to break the dawn-to-dusk fast during Ramzan, to promote religious harmony and tolerance in Pakistan.At Aasia Gate, Sikh businessman Sahib Singh has set up a stall outside his medicine shop to dole out sweetdrinks, ‘lassi’ and food to fasting Muslims.

“The objective behind distributing iftari items is to promote the concept of inter-faith harmony in our country,” he said. Singh has also arranged food for the needy.

A former councillor, Singh said he wanted to apprise Muslims that his community accorded full reverence to their religious rituals. “This is the spirit of interfaith harmony,” he said.

Singh said he also wanted tell the world that religious tolerance exists in Pakistan where people from different faiths and beliefs

respect each other and accord reverence to religious festivals.

“The Hindu community has also decided to start the practice of bringing people of different faiths nearer to each other,” Founding Member Council of Pakistan World of Religion, Haroon Sarbdial, said.

Sarbdial said we are planning to hold iftari at different places in Peshawar and waiting for Maulana Qureshi, the Imam of the Masjid Mohabat Khan, who is in Saudi Arabia for performance of Umra, to arrive.

He said because of this spirit, people in this region reside together in harmony.

The Hindu community has made iftari arrangements, like in Peshawar, for Muslims in Sindh province, Sarbdial said.

“This is the real face of Pakistan and its people who have great regard and reverence for each other, regardless of difference of faith and believes,” he said.

Angry about overtime, LGBT activists criticise Malaysia contest driver sets fire to school on how to prevent homosexuality bus killing 11 children

Kuala Lumpur Malaysian health authorities are holding a contest on how to “prevent” homosexuality and transgenderism, drawing criticism from campaigners that it was fanning hatred and violence towards LGBT people.

Activists say intolerance of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people has spiked in recent years in Malaysia, a multi-ethnic Southeast Asian country that is majority Muslim.

In the latest controversy, the health ministry’s contest invites participants to submit video clips for categories including one called “gender identity disorder”, according to details on the ministry’s website.

“I was shocked. This is

Xinhua A fire on a bus in China that killed five South Korean and six Chinese children is suspected to have been started by the driver who was angry about overtime and night-shift pay being cut, the Xinhua state news agency said on Friday. The 11 children between three and six years old were killed along with the driver on May 9 when their bus crashed and burst in to flames in a tunnel in Shandong province.

In a short report, Xinhua said the fire was started by the driver.

“The fire was started on the bus floor near the driver’s seat. A lighter cap was discovered nearby and gasoline residue found on multiple spots on the bus,” Xinhua said, citing provincial police.

“Electricity faults and traffic accidents were ruled out as the

cause of the fire,” it added.

“The driver’s overtime and night shift allowance had been suspended, angering him, causing him to buy gasoline to set the fire,” Xinhua said.

The bus had been taking the children to an international kindergarten in Weihai, a city across the Yellow Sea from South Korea.

Beijing does not release statistics on the total number of accidents each year, but the World Health Organization estimated in 2013 that about 250,000 people were killed on China’s roads that year.

Authorities have vowed to clamp down on dangerous driving, but the rapid growth in car ownership and relatively lax checks on driving ability have made difficult to curb the number of accidents, especially on rural roads.

Issue - 722 (12)

6 - 12 June, 2017

TVs in the bedroom linked to childhood obesity LONODN Children who have a television in their bedroom at the age of seven are more likely to become overweight, according to new research. Sitting still for long periods watching TV has long been thought to be one of the changes in behaviour of the last few decades that could be powering the obesity epidemic.

“Ironically, while our screens have become flatter, our children have become fatter,” say the authors of the study from University College London (UCL).

It has been suspected that having a TV in the bedroom might exacerbate the problem. Children or adolescents might be snacking unobserved, they could be exposed to advertising for junk food while watching adult programmes and they may not sleep as well, which is also linked to putting on weight.

The researchers used data on more than 12,000 children born in 2000/2001 who were recruited to the UK Millennium Cohort Study, set up to look at the influences on children’s development into adulthood.

They investigated the data from the age of seven to 11. More than half had a TV in their bedroom.

They found that girls who had a TV in their bedroom at age seven were at an approximately 30% higher risk of being overweight at age 11, compared to children who did not have a TV in their bedroom. Boys were 20% more likely to become overweight. The more hours girls spent watching in their room, the more likely they were to be overweight, the study found, although they had to rely on what they were told by the parents and the effect did not apply to boys. Spending hours playing on a computer, again reported by parents, did not appear to result in an increase in weight.“Childhood obesity in the UK is a major public health problem. In England, about onethird of all 11 year olds are overweight and one in five are obese. Our study shows that there is a clear link between having a TV in the bedroom as a young child and being overweight a few years later,” said lead author Dr Anja Heilmann from the UCL Institute of Epidemiology

and Health Care. ”Future childhood obesity prevention strategies should consider access to TVs in

overweight or simply had more muscle.

The researchers also had data on the children’s height and

children’s bedrooms as a risk factor for obesity.”

The study is published in the International Journal of Obesity.

One of its strengths, in addition to the large number of children involved, is that all participants had not only their weight and height measured but also their body fat, which allowed the researchers to be more confident as to whether they were

weight at the age of three, which meant they could be sure that the children were not watching TV in their room just because they were already overweight. ”As the study indicates, more research is needed to fully understand this complex area, but this is a high quality study covering a very large and nationally representative sample and provides a reasonably strong basis to think that the links shown here are real,” said Prof Russell Viner of the Royal

College of Paediatrics and Child Health, who was not involved in the study. “It highlights that having a TV in the bedroom from seven years increases the risk of being overweight four years later, regardless of the child’s weight in earlier childhood. As such, the findings must be taken very seriously.”

“Furthermore, the study adds yet more weight to our recommendations for the next government to tackle this issue which include a strict ban on junk food advertising before the 9 o’clock watershed.”

Prof Nick Finer, consultant endocrinologist and bariatric physician at UCL, called it a powerful study. “The study suggests, but does not prove that a bedroom TV causes the weight gain, but is highly suggestive even if the mechanism by which it could do so is unclear,” he said.

“The authors rightly do not say that parents should not put a TV in their child’s bedroom ...

However it is hard not to think that parents concerned about their child’s risk of becoming overweight might appropriately consider not putting a TV in their young children’s bedrooms.”

Leo Varadkar: Born to an Indian father, a historic gay PM for Ireland Indian-origin man killed in Dublin As a gay man born to an Indian father, Leo Varadkar would probably never have become Ireland’s prime minister a generation ago, but a

transformation of Irish society has propelled him to success.

At 38, Varadkar will also be Ireland’s youngest prime minister when parliament is set to confirm his nomination this month, after a meteoric rise to the head of the governing centre-right Fine Gael party.

He went public about his sexuality a few months before a landmark referendum in 2015 in which Ireland became the first country in the world to vote in favour of same-sex marriage in a referendum.

“I am a gay man. It’s not a secret, but not something that everyone would necessarily know,” he said in an interview with national broadcaster RTE. “It’s not something that defines me: I’m not a half-Indian politician, or a doctor politician or a gay politician for that matter,” he said, adding that he just

wanted to be “honest with people”.

“It’s just part of who I am. It doesn’t define me -- it is part of my character I suppose,” he said.

The influence of the Roman Catholic Church in the traditionally conservative country has waned in the wake of a series of child abuse scandals in Ireland, which decriminalised homosexuality only in 1993.

But there are limits to the country’s newfound tolerance, and early in his campaign for the party leadership Varadkar said he hoped his sexuality would not be an issue.

He also said that if elected he would not expect his partner Matt Barrett, also a doctor, to accompany him on official business.

‘X Factor Leo’ Varadkar was born on January 18, 1979, the son of a doctor from Mumbai who married an Irish nurse he had met in Britain.

He and his two older sisters were raised in

Dublin and went on to attend Trinity College in Dublin, where he studied medicine.

Although a qualified doctor, he became a councillor in his early twenties and has been a full-time politician since he was first elected to parliament in 2007.

Currently the minister for social protection, Varadkar has held various cabinet posts and garnered a reputation as a rightwing straight-talker.

But while attracting supporters he has also attracted more than his fair share of controversy, and is regarded as sharply intelligent but socially awkward.

In 2008, when unemployment was running high after a catastrophic economic crash, he was widely accused of racism for advocating payments to unemployed immigrants who agreed to return to their countries of origin.

More recently, after championing a campaign against “welfare cheats”, he said he wanted to lead a party for “people who get up in the morning”, prompting accusations that he was pushing the country’s centrist consensus sharply to the right.

But he is popular with supporters who have dubbed him “X Factor Leo” for his telegenic image.

Opinion polls suggest that he will boost Fine Gael’s ratings, and while he has ruled out an early general election, speculation is growing that the man who shoots from the hip might not be able to resist.

baseball bat attack in UK

LONDON An Indian-origin man has been killed in the UK by an unidentified person who attacked him with a baseball bat, Scotland Yard said today as it offered a reward of 10,000 pounds for inputs leading to the accused’s arrest.

Satnam Singh, 45, was walking with a friend in Hayes area of southwest London when a silver car stopped. A man got out of the car and attacked them with a baseball bat on March 6.

Singh, a builder, was rushed to a hospital but his condition deteriorated and he died of the injuries on May 23.Scotland Yard offered the reward of 10,000 pounds (USD 12,870) to anyone who can help solve the murder of Singh who died of a head injury inflicted in the unprovoked attack.“Sadly what was being treated as an attempted murder investigation is now a murder investigation. Satnam was viciously attacked nearly three months ago and had remained in hospital with his family hardly leaving his side. His loved ones have been left completely devastated by his death,” said Detective Inspector Jon Meager, from the Metropolitan Police Homicide and Major Crime

Command, who is leading the probe.“While there is no evidence at this time to suggest a racial motivation, officers retain an open mind as to the reason for the attack. I am convinced that the answer lies within the local community,” he said.

The reward will be available to anyone providing information to independent UK charity Crimestoppers that leads to the arrest and conviction of the person responsible for the murder, police said, adding that it is applicable only for information passed directly to Crimestoppers.“Satnam was my nephew, he was also my friend.

Satnam’s wife simply cannot understand what’s happened and I’m struggling to comfort her,” said the victim’s uncle Jasbinder Singh Siekham.“The whole family is devastated by this terrible attack. We all need to understand why this has happened and who has done it.

We need to find peace,” he said.

A post-mortem examination was conducted on May 25, which had given Singh’s cause of death as bronchial pneumonia and a head injury.Singh’s 28-year-old friend, who was with him on the fateful night, was not seriously injured.

Issue - 722 (13)

6 - 12 June, 2017

US issues clarification on higher education H-1B exemption criteria Washington The US has said that in order to qualify for an H-1B numerical cap exemption based upon a master’s or higher degree, the conferring institution must have qualified as a “United States

institution of higher education” at the time the beneficiary’s degree was earned. As mandated by the Congress, the US Citizenship and immigration Services (USCIS) can issue up to 65,000 H-1B visas, the most soughtafter by Indian IT professionals, every year.In addition to this, another 20,000 foreign students having masters or higher degree from a US institute of higher education are exempted from

the 65,000 Congressional limit.

A clarification memorandum from the USCIS came in response to a petition in this regard by Leena R Kamat from California who temporarily sought to employee people under H-1B visas having

higher education. The Director of the California Service Center denied the H-1B petition, concluding that the beneficiary did not qualify for the claimed master’s cap exemption.

More specifically, the Director determined that the degreeconferring institution was not accredited at the time it awarded the beneficiary’s master’s degree, and thus the beneficiary had not earned his degree, as

required, from a “United States institution of higher education”.

As per the US memorandum dated May 23, which was released to the press today, the USCIS ruled that the H-1B applicant had earned his degree from the International Technological University (ITU), in California, on December 31, 2010, before the university obtained its pre-accreditation or accreditation status.The record contains a letter from ITU, stating that the Accrediting Commission for Senior Colleges and Universities of the Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC) granted ITU “Candidacy status” in 2011. In April, US President Donald Trump signed an executive order for tightening the rules of the H1B visa programme to stop “visa abuses”. Trump said his administration is going to enforce ‘Hire American’ rules that are designed to protect jobs and wages of workers in the US. The executive order also called upon the Departments of Labour, Justice, Homeland Security, and the state to take action against fraud and abuse of our visa programmes.

Faces recreated from monkey brain signals

CALIFORNIA Scientists in the US have accurately reconstructed images of human faces by monitoring the responses of monkey brain cells.

The brains of primates can resolve different faces with remarkable speed and reliability, but the underlying mechanisms are not fully understood. The researchers showed pictures of human faces to macaques and then recorded patterns of brain activity. The work could inspire new facial recognition algorithms, they report. In earlier investigations, Prof Doris Tsao from the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) and colleagues had used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) in humans and other primates to work out which areas of the brain were responsible for identifying faces.Six areas were found to be involved, all of which are located in part of the brain known as the inferior temporal (IT) cortex. The researchers described these six areas as “face patches”. Further research showed that face patches were jammed with particular nerve cells (neurons) that emit signals

more strongly when they’re presented with faces, rather than when they “see” other objects.

The team members called these neurons “face cells”. Prof Tsao’s team came up with 50 different dimensions that could describe a face, such as the distance between the eyes, or the width of the hairline, as well as nonshape-related features such as skin tone.Then they inserted electrodes into the brains of macaque monkeys so that they could record individual signals from single face cells within the face patches.The results, published in the journal Cell, suggest that around 200 neurons each encode different characteristics of a face. But when all are combined, the information contributed by each nerve cell allows the macaque brain to build a clear image of someone’s face. “We’ve discovered that this code is extremely simple,” said Prof Tsao, who is based at Caltech’s campus in Pasadena.

“A practical consequence of our findings is that we can now reconstruct a face that a monkey is seeing by monitoring the electrical activity of only 205

neurons in the monkey’s brain.”

When placed side by side, photos that the monkeys were shown and faces recreated from their brain activity (using an algorithm) were nearly identical.

Face cells from just two of the face patches - 106 cells in one patch and 99 cells in another were enough to reconstruct the faces.

“People always say a picture is worth a thousand words,” said Prof Tsao. “But I like to say that a picture of a face is worth about 200 neurons.”

Although the work is based on macaques, the close relationships between primates suggest that a comparable mechanism may operate in the human brain.

The findings challenge the idea, held by other scientists in the field, that each face cell in the brain recognises a particular type of face.Further evidence against this idea came from the observation that when a large set of faces are engineered to look extremely different, they all cause a given face cell to fire in exactly the same way.“This was completely shocking to us - we had always thought face cells were more complex. But it turns out each face cell is just measuring distance along a single axis of face space, and is blind to other features,” said Prof Tsao.The Cell paper’s first author, Steve Le Chang, said the work suggested that “other objects could be encoded with similarly simple coordinate systems”.

One obvious potential application for the work is in the design of new machine learning algorithms for recognising faces.

Billionaire Bloomberg pledges $15m to UN for climate change

WASHINGTON US billionaire Michael Bloomberg has offered $15 million to UN efforts to tackle climate change after President Donald Trump announced he is pulling the United States out of the Paris Climate Accord.

The money would support the operations of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change Executive Secretariat, “including its work to help countries implement their commitments under the 2015 Paris Agreement on climate change,” Bloomberg Philanthropies said in a statement late Thursday.

“Americans are not walking away from the Paris Climate Agreement,” Michael Bloomberg said. “Just the opposite – we are forging ahead.” Bloomberg Philanthropies, in partnership with others, “will make up the approximately $15 million in funding that the UN’s Climate

Secretariat stands to lose from Washington. “Americans will honor and fulfill the Paris Agreement by leading from the bottom up – and there isn’t anything Washington can do to stop us,” Bloomberg said.

The 75 year-old Bloomberg, mayor of New York City 20022013, is considered by Forbes magazine the eighth richest person in the world. He is also a UN Special Envoy for Cities and Climate Change.

Trump has said he intends to end all support for UN climate change efforts, eliminating the US contribution to the UNFCCC, the UN’s climate negotiating body.

Bloomberg said that mayors, governors, and business leaders “from both political parties are signing onto a statement of support that we will submit to the UN -– and together, we will reach the emission reduction goals the US made in Paris in 2015.”

US singer Ariana Grande delights fans with UK hospital visit

London U.S. pop singer Ariana Grande has paid a surprise visit to young fans who were injured in a suicide attack on a concert she gave in Manchester last month, posing with them for selfies and signing t-shirts. Grande returned to Britain on Friday to lead an allstar benefit concert on Sunday and quickly headed for a hospital in the northern English city where many of the injured are being treated. The Manchester Evening News newspaper said she brought presents and chatted with young fans, including 10year-old Jaden Farrell-Mann, who suffered fractures to both legs and shrapnel wounds and has undergone two operations.

“Jaden was just sat there watching TV and she walked in.

She was absolutely amazed! It was a complete surprise,” her mother, Sharon, told the newspaper. “She’d met Prince William earlier today and then Ariana walked in.”

Adam Harrison told the BBC his daughter Lily “felt like a rock star” after meeting her idol late on Friday and was “chomping at the bit” to attend the concert.

The “One Love Manchester” concert will also feature Coldplay, Justin Bieber, Miley Cyrus, Katy Perry, Pharrell Williams, Take That and the Black Eyed Peas. It will take place at the Emirates Old Trafford Cricket Ground.

Fans who attended Grande’s show that was targeted by the bomber are being offered free tickets to the concert which will be broadcast on British television. Proceeds from tickets sold will go to the We Love Manchester Emergency Fund set up to aid grieving families and victims of the attack. The attack by suicide bomber Salman Abedi on May 22 killed 22 people and wounded 116. Eleven people are in police custody as part of the police investigation into the attack.

Issue - 722 (14)

6 - 12 June, 2017

US investigators helping Qatar Oakland to pay nearly $1 million probe alleged agency website hacking to teen in police scandal Oakland Oakland officials agreed Wednesday to pay nearly $1 million to settle a teenager’s claims that city police officers sexually

abused her while she worked as an underage prostitute.

Oakland officials agreed Wednesday to pay nearly $1 million to settle a teenager’s claims that city police officers sexually abused her while she worked as an underage prostitute. The agreement came after the widespread sex-abuse scandal led to the resignation of a police chief last summer and caused turmoil in the department already under federal court supervision for other problems.

Criminal charges have been filed against seven former and current officers in the scandal in which the teen said she sometimes had sex with officers in exchange for protection from arrest and for tips about prostitution investigations. Now 19, she has said she had sex with as many as two dozen officers beginning when she was 16 and ending last year. Her

lawyer John Burris said she has similar legal claims pending against police departments in San Francisco, Richmond and Livermore, and the sheriff’s

offices of Alameda and Contra Costa counties.

The Oakland City Council voted 7-1 Wednesday to pay $989,000 to settle the claims against the city.

Councilwoman Desley Brooks voted against the settlement, saying the city should have paid more.

“Think about this young girl, who was victimized under the color of authority,” Brooks said.

“There is something wrong with this.” Mayor Libby Schaaf said she approved of the deal. “It was in the best interest of the city to settle this matter quickly and fairly,” Schaaf said.

“We remain focused on rebuilding the public trust that was so damaged by this incident.” Officials with the department didn’t respond to phone and email inquiries.

The woman said at a news conference that she was satisfied with the settlement. Burris said critics don’t know all the facts of the case, and the

settlement was in his client’s best interest. The Associated Press generally doesn’t identify sexual crime victims and is withholding the name of the woman even though it has been widely used in the media.

