Dutch government approves burqa ban
The Hague: The Dutch government Friday approved a ban on face-covering clothing, such as a burqa, a niqab, a forage cap, or a full face helmet, reported Xinhua.

People going on the streets with one of these now risk being fined for up to 380 euros ($499).

"It is very important that people in an open society meet each other in an open way," Minister of Interior Affairs Liesbeth Spies said after the cabinet meeting.

The ... Read More

Of Writers & Reading
India’s biggest literary event, Jaipur Literature Fest, begins this week, and for this brief, happy moment the nation's cultural conversation turns to books and writing. We celebrate with an edition perhaps best described as a Literary Pot Luck. Some of India’s best writers tell us of books that have moved their minds, hearts and lives.

January 15, 2012

Amitava Kumar: You value the books you turn to in need

When I was younger books were fetish objects. They ... Read More

Majestic manta ray designated vulnerable species
Diving with the majestic manta ray is an eco-tourist’s dream come true that may soon be experienced only by viewing pictures and videos of the shark family’s graceful giants.

The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Shark Specialist Group (SSG), based at Simon Fraser University, has added the Giant and Reef manta rays to its Red List of Threatened Species.

The IUCN SSG, a worldwide network of scientists co-chaired by SFU biologist Nick Dulvy, ... Read More

Man kept 29 dead bodies at home
Moscow: Russia's Interior Ministry says police have arrested a man who kept 29 mummified bodies at his apartment and dressed them up like dolls.

Ministry spokesman Valery Gribakin said Monday that the suspect from the Volga River city of Nizhny Novgorod dug up the bodies at several cemeteries in the region. The man, whose identity was withheld, dressed them in clothes dug up from the graves.

Gribakin said that the suspect is a historian who has ... Read More

Migratory birds burn protein as in-flight water source
Researchers from The University of Western Ontario have discovered that migratory songbirds burn their own muscles and organs to provide a water source during long, non-stop flights, which sometimes cover distances in the thousands of kilometres.

The new findings, made by doctoral candidate Alexander Gerson and Dr. Christopher Guglielmo from Western’s Department of Biology and Advanced Facility for Avian Research (AFAR), were published today in the world’s leading outlet for scientific news, Science. ... Read More

Suu Kyi holds first talks with new Myanmar govt
Yangon: Aung San Suu Kyi met with a minister of Myanmar's new government for the first time on Monday, raising tentative hopes of sustained dialogue between the opposition icon and authorities.

Just days after the US called for "concrete" progress towards democracy, Suu Kyi - who was released from house arrest soon after a controversial election in November - began talks with labour minister Aung Kyi in Yangon.

"They are meeting now," a government official ... Read More

People hooked to social networking sites are the loneliest
Sydney: A national survey by Relationships Australia has indicated that Generation Y, who always stays connected with others through social networking sites, is the loneliest generation.

According to the Relationships Indicators Survey 2011, 30 per cent of Australians aged 25 to 34 told the survey that they were frequently lonely, far more than any other age group. The second loneliest were the young adults - with 19 per cent of them claiming to be frequently lonely.

The ... Read More

'Humans programmed to believe in gods and afterlife'
London: Are humans programmed to believe in gods and in an afterlife?

Forty separate studies (both analytical and empirical) conducted in 20 countries conclude that humans are predisposed to believe in gods and in afterlife.

Both theology and atheism are reasoned responses to what is a basic impulse of the human mind, the studies suggest.

Fifty-seven researchers, led by Oxford University experts, carried out the studies for three years, representing a diverse range of cultures. ... Read More

Woman dies after she wakes up at her funeral
London: A sick woman died of shock on waking up at her own funeral, it was reported here.

Fagilyu Mukhametzyanov, 49, woke up as relatives were praying at her open coffin, The Sun reported.

She screamed on realising that she was going to be buried.

The woman was promptly taken to a hospital in Kazan, Russia, where, however, she was declared dead from a suspected heart attack.

"Her eyes fluttered and we immediately rushed her back to the hospital," ... Read More

Eisenhower's worst fears came true. We invent enemies to buy the bombs
Simon Jenkins

Why do we still go to war? We seem unable to stop. We find any excuse for this post-imperial fidget and yet we keep getting trapped. Germans do not do it, or Spanish or Swedes. Britain's borders and British people have not been under serious threat for a generation. Yet time and again our leaders crave battle. Why?

Last week we got a glimpse of an answer and it was not nice. The outgoing ... Read More

Texas man dies while raping an elderly woman
Refugio, Texas: Investigators say a man has died while in the act of raping an elderly South Texas woman.

The Refugio County Sheriff's Office identifies the man as 53-year-old Isabel Chavelo Gutierrez. Sheriff's Sgt. Gary Wright says the incident happened on June 2 after he rode two miles by bicycle from his home to that of his 77-year-old victim in the tiny coastal community of Tivoli.

He says the man, weighing between 230 and 250 pounds, ... Read More

New study says university dropout rates tied to preparedness, not laziness
According to new research from The University of Western Ontario, approximately 40 per cent of students who drop out of university do so because of what they learn about their own academic ability, based primarily on the