The scandal emerged last summer when a federal judge overseeing the troubled Oakland Police Department said he was dissatisfied with the internal affairs investigation of an officer who committed suicide in 2015. The teen said that officer was among those who abused her over a nearly three-year period.

Most of the implicated officers worked in Oakland.

The woman appeared nervous Wednesday during an hour-long news conference, giving short answers and shoulder shrugs to most questions.

She said she was relieved with the settlement and hoped to attend college and work with animals. “I didn’t think anyone cared about me,” she said. “I’m very grateful.” Burris says she no longer works as a prostitute.

Earlier this month, she threw up into a waste paper basket while testifying during a preliminary hearing for former Oakland police Officer Dan Bunton, who was ordered to stand trial on charges of solicitation and obstruction of justice. He pleaded not guilty after being accused of tipping off the teen to a prostitution sting.

Bahrain says Twitter account of its foreign minister hacked Bahrin Assailants have hacked the Twitter account of Bahraini Foreign Minister Sheikh Khalid bin Ahmed al-Khalifa and posted hostile and insulting videos, the foreign ministry and local media reported on Saturday. The foreign ministry did not accuse any party of carrying out the hacking, but it appeared to have been carried out by Shi’ite Muslim militants who want to bring down the Sunni Muslim al-Khalifa monarchy.

“The Account of H.E. Minister of Foreign Affairs has been hacked. Kindly be aware,” the foreign ministry said in a message posted on its Twitter account. The hackers used the minister’s account to retweet postings from another

account identified as Numour al-Huriya (Tigers of Liberty), which appears to be that of Shi’ite

militants. “Our leaders, you have our pledge, our demand is Down with Hamad,” said one message containing pictures of Shi’ite leaders said.

The Arabic-language alWasat newspaper said on its website that hackers had posted several tweets and videos insulting to the minister. “Judging by the tweets, the hacking began at around 5:30 in the morning,” it said. One posting showed a picture

of King Hamad bin Isa alKhalifa with the words “Down with Hamad” on it.

Tensions have increased in Bahrain, where the U.S. Fifth Fleet is based, after a series of measures by the government to curb what it calls illegal activities by opposition groups and individuals it accuses of fomenting sectarian tensions.

Five people were killed last week when Bahraini security forced moved against supporters of the spiritual leader of Bahrain’s Shi’ite campaign outside his house and arrested nearly 300 people, including several it said were escaped prisoners.

The Gulf Arab state accuses its non-Arab neighbour Iran of stoking tensions in the country, a charge the Islamic Republic denies.

Doha/washington US investigators are in Qatar to help Doha probe the alleged hacking of the Gulf Arab state’s news agency website, a Qatari and a U.S. law enforcement official said, after an attack that had soured ties between Western-allied Gulf Arab states. Qatar said last week that hackers had posted fake remarks by the emir, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani, that purportedly had him criticising some leaders of fellow Gulf Arab states and calling for an easing of tensions with regional foe Iran.

Gulf Arab states have rejected Qatar’s explanation, leaving local media to unleash a barrage of attacks on the young emir, accusing him of cozying up to Iran. The row erupted days after the first visit by U.S. President Donald Trump to Saudi Arabia, in which he sought to galvanise fight against Islamist militancy and Iran, which Washington sees as a threat to regional stability.

A Qatari official who asked not to be identified said that experts from the Federal

Bureau of Investigation (FBI) had been helping with the probe since Friday.

In Washington, a U.S. law enforcement official confirmed that an FBI team was in Doha “working with Qatari authorities to investigate the alleged hacking incident into its state news agency”. The officials gave no details on the number of people on the U.S. team or progress in the investigation.

The FBI had no immediate comment on the report.

The rift has revived a 2014 row that erupted over alleged Qatari support for the Muslim Brotherhood and meddling in the affairs of fellow members of the Gulf Cooperation Counci (GCC).

Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, both members of the GCC, have

labelled the group as a terrorist organisation.

Qatar’s emir visited Kuwait this week in what appeared to be an attempt

by Kuwait mediate between Doha on one side and Abu Dhabi and Riyadh on the other. There was no immediate sign of a breakthrough.

Saudi and UAE media on Saturday continued their criticism of Qatar. One newspaper posted a story citing about what it said were Qatari ties with Israel, using an old photo of the then Qatari Emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani shaking hands with the late Israeli President Shimon Peres. Most Gulf Arab states have no official ties with Israel. Qatar briefly hosted an Israeli trade office but it was shut several years ago.

Issue 722 (15)

6 - 12 June, 2017

Dud watch

Vinayak Chakravorty By

Baywatch Cast: Dwayne Johnson, Zac Efron, Priyanka Chopra Alexandra Daddario, Kelly Rohrbach, Ilfenesh Hadera, Izabel Goulart, Jon Bass, Yahya Abdul-Mateen Direction: Seth Gordon

BAYWATCH, we were given the impression, would be Hollywood’s reply to Grand Masti, a rollicking sexcom adventure wholly unapologetic of the corny gags it hawked. It isn’t. It seems there was a bigger villain lurking in the shadows of the film than Priyanka Chopra, who wouldn’t let that happen.

He answers by the name of Pahlaj

Nihalani. The Indian censors have apparently massacred the original content. The version released in India is a fragmented, badly chopped piece of nothing that is neither sexy nor comic. While on Priyanka Chopra’s over-hyped Hollywood debut, if this is what she was busy doing over the past year or two in Hollywood, she better not leave India again.

Baywatch is an embarrassment for Priyanka fans because her act as villain of the piece will go down as one of her most cheesy performances ever. The film is an embarrassment for all those who have rooted for Dwayne Johnson too, since the days he packed a punch as The Rock in the wrestling ring. Mostly, the film is a royal squirm for fans of the Baywatch TV show of the ‘90s. The

show itself was no highbrow stuff. It was a mere assortment of corny antics set to motion by men and women who clearly believed less is more while flaunting body and IQ. What made it thoroughly enjoyable despite the abundant cheap tricks was the screwball irreverence, even as the oomph quota firmly stayed as see-level. The film misses the cocky vibes of the TV series. While on oomph, Alexandra Daddario, Kelly Rohrbach and Ilfenesh Hadera together share only about a third of the sex appeal that Pamela Anderson exuded on small screen. In fact, Anderson and David Hasselhoff from the series make cameos in the film. That, though, is not

enough to revive the mojo. A bikini-sized script introduces Mitch Buchanan (Dwayne Johnson) and his team of lifeguards who protect the beach of Emerald Bay against mishaps. A tired twist comes with Priyanka as the evil nightclub owner Victoria Leeds. Mitch and company suspect Leeds could be trafficking of drugs at her hotspot, also that she is systematically trying to buy out the entire beach. The rest of the screenplay tries to add very few spins as the lifeguards set out to expose Leeds. To be fair, maybe we should at least wait for an uncut video to be available in India before assessing the actual film. The big screen version released in India is pathetic. Thanks to the censors, Baywatch has ended up as nay-watch.

SHE scores where the big boy failed. If DC were looking for a comicbook blast to match Marvel’s ongoing winning spree after Batman Vs Superman came a cropper, Wonder Woman unleashes the right booming war cry. Gal Gadot’s superheroine avatar, which made a cameo entry in the doomed Batman Vs Superman: Dawn Of Justice, is significant in yet another way.

While superhero flicks traditionally score, Hollywood has always fumbled with

superheroines. Efforts as Elektra and Catwoman failed to impress. Pitching Wonder Woman at the global box-office was therefore a calculated risk. The reason Hollywood’s new superheroine triumphs is probably because the brainwork behind her saga comes from a female director. Patty Jenkins, whose dark Monster won Charlize Theron an Oscar as Best Actress, does not try packaging Wonder Woman as a heroine flaunting machismo. She may combat with god-forged gear and indestructible bracelet, but Wonder Woman’s foray into the superhero universe is primarily a resounding statement in woman empowerment, served amid high-octane

action fun. The film starts off tracing the early days of Diana Prince, who is a princess of the Amazons and a gifted warrior. When she gets to know of the strife-torn civilised war, Diana leaves the Amazon wilds to participate in the war for justice. In the process she will discover her powers and purpose in life.

Gal Gadot excels with the CGI-loaded stunts. She makes her alpha girl avatar look good, and remains an irresistible draw for the film. This is one franchise biggie that leaves you asking for more, hoping that a sequel is on the way soon.

Wonder Woman is a winner with its mix of humour and drama, and mush served

by Chris Pine as Diana’s love interest.

ALPHA GIRL RISING

Wonder Woman Cast: Gal Gadot, Chris Pine, Robin Wright, Danny Huston, David Thewlis, Connie Nielsen, Elena Anaya Direction: Patty Jenkins

Issue 722 (16)

6 - 12 June, 2017

We ’ve not achieved even 10 per cent of Rajesh Khanna’s stardom: Salman Khan Superstar Salman Khan says yesteryear actors like Rajesh Khanna and Dilip Kumar have enjoyed stardom in the real sense, which is unbeatable.

When it comes to stardom, the Khan trio of Salman, Shah Rukh and Aamir has ruled Bollywood for last two decades and are still at the top.

Ask him about the frenzy surrounding the stardom of A-list stars, Salman says, “Actor wise I don’t think anyone is bigger than Dilip Kumar, after that Mr Amitabh Bachchan had a very good run and he’s working even today and is everywhere.

“Star wise if you think we guys have the popularity then (it is not)... I think there is no one bigger than Rajesh Khanna and other was Kumar Gaurav. I have seen the stardom of both and it was unbelievable. So, when

there is comparison about stardom I feel we don’t even have 10 per cent of it.” Khanna, who is touted as the first superstar of Hindi cinema, delivered 15 consecutive solo super-hits between 1969 and 1972, which remains an unbroken record till

now in the history of Indian films.

Debutante Kumar Gaurav, son of actor Rajendra Kumar, became an overnight sensation with his film “Love Story” in the early 80s.

Salman says he doesn’t take the tag of ‘superstar’ seriously.

“It’s (acting) just a job. If you take

Yami Gautam is the latest celeb to be bitten by online shopping bug

everything seriously it is going to go your head. I live my life moment to moment and do my best in every moment,” he says.

The 51-year-old actor feels an actor should keep giving his/her best at every stage of career and not get affected by their status.

“Like if there is one person who is doing really well and gets in complacent zone and thinks whatever I do is ok and that’s like the worst thing to do ever.

So, no matter where you are, you should always think how did you get up there and should work in a way you did for your first film, that sincerity should be there in every shot,” he says.

Salman is awaiting the release of his next film “Tubelight”, directed by Kabir Khan, in which he stars alongside his brother Sohail Khan and Chinese actress Zhu Zhu.

Yami Gautam is the latest to be bitten by the online shopping bug. The Kaabil actress spends a better part of her leisure browsing through the websites of various e-commerce firms, and finds it therapeutic.

She has been buying stuff not only for herself, but her near and dear ones too.

Her family back in Delhi keeps receiving surprise packages from Yami off and on.

Shraddha Kapoor is fascinated with the cartwheel and can’t stop performing the twirl over and over again. During her recent holiday in Seychelles, she brought out the child within and put her skills on display. “Always do cartwheels. Even if you are bad

at doing them....like me (sic),” she wrote alongside the video.

Online fans have been wowing on her new-found talent. The actress, who was on a break with her family, is currently in Pune shooting for Apoorva Lakhia’s ‘Haseena’.

Amitabh Bachchan in Malta for Shraddha Kapoor loves doing cartwheels!

‘Thugs of Hindostan’ shoot

Amitabh Bachchan has landed in south European country Malta to join the shoot of Vijay Krishna Acharya’s ‘Thugs of Hindostan’, which also stars Aamir Khan and Katrina Kaif.

“In the early hours of Mumbai morning, stepping on to the vehicle of air transport for distant land, to begin the shooting of ‘Thugs of Hindostan’ in Malta,” Bachchan posted on his blog.

The film went on the floors in Malta last month.

Explaining the travel route, he wrote: “Over the waters of the Arabian Sea and on to the sand coloured land of Doha, where we pick up some gasoline for the onward journey. And then on to Malta, flying over Saudi Arabia, over Cairo in Egypt, turning right on to the Mediterranean and driving in the skies straight to the island of Malta.”

“I immediately find myself overdressed and uncomfortable, for the dress of the day is nothing beyond the knees,” Big B added.

Being made on a lavish budget, the movie features high octane action to be shot on a ship.

An international crew has been working hard to create these elaborate ships.

The film also stars “Dangal” fame Fatima Sana Sheikh.

Gauahar Khan’s short film Katrina Kaif suffers wardrobe Peanut Butter is winning hearts malfunction, flashes her inner wear at international film festivals Peanut Butter, a short film starring Gauahar Khan, is winning hearts at international film festivals. After the Silicon Valley Film Festival, Gauhar’s film will be screened at the Marina del Rey Film Festival and The Culver City Film Festival in California, which will take place in September and December respectively. The movie offers a different perspective to single parenthood and abortion.

Katrina Kaif suffered a wardrobe malfunction while attending an awards announcement event recently.

Kat had chosen a short dress for the occasion and ended up giving us a peek into her inner

wear while walking up to the dais.

On realising that she had shown more than she intended, she made lensmen delete the pictures. Seeing Kat flustered, they obliged.

Zareen Khan’s London diaries will make you jealous

Zareen Khan is currently in London shooting for Vikram Bhatt’s 1921 and enjoying her time in the city. The shoot schedule begins at 3 pm every day, allowing Zareen to spend the mornings with herself.

The adventurous actress goes cycling to the parks, buys fruits from the local markets, or just jogs around the city, something she cannot easily do in Mumbai.

The shoot schedule is for two months and she is keen to make the most of it.

Issue 722 (17)

6 - 12 June, 2017

‘Pirates Of The Caribbean’ actress Katie Price cancels gig refuses to pay sick granny’s bills after London attack

“Pirates Of The Caribbean” actress Kaya Scodelario has reportedly come under fire from her family after she refused to fund care for her ailing grandmother Inez Rosemary.

According to a report in The Sun newspaper, the “Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales” actress has been branded heartless for leaving

the family to ‘pull together’ to pay for Rosemary’s care after a series of heart attacks, reports dailymail.co.uk.

The report claims that the Britain-born actress, who was reportedly paid 1.5 million pounds for her role in the successful film franchise, has also had her act of refusal branded as ‘unforgivable’ by her

Charlie Sheen introduces new girlfriend

Actor Charlie Sheen if off the market. While attending the birthday party of his 12-year-old daughter Lola, the actor introduced his new girlfriend Jools to the world.

The 51-year-old star posed for a few pictures with Jools outside Santa Monica’s Giorgio Baldi restaurant, where they were celebrating Lola’s special day.

Speaking to photographers outside the restaurant, Sheen

said, “It’s my daughter’s birthday. She’s 12. This is my girlfriend, that’s Jools. No one’s got a photo of us yet.” Jools also happens to be Sheen’s daughter’s nanny.

Two And A Half Men actor was last linked to British model and reality TV star Jess Impiazzi, whom he’d met last year in London. Sheen’s ex-wife and mother to Lola, Denise Richards was also at the celebration.

great aunt Fabiana Moraes.

Moraes said: “I am disgusted that Kaya could just turn her back on her grandmother when she most needed her.

Inez has done so much to help her and her mother, Katia. So we just couldn’t believe it when they said no. In the end the family had to pull together.

“I just wish Kaya could see what Inez is going through and reconsider her attitude. To abandon her grandmother at a moment like this is unforgivable. I think the money has gone to her head, and she has forgotten where she came from. She doesn’t want to be associated with poor people like us any more.”

Scodelario’s mother Katia was born and raised in Brazil before moving to London and marrying her father Roger Humphrey - a union which dissolved a year later, reports dailymail.co.uk.

Katie Price, who was all set to debut her latest single at a famous nightclub in the British capital on Saturday night, cancelled her performance in wake of the terror attack in central London on Saturday night.

Appearing on stage with club owner Jeremy Joseph, they jointly addressed the crowd, saying it felt completely wrong promoting and singing a song when there were people who had lost their lives.

“Thank you guys for coming. I wanted to perform and we will confirm another date and I will be back. Just enjoy yourself but get home safely; I am going home to my family,” the aspiring pop star said in a video.

The attack saw terrorists mow Londoners down on London

Bridge in a white van before stabbing innocent victims in Borough Market, leaving seven dead and 48 hospitalised.

Chris Pine slams ‘Avengers: Infinity War’ title Chris Pine has an issue with the title of Marvels film ‘Avengers: Infinity War’, and wonders do “we need more war for all time?”

In an interview with Screen Slam for his film ‘Wonder Woman’, the actor took a jibe at the third ‘Avengers’ movie when he was asked if adding a theme of humanity to the usual blockbuster action was something that drew him to the DC film, reports express.co.uk.

Pine said: “One of the reasons for sure. She, in particular — Patty (director Patty Jenkins) was a great reason why I wanted to be involved. I met her, I hadn’t read - there was no script.

Then she told me what she wanted to do: the story, my character, and Gal’s (Gal Gadot) character.

“I agree that within this genre, it’s difficult to do something new, and usually, you just see a bunch of people killing one another - in outfits and blowing up cities. Like, I know there’s a thing called Infinity War, which is like, I don’t really, like, Infinity War? We need more war for all time?”

Pine plays World War I spy Steve Trevor in “Wonder Woman”, which released in India on Friday. “Avengers: Infinity War” cast members

Scarlett Johansson on sex and slut-shaming Scarlett Johansson has always been vocal about a range of issues, and in her latest interview with a glossy, she discussed the stigma attached to women talking about sex.

“When women talk about enjoying sex, it’s almost forbidden,” the 31-year-old actress said.

“Just having a healthy sexual attitude, you are labelled loose, wild, a slut. You have no morals, and you’re seen as some kind of sexual deviant or someone who can’t be in a monogamous relationship. The minute you talk about enjoying yourself, being curious, that is still taboo.”

include Chris Evans, Robert Downey Jr, Scarlett Johansson, Tom Holland, Chris Pratt, Chris

Hemsworth, Mark Ruffalo, Elizabeth Olsen, Paul Bettany, Jeremy Renner, Zoe Saldana, Josh Brolin and Dave Bautista. It is set to be released in US theatres on May 4, 2018.

Angelina Jolie may star as bride in ‘Bride of Frankenstein’ Angelina Jolie might join actors Tom Cruise, Russell Crowe, Johnny Depp and Javier Bardem in Bride of Frankenstein.

Reports suggest that Universal Studios is eyeing Jolie for the role of the bride in the film, which will be directed by Bill Condon.

However, the negotiations with Jolie have not yet started. The actress is still enjoying time off with her six kids.

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6 - 12 June, 2017

Prince Charles felt his wedding was a tragedy

THE letter was heartbreaking in its simplicity. Tormented by the very public breakdown of his marriage to Princess Diana, a sombre Prince Charles picked up his fountain pen and poured his emotions on to the page: “No one can really understand what it all means until it happens to you, which is why it all keeps getting worse and worse. One day I will tell you the whole story. It is a kind of Greek tragedy and would certainly make a very good play!”

For a man, forced to maintain a stiff upper lip in public, it was a rare release of privately-held anguish to a loyal and trusted

friend, one who truly understood how it felt to be vilified on the world stage. The letter, dated June 21, 1992, was addressed to “My Dear Nancy”, better known as former US First Lady Nancy Reagan. We can reveal the astonishing personal letters between Prince Charles and the Reagans, which formed the backbone of a friendship spanning four decades that ended only with the death of Reagan at the age of 94 last year. At a time when Princes William and Harry have chosen to campaign for mental health issues — and spoke openly for the first time about their mother’s death 20 years ago — the never-seen-before letters from their father to his trusted friends across the Atlantic take on a particular poignancy by showing how Charles, too, suffered emotional turmoil and sought private solace and reassurance. The extraordinary letters also reveal for the first time how Charles was: distraught at his “Greek tragedy” of a marriage: “It is so awful... very few people would believe it.” Disgusted at cruel claims about the First Lady: “We live in an increasingly uncivilised world. I know exactly the methods these dreadful people employ to create the

maximum amount of controversy, so as to make the maximum amount of money.”

Heartbroken over the death of the Queen Mother: “I have dreaded her eventual departure… she leaves an enormous chasm in my

life” Besotted by Nancy’s charm, telling a friend: “I wanted to kiss her.” Plagued by fears of a rash of criticism on his tenth wedding anniversary: “There are a whole series of ghastly books coming out… you can imagine what they will contain.” The letters vary in tone and content and are written in the Prince’s trademark black

ink on crested notepaper from various homes including Highgrove, Sandringham, Birkhall — his hunting lodge in the grounds of Balmoral — and the British Embassy in Washington.

One is even written at 35,000ft as the Prince flies home from a whirlwind tour of the US. He captions it in the left-hand corner: “Airborne between Washington and the UK.” There is even a small idiosyncrasy, a princely form of shorthand, in which a dot above a short horizontal line stands for the word ‘in’. His emotions veer from elation and pride — clearly besotted Charles describes how Diana dazzled on the dance floor during a White House gala in 1985 — to gutwrenching grief and despair on the death of his grandmother, the Queen Mother. The letters were part of Reagan’s private collection which, on her death in March 2016, were handed over to the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation and Library in Simi Valley, California.

For years they have languished in boxes stored at secret warehouses throughout the Los Angeles area and have only now come to light as archivists working for the library meticulously catalogue

thousands of items of correspondence received by Reagan, who was a prolific letter writer. They are being made public, thanks to the late president and his wife’s insistence that their papers should be available as an historical archive. The full extent of Charles’ friendship with Nancy has been known to very few. Joanne Drake, Ronald Reagan’s former chief of staff and now chief administrative officer of his Presidential Foundation, said: “President and Reagan really valued their friendship with the Royal family, especially The Prince of Wales. “They shared the ups and downs of their lives and always wrote the other with strong words of personal support, especially if the situation had become public.

“Reagan was extremely touched that he attended President Reagan’s funeral in 2004. She felt a special closeness to him.”

Charles first met the Reagans in 1974 when he was serving in the Royal Navy and was invited to a private dinner at the Palm Springs home of Walter Annenberg, then US ambassador to Britain, and his socialite wife Lee, a lifelong confidante of Nancy’s.

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6 - 12 June, 2017

Agents train workers to perform on-demand acts before webcam for live streaming to chatrooms, sites and apps

SEX TRADE GETS DIGITAL VIAGRA

SEX industry in the country is taking the web route to expand its network and experts fear the women taking up the bait for easy money face a high risk of cyber exploitation. “Various escort agencies now prefer to operate from the safety of a small makeshift studio using digital payments than risking a physical contact or cash transaction with their potential customers,” says Rajib K Haldar, regional coordinator (South Asia), ECPAT International, a global network of civil workers to stop sexual exploitation of children. Haldar has been studying cyber-related exploitation of children in India and feels that teenagers are at risk of being exploited by these agencies which cater to a wide market of fantasies. “The demands on these websites often boast of showing school or college girls in the act. It is believed that not only sex workers but also girls from moderate backgrounds are being exploited by these agents on the pretext of fast buck.” There has been a rise in number of adult websites and mobile apps that offer a choice of sexual acts to be streamed live on one’s mobile phone or computer, a trend

borrowed from the Philippines which is growing at a fast pace in India. Experts point out that it could be difficult for law

enforcement agencies to bring the perpetrators to book in the absence of relevant laws. “Cyber sex is new a menace where minors are exploited on the Internet by online pimps in the disguise of escort agents or model coordinators,” Prashant Mali, Mumbai High Court lawyer and a cyber security expert said.

“This is illegal and amounts to abetment of prostitution.

Transmission of sex videos, chat or nude pictures amounts to crime under Section 67B of The IT Act,2000 and the punishment is up to seven years of jail and

`10 lakh of fine.” Another worker of an NGO, which rescues young girls from sexual exploitation, quoted several cases where women were first given training to perform before a web camera, read out scripted text for their potential clients and fix appointments. “In some of these cases, many women did not know that the live-streaming was also being recorded and would later be uploaded at various porn sites or used for continued exploitation,” said the NGO worker who requested anonymity. The rates for a livestreaming are decided on hourly basis depending upon the type of act and age or ethnicity of the ‘performer’. The cost may range from `500 to 2,000. Some of these websites active on the internet are www.cam4.com, w w w . c a m s . c o m , w w w. d e l h i s e x c h a t . c o m , m.locanto.com.

These serviceproviders have categorised the performances under various categories like ‘Online HD’, ‘Party Chat’, ‘Cam LIVE’ etc. A client can select the person of his choice from the site’s album or promotional clips. The mode of payment is either by choosing membership or one-time online payment option. A member gets regular notifications about the show times with multiple options to select from joining a group chatroom or a private act. “There have been instances where several such acts were recorded with the consent of the performer, using special software, and later uploaded on adult sites or YouTube,” said Haldar, who said while courts are seized of the matter, stringent laws are needed to curb exploitation. This reporter, with the help of a male colleague, when contacted several escort services providers, the agencies offered to arrange 45-minute ‘performance’ by a Delhi

University girl on Skype for `1,750. Police officials said in such cases the site owners operate from areas outside their jurisdiction. “Besides, the force can only act on a complaint or a tip-off, which are rare to come by in such cases,” an official with the Cyber Cell of Delhi Police said. The official agreed that cyber sex trade was growing fast. “This is easy money for the agent or performer and offers privacy to a customer. You have presumably no identity on the

net, so it makes you lose inhibitions,” said the police official. Cyber experts also warn that many criminals may use sex as bait for stealing vital personal data from one’s computer or phone. “They can infect your machine on the pretext of allowing access to their cam-software for streaming.

One never knows when one may be playing into the hands of cyber blackmailers,” said an expert working with Delhi Police Cyber Cell.

Sonika death: Blood sent for test too little WEST Bengal’s Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL), where Kolkata Police had sent actor Vikram Chatterjee’s blood sample for an alcohol test in the Sonika Chauhan death case, has claimed that the sample was inadequate for testing.

Chatterjee was on Friday charged with culpable homicide in connection with the death of model Sonika Chauhan in a car accident on April 29. In a letter

to the deputy commissioner of Kolkata Police (South), the laboratory stated “The sample said to be serum of Vikram Chatterjee was received in this laboratory in such a small quantity that poison could not be directed by the available method of chemical analysis.”

According to the letter, the blood sample containing “approximately 0.5ml straw colour liquid” was sent to the

state FSL unit on May 8, eight days after the accident. Forensic

experts have considered the amount to be too low quantity to conduct necessary forensic tests. Model Sonika Chauhan’s family had alleged lapses on part of the police, at the very onset of the probe. Sonika’s uncle Patrick Quinn who had lodged the police complaint against Vikram had questioned if the police had conducted breath analyser,

blood or urine test on the actor in the stipulated time period required. Initially, cops had not booked the actor and opted for “rash or negligent act not amounting to culpable homicide” under IPC Section 304(a). It was only after they were pressurised that the cops requested the court to add IPC section 304 against the actor recently. The actor is out on bail now and has resumed shooting his television serial.

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Issue 722 (22)

6 - 12 June, 2017

Encrypted tapes praising jihad & life under Caliphate invite potential recruits to Afghanistan terror camps

ISIS HANDLER OFFERS WOMEN TO LURE INDIANS

IN HEAVILY-ENCRYPTED audio transmissions from the mountains of Khorasan, he’s heard extolling jihad, offering women, housing and pious life to young Indians. Kerala’s Abdul Rashid Abdulla is believed to have started ISIS recruitment and fundraising operations in the southern state in July 2015. In less than two years, he has risen through the terror ranks as the group’s recruiter-in-chief for India based out of Afghanistan. An India Today investigation has cracked open tightly-guarded tools of communications Abdulla has been using to lure young men back home into ISIS fold.

Audio signals accessed exclusively by the network shed new light on the Islamist outfit’s India module recruiting new insurgents, mostly from Kerala.

Abdulla’s messages in Malayalam aim to radicalise youth in the name of Islam and a ballyhooed promised Caliphate. “ISIS has much more territory than you can imagine in Iraq, Sham, Libya, Khorasan, Africa, etc. These lands are ruled

by Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. He is the leader of all Muslims in the world. Therefore, it is obligatory to give bayat (oath of allegiance) to him,” he says in Malayalam in one of the transmissions from his Afghan hideout to Kerala.

Highly-places sources in the country’s intelligence establishment have confirmed the authenticity of Abdulla’s voice on Telegram audio files

obtained by INDIA TODAY. A resident of Kasaragod district, Abdulla had led 21 youth from the state to ISIS dens in Afghanistan. Reports suggest two to three of them died in security ops this year. But the India handler continues to send audio clips back to Kerala via the highly-secure telegram messaging app in order to fill his rosters with insurgents from India, the investigation found. In the tapes, he repeatedly glorifies ISIS as a ‘normal country’ espousing shariat. “This is just like a country here, just like any other government. We lead a normal life here in Islamic State Khorasan,” he says. “Everything allowed in sharia is done here and anything not allowed by sharia cannot be done here.

There are different departments here under the Islamic State government, such as the departments of education, agriculture, police, wealth, zakat (charity), finance and a department of jihad.” Without demanding tough commitments, Abdulla is heard tossing out baits to induce his target audience. The ISIS’ Afghanistanbased India handler is heard enticing young men with women, saying guerrillas in the group are encouraged to marry widows of slain militants. “My friend, Murshid, married a virgin woman,” he says, “Sajid married a widow with two children and Manjat a widow with one child.

So whatever the case is, getting

married here is easy.”

Indoctrination follows next as he gives his own interpretation of sacred texts and sharia, calling ISIS purely Islamic. In the same vein, he justifies use of brutal violence as part of jihad. “It’s a sunnah to do jihad. Islamic state also does jihad — against the mushrikeen, kuffaar, murtadeen and munafiqeen. Let Allah show the correct path to all and may we all meet in heaven,” he says. In his messages, he presents housing, meat and even chocolates to future recruits.

“All facilities are there including electricity and water in houses.

There are individual houses.

Most houses are owned by the government. There are markets here where everything is

Around the world on foot in three years LIKE many adventurous types, Angela Maxwell started out with a mission. ‘I was in an art class when I heard about a man walking around the world. I thought it was such an outrageous but compelling idea, ‘the 36-yearold told Daily Mail Australia. Several years later, and after three years spent walking across Australia, New Zealand and seven other countries, Ms Maxwell - who is originally from Oregon - has covered 10,000 kilometres on her bid to circumnavigate the world on foot. ‘We all have a great adventure within us. I felt called to walk the world, not just take a long walk,’ Ms Maxwell told FEMAIL. Three years ago, Angela Maxwell , 36, from Oregon, set out to circumnavigate the world on foot. Since then, she has covered 10,000 kilometres and nine countries on foot - it has taken her three years. ‘We all have a great adventure within us. I felt called to walk the world, not just take a long walk,’ Ms Maxwell told FEMAIL. Ms Maxwell said she usually covers around 20-30 kilometres each day, and will always camp ‘at twilight’. The 36- year-old’s adventures

started with the continent of Australia - where she walked from Perth to Kalumburu entirely on foo.

‘Walking the Kimberley in Western Australia was definitely the most challenging part of my walk so far, and yet still it’s my favourite place I’ve been, ‘Ms Maxwell said. ‘The sound of solitude in the red sandy desert and a glittering night sky left a strong impression on me.’ Australia was the beginning of Ms Maxwell’s incredible journey three years ago, which is perhaps one of the reasons why she said it provided ‘such a heightened emotional experience for me’. ‘Australia was so good to me, and really helped me gain my confidence even though it was hard,’ she said. ‘I was walking 30 to 40 kilometres a day, and I got heat stroke where my skin was bubbling in the sun. ‘All my gear is in a cart I call Athena, and this includes my food, water and tent, she said. The 36-year-old’s adventures started with the continent of Australia - where she walked from Perth to Kalumburu entirely on foot - Australia remains her favourite place she’s walked.

available. Everything that is available back in our country is available here also — chocolates, biscuits, meat, vegetables,” Abdulla says.

According to top security officials, Abdulla took 17 people from Kasargod and four from Palakkad in Kerala to ISIS camps in Afghanistan. In January, the NIA named him a key motivator for the terror outfit in India. His recruits, security officials say, included professionals doctors,

engineers and management experts. Till March this year, as many as 75 people have been arrested from across India for suspected links with the ISIS. Of them, 21 belonged to Kerala, 16 to Telangana, nine to Karnataka, four to Tamil Nadu, eight to Maharashtra, six to Madhya Pradesh, four to Uttarakhand, three to Uttar Pradesh, two to Rajasthan and one each to Jammu and Kashmir and West Bengal, highlyplaced officials told India Today.

Issue 722 (23)

6 - 12 June, 2017

This is your Taj; you’ve been sold for sex and you’ll live here for life Traffickers lured six Bengal teens with a trip to Taj Mahal but threw them into an Agra brothel

THE mesmerising Taj Mahal, considered a monument of love across the world, is being used as bait by sex traffickers to catch young girls from farflung parts of the country and push them into the flesh trade.

Authorities have rescued six Muslim teenagers belonging to the tribal Sunderbans area of West Bengal, who were trapped by a prostitution syndicate with the offer of taking them on a tour of the stunning 17th Century mausoleum in Uttar Pradesh’s Agra city. The girls, aged between 17 and 19, say they didn’t inform their families. They were first brought by bus to the Sealdah Railway Station in Kolkata, then by train to New Delhi, later Ghaziabad and finally to Agra’s red-light area of Kashmiri Bazaar. When the girls raised questions about the suspicious location, their traffickers allegedly said, “This is your Taj Mahal. You have been sold. Be prepared to live all your life here now.” Lack of livelihood means takes thousands of girls and boys out of Bengal’s border areas every year. While some girls are exploited as poorly paid and abused housemaids, several

others end up in Delhi’s GB Road and other red-light areas in India. Investigators say though shocking, this is just a new modus operandi in fetching girls from one of the most

said assistant sub-inspector Prabir Boll of the Mathurapur Police Station in West Bengal.

“Unfortunately, by the time we could establish links with our counterparts there and organise

crucial junction in the trafficking triangle of Bengal, Delhi and Mumbai. This is like a sabzi mandi where girls are brought and traded, with the fact that it is a heavy tourist spot providing

impoverished areas of India – North and South 24 Parganas.

Innocent young girls – who survive on barely two meals a day, have little or no education and haven’t seen anything beyond their small villages – are most desperate to escape to bigger cities and towns. “We received a missing complaint from one of the girl’s mother on March 24 following which we put her mobile on surveillance. We discovered that the number was active in Uttar Pradesh, Agra,”

decoy customers, the girls had already been much exploited.

They had been beaten with lathis and brooms, repeatedly raped and threatened into submission.”

The girls were rescued from the tiny, dark and foul-smelling bunkers and tunnels in the brothel on May 23, and at least 13 people have been arrested till now including the lady bordello owner, Meena, he added. The girls were sent home with the Bengal police team only on Friday. “Agra has become a

them easy cover or camouflage,” said BS Tyagi, circle officer of the Chhata Police Station in Agra, which raided the brothel.

“Girls are taken several kilometres away so that language becomes a barrier and they cannot talk to police or customers. Bengali girls are brought to UP and UP girls taken to interiors of Bengal. It’s a highly organised business with tentacles spread far and wide,” he informed. Rishi Kant, cofounder of the anti-human

trafficking NGO, Shakti Vahini, which counselled the victims, said, “These girls told us that they were taken in an AC bus from Ghaziabad to Agra which shows that these people have money power also.” According to government data, almost 20,000 women and children were victims of trafficking in India in 2016, a rise of nearly 25 per cent from the previous year, with the highest number of cases recorded in West Bengal. Ajay Ranade, IG South Bengal, told Mail Today over the phone: “Sadly, human trafficking is a rampant problem in the state. For the same reason we have recently started the Swayamsiddha (selfempowered) programme in class VIII to XII in 500-700 schools in our area. We hold counseling classes and have set up drop boxes in schools so that girls can report to us if they are being forced into child marriage or if any boy is stalking or harassing them. Men often coerce gullible schoolgirls into sharing their mobile numbers, then taking them out for a drink or snacks and mix sedatives in them. By the time the girls wake up, they are already on the way to Delhi or Mumbai.”

Issue 722 (24)

6 - 12 June, 2017

A promotion at work or gainful business opportunity starts on an auspicious note this week. Your personal charm and charisma take you through complicated situations and to important people without any difficulty. Possibilities and horizons open up for you in professional aspects. You are blessed with intuition and foresight which lead you in the right direction. You are relaxed within and relate well with others at home and at work. A breakthrough in pursuing ones goals is possible.

Physical energy and good health allow you to tackle busy schedules.

Armed with an artful mastery of your craft, you achieve goals and targets. Synergy and cooperation at work are an asset when you are working against odds and meeting almost impossible demands. This is an exceptionally exciting time as professional and business opportunities are offered to you by people and institutions you admire and have been in awe of. Your gift of communication brings you closer to people who matter. Economy in the home and good management at work keep you ahead and in control. Personal relationships are satisfying and you have plenty of goodwill and friendship around you.

You are motivated and inspired to go beyond limitations and think big rather than be content with present situations this week.

You may have to face egoistic people who throw rank to achieve their ends. Some associates can be competitive in business as you shine in your field of activity. You impress people with your charisma and invite fresh opportunities for expansion. Personal relationships are sensitive and difficult for a time as both partners seek space and appreciation. You initiate a current of forceful energy to achieve success in a professional project.

You begin the week with a new and positive attitude!

There is a short pleasure trip on the cards. You are able to express frank opinions and true feelings. Beware of a shameless person who doesn’t stop taking advantage of your good nature. Recovery from sickness is ensured if you follow the doctor’s advice. Sudden and unexpected happenings cannot be ruled out. Beware of arrogance and vanity. You share some memorable moments with a soul-mate.

You are in touch with innocence that comes from life lived fully, which has a quality of wisdom and the acceptance of the ever-changing wonder of life.

You find yourself at the brink of an important change as you go through a crisis, the darkest hour before dawn, as they say.

Karmic situations and patterns come to the fore and there is no more deception or illusion about personal and professional matters. You are able to face truths, deal with emotional choices or difficult situations to come out of them without being harmed in any way. Personal relationships are packed with emotion and deep feelings. A positive and new perspective brings light, joy and happiness back into your life. Guard against over indulgence in food, drink or work.

Triangular personal relationships can be problematic but three-way business collaborations can be gainful this week. There is good luck attending material affairs as there is increase of income. Beware of theft or being taken in by a charlatan. A covetous person offers stiff competition at work. This is the right time to share yourself in loving personal relationships and express yourself creatively at work. When the apple is ripe, it falls, they say, and you are ripe and ready to make new beginnings. By integrating forces and resources you have a sound foundation to work from.

You go through a strong, transforming experience as you celebrate good times with loved ones. A wonderful professional opportunity takes you towards success and fame.

A personal meeting leads to romance and commitment sometime in the future. Physical energy and good health enable you to cope with busy schedules and social engagements. You meet well-known personalities and share your professional views and personal ideas with them. A stimulating project should be taken as a challenge which will further your career. You spend time with a good friend at a time of need.

A world of rapture and romance opens up for you this week as personal relationships are sealed with love and promise. You are gracious with family and friends. You are likely to be involved in creative pastimes, art, music, theatre or media which are satisfying and enjoyable. You are tender and caring but have no energy for practical matters.

A young woman or daughter is ready to take independent decisions. You are able to achieve professional success effortlessly without much fuss or interruption. You support a worthy cause to improve the lot of women or children.

You handle more than two or three situations at the same time this week! Business opportunities and personal relationships develop with speed, demanding time, attention and decision. Commercial transactions and business deals can be concluded effectively at this point. A close friend person stands by you through ups and downs. Your boss or superior might be seeking impossible goals and you need to apprise him of the real situation. Money matters take priority as unexpected expenditure may have to be met. It’s best to keep the wheels of business moving till you find an opportunity for change.

This week manifests love, romance and excitement in your life. You are likely to examine relationships and analyse priorities in an effort to make decisions and commitments. It’s time for making decisions, plans and listing your priorities. You are likely to be presented with choices and options, and it’s hard for you to make decisions as you can see both sides of every situation. Looking within at your truths and feelings gives you insight and direction. Your social life is scintillating and busy. A brief vacation is on the cards. You meet new people and make interesting and valuable connections.

You are able to achieve a lot at home and at work with youthful energy and a sense of well being. You are individualistic, brilliant and daring in professional aspects as new projects get under way. You could be impatient in love or anger as you are overflowing with energy. You could be attracted to new people and ideas as you are open and receptive. But you must conserve your financial resources for priorities that have to be met at a later date. Attend to difficult matters that require personal attention and vitality since you are energetic and received well by others.

You can waste time and energy worrying about everything this week! Put the same effort into action and achievement! Health and finances need to be conserved at this point and practical details to be dealt with clearly and efficiently. You may be involved in meetings and encounters with business associates as deals and transactions take place. A friend supports you financially as he stands to gain also from a business project.

Your social life may be restricted to business lunches and family obligations. Give yourself a new fitness routine to rejuvenate energy.

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Technology Instagram doesn’t ‘copy’ Snapchat Twitter now filters but ‘builds’ on it, says CEO Direct Messages from

San Francisco Does Instagram copy Snapchat? Most of you will instantly agree it does but for Instagram CEO, the Facebookowned photo-sharing app is just “building” on Snapchat.

In an interview with the Wall Street Journal on Tuesday, Kevin Systrom said that even if Snapchat had all of these features before, it doesn’t mean Instagram is blatantly copying Snapchat.

Systrom endorsed that Instagram’s “Stories” feature is “definitely similar” to Snapchat’s version, but argued that it did not establish that they were copying.

Originally launched by Snapchat, the “Stories” feature shows photos and videos shared in chronological order that disappear after 24 hours.

Facebook introduced something similar in its app Instagram last August. Today, Instagram has over 200 million people using “Stories” daily more than even Snapchat.

Today, Messenger, WhatsApp and the main Facebook app have all added “Stories” feature (In WhatsApp, it is called ‘Status’).

However, for Instagram CEO, Snapchat-Instagram battle is akin to the early days of cars, saying that more companies

Facebook aims to sell ads to drugmakers

San Francisco Facebook will host a summit in June that is dedicated to health and aims to sell ads to the pharmaceutical industry, a media report said.

According to a report in CNBC on Friday, the invitation-only summit is part of an initiative for advertisers called “Facebook Health”, run by a small team reporting into former Google Director Meredith Guerriero.

The summit primarily focuses on gearing marketers in the pharmaceutical industry.

“It is expected that Facebook Health may unveil tweaks to the ad product, so pharma companies can more easily

plug themselves on the platform. It could focus on mobile video, as that’s been a major focus for the team,” the report quoted an anonymous source as saying.

According to reports, Guerriero is hosting a session in late June with Carey Reynolds, a marketer with the drug maker Allergan, to discuss how pharma companies can form “stronger connections between patients” through Facebook.

“Our source said that Google and Twitter hired large teams to work with pharmaceutical companies on ad campaigns, but Facebook hasn’t had a real seat at the table until the past year,” the report added.

came along after the Model T. “In this scenario, Instagram is simply building upon a technology that Snapchat created,” Systrom was quoted as saying.

That Facebook is going after Snapchat is not news, but the battle has now become somewhat ugly.

At its recent F8 developer conference in San Jose in the US, CEO Mark Zuckerberg launched “Camera Effects Platform” to encourage augmented reality (AR) effects — a move reported by The New York Times as Facebook’s “brazen heist” over Snapchat.

“Facebook is not just learning/ borrowing features from Snapchat (mostly to Instagram), but it has been borrowing features from other messaging apps too. For example, Facebook Messenger learned a lot of features from WeChat (China) since last year’s F8, such as creating branded accounts and letting brands use it for customer services,” Xiaofeng Wang, Senior Analyst with US-based market research firm Forrester, told IANS.

unknown followers

New York Twitter has added a new feature to Direct Messages (DMs) that will now filter DMs from unknown followers.

DMs from people you do not know will be contained in “Requests” in the new Messages tab inbox in Twitter on iOS, Android and will soon be available on Twitter.com.

“The new DM review inbox function works for anyone who’s turned on the setting that allows receipt of messages from people they don’t follow and will let you choose to either ‘Delete’

or ‘Accept’ inbound messages,” TechCrunch.com reported on Tuesday.

The sender will not know whether or not receiver has seen their message until you hit accept. Last week, Twitter lunched a customisable Direct Message Card that businesses can use to promote and share bots and other customer experiences in DMs. With this new card, Twitter aims at helping businesses drive discovery of such experiences - both through Promoted Tweets and organic sharing.

In a first, Swiss court fines man for “liking” posts on Facebook London Beware as even ‘liking’ a controversial post on Facebook can land you in trouble. In a first such case, a Switzerland court has fined a man over $4,000 just for clicking the “like” button on comments that a judge deemed defamatory.

According to a report in Fortune late on Tuesday, the comments suggested that Erwin Kessler, who runs an animal rights group, holds racist and anti-Semitic views.

The defendant, who has not been named in the court documents, clicked “like” on some of those comments and linked to some of the posts.

The judge ruled that by clicking the “like” button, the defendant “clearly endorsed the unseemly content.”

According to Swiss media reports, Kessler has sued a number of people who participated in those discussions, which began in 2015 during a debate over which animal rights groups should be allowed to participate in a vegan

street festival. The court has found several people guilty of defamation for making specific comments about Kessler.

There have been defamation cases involving social media, like the case in which singer Courtney Love was sued for making derogatory comments about a fashion designer and was forced to pay $350,000 or a Britain newspaper columnist who was convicted earlier this year of making derogatory comments on Twitter and forced to pay damages of $30,000.

However, Swiss legal experts argued that the defendant in the most recent case is the first to have been fined just for “liking” comments.

“The Swiss judge argued that by doing so, the man had made the comments ‘accessible to a large number of people,’ since Facebook showed them to all of his friends and followers,” the report noted.

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Burqa banned in Mosul

Iraqi army stops women from wearing headscarf or niqab as ISIS militants use veiled clothing to launch suicide bombings THE Iraqi army has banned the use of burqas in Mosul after Islamic State used the garment to carry out deadly attacks in the city. Residents will not be able to wear the headscarf nor the niqab — the full-face veil — as the government troops

attempt to flush the terrorists out of the Iraqi city. The ban is understood to be a temporary one, and Mosul joins a long list of countries, cities and organisations who prohibit the piece of religious clothing.

Both the niqab and the burqa have been used extensively by men and women to carry out suicide bombings and hit-andrun attacks on army checkpoints in the city, a military source told Al-Masdar News.

The controversial garment has divided opinion in Europe and many countries have discussed stopping residents from wearing it, many citing security fears. In the UK, there is no law restricting people wearing a burqa for religious reasons, but some judges have asked women to lift their veils to verify their identity in court. Ukip’s plans to ban the burqa and niqab would see legal action brought against anyone wearing anything that covers their face, Paul Nuttall has said. The Ukip leader said the controversial policy which would ban garments traditionally worn by Muslim women would apply to items of clothing such as balaclavas. Ukip’s manifesto explicitly said the party “will ban wearing of the niqab and the burqa in public places”. Speaking while campaigning in Boston, Lincolnshire, Nuttall said the policy would apply to “face-coverings in general”. Asked if this would affect people wearing balaclavas, he said: “How many people have you ever seen wearing a balaclava in public? You don’t see it, you don’t even see it in winter. “What’s happened is that the Westminster media have tried to mock and deride what we’re trying to say, maybe because they feel uncomfortable about it, I don’t know.” France became the first European country to prohibit the full-veil

in public spaces with a law “banning the hiding of the face in public spaces”, with a law that took effect in April 2011. This year, Morocco banned the production and sale of burqa full-face Muslim veils for security reasons, imposed due to reports felons have been using it to help carry out their crimes. The issue has been brought even further into the spotlight in 2017 with a number of world leaders travelling to the Persian Gulf on political trips. At the end of last month, Angela Merkel arrived in Saudi Arabia without a headscarf ahead

of talks with King Salman. She was not the first to do so, with Theresa May, Hillary Clinton and Michelle Obama all having refused to wear the garment, which is seen as a sign of oppression by some critics.

Meanwhile, Iraqi forces are fighting to retake the last ISIS-held areas of Mosul, a city that was the jihadist group’s emblematic stronghold. Iraqi forces are more than seven months into a massive operation to recapture the city, and have already taken back its whole eastern side and much of the west.

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Canada engineers develop toilet for India Chinese Muslim woman that runs without water, sewage system scales Mount Everest

Toronto A team of engineers in Canada has devised a prototype that reimagines the humble toilet;

with an innovative design that makes it suitable for areas that lack access to sanitation facilities such as adequate running water or sewage systems, making it particularly

relevant to India.

India, of course, is a large part of the team’s objective of creating a sustainable toilet. An earlier

version was presented at Reinvent the Toilet Fair held in New Delhi in March 2014.

Almost three years later, an improved model arrived in India.

As the team’s leader, professor

Studio Ghibli to open Totoro theme park

TOKYO Japanese animation giant Studio Ghibli has unveiled plans for a theme park to open in 2020. The 200-hectare site will be built in Nagoya city, in Aichi prefecture, said Governor Hideaki Omura on Thursday at a press conference.

The park will be based on the popular film My Neighbor Totoro, embodying the movie’s theme of “respecting and embracing nature”. The studio’s

feature films are loved by many and critically-acclaimed. My Neighbor Totoro was released in 1988 and tells the story of two young sisters who settle into an old country house while waiting for their mother to recover from an illness.

During their adventures, they encounter and befriend playful forest spirits, most notably the massive cuddly creature known as Totoro.

Twitter row: South Africa’s opposition suspends ex-leader Helen Zille after colonialism tweet

Johannesburg South Africa’s main opposition Democratic Alliance has suspended Helen Zille, a former DA leader and now premier of Western Cape province, for a tweet about colonialism, the party said on Saturday.

Zille said on Twitter in March: “For those claiming legacy of colonialism was ONLY negative, think of our independent judiciary, transport infrastructure, piped water etc.” “Our federal executive has resolved that Zille be suspended from all party-related activities until such time that a disciplinary hearing is concluded,” party leader Mmusi Maimane said. The Western Cape is a DA stronghold and the only province not governed by the African National Congress.

Yu-Ling Cheng, director of the University of Toronto’s Centre for Global Engineering, said, “We started in April in Coimbatore. It is not yet a commercialisable unit. We did the testing to learn about user behaviour.”

The concept behind the toilet is a household system that can operate without running water or a connection to plumbing, or even without reliable grid power, using a combination of a handcranked mechanism, solar power and steam. The excreta is separated into liquid and solid waste.

The solid waste goes into a smoulder chamber that incinerates waste and leaves only ashes, thereby destroying any germs and contaminants.

The liquid passes through a sand filter and is pasteurised using the heat from the process for treating solid waste, and what remains can then be either safely discharged or even used for agricultural purposes.

“It is not necessarily just for rural areas; it is also very suitable for urban areas. Many cities do not have the proper fecal sludge management systems in place, and our system would destroy the fecal sludge right at source, so there is no need for downstream management,” Cheng, who was born in Taiwan, explained to the Hindustan Times.While the final version is still between two and three years away, Cheng said as trials and tests continue for a system that is robust and cost-effective, it promises an ingenious solution to a problem that is rife in countries such as India.

While an earlier prototype was a batch system, one that collected waste through the day and the disposed of it at once, the latest iteration is targeted for household-scale use.

BEIJING A Chinese Muslim woman from Northwest China’s Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region has successfully scaled Mount Everest.

Officially named Ma Liyamu, a Muslim from Jichang Hui Autonomous Prefecture, Xinjiang, Maizi started doing outdoor sports in 1996 but concealed her career from her other family members except her father until the media widely reported her in 2015, official sources said here on Tuesday.

In 2015, she was severely injured in an avalanche at her base camp in Nepal as she was preparing to climb Everest. But after recovering, she geared up again and successfully reached the top of Everest last May. From being an amateur climber, and later a coordinator for a

mountaineering firm, to running a high mountain trekking agency, the 47-year-old woman has been persistent in her efforts despite suffering obstruction in this maledominated industry. Maizi became an assistant of Yang Chunfeng, known as the pioneer ofChinese folk mountaineering in 2009. Mainly in charge of logistic support services, she assisted Yang, also from Xinjiang, in scaling 11 of the 14 mountains in the world that are taller than 8,000 meters, including Everest.

She set up a trekking company and founded the first China Women’s Everest Team the next year. As the world’s third registered women’s Everest expedition team, the five members – Maizi and four other climbers from Hong Kong, Shanghai, Sichuan and Yunnan – have received nationwide attention.

UK police arrest woman over alleged torture during Liberia civil war London British police said on Thursday they had arrested a woman in London on suspicion of torture during the civil war in Liberia more than 25 years ago.The 51-year-old was arrested in the east of the capital and searches were being carried out at two addresses in east London and central London, police said in a statement.Officers were liaising with Britain’s foreign ministry and the prosecution service, it added.“The allegations relate to atrocities that occurred during the civil war in Liberia between 1989 and 1993,” police said.

Robocop joins Dubai police to fight real life crime Dubai A robotic policeman which can help identify wanted criminals and collect evidence has joined Dubai’s police force and will patrol busy areas in the city, as part of a government programme aimed at replacing some human crime-fighters with machines.

If the “Robocop” experiment is successful, Dubai Police says it wants the unarmed robots to make up 25 percent of its patrolling force by 2030.

Clad in the colours of the Dubai Police uniform, the life-size robot, which can shake hands and perform a military salute, is the lighter side of a government plan to use technology to improve services and security ahead of Dubai hosting Expo 2020.

“These kind of robots can work 24/7. They won’t ask you for leave, sick leave or maternity leave. It can work around the clock,” said Brigadier Khalid Nasser Al Razooqi, director general of the Smart Services Department at Dubai Police.

The first automated policeman in the Middle East, the robot on wheels is equipped with cameras and facial recognition software.

touch screen computer embedded in its chest. Built by Barcelona-based PAL Robotics, and programmed by Dubai

It can compare faces with a police database and flag matches to headquarters. It can read vehicle licence plates and its video feed can help police watch for risks such as unattended bags in popular areas of Dubai, a financial and tourism hub.

Members of the public can also talk to the robot to report a crime or communicate with it using a

Police, the cost of the robot has not been disclosed.

Most people are not nervous about talking to a robot and some even seem to prefer it, Razooqi said.“We now see the new generations who are using smart devices - they love to use these kind of tools. A lot of them have seen the Robocop movie and they said: you guys, you have done it.”

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Tobacco kills 7m a year: WHO

GENEVA Smoking and other tobacco use kills more than seven million people each year, the World Health Organization said Tuesday, also warning of the dire environmental impact of tobacco production, distribution and waste. The UN agency said tougher measures were needed to rein in tobacco use, urging countries to ban smoking in the workplace and indoor public spaces, outlaw marketing of tobacco products and hike cigarette prices. “Tobacco threatens us all,” WHO chief Margaret Chan said in a statement.

“Tobacco

exacerbates poverty, reduces economic productivity, contributes to poor household food choices, and pollutes indoor air,” she said.

In a report released ahead of World No Tobacco Day on Wednesday, WHO warned that the annual death toll of seven million people had jumped from four million at the turn of the century, making tobacco the world’s single biggest cause of preventable death. And the death toll is expected to keep rising, with WHO bracing for more than one billion deaths this century.

“By 2030, more than 80 percent of the deaths will occur in

developing countries, which have been increasingly targeted by tobacco companies seeking new markets to circumvent tightening regulation in developed nations.”Tobacco use also brings an economic cost: WHO estimates that it drains more than $1.4 trillion (1.3 trillion euros) from households and governments each year in healthcare expenditures and lost productivity, or nearly two percent of the global gross domestic product.In addition to the health and economic costs linked to smoking, the WHO report for the first time delved into the environmental impact of everything from tobacco production to the cigarette butts and other waste produced by smokers.

“From start to finish, the tobacco life cycle is an overwhelmingly polluting and damaging process,” WHO Assistant Director-General Oleg Chestnov said in the report.

The report detailed how growing

Pak freezes account of 5,000 suspected terrorists in bid to stay off list of terror-friendly nations Islamabad In a bid to stay off the list of terror-friendly nations, Pakistan launched a fresh crackdown on extremism. The authorities in Islamabad swung into action, freezing the bank accounts of nearly 5,000 suspected terrorists, taking about $3 million

out of their pockets. Despite the tough action, analysts claim Pakistan still remains under the radar of Financial Action Task Force (FATF), the international body which is set to meet in Spain later this month.

The task forces comprises of representatives from 35 nations.

The international body was formed in 1989, initially with the agenda of curbing money laundering activities across the world. However, after the 9/11 terror attacks, the intergovernmental body also took over the task of fighting terror financing.Pakistan last faced the threat of being ‘blacklisted’ by the FATF in 2015, after Islamabad was accused by India, Afghanistan and Iran of backing

non-state actors to indulge in proxy wars. However, the 35nation body exempted Pakistan upon scrutiny, directing the nation to increase steps in curbing the funding of terrorism in the nation.

According to analysts, Pakistan’s soft approach

towards anti-India jihad outfits – Jaish-e-Mohammad and Lashkar-e-Taiba could bring the nation under tighter scrutiny of the FATF. Amir Rana, director of the Islamabad-based Pakistan Institute of Peace Studies, said the terror funding peaks in the state during the period of Ramadan, when jihadist groups posing as charity outfits launch an aggressive fundraising campaign across several mosques in the nation.

Apart from Lashkar and Jaish, Pakistan could also face the brunt for not acting in a decisive manner against Lashkar-e-Omar, Haqqani Network and Jaish-alAdl, whose cadres are reportedly present in eastern provinces of Balochistan and Khyber

Pakhtunkhwa. According to experts, the counter terrorism in east Pakistan is hindered by by political compulsions, whereas, in the western part of the state, military and intelligence is using the militants as proxies to create turbulence in Indian territory of Kashmir.

If Pakistan is blacklisted by the FATF, the country’s ability to borrow would be severely hurt. The credit ranking of Pakistan is expected to slip drastically if included in the list of terror-friendly nations.

However, Hasan Akbar, of the Islamabad-based Jinnah institute, claims Pakistan would not be reprimanded by FATF as the country has taken sufficient steps to curb money laundering, including terror financing. He further added that dubious companies and outfits with money trail reaching upto Dubai and Saudi Arabia have been shut down after coming under the radar of domestic agencies.

“Challenges still remain in sectarian and jihadi groups where they get individual donations from traders and merchants in urban and rural areas,” Akbar said, while speaking to AP.The most decisive action against terrorism was taken in January this year, when Jamaat-ud-Dawah chief Hafiz Saeed was placed under house arrest, along with four of his associates. The bank accounts of JuD, and its charitable arm – Falah-e-Insaniyat were freezed on suspicion of funds being used for terrorism.

tobacco often requires large quantities of fertilisers and pesticides, and it warned that tobacco farming had become the main cause of deforestation in several countries.

This is largely due to the amount of wood needed for curing tobacco, with WHO estimating that one tree is needed for every 300 cigarettes produced.

WHO also highlighted the pollution generated during the production, transport and distribution of tobacco products.

The report estimates that the industry emits nearly four million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent annually - the same as around three million transatlantic flights.

And waste from the process contains over 7,000 toxic chemicals that poison the environment, including human carcinogens, WHO said. Once

in the hands of the consumer, tobacco smoke emissions spewed thousands of tonnes of human carcinogens, toxic substances and greenhouse gases into the environment.

Cigarette butts and other tobacco waste make up the largest number of individual pieces of litter in the world, the agency said.

Two thirds of the 15 billion cigarettes sold each day are thrown on to the street or elsewhere in the environment, it said, adding that butts account for up to 40 percent of all items collected in coastal and urban clean-ups.

WHO urged governments to take strong measures to rein in tobacco use. “One of the least used, but most effective tobacco control measures... is through increasing tobacco tax and prices,” Chestnov said.

Indian judge baffles with theories

JODHPUR Peacocks don’t have sex, but rather shed tears to conceive, according to a judge in western India whose unique theories have set off a social media storm in the country. At a hearing in Rajasthan state’s high court Wednesday, judge Mahesh Chandra Sharma urged India’s government to declare the cow considered sacred in Hindumajority India - as the national animal since it is “as pious as a peacock”.“The peacock is a lifelong celibate. It never has sex with the peahen. The peahen gets pregnant after swallowing the tears of the peacock,” Sharma said on his last day in office before retiring.

Sharma’s comments, made in response to an NGO’s petition on the condition of state-run cow shelters, sparked a flurry of jokes and comments on social media.

“Profoundly ironical, that it was the peacock (not its tears but plumage) that led Darwin to propose the landmark theory of Sexual Selection,” said Anand Ranganathan on Twitter. Some users posted wildlife footage of peacocks mating to disprove his theory, while several pointed to suggestions on Quora, a user-

generated question-and-answer site, that his celibacy claim came from ancient Hindu epics of Mahabharata and Ramayana.

In his 145-page order, Sharma cites Hindu scriptures to bolster his case - listing the “miraculous” age-defying qualities of cow dung and urine.“(Mother cow) is the only animal that inhales as well as exhales oxygen,” he said.

“Cow urine has the miraculous property of destroying any kind of germs. It provides strength to mind and heart. It stops ageing,” he said, adding that its horns “acquire cosmic energy”. “Houses plastered with cow dung are safe from radio waves.” Cows have increasingly become a focal point of nationalist discourse in India where Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s right-wing government has made cattle protection a key theme since coming to power in 2014.

The government last week prohibited the sale and purchase of cattle for slaughter across India, sparking protests in states where beef is eaten.The slaughter of cows, as well as the possession or consumption of beef, is banned in most but not all Indian states.

Some impose up to life imprisonment for infringements.

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Lost temple discovered US businessman admits to making illegal exports to Pakistani atomic, space agencies after 1,000 years in China New York A 43-year old business owner in the US has pleaded guilty to exporting products without a license to Pakistani atomic and space agencies in violation of US federal laws and faces up to 20 years in prison.

Imran Khan, of North Haven, Connecticut, waived his right to be indicted and pleaded guilty on Saturday in Hartford federal court to violating US export law, US Attorney for the District of Connecticut Deirdre Daly said.

According to court documents and statements made in court, from at least 2012 to December 2016, Khan and others were engaged in a scheme to purchase goods that were controlled under the Export Administration Regulations (EAR) and export those goods without a license to Pakistan, in violation of the EAR. Khan conducted business as

Brush Locker Tools or as Kauser Enterprises-USA. When asked by US manufacturers about the enduser for a product, Khan either informed the manufacturer that the product would remain in the US, or he completed an end-user

certification indicating that the product would not be exported.

After the products were purchased, they were shipped by the manufacturer to Khan’s North Haven residence or to a business owned by him.The products were then shipped to Pakistan on behalf of either the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission (PAEC), the Pakistan Space and Upper Atmosphere Research Commission (SUPARCO) or the National Institute of Lasers and Optronics (NILOP), all of which were listed on the US Department of Commerce Entity List, the Justice Department said in a statement.

“The illegal exportation of sensitive technology to prohibited entities such as PAEC, SUPARCO and NILOP, poses a significant threat to our national security,” said Leigh-Alistair Barzey, Special Agent-in-Charge of the Defense Criminal Investigative Service (DCIS), Northeast Field Office.

Khan never obtained a license to export any item to the designated entity even though he knew that a license was required prior to export.

He pleaded guilty to one count of violating the International Emergency Economic Powers Act.In pleading guilty, Khan specifically admitted that, between August 2012 and January 2013, he procured, received and exported to PAEC an “Alpha Duo Spectrometer” without a license to do so.

Khan is scheduled to be sentenced by US District Judge Vanessa Bryant in August 2017, at which time he faces a maximum term of imprisonment of 20 years.

He has been released on a $100,000 bond since he was arrested in December last year.

“The US Attorney’s office in Connecticut is committed to working with our federal law enforcement partners to ensure that sensitive technology, manufactured in the US and elsewhere, does not fall into the wrong hands,” Daly said.

Two girls harassed by school authorities; sent home for wearing hijabs Washington Two Muslim students were allegedly sent home by a US school for wearing hijabs because they were not carrying

a ‘note’ from parents to prove that they had donned the headscarves for religious reasons.

Hajah Bah and Fatmata Mansaray, both cousins and students of Freedom High School, Virginia, allege that the school administrators harassed them over their decision to don hijabs, eventually prompting apologies from Prince William school division leaders.

Bah and Mansaray were quoted as saying by Inside NoVA that they were approached by a school administrator on Thursday and told that they would need a note from a parent to prove they were wearing the head coverings for religious

reasons.

When they pushed back against that assertion, they were sent to the principal’s office and ultimately dismissed from the

school for the day.

“Normally, I don’t wear the hijab at school, but this time I did because Ramadan fell during the school year and I was fasting,” Bah was quoted as saying.

“But why do I need a note if it’s my religion?” she said.

As the word of the incident reached school division leaders, spokesman Phil Kavits said they, “immediately determined that it runs counter to the PWCS (Prince William County Public Schools) commitment to diversity.”

He said school officials have already apologised to both girls and their families, and the division has posted an apology online.

PWCS was quoted by WJLA-TV as saying in a statement, “We regret the circumstances that led a Freedom High School administrator to question students about wearing a hijab or ask for proof of their religious reasons.

“The request was inconsistent with the PWCS commitment to diversity and religious freedom, and we apologise to anyone it may have offended.”

Mansaray also contended that Thursday’s incident was far from the first time she has been accosted by administrators over her head covering.

“I would explain that it’s for a religious purpose, and they didn’t care. I’d wear my hijab to school, and I’d be constantly told to take off my hijab,” she said.

Mansaray said she and her parents were initially reluctant to secure a note proving she was wearing the hijab for religious reasons, as they “did not feel it was right”.

But she felt she eventually “had to cave in” and delivered a note to the school’s office. However, she claimed her encounters with administrators continued.

Since the incident, Bah and Mansaray said they have both received apologies from the school system, and have even seen an outpouring of support from their fellow students.

Beijing Chinese archaeologists have found a famous temple that remained hidden for nearly a millennium in China’s southwestern Sichuan province.

The Fugan Temple, located in downtown Chengdu, was a famous temple that lasted from the Eastern Jin Dynasty (317420) to the Southern Song Dynasty (1127-1279).

Daoxuan, a famous Tang Dynasty (618-907) monk, once wrote that an official rite to pray for rain to end a persistent drought was held in front of the temple, and it rained as if the prayers had been heard in heaven. The story was the record of how the temple got its name, Fugan, which means “perceive the blessing.”

The popular Tang Dynasty poet Liu Yuxi left a poem to commemorate the temple’s renovation, describing its heavenly appearance. The poem further noted the temple’s important role at that time, staterun Xinhua news agency reported. However, the building was worn down during the later period of the Tang and Song dynasties, with all traces of the

temple disappearing during wars.

Archaeologists unearthed more than 1,000 tablets inscribed with Buddhist scriptures and over 500 pieces of stone sculpture as well as glazed tiles with inscriptions.

“We have only excavated a part of the temple’s area, but already have a glimpse of its past glory,” said Yi Li, who led the excavation project.He said they have found the temple’s foundation, ruins of surrounding buildings, wells, roads and ditches. During the excavation, archaeologists found some 80 ancient tombs scattered near the temple, dating back to Shang and Zhou dynasties (1600-256 BC). In the temple’s surroundings, they have unearthed large amounts of household tools and utensils and building materials dating back to various periods from the Song to Ming dynasties.

Chengdu became an economic and cultural centre in western China during the Sui and Tang dynasties. The temple’s discovery could greatly contribute to the study of the spread of Buddhism in China during that time, said Wang Yi, director of the Chengdu Cultural Relic Research Institute.

US hackers could have framed Russia in election hack: Putin tells MBC

Moscow American hackers could have planted false evidence that Russia interfered in the U.S. presidential election, President Vladimir Putin was quoted as saying by NBC News on Saturday. US intelligence officials have said Russia tried to interfere in the U.S. election by hacking the Democratic Party to sway the vote in favour of Donald Trump, a charge the Kremlin has repeatedly denied.

In an interview with NBC News’ Sunday Night with Megyn Kelly, a preview of which was released to media, Putin said hackers in the United States could have made it look like Russia was behind the hack for political reasons. “Hackers can be anywhere. They can be in

Russia, in Asia … even in America, Latin America,” Putin said. “They can even be hackers, by the way, in the United States, who very skilfully and professionally, shifted the blame, as we say, on to Russia.”

“Can you imagine something like that? In the midst of a political battle. By some calculations it was convenient for them to release this information, so they released it, citing Russia. Could you imagine something like that?

I can.” Speaking at Russia’s flagship St Petersburg International Economic Forum on Friday, Putin said the hacking accusations were no more than “harmful gossip” and any evidence cited by U.S. intelligence could easily have been faked.

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ISIS militants killed in Pakistan raid to recover Chinese nationals Karachi Pakistani forces said on Sunday they have killed a number of key commanders of the Islamic State group in an operation based on intelligence reports that the

militants were holding two Chinese nationals abducted from the restive Balochistan province last month. The operation was carried out in the mountainous Mastung district after intelligence reports said the group was holding the Chinese nationals kidnapped on May 24 from Jinnah Town of the provincial capital Quetta. Jinnah Town is one of the affluent residential areas where Chinese NGOs teach Mandarin. “We received information that the two Chinese language teachers kidnapped from Quetta were being held in the hills of Mastung,” Balochistan government spokesman Abdul Kakar said.

“The pair was not found but at least 12 militants were killed in the gun battles,” according to a security official. The official said the vehicles used in the kidnapping of the Chinese

nationals were found at the hideout, however. The security operation began on Friday and was still on. The security forced did not identify those killed in the operation, but Dawn newspaper reported that they included the top leadership of the Islamic State group in Pakistan. Suicide vests, weapons, and explosives were also recovered from the scene, which Pakistani officials said could have been used for launching terror attacks in the province. Seven Pakistani soldiers were injured in the operation, and two were said to be critical, another official said.

Official sources said the operation was the biggest since 2015 when Lashkar-eJhangvi leader Malik Ishaq and his associates were killed in Punjab province.

Pakistan officially denies any organised presence of IS in

Woman in Pakistan shoots husband for ‘raping’ daughter-in-law

Peshawar A man was shot dead in Pakistan allegedly by his wife who accused him of raping their daughter-in-law in the absence of her soldier husband, in what the media described as a “rare incident of honour killing”.

Begum Bibi, who lives in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Shangla village, said she killed her husband Gulbar Khan because “he didn’t respect family and relations”.

She said Khan was repeatedly sexually assaulting their daughter-in-law for the past three months, the Express Tribune reported.

The report said that the rape victim’s husband, a Frontier Crops soldier, said he knew his

wife’s ordeal “but due to parental respect, I couldn’t kill him, but informed my mother that I will leave home after my return” from training.

Khan was sleeping when his wife fired at him with a pistol with their daughter-in-law’s assistance, police said.

Begum said Khan, in the absence of their son, forced his wife into an “illicit relationship” and the practice continued for three months, the report added.

“I decided to kill him when he refused to give up his evil practice,” Begum said.

Police produced Begum, her daughter-in-law and son before a court which remanded them to judicial custody on Saturday.

the country but the terrorist group has support among local extremists and has been involved in several militant attacks. The kidnapping of the Chinese nationals has raised concerns in Beijing over the multi-billion dollar investment in Pakistan.

During the incident last month, one Chinese woman had managed to escape when the abductors fired in the air to disperse onlookers but they managed to get hold of two others. The abduction forced the Chinese embassy in Islamabad to evacuate 10 of its nationals from Quetta and send them home. Chinese interest in mineral-rich Balochistan has spiked with the USD 50 billion China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, which links Pakistan’s deep-water Gwadar port to Xinjiang in China. China has asked Pakistan to improve security, especially in Balochistan where it is building the strategic Gwadar port. On May 13, ten labourers working on a linking road project of the Gwadar port were shot dead by motorcycle-borne gunmen. A day earlier, a suicide bombing targeted the convoy of Deputy Chairman of Senate Maulana Abdul Ghafoor Haideri. The attack in Mastung – the same area where the security operation was carried out on Sunday – killed 26 people.

Pakistan has deployed a Maritime Security Force and Special Security Division to protect locals and foreigners working on projects under the CPEC, including Gwadar.

Qatar asks Hamas leaders to leave Doha, the militant group denies report

Ramallah Hamas is denying a report that host Qatar has asked several leaders of the Islamic militant group to leave, but says some senior officials may be shifted to new locations based on “work requirements.”

Sunday’s statement comes after the Lebanon-based TV station AlMayadeen reported that Qatar gave Hamas a list of leaders who should leave. Qatari officials did not respond to a request for

comment. Its state-run Qatar News Agency has been offline since an alleged hack in May that reignited tensions between the gas-rich nation and its Gulf Arab neighbors over its support of Islamist groups.

Hamas noted in its statement that the Palestinian group’s leadership is now based in the Gaza Strip, after Gaza native Ismail Haniyeh replaced Qatarbased Khaled Mashaal as the top leader in recent elections.

Sushma Swaraj promises medical visa to Pakistani man for father’s liver transplant New Dehli External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj on Sunday promised medical visa to a Pakistani man for his father’s liver transplant, prodding Pakistan’s adviser on foreign affairs Sartaj Aziz to take up the case. Responding to the Pakistan man’s plea, Swaraj wrote on Twitter, “My sympathies are with you. We will give you the visa. Sartaj Aziz Sahib should recommend your case.”

The man named Saeed Ayub had earlier written to Indian Foreign Minister on Twitter that he had

to sell half of his assets for his father’s liver transplant but could not get a medical visa.Because of recent turmoil across the

border and strain relations, only a letter of recommendation by Pakistan Foreign Affairs Advisor Sartaj Aziz will enable a Pakistani national to get a medical visa for India.

Pakistan sewer cleaner dies as doctor refuses to touch his dirty body Lahore A 30-year-old sanitary worker in Pakistan, who fell unconscious while cleaning a drain, died after a fasting doctor at a hospital refused to touch his “dirty body”, his family has said. Irfan Maseeh and his three fellow workers fell unconscious while cleaning a manhole on Chorr Road in Umerkot district of Pakistan’s Sindh province, following which they were taken to Civil Hospital Umerkot for treatment. While Maseeh kept gasping for breath, his family members said they pleaded with the hospital staff to treat him, but the doctor at the facility refused to touch his sludge-covered body, saying he was fasting.“Dr Yousuf said he would not touch Irfan’s dirty body until it was cleaned. I cleaned his body, after which an oxygen pump was sent for Irfan, but that was empty,” said the deceased’s brother Pervaiz Maseeh. He said Irfan had dived down to clean the manhole on Thursday when he fell unconscious after inhaling poisonous gases trapped inside.

While Irfan died hours later in the government hospital, the other three sanitary workers were

referred to Hyderabad and later to Karachi for medical treatment.

SSP Umerkot Usman Bajwa said the Municipal Committee had not given the workers safety equipment which caused the death of Maseeh. “The doctors refused to treat as they were covered with filth,” he was quoted as saying by told Geo.tv. Irfan’s enraged family members have staged a protest with his body and allege that the doctors’ negligent response to an emergency situation as well as lack of facilities at the hospital resulted in his death.

“No one had come to share our loss or express solidarity with us,” Pervaiz said, adding that

SSP Bajwa had promised them that a complete investigation would be carried out in the case and the to take the accused doctor would be taken to task and the accused doctor would be taken to task.Meanwhile, the police said the main accused Dr Jaam Kunbhar in the case had been arrested while raids were being conducted to arrest the other two doctors — Dr Yousuf and Dr Allah Dad Rathore.

Kunbhar has claimed that Irfan had already passed away before arriving at the hospital. A case was registered against six suspects including three doctors on behalf of the father of the Irfan, the report said.

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Hope they kill us, not rape: Former IS sex slave’s sombre return to Iraq village Kocho A prominent Yazidi activist held as a sex slave by Islamic State militants returned to her home village in Iraq on Thursday where she was captured three years ago, pleading for international help to free other Yazidi women still held prisoner.Nadia Murad, 24, was one of about 7,000 women and girls captured in northwest Iraq in August 2014 by the hard-line Sunni Muslim fighters who view Yazidis as devil worshippers.She was abducted from Kocho near Sinjar, an area home to about 400,000 Yazidis, and held by Islamic State in Mosul where she was repeatedly tortured and raped. She escaped three months later, reaching a refugee camp, then making her way to Germany.Murad has taken to the world stage to appeal for support for the Yazidi religious minority, in the United Nations Security Council in 2015 and to all governments globally, earning her a Nobel Peace Prize nomination and U.N. Goodwill Ambassador role.Murad cried as she visited her former school in Kocho which was retaken from Islamic state fighters late last week.At that school, the militants had gathered all the

Kocho residents, sending the children to training camps, forcing women and girls into slavery and killing the men, she recalled in tears.An estimated 3,500 women and girls still are enslaved. “We hoped that our destiny would be like the men and be killed, but instead Europeans, Saudis and Tunisians and other fighters came and raped us and sold us,” she told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.Seven mass graves lie in Kocho, and Murad called

for them to be exhumed.“Until now not a single mass grave has been exhumed,” she said. “The international community has not delivered on its responsibility.“I tell anyone that you are being unjust for not supporting a minority like the Yazidis.”Murad has called for the massacre of Yazidis to be officially recognised as genocide.“I am a daughter of this village,” she added.The visit, under heavy security, came after militias loyal to Iran and fighting alongside Iraqi armed forces

managed to fight their way to border with Syria for the first time last week, freeing the last Yazidi villages from Islamic State.

Murad said she never thought she would get back to Kocho, an agricultural village once home to about 2,000 Yazidis, of whom about half were killed in the 2014 attacks or are missing.

On her website Murad explains how six of her nine brothers were killed in the Kocho massacre and her mother was executed as she was considered too old for sexual

enslavement.In total around 18 of her family members were either murdered or are missing, with mass Yazidi graves uncovered in the area north of Sinjar mountain.One of Murad’s nieces is still held by Islamic State and her sister, Khayriyah, 30, who joined Murad on the trip to Kocho on Thursday, was also enslaved for five months but escaped.United Nations investigators estimate more than 5,000 Yazidis were rounded up and slaughtered in the 2014 attack that a U.N. commission called a genocide by Islamic State which declared a “caliphate” over parts of Iraq and Syria.If such a designation were made official, it would mark the first recognised genocide by nonstate actors, rather than a state or paramilitaries acting on its behalf.International human rights lawyer Amal Clooney last June said she aimed to prosecute Islamic State through the International Criminal Court for their crimes against the Yazidi community.Murad, who now lives in Germany, is planning to release a memoir later this year titled “The Last Girl: My Story of Captivity, and My Fight Against the Islamic State”.

Kulbhushan Jadhav death sentence: He will be Germany to keep deporting alive till he exhausts clemency, says Pakistan Afghans who pose threat, hide ID Islamabad Pakistan on Thursday said that former Indian navy officer

Kulbhushan Jadhav, who was awarded death sentence on charges of “involvement in espionage and sabotage activities”, will remain alive till he does not exhaust the right to seek clemency. ”Irrespective of ICJ’s stay, Jadhav will remain alive until he has exhausted the right to request for clemency, initially with the COAS (army chief) and later with President,” Foreign Office spokesperson Nafees Zakaria said.Zakari said the Indian petition at the International Court of Justice was about Jadhav’s entitlement to consular access. ”It is not about whether the ICJ can act as a Court of Appeal from Pakistani legal proceedings. That is why Barrister Khawar Qureshi informed the Court that India cannot obtain from the Court what it is seeking. He also told the Court that India is using media to create false impression about the case.”

The spokesperson said India had failed despite reminders to provide information sought on

January 23 by Islamabad on the basis of Jadhav’s confession of spying and fomenting terror in

Pakistan. He termed the ICJ stay on Jadhav’s hanging as “nothing but usual”.Asserting that Pakistan’s position in this matter has been made clear, Zakaria said, “We had sought information from India” on January 23, 2017, on the basis of Jadhav’s confession and statements.“India has not responded despite reminders,” he said.

He also said that in the three previous cases in the ICJ, the request for release or acquittal was not granted by the court, which stated that it does not have the power to give out such orders.Zakaria said that the case is also about whether Jadhav is entitled to consular access because of the 1963 Vienna Convention on Consular Relations and not about whether the ICJ can act as a court of appeal for Pakistani legal proceedings.He claimed the “propaganda” that the Pakistani side did not counter the Indian argument related to the 2008 consular access agreement is also a “lie”.The ICJ ruling had triggered criticism of the Pakistan Foreign Office for its “poor handling” and also for its choice of attorney Khawar Qureshi, who presented Pakistan’s case before the ICJ. The ICJ had also stayed the execution of Jadhav till further hearing.

Berlin The German government said on Thursday it will continue to deport people to Afghanistan if they are considered a threat, have committed crimes or persistently refuse to reveal their identity. The government earlier had said it would consider each deportation on a caseby-case basis following Wednesday’s deadly attack in Kabul, which raised fresh questions about security in the country.

The German embassy was badly damaged in the attack, which killed at least 90 people in the Afghan capital.

The partial suspension of deportations will continue until Germany’s foreign ministry issues a revised security assessment for Afghanistan next month. The foreign ministry said voluntary returns would continue, as would the deportation of convicted criminals, people

deemed a “terrorist threat” and “rejected asylum-seekers who persistently refuse to reveal their identity.” Germany canceled a plane that was to take deportees to Kabul following Wednesday’s

attack. That same day, nine police officers were injured in a violent protest enforcing the deportation of an Afghan student in the southeastern city of Nuremberg. Police were attempting to detain the 20-yearold man when hundreds of fellow students organized a spontaneous attempt to block his deportation.

Tens of thousands of Afghans fleeing the conflict in their home country have sought asylum in Germany in recent years.

US-led fight on Islamic State has killed 484 civilians in Iraq and Syria: Pentagon

Washington At least 484 civilians have likely been killed in U.S.-led coalition strikes against Islamic State militants in Iraq and Syria since the operation began in 2014, the U.S. military said in a statement on Friday, in its monthly update of the total.

The U.S.-led coalition figure, which is lower than estimates by non-governmental groups, such as Air Wars, represents an increase of 132 civilian deaths over its previous report released on April 30. The coalition has denied loosening standards meant to protect civilians and blamed the growing total partly on an increase pace of operations in dense, urban terrain.

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Indonesia says 1,200 Islamic State operatives in Philippines

Singapore There are about 1,200 Islamic State (IS) group operatives in the

fought with IS in Syria and Iraq, has been a hot-button issue at the three-day Singapore summit

Philippines, including foreigners of whom 40 are from Indonesia, the Indonesian defence minister told an international security forum Sunday.Speaking in Singapore amid a bloody standoff between Philippine troops and militants fighting under the IS flag in Marawi city, Defence Minister Ryamizard Ryacudu called the militants “killing machines” and urged full-scale regional cooperation against them.

“I was advised last night, 1,200 ISIS in the Philippines, around 40 from Indonesia,” Ryacudu told the Shangri-La Dialogue, using another name for the IS group.The threat of heightened terrorism, including the impending return of hundreds of Southeast Asian fighters who

also attended by US Defense Secretary Jim Mattis.

Hundreds of Islamist gunmen rampaged through Marawi, a largely Muslim city of 200,000 in the south of the mainly Catholic Philippines, on May 23 after government forces attempted to arrest their leader, Isnilon Hapilon.Up to 50 gunmen are still controlling the city centre nearly two weeks after the start of fighting that has killed 177 people including 120 militants.

“How can we tackle these foreign fighters? We have to be comprehensive,” said Ryacudu, a retired general.

“We have to find... complete ways but we must exercise caution, they are killing machines. Their aim is to kill other people so

Telangana man rapes widow, wife shoots video; case registered against couple

Hyderabad A 38-year-old woman was allegedly raped by a 60-year-old man while his wife filmed the act at their house in Khammam district of Telangana around three months ago, police said on Sunday. According to police, the complainant, a widow, was known to the accused G Satyanarayana and his middleaged wife Vasantha. As per the complaint lodged recently by the woman, she used to regularly visit Satyanarayana and Vasantha at their house in Khammam.

“Around three months ago, she was offered beer and the trio consumed the same. Later, Satyanarayana sexually assaulted her in his house while his wife filmed the act on a mobile phone,” the official said quoting the complaint. According to

Khanapur Haveli police station sub-inspector Nagendra Chary, the complainant runs a fancy store and was given Rs 80,000 loan by Satyanarayana as they were maintaining good relations.

“However, after sexually assaulting her three months ago, Satyanarayana has been threatening the victim with the video and asking her to repeatedly participate in sex, which she claims she had refused,” the sub-inspector said.

A case was registered against Satyanarayana under section 376 (rape) and his wife under section 107 (abetment) of the IPC. They were also booked under relevant sections of IT Act, he said. Asked if the husbandwife duo were arrested or taken into custody, Chary said the investigation is on and police are verifying the allegations.

that’s why it’s our responsibility that we have common understanding, consensus and common proceedings on how to fight these foreign fighters.”

Philippine Defense Undersecretary Ricardo David, speaking at the same forum, said the 1,200 figure for total IS fighters in the Philippines mentioned by Indonesia was new to him.

“I really don’t know, my figure is about 250-400, a lot less,” he told reporters.

But David said there were 40 foreign IS fighters among those who seized parts of Marawi, eight of whom have been killed by government forces.

Earlier, Philippine officials said the slain foreign fighters were from Malaysia, Indonesia, Yemen, Saudi Arabia and Chechnya.“Our intelligence estimates that there are about 40 foreigners that fought in the Marawi incident,” David said.

The Philippine official added that the foreign fighters used “back channels” in the Sulu and Celebes Seas near the borders of the Philippines, Indonesia and Malaysia to enter the southern island of Mindanao and link up with local terror groups.

“That’s why they were able to muster the operations in the area of Marawi,” David said.

World’s fastest elevator to be installed in China

Beijing The world’s fastest elevator that can operate at a record breaking speed of 1,260 metres per minute is set to been installed in a skyscraper complex building in China.

The speed was recorded during a test of the elevator in Guangzhou CTF Finance Centre in China. In May last year, the ultra-high-speed elevator had reached 1,200 metres per minute as its rated speed. It is now in the final adjustment phase.

The achievement was recorded

by China’s National Elevator Quality Supervision and

Inspection Centre, a public accreditation body of elevators.

Developed by Japanese company Hitachi, the elevator will run at the speed of 1,200 metres per minute, when it is in service.

The elevator has various safety features including brake equipment using materials with outstanding heat resistance. An air pressure adjustment technology eases ear blockage by reducing the changes in air pressure inside elevator car.

Active guide rollers installed in the elevator absorbs vibration during high speed operation, making the ride comfortable.

ISI-backed terror module busted in Punjab, three held Chandigarh Punjab Police on Saturday arrested three men and claimed to have busted a terror module that they said had direct links with Pakistan’s ISI-backed banned terror outfit International Sikh Youth Federation (ISYF). The arrested men — Gurdial Singh, Jagroop Singh and Satwinder Singh were allegedly trained and tasked to carry out terror attacks and target various “anti-panthic and anti-Sikh forces/individuals” by Lahore-based ISYF chief Lakhbir Rode, and another alleged Khalistani terror operative Harmeet Singh alias Happy alias PHD, the police said.

Preliminary investigations by the police revealed that a part of the consignment of arms and ammunition recovered by the BSF on May 21 close to the International Border in Amritsar, was supplied by the ISYF. Two terrorists, Maan Singh and Sher Singh, were arrested by the BSF as they were trying to pick the consignment.According to police spokesperson, while Gurdial is from Road Majara in Hoshiarpur district, Jagroop and Satwinder are from Chandpur Rurki in Shaheed Bhagat Singh Nagar District.

A .32-bore pistol with one magazine and 10 cartridges and a .38-bore revolver, with seven cartridges was recovered from them. While Gurdial and Jagroop were arrested from their homes, Satwinder was apprehended at a police checkpoint in Balachaur sub-

November 2016, Gurdial had arranged a visa for Jagroop, who then travelled to Lahore with a jatha. During interrogation, the duo said that Jagroop met Rode and Harmeet through Balvir during his stay in Lahore (November 12-21, 2016).

division.

The police spokesperson said Gurdial was the chief operative of this terror module and was introduced by Germany-based Balvir Singh Sandhu to Lakhbir Rode, who reportedly stays at an ISI provided safehouse in Lahore cantonment. Gurdial had met Rode several times during his visits to Pakistan, as part of religious jathas, in the past 6-7 years, he said.

The police said that during his last visit to Pakistan in

Jagroop, the police said, had confessed that he was taken to the ISYF chief blindfolded at an undisclosed location and imparted four-day training by the ISI in handing AK-47 rifle and smaller weapons. He was also trained in techniques of sabotaging railway tracks by tampering fish-plates, the police said.

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Row over ‘Half Girlfriend’ settled as Bhagat terms it fiction New Delhi A dispute between novelist Chetan Bhagat and a royal family of Bihar over alleged depiction of the princely state of Dumraon in poor light and use of objectionable words in his novel “Half Girlfriend” has been settled in a Delhi court after the writer offered an apology saying the work was based on “fiction”.

A descendant of the royal family who had sought Rs 1 crore as damages from Bhagat and others besides a ban on further sale of the novel in its present form, agreed to put an end to the lawsuit when the novelist told the court that the depiction of the royals was based on “fiction” and was “imaginary” and “unintentional”.

“I apologise to anyone if hurt by the said fictional representation of the assumed royal family in the novel,” Bhagat, whose work has also led to the making of a Bollywood flick with the same name starring Arjun Kapoor, told Additional District Judge Harish Kumar said.”In view of the statement given by the counsel for the parties, present matter is

disposed of as settled in accordance with the terms recorded particularly in the statement of counsel for defendant (Bhagat),” the court said.

The court noted that it has been agreed that Bhagat, who will also publish a disclaimer on the issue in future editions of the novel, shall carry out the publication of his clarification in newspapers by June 15.The court recorded separate statements of the counsel for plaintiff Chandra Vijay Singh, son of Maharaja Bahadur Kamal Singh and defendant Bhagat and disposed of the suit.

Chandra Vijay, who filed the civil suit through advocate Avneesh Garg, had sought a permanent injunction restraining the author, Rupa Publications and all others from further publication, sale and circulation of “Half Girlfriend” in its present form “with immediate effect”.Garg has said the novel was first published in October 2014 and since then many copies have been sold. Chandra Vijay, a descendant of the erstwhile princely state of

Dumraon in Bihar, had earlier filed the suit in the Delhi High Court seeking Rs 1 crore as damages from Bhagat.

The suit was last year transferred to the trial court after the pecuniary jurisdiction of Delhi district courts was raised from

in 1952.

The suit said the Dumraon royals were firm that they will not accept anything short of a full retraction of the original novel in English and an apology from Bhagat and the publishers.In his reply to the legal notice dated November 25,

Rs 20 lakh to Rs 2 crore.It alleged that “express and implied references” that were “false and derogatory in nature” were made against Chandra Vijay’s family in Bhagat’s book.Vijay is the eldest son of Maharaja Bahadur Kamal Singh, a two-term Lok Sabha MP and the last ruler of Dumraon before its accession to the Indian union

2014, Bhagat expressed regret and offered his lifelong friendship to the family, the suit has said.

Bhagat has agreed to publish the clarification that the lead character in his novel, Madhav Jha, is stated to be a descendant of the royal family of Dumraon, which is not true.”While describing this fictional royal family of Jhas, the reference made to the royal family of Dumraon is inadvertent,” Bhagat has said in the clarification given in the court.

The writer has agreed to publish the clarification that, “As per record, the royal family of

Parents of minor girls allege sexual assault by school staff Ludhiana In a collective protest, parents of some minor girl students at city’s premier school, Kundan Vidya Mandir in Civil Lines of Ludhiana, alleged that their

children were “sexually assaulted and touched inappropriately” by the employees of the school. The parents alleged that Class IV employees of the school, including a gardener, some bus conductors and women caretakers are in connivance with each other and that girls from primary section are being “sexually assaulted”.

High drama ensued at the school campus after parents of a girl from LKG standard alleged she was sexually assaulted by a gardener. Soon, more parents joined the protest with similar allegations. Raising slogans against school authorities, parents alleged that school management was trying to hush up the matter. The parents also blocked the road in front of the school and demanded FIR against all the suspects being pointed out by the children.

Some parents also lay themselves in front of principal’s

office raising slogans. A police team led by ACP (North) Sachin Gupta arrived and later an FIR was filed against an unidentified suspects as per a written complaint submitted by parents.

The police said the gardener identified as Naresh by one of the victims would be named in the FIR.The parents, in their collective complaint to the police, stated, “We have come to know through our children that they are being inappropriately touched by some members of the school staff. At least 6-7 such cases have come to light. Despite our plea to management to take appropriate action, matter is being hushed up.”Parents in their complaint also alleged that conductors of school buses were threatening some of them to take their complaint back. “Some conductors are telling parents to worry about their children who travel with them alone. They are harassing and threatening parents to take their complaint back.”Parents alleged that all victim girls were from 3 to 6 years of age from primary classes. A parent said, “Nothing has happened with my child, but

it can happen with anyone’s child. So we came here to protest and support parents whose children have been the victims. We cannot wait for this to happen with our children.”

Another parent said, “The school cannot take such a serious matter lightly. The children who have been the victims have told their parents that how they were taken to washroom by female caretakers and then male employees touched them inappropriately. This has been going on for days.”School principal Navita Puri said a gardener identified as Naresh was immediately suspended after parents of a girl from LKG came to her with complaint. She admitted that “an unfortunate incident happened” but said the school took immediate action.

“We received a complaint from parents of a girl on Friday and the child pointed out a gardener.

We immediately suspended him and filed a complaint with the police. Now, other parents are also alleging that their children were molested. Most of those coming here to protest are not parents of our students, but from associations who are trying to harass us,” said Puri.Meanwhile, the ACP said parents of two girls had recorded their statements with them and an FIR had been registered at division number 4 police station. “Since parents did not mention anyone’s name in their complaint, we filed FIR against unidentified suspect. But now gardener has been identified as Naresh and his name will be nominated during further proceedings.

Dumraon had ruled Dumraon since 1018 and the rule was formally handed over by the last ruler, Maharaja Bahadur Kamal Singh in June, 1952. Kamal Singh continues to reside in Dumraon with his son Chandra Vijay Singh and grandson Shivang Vijay Singh.”

“The erstwhile royal family is respected for their consistent efforts for development in Dumraon, contribution to healthcare and education and continue to lead the people in independent India,” it said.

Bhagat has said it has been passingly mentioned that the ancestors of the lead character were involved in gambling and alcoholism, leading to bankruptcy due to which the women of the family took charge of affairs and managed the family.

“I clarify that the aforesaid depiction of the royal family of Dumraon was completely based on fiction, is imaginary, unintentional and has no factual basis. I apologise to anyone if hurt by the said fictional representation of the assumed royal family in the novel,” he said.The erstwhile princely state of Dumraon, located 100 km west of Patna, was founded by a branch of Ujjainia rulers and the reign of the first king, Raja Bhoj Singh, is traced back to 1018.

Denied mortuary van, man carries wife’s body on motorcycle

New Delhi In yet another case of medical apathy, a man was forced to carry his wife’s body on a motorcycle to reach his home for her last rites after being allegedly denied a mortuary van at a government hospital in Bihar’s Purnia district, news agency ANI reported. 60-year-old Shankar Sah, a resident of Ranibari village, was forced to proceed this way as he was unable to afford a private ambulance.

“After the death of my wife I was told to take away the body and when I requested the medical staff on duty for a vehicle to carry it back to my village, they told me to arrange for it on my own,” said Sah, whose 50-year-old wife Susheela Devi died of illness at the Purnia Sadar Hospital on Friday.

Sah failed to get any help from hospital authorities despite all his efforts and, therefore, he and his 32-year-old son were forced to place Susheela’s body on a motorcycle to transport it to their

village home. Both father and son work as wage labourers in Punjab.“I approached the driver of an ambulance, who demanded Rs. 1,500 which I could not afford,” Sah said, pointing his helplessness. Susheela, who was suffering from a heart disease as well as Tuberculosis, was admitted to hospital after falling sick.Reacting on the incident, Purnia civil surgeon MM Wasim said, “It is a very unfortunate incident but no mortuary van is available at the Sadar Hospital, at present, as the one it had is not functional.

So, everyone has to arrange one on his own.” Meanwhile, District Magistrate Pankaj Kumar Pal said he had already ordered a probe into the matter.

The latest incident comes just a day after footage of a destitute woman’s body being carried in a garbage cart to hospital in Muzaffarpur for post-mortem examination, triggered an outrage and prompted the district authorities to launch an inquiry.

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Go Zojila ! Azhar Qadri at Zojila Pass (J&k)

Feel the magic of the mighty peaks, fathom the fortitude of standing apart like the Himalayas and thank those who died while defending the land for your funfilled today and tomorrow IF you are planning your summer vacation on the basis of temperature charts in Himachal, and are still unable to find the cool quotient, get togged up for the cooler climes you’d love with awe. No, it’s not going to be Manali, Dalhousie and suchlike.

Kashmir — the Zojila Pass — it shall be. The vast barrenness, snowy peaks and a feeling of being on top of the world draw you to the soul of the Himalayas.

At an altitude of 11,649 feet, Zojila Pass is picturesque, fearsome, quiet and dominating.

The long winter never ends. Its glacial snow sparkles under the summer sun.

Deep inside the Himalayan mountain range on the northeastern edge of the Kashmir valley, Zojila is the gateway to Ladakh. To the west of Zojila is the Sonamarg meadow resort and to its east is Drass, a small township — the second coldest inhabited place in the world.

The road from Sonamarg to Zojila is a serpentine curve that laps around towering mountains, a journey that enthrals amateurs and adventure lovers. Until a few years ago, the Sonamarg-Zojila road was dangerously narrow. It is now widened enough to allow passage of Indian Army’s battle tanks. The pass is also the gateway to the frontiers with two neighbouring countries, Pakistan and China.

Deceptive weather The temperatures are as fickle as the sunlight. On June 1, snow melted in the Kashmir valley. At Zojila, a blanket of thick snow beats the summer warmth as the long winter only changes its temperature from harshly

freezing to mildly cold.

The highway from Kashmir to Ladakh is sliced through glacial snow at Zojila by hundreds of labourers who dig through the white wall for nearly a month to carve a road. The snow clearance is listed as “one of the most challenging tasks” undertaken by Project Vijayak of Border Roads Organization.

“Apart from the extreme cold

Ladakh region; soldiers who guard its frontiers with Pakistan and China; shepherds who walk their herds to nearby meadows; bikers who journey onwards to Ladakh’s beautiful landscape;

climate, the troops involved in the task have to face danger of avalanches, landslides, snow blindness, frost bites and chill blains. The work requires highest level of physical fitness, mental robustness, courage and skill,” A K Dikshit, chief engineer of Project Vijayak notes on the official website.

This year the road at Zojila was reopened on May 12 after labourers dug through almost 40 feet of snow for a month. During more severe winters, the snow wall that blocks Zojila can be as high as 60 ft.

Tourist rush Once Zojila is open for the summer months, all sorts of traffic moves through it — truckers who supply stocks to

and groups of tourists.

Jami, a 55-year-old shepherd who inherited a rigourous lifestyle of nomadic tribe Bakerwals, has been on the move for a month to reach Minamarg, a meadow downhill Zojila. “It is a hard life,” says Jaji, a resident of Jammu region’s Reasi district.

He, along with members of his family and 500 sheep and goats, is passing through Zojila at the same time as Anurag Mittal is.

Mittal is an engineer from Delhi’s Karol Bagh, who is biking to Leh on a high-power motorcycle.

Unlike Jaji, whose inheritance takes him through Zojila every year, it is first time for Mittal, and he is flabbergasted as to how the pass can remain snowed in for six months every year.

Zero Point: Carnival of life There is no natural habitation at Zero Point, a reference to a central point of the mountain pass. The freezing weather makes it almost impossible for any form of life to survive.

However, man’s struggle to and thrive has given birth to a different sort of carnival of life at Zojila.

The Zero Point is emerging as the new tourism spot and a daily stopover for hundreds of travellers.From warm cups of tea to joyrides on hand-driven sledges to rides over steep glacial slopes on 600 and 800 cc snow-bikes, Zero Point is a new attraction. “On a good day, the daily collective earnings here can be around Rs 10 to 15 lakh,” says Mehraj-ud-din, a tourist photographer at Zojila. “This place has become a good source of income for almost 500 people,” he says.

For Zahoor Raina, owner and operator of one of the 13 snowbikes, Zojila is home for almost

a fortnight. A science graduate, Raina says business season is mainly limited to two months of the peak summer period. “After that, it gets difficult to live.” The previous season was extraordinarily good, says Raina.

“I paid off all my debts, and still saved a good amount.”

The government plans to construct a detour tunnel that would weather-proof the connectivity between Kashmir and Ladakh. The tunnel will be 14.15 km single-tube, bidirectional, and will be constructed at an estimated cost of Rs 10,000 crore.

The mountain pass and the road on its sides are also etched with histories of wars. It served as a gateway to a thundering war machine of the Army during the 1999 Kargil war. And many decades before that, in the winter of 1948, Zojila sealed its fate as the then highest point in the recorded history of warfare where tanks operated in a war.

Canada: Two arrested on child pornography charges in separate cases

Afghan man kills Russian boy, is shot dead by police

Berlin An Afghan man killed a 5-yearold Russian boy in a home for asylum seekers near Regensburg in southern

Germany on Saturday and was then shot dead by police, said German police, who confirmed earlier news media reports.

The 41-year-old Afghan also severely injured the boy’s mother before police shot him at the home, where he died of his wounds, online magazine Focus Online reported, adding that the boy’s brother, age 6, was being treated for shock after the attack.The motive for the attack was not immediately clear.

Chancellor Angela Merkel, who will seek a fourth term as chancellor in a national election in September, has come under fire for allowing more than one million refugees to enter Germany over the past two years.

Ottawa A 61-year-old man has been charged by police in Ottawa on allegations of possessing child pornography, Canadian news channel CTV news Ottawa reported. The investigation reportedly began November last year after police were tipped off about an upload to cloud storage service OneDrive, which was later traced to an Ottawa-based IP address. On Wednesday, Ottawa Police conducted a raid at accused Paul O’Reilly’s

residence and seized devices.

He is facing one count of accessing child pornography and is due to appear in court on Thursday. Earlier on Tuesday, police in Eatonia, Saskatchewan arrested a 54-year-old man after carrying out a search warrant at his residence.

The Saskatchewan Internet Child Exploitation Unit reportedly began investigations against the man in early May after child pornography images were found in an online cloud storage.

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Former Pak cricketers slam team’s ‘shameful, humiliating’ loss to India

wickets. Yet, instead of attacking them with the new ball, we choose to contain them. This was poor captaincy and poor decision making by the team think tank,” he said.

Akhtar also took head coach Mickey Arthur to task for saying after the match that it was his decision to play Wahab Riaz over Junaid Khan as there was no difference between Junaid and Hassan Ali, who played in the match.

“It is astonishing that the coach does not see any difference between Junaid and

Hassan. How can you compare them one is a natural left-arm swing bowler and the other is a right-arm pacer.”

The latest loss hurt the Pakistanis more than past defeats given the hype around the match and the tense relations between the two countries.

Former captain Mohammad Yousuf said people needed to accept the reality.

“They are a top side which is why they are number three in ODI rankings and we are languishing at number eight because of our poor performances.”

Yousuf said that even though the Edgbaston pitch was excellent for batting none of the Pakistani batters showed the technique to make use of the conditions.

“What happened is shameful. It is humiliating for us because we have played and beaten India many times. We used to dominate them.”

Yousuf called for sacking Arthur.

Former Test opener and ex-head coach of the Pakistan team, Mohsin Khan said if Pakistan continued to play the way they did against India they would face similar results against South Africa and Sri Lanka. “The coach has been a big disappointment as the team appeared to be without a plan while I am disappointed with the captaincy of Sarfaraz Ahmed who appeared lost in the match.”

Pakistan’s Wahab Riaz out of Champions Trophy BIRMINGHAM Pakistan will seek to bring in a replacement for Wahab Riaz after the fast bowler was ruled out Monday of the remainder of theChampions Trophy with an ankle injury.

The 31-year-old left-arm quick suffered the setback while bowling during Pakistan’s crushing 124-run defeat by title-holders India at Edgbaston on Sunday in what was the first match of the one-day international tournament for both the archrivals.

A miserable match for Wahab, flayed by India’s batsmen for a hugely expensive 87 runs in 8.4 overs, ended when he fell in his delivery stride and sustained an injury that saw him leave the field.

It also meant he was unable to bat as Pakistan, chasing a revised target of 289 in 41 overs in a rain-affected match, slumped to 164 for nine after India had piled up 319 for three in 48 overs.

“Wahab Riaz twisted his ankle in yesterday’s (Sunday’s) ICC (International Cricket Council) Champions Trophy match against India,” said a Pakistan Cricket Boardstatement “A scan has confirmed that Wahab Riaz suffered a deltoid ligament complex after an injury whilst bowling during the India v Pakistan match on June 4.

BCCI. Just as an artist uses his brush and paint to bring life to a canvas, Guha has portrayed the superstars in Indian cricket — past and present — in a classic way. In a country where people call Sachin Tendulkar “God” and other stars

associations had not even begun. Guha has pointed out the inactions of the CoA and how valuable time has been wasted.

There is no way you can ask Guha to take his resignation back, just as Anil Kumble is “supposed” to have made up his mind not to seek a fresh contract as coach of Team India. Sport has a strange way of dealing with realities.

If India defeat Pakistan in Sunday’s gut-wrencher, actual cricket will be back in focus. Should there be a reverse, you can well expect tons of criticism. The TV experts who Guha has slammed will give their own gyaan, and lace it with patriotism.

Irrespective of what happens in Sunday’s match and what shape India’s campaign takes place in the Champions Trophy, points which Guha has raised should not be forgotten. There are several issues he has raised and each one points to a deep rooted malaise in the system. As a body appointed by the Supreme Court, the CoA has huge, unfinished business.

Guha has reminded the nation of chaos that prevails in the Indian cricket system.

Like Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Swach Abhiyaan, Indian cricket needs quick cleansing. If not, ‘superstars’ will make their pile and muck will keep accumulating!

KARACHI Pakistan‘s 124-run defeat to India in the ICC Champions Trophytournament has been described as “shameful” and “humiliating” by the country’s former greats such as Imran Khan and Wasim Akram, critics and fans alike.

Having notched up 319 for three, India bowled out Pakistan for 164 to post a comprehensive victory at Edgbaston.

“Win and defeat are part of any game but the way we lost to India on Sunday without a fight was very painful,” Imran said in a statement.

He added, “Despite having lot of talent Pakistan will continue to fall behind India in cricket unless our cricket structure is revised.”

Former captain Rashid Latif said, “Even if Pakistan had fielded its full 15 players I don’t think the result would have been different. Such is the difference between the two sides now.”

Shahid Afridi said the gap between the two sides is increasing.

“While India has progressed a lot we are falling behind them,” he said.

Another former skipper, Aamir Sohail, said while the media loves to present it otherwise the truth is this Pakistan team doesn’t have the ability to beat the current Indian side.

Former fast bowler Shoaib Akhtar lashed out at the players for showing no heart.

“Who in their right mind would open the bowling in such English conditions with a spinner who can’t turn the ball.

“The only way to beat India was to bowl them out for a manageable total by taking

Guha timed it to perfection

ONE is not sure how Team India skipper Virat Kohli and his famed batting line-up will find their timing against Pakistan in the ICC Champions Trophy opener on Sunday, but noted historian Ramachandra Guha already has. As the outgoing member of the CoA — Committee of Administrators — Guha has done what none could do before for Indian cricket.

By calling a spade a spade and hitting out at the “Superstar Culture” in Indian cricket, Guha has not only slammed former greats of cricket but also castigated the CoA for being in a state of inertia and not doing anything constructive. The last few weeks in Indian cricket have been one of turmoil. Nothing ‘sensational’ happened in the Indian Premier League, but once the Indian team flew out of India, all kinds of rumours have been floating around about the friction between Virat Kohli and coach Anil Kumble. On Saturday, Kohli dismissed reports of his rift with Kumble as “speculations” and that the team is focused on playing cricket. Reports

coming in from England suggest the two are going about their job of preparing for the Champions Trophy in right earnest.

One would have thought in a surcharged atmosphere, when India play Pakistan and hardliners question why we play any sport with a rogue nation, the mood at home would be one of optimism.

There have been more than skirmishes in the Kashmir Valley and it needed an Indian win against Pakistan to fire up the patriotic fervour even further. However, Guha’s email to CoA boss Vinod Rai has kind of taken the focus away from such a huge contest as the average cricket fan is now well aware of how superstars in the game have been having a ball. To be sure, Guha has analysed the scenario beautifully, the way only he could have. A number of people were critical of Ram Guha as he had not attended meetings of the CoA. Perhaps, he had understood the body was not really interested in doing the work it was entrusted with and was instead focusing on issues which should have been dealt with by the Indian cricket board (BCCI) officials.

So, was Guha’s timing perfect? I would think so, as submitting his resignation to the Supreme Court could have been easily misconstrued. A lot many think Guha is close to Kumble and he is extremely unhappy the way the coach conundrum has been handled by the

are seen as beyond criticism, Guha has exposed each one with a touch of class.

It’s not like pure vitriol, but a man who was so nuanced in writing his letter to Vinod Rai, did not have any hesitation in calling a spade a spade. Conflict of interest is nothing new in Indian sport.

Yet, when it came to cricket, so many people were getting away.

Deep down, each superstar which Guha has mentioned was only interested in his own brand building, linked with commercial interest. To point a finger at Sunil Gavaskar, Sourav Ganguly, Rahul Dravid or Anil Kumble would have been blasphemy. Guha did it with conviction and has backed his words with a proper analysis and how conflict of interest has been overlooked repeatedly. Last week, I had written about the CoA not doing its job and cleansing the state cricket

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Did Zakir Musa rat on Sabzar?

New Delhi MILITANT ranks in the Kashmir valley are abuzz with chatter about a serious rift between Zakir Musa and the current leadership of the Hizbul Mujahideen. Radio and mobile conversations intercepted by India’s intelligence agencies reflect a high level of distrust between former Hizbul commander Zakir Musa and the terror outfit he led till recently. Hizbul terrorists seem to suspect that a personal messenger close to Musa tipped off the Jammu and Kashmir police cell about the location of Sabzar’s hideout. Sabzar was killed last week in an encounter very close to his hometown of Tral. While agencies are not confirming whether they were indeed tipped off by Musa’s men, this new development could set off a fratricidal war among Kashmiri terrorists. In the aftermath of the encounter killing of Burhan Wani’s successor Sabzar Bhatt, Indian agencies recorded multiple conversations where Hizbul Mujahideen cadre can be heard discussing whether Zakir Musa betrayed Sabzar Bhatt. Hansraj Ahir, minister of state for home, refused immediate comment on INDIA TODAY’s story about the Hizbul rift, but added that the government would “take help

from every quarter to eliminate terrorists who tried to destabilise the country”. Zakir Musa had delivered a much talked about audio address on May 10 in which he declared war on

bosses in the Pakistan Army who run the United Jehad Council (UJC). Inputs received by intelligence agencies suggest that the UJC now wants Musa dead at the earliest

commander of Hizb cadre in the valley. His death last week is a blow to the damage containment strategy that Hizbollah bosses in Pakistan had drawn up.

Hizbul bosses have now

Hurriyat separatists and advocated the beheading of Hurriyat leaders at Lal Chowk.

It was in the same address that he announced his allegiance to a pan-Islamic Caliphate and broke away from the ranks of the Hizbul Mujahideen. This development has rattled Hizbul chief Syed Salahuddin and his

possible and wants no effort to be spared to achieve this goal.

Clearly, the ISI does not want control of the terrorist leadership to slip from its control and into the hands of terrorists who are affiliated to a panIslamic Caliphate. It was after Musa broke away that Sabzar Bhatt was appointed as the new

appointed tech savvy 29- yearold terrorist Riyaz Naikoo as Sabzar’s replacement. Naikoo is seen as being relatively moderate and has been chosen with the hope that he can stop the Hizbul cadre from being attracted to the hardline Islamic ideology of the ISIS. Given that he is tech savvy, his

Wife accuses man of using her sex acts for extortion changed post marriage and he started demanding money to set up his business. Despite some reservations, my parents and I paid a huge amount to my husband due to his pressure and threats on different dates amounting to `2 crore. Whenever we protested, he would start abusing my family and even physically assaulted me.” She claimed that eventually her

A SOUTH Delhi-based interior designer has alleged that her husband forced her to have sex with an event organiser so the accused could extort money from him. In the FIR filed last month, the 28-year-old woman says her husband filmed the entire act and asked her to use the clip to blackmail Ali (name changed) and earn money for him. She told the police that the accused did not stop here. He even told her that he could now send her to any

person with the intention of extracting money. The police booked the husband and Ali on charges of rape, unnatural sex, criminal intimidation and criminal conspiracy. They were granted bail. “I got married to my husband in 2016,” the victim told MAIL TODAY. “Post marriage, he began living with me in my parents’ house as he had no accommodation in Delhi. He was in an unusual hurry to tie the knot and his behaviour suddenly

husband started sending vulgar messages to a common friend, Ali, from her phone without her knowledge. “He forced me to develop friendship with him with an ulterior motive so that he can blackmail him in the future,” she said. The victim told the police that last November her husband forced her to accompany Ali to Ludhiana against her wishes and pushed her to get physically intimate with him, but she refused. “In January, he took me to Noida at a farmhouse where Ali was already present. He forced me to have physical relations and then Ali raped me.

In February, he booked a hotel

room in south Delhi using my debit card. This time he threatened me that if I did not get physically intimate with Ali he would never return the money and would even kill my family,” she said in the FIR. “That night, Ali forced himself upon me and raped me. After he left, my husband came inside the room and pulled out a hidden camera that he had installed near the TV console. I was shocked to see my husband had recorded the whole act. He told me that from now I will have to earn money for him by blackmailing Ali. He also told me that now he could send me to any person to have physical relations and if I refuse, he would circulate the clip on social media and make it viral.”

The woman alleged that following the incident, her husband made demands for `10 lakh and `30 lakh. “When my parents got to know about it, he threatened to ruin their reputation. My life is ruined and I have no choice but to commit suicide. I cannot show my face to anyone after such an incident.

My husband and his friend have tarnished mine and my family’s reputation,” she told the cops.

bosses in Pakistan hope that like Burhan he too will be able to attract youngsters to the terror fold. Post that Sabzar Bhatt had been appointed the Hizbul Chief in the Valley by its protectors and providers in Pakistan. Meantime, several political parties in Jammu and Kashmir have welcomed INDIA TODAY’s report of cracks within the terror ranks. “A rift between terrorist organisations is a good sign,” said Panthers Party chairman Harsh Dev Singh, a former education minister. Such development, he observed, would help the government rein in militants.

“Peace will come to the valley,” Singh remarked. The BJP described reports of chinks within Hizbul as a rare occasion for security agencies to seize upon. “Inter-rivalry is normal among different ou fits, but a rift within the Hizbul Mujahideen is rare and is good for our intelligence agencies,” noted party spokesman Anil Gupta. “ “With this rift, we will get more information about their activities.

Security forces should take advantage of this,” he added.

Incidentally, not only the Hizbul leadership in the Valley, but a number of lower-rank operatives have also been gunned down by forces recently.

Rakhi faces arrest in Valmiki case A LUDHIANA court on Friday once again issued non-bailable warrant against actor Rakhi Sawant for making derogatory remarks against sage Valmiki, the author of the epic Ramayana. This is the second time an arrest warrant has been issued against the 38-year-old actor for hurting the religious sentiments of the Valmiki community. In April, the same court in Punjab had issued the warrant after the actress failed to appear before it on March 9.

The actor, during a show, had drawn a comparison between Valmiki and singer Mika Singh regarding their behavioural transformation from evil to good.

This invited a backlash from the Valmiki community. “I think people are forcefully dragging me under bad light to ruin my career.

I did not say anything wrong to hurt anyone’s sentiment. Even then, I made an apology video and uploaded it online,” Rakhi had said in April. “I am as fearless as the Rani of Jhansi and I will fight against all those people who are dragging me in controversy,” she had said. She however, also apologised for hurting the religious sentiments of the Valmiki community. “I just gave an example of Valmiki ji that I have been reading in books since childhood. I didn’t want to hurt anybody’s sentiments,” she said.

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Health Brain’s immune cells linked This is what cause to Alzheimer’s, schizophrenia hearing loss in adults

New York Scientists have for the first time discovered evidence that microglia — brain’s immune cells — may play roles in a variety of neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer ’s, Parkinson’s and psychiatric illnesses such as schizophrenia.

Microglia are a type of macrophage, white blood cells found throughout the body that can destroy pathogens or other foreign materials.

They are known to be highly responsive to their surroundings and respond to changes in the brain by releasing pro-

inflammatory or antiinflammatory signals.

The study, reported in the journal Science, has showed that microglia have hundreds of genes that are more highly expressed than other types of macrophages as well as distinct patterns of gene expression compared to other types of brain cells. “A really high proportion of genes linked to multiple sclerosis, Parkinson’s and schizophrenia are much more highly expressed in microglia than the rest of the brain,” said Nicole Coufal, a pediatric critical care doctor at University of California - San Diego.

The innocent-looking chewing gum is not as guiltless as you think, it might be hazardous to health

New Delhi If you are among those who loves popping a chewing gum frequently, you might have to give it a second thought.

As per a new research, it has been found that a chewing gum may contain a secretion from sheep’s wool.

Yes, you have heard it right!

Researchers say that chewing gum contains contains lanolin, which is a waxy secretion from the sebaceous glands of the skin of sheep.

Lanolin’s basic function is to make sheep’s wool waterproof,

which is fine but using it as an ingredient in chewing gum does not seem to be a good idea.

Some health hazards from Chewing Gum Chewing Gum regularly can cause Gastrointestinal problems Popping a chewing gum can lead to tooth decay Chewing gum can release mercury from dental fillings Peppermint flavored chewing gum can cause gastric acid reflux Chewing gum can also cause joint disorder

“That suggests there’s some kind of link between microglia and the diseases,” Coufal added.

For Alzheimer’s, more than half of the genes known to affect a person’s risk of developing the disease were expressed more highly in microglia than other brain cells.

The new molecular profile of microglia offers a way for researchers to begin trying to better culture the cells or coax stem cells to develop into microglia for future studies.

For the study, the team set out to characterise the molecular characteristics of microglia.

They collected brain tissue from 19 patients, who were having brain surgery for epilepsy - a brain tumour or a stroke.

They isolated microglia from areas of tissue that were unaffected by disease, as well as from mouse brains, and then set out to study the cells.

After the cells were cultured, the gene patterns of the microglia began to change. Within just six hours, more than 2,000 genes had their expression turned down by at least fourfold.

New Delhi A new study conducted by researchers has helped to find the reason behind hearing loss in adults.

Scientists says that genetic change can cause jaw malformation which triggers hearing defects in adulthood.

Researchers from the University Of Southern California - Health Sciences explained that the structures supporting the jaws of ancestral fish gave rise to three tiny bones in the mammalian middle ear: the malleus, incus and the stapes, which transmit sound

vibrations.

Therefore, if a genetic change causes a jaw malformation in a fish, an equivalent genetic change could trigger hearing defects in mice and humans.

The researchers studied two genes - JAG1 and NOTCH2 that are mutated in most patients with Alagille Syndrome (AGS).

In nearly half of patients, AGS involves hearing loss - in addition to liver, eye, heart and skeletal defects.

While some of this is sensorineural hearing loss resulting from deficits in the sensory cells of the inner ear.

Washing hands in cold water as good as hot

Washington Washing your hands in hot water may be pointless as scientists have found that cold water is equally effective at killing germs.

Researchers also found that washing even for 10 seconds significantly removed bacteria from the hands. “People need to feel comfortable when they are washing their hands but as far as effectiveness, this study shows us that the temperature of the water used did not matter,” said Donald Schaffner, professor at Rutgers University in the US. In the study, high levels of a harmless bacteria were put on the hands of 21 participants multiple times over a six- month period before they were asked to wash their hands in 60 -degree, 79-degree or 100-degree water temperatures using 0.5 millilitre (ml), 1 ml or 2 ml volumes of soap. “This study may have significant implications towards water energy, since using cold water saves more energy than warm or hot water,” said

Schaffner. While the study indicates that there is no difference between the amount of soap used, more work needs to be done to understand exactly how much and what type of soap is needed to remove harmful microbes from hands, researchers said. “This is important because the biggest public health need is to increase hand-washing or hand sanitising by food-service workers and the public before eating, preparing food and after using the

restroom,” said Jim Arbogast, coauthor of the study published in the Journal of Food Protection.

These findings are significant, particularly to the restaurant and food industry, because the US Food and Drug Administration issues guidelines every four years, researchers said.

Those guidelines currently recommend that plumbing systems at food establishments and restaurants deliver water at over 37 degrees Celsius for handwashing, they said.

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HIV patients indulging in Do you often postpone your meal tobacco-use at double the time? It may delay your body clock risk of death, warns study!

New Delhi Since time immemorial, tobacco has been known for its harmful effects on our health and has been linked to diseases like cancer as well as untimely deaths.

According to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), cigarette smoking is the leading cause of preventable disease and death in the United States, accounting for more than 480,000 deaths every year, or 1 of every 5 deaths.

As per the World Health Organisation (WHO) estimates, tobacco kills around 6 million people each year. More than 5 million of those deaths are the result of direct tobacco use while more than 600000 are the result of non-smokers being exposed to second-hand smoke.

Now, scientists have added another issue to the list of negative effects of tobacco use on health, warning that tobaccouse – including snuff, chewing

and smoking – is more than twice as likely to cause death in HIV patients as the infection itself.

Researchers at the University of York in the UK said that tobacco use is emerging as a ‘silent killer’ for HIV patients and is more common among HIV positive people than HIV negative individuals.

The study, published in The Lancet Global Health journal, aims to raise further awareness of the dangers associated with tobacco use among people living with HIV. This follows recent research which showed that young people on HIV drugs have a nearnormal life expectancy due to improved treatments for the disease, researchers said.

Medical advances in HIV mean that HIV patients may only lose about five years of life due to HIV. However, if they smoke, they may lose as much as 12 years of life.

A year after suffering from miscarriage, transgender man announces pregnancy with gay husband!

New Delhi In today’s world where many people from LGBTQ community have to face

hate, bigotry and discrimination, a transgender Trystan Reese became pregnant with his gay husband Biff Chaplow.

According to a report in Daily Mail, the couple will be welcoming a child after experiencing a heartbreaking miscarriage at six weeks in 2016, when transdad Trystan became

pregnant for the first time.

In 2015, they adopted Biff’s niece and nephew, Hailey and Riley, after his sister and her boyfriend were found to be neglectful because of their substance abuse problems, as reported.

Trystan initially wanted to wait for a year after the miscarriage to conceive again, but as there was complications of restarting and then going off testosterone again led them try again right away.

As per reports, it took them longer to conceive the second time, making them worry about missing their ‘only chance.’ But then, after trying for six months Trystan woke up feeling sick and discovered the good news.

This means that tobacco use is more than twice as likely to cause death in HIV patients as the HIV infection itself, said researchers.

The study showed that in low and middle-income countries, particularly in the African region, HIV-positive men are 41 percent, and HIV-positive women 36 percent, more likely to use tobacco, including snuff, chewing and smoking tobacco, than their HIV-negative counterpart.

For tobacco smoking only, HIVpositive men were 46 per cent more likely and women 90 per cent more likely to smoke than individuals who did not have HIV. However, the proportion of HIV positive men who smoke was much higher at 24.4 per cent, than that of HIV positive women who smoke at 1.3 per cent.

“In high-income settings, the proportion of HIV-positive individuals who smoke has also been shown to be higher than among HIV-negative individuals of the same age and sex,” said Noreen Mdege, from the York’s Department of Health Sciences.

“Our findings confirm that this trend is the same for low and middle-income countries, where the burden of HIV and tobaccorelated illnesses is greatest.

“We still don’t know for certain the reasons why tobacco use should be significantly higher in HIV patients; more research is needed to understand why,” said Mdege.

London Researchers have warned that postponing your meal time may delay one of the body’s clocks.

The study throw light on a potential way to alleviate symptoms of jet lag and shift work. The human body runs according to a roughly 24-hour cycle, controlled by a “master” clock in the brain and peripheral clocks in other parts of the body that are synchronised according to external cues, including light.

According to the study, a fivehour delay in meal times also causes a five-hour delay in our internal blood sugar rhythms, suggesting that meal times synchronise internal clocks that control rhythms of blood sugar concentration. Lead investigator Jonathan Johnston from the University of Surrey said, “It has been shown that regular jet lag and shift work have adverse effects on the body, including metabolic disturbances.”

Conversely, based on the time a person eats his or her breakfast, lunch, and dinner, at least one of those clocks can

also be reset, the study in the journal Current Biology reported. Johnston added, ”Altering meal times can reset the body clocks regulating sugar metabolism in a drug free way. This will help us design feeding regimes to reduce the risk of developing health problems such as obesity and cardiovascular disease in people with disturbed circadian rhythms.” For the study, the team enrolled ten healthy young men in a 13-day experiment where they ate three meals at 5-hour intervals.

Each participant started with a meal time set to 30 minutes after waking, and then, after getting used to eating early, they switched to a meal served five hours later for six days.

Researchers said the delay in meal times did not affect insulin or triglyceride (fat) levels in the blood indicating that blood glucose rhythms can be governed by separate circadian clocks to these other key aspects of rhythmic metabolism.

Strokes may increase desire for alcohol

New York An animal study has found that brain changes caused by stroke may increase the desire for alcohol.

According to the study, stroke kills neurons in a part of the brain called the dorsal lateral striatum, and they stop inhibiting certain neurons in the mid-brain.

These mid-brain neurons, which are now far more excitable, send a signal to a particular type of dopamine receptor, called D1 — which compels an individual to perform an action like having an alcoholic beverage.

Jun Wang, Assistant Professor at the Texas A&M University said,”This circuit is interesting because it means that when the dorsal lateral striatum neurons die, the result is increased excitement of the D1 neurons in the dorsomedial striatum.”

Wand added,”It is this increased excitement that we think is causing alcohol-seeking behaviour.”

In the study, after the animal models suffered an ischemic stroke in the middle cerebral artery — one of the most

common types of stroke in humans — they showed much lower overall fluid intake but increased preference for alcohol over water when they did drink.

Wand said,”Their preference for alcohol can be seen five days after stroke and through at least the first month after the stroke.”

He added,”Specifically, when given a choice between water and alcohol, they chose alcohol a higher percentage of the time than they did before the stroke.”

However, when the D1

receptor was inhibited, alcoholseeking behaviour in individuals with stroke damage decreased significantly, while the control group did not exhibit much of a change. Wang said,”This is a hint at how the brain works. Something to inhibit this D1 receptor might be a possible therapeutic target for a drug to help people resist the urge to drink after a stroke.”

Issue 722 (39)

6 - 12 June, 2017

African Chicken Stew

Ingredients: 1 tablespoon olive oil 1 (3 pound) roasting chicken, deboned and cut into bite size pieces 2 cloves garlic, crushed 1 onion, chopped, 1 large potato, diced

1 teaspoon ground cumin 1 teaspoon ground coriander seed 1 teaspoon ground black pepper 1 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes 1 teaspoon salt

1 cup water, 3/4 cup unsalted natural-style peanut butter, 1 (15 ounce) can garbanzo beans, drained and rinsed Directions: In a large skillet with a tight-fitting lid, heat oil over medium high heat. Add chicken, and brown quickly. Remove chicken from pan. Reduce heat to medium low, and add garlic, onion and potato to the pan; saute for 2 to 3 minutes. Season with cumin, coriander, black pepper, red pepper and salt. Do not let garlic brown.

Mix in water and browned chicken, and any accumulated juices. Place lid on skillet and simmer, stirring occasionally, for 10 to 15 minutes.

Remove lid, and stir in the peanut butter and garbanzo beans.

Make sure the peanut butter is blended in. Replace lid to simmer for 10 more minutes, or until chicken is cooked through and potatoes are tender. Remove from heat, adjust seasoning, and serve.

Three Cheese Manicotti Ingredients: 1 (8 ounce) package manicotti shells 4 cups shredded mozzarella cheese, divided 2 cups ricotta cheese 1 cup grated Parmesan cheese, divided 1 tablespoon minced garlic 1 egg 2 tablespoons dried basil 2 (26 ounce) jars pasta sauce Directions: Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil.

Add manicotti and cook for 8 to 10 minutes or until al dente; drain.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).

Lightly grease a 9x13 inch baking dish.

In a bowl, mix 3 cups mozzarella cheese, ricotta cheese, 1/2 cup Parmesan cheese, garlic, egg, and basil. Stuff cooked manicotti with the mixture.

Spread about 2 cups pasta sauce over the bottom of the prepared baking dish. Arrange stuffed manicotti in the dish, and cover with remaining

skewers Directions: In a small bowl, mix together hoisin sauce, sherry, soy sauce, barbeque sauce, green onions, garlic, and ginger.

Cut flank steak across grain on a diagonal into 1/ 4 inch slices. Place slices in a 1 gallon resealable plastic bag.

Ingredients: 1 pound large shrimp, peeled and deveined 1/3 cup cornstarch 1 teaspoon salt 3/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper 2 cups flaked sweetened coconut 3 egg whites, beaten until foamy Directions: Preheat an oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Lightly coat a baking sheet with cooking spray.

Rinse and dry shrimp with paper towels. Mix cornstarch, salt, and cayenne

pepper in a shallow bow; pour coconut flakes in a separate shallow bowl.

Working with one shrimp at a time, dredge it in the cornstarch mixture, then dip it in the egg white, and roll it in the coconut, making sure to coat the shrimp well.

Place on the prepared baking sheet, and repeat with the remaining shrimp.

Bake the shrimp until they are bright pink on the outside and the meat is no longer transparent in the center and the coconut is browned, 15 to 20 minutes, flipping the shrimp halfway through.

Ingredients: 16 sea scallops, rinsed and drained 5 tablespoons butter, melted 5 cloves garlic, minced 2 shallots, chopped 3 pinches ground nutmeg salt and pepper to taste 1 cup bread crumbs 4 tablespoons olive oil 1/4 cup chopped parsley lemon wedges for garnish (optional) Directions: Preheat oven to 425 degrees F (220 degrees C).

Place scallops, melted butter, garlic, and shallots in a bowl. Season with nutmeg, salt, and pepper. Stir gently to combine. Transfer to a casserole dish.

In a separate bowl, combine bread crumbs and olive oil. Sprinkle on top of scallops.

Bake in preheated oven until crumbs are brown and scallops are done, about 11 to 14 minutes.

Top with parsley, and serve with lemon wedges on the side.

Awesome Baked Sea Scallops

sauce. Sprinkle with remaining mozzarella cheese.

Bake 15 minutes in the preheated oven. Sprinkle with remaining Parmesan, and continue baking 10 minutes, until mozzarella is melted and bubbly.

Asian Beef Skewers Ingredients: 3 tablespoons hoisin sauce 3 tablespoons sherry 1/4 cup soy sauce 1 teaspoon barbeque sauce 2 green onions, chopped 2 cloves garlic, minced 1 tablespoon minced fresh ginger root 1 1/2 pounds flank steak

Baked Coconut Shrimp

Pour hoisin sauce mixture over slices, and mix well. Refrigerate 2 hours, or overnight.

Preheat an outdoor grill for high heat. Discard marinade, and thread steak on skewers.

Oil the grill grate. Grill skewers 3 minutes per side, or to desired doneness.

Issue 722 (40)

LONDON DIDN’T

THE security services face difficult questions over how at least one London Bridge terrorist slipped through the intelligence net despite being reported to the police at least twice for his extremism. The 27-year-old Muslim, known to friends as ‘Abz’, appeared in a TV documentary last year about British jihadists — and was involved in a filmed altercation with police after an ISIS-style flag was unfurled in Regent’s Park. He was caught on camera alongside two notorious preachers who were well known to police and intelligence officials because of their extremist views. A friend of the suspect had reported him to the anti-terror hotline after he became radicalised by watching extremist videos on YouTube and police were also warned about the suspect radicalising children in a local park two years ago, giving them sweets and money. On Sunday, a photographer captured a detective carrying secret notes which appeared to suggest he had been quizzed by police as recently as last year. A friend who called the anti-terror hotline said, “I did my bit, I know other people did their bit but the authorities did not do their bit.” The Telegraph claims that counter-terrorism officers were watching a terror cell in Barking on the eve of the terror attack. The suspect, who the Mail has chosen not to name at the request of police, is understood to be one of three men who embarked on a stabbing rampage in London on Saturday night. GARDAI in Ireland have confirmed that an Irish ID card was found on the body of another of the killers — who is believed to have

been born in Morocco but living in Dublin. Police say he was living in the Rathmines area of the Irish capital with his Scottish wife but he was not on their radar. On Monday, Abz’s family asked to ‘grieve in peace’ as it emerged the terrorist held a farewell barbecue at his flat in Barking.

Neighbour Ramou Grant told Good Morning Britain, “Last week, he called for a barbecue and invited all of us. I’m thinking was this a send-off?”

He was pictured, having been shot dead by police, lying on the ground in an Arsenal shirt.

The attackers, who were wearing fake suicide bomb vests, used a van to mow down pedestrians on London Bridge before running amok with knives in Borough Market, slitting the throats of innocent bystanders. One is reported to have yelled, “This is for Allah.” They left at least seven dead and 48 injured before police marksmen halted their stabbing spree.

On Sunday night, chilling footage showed two of the attackers sauntering through a deserted Borough Market moments after they abandoned the white van they used in the attack. Theresa May had declared ‘enough is enough’ as she announced a fourpoint plan of action following the third devastating terror attack in Britain in just three months. But she insisted that Thursday’s general election would go ahead, despite terrorists trying to derail Britain’s democracy. On Sunday, police arrested 12 people in connection with the atrocities — seven women and five men. The youngest was a 19year-old woman and the eldest a 60-year-old woman.

6 - 12 June, 2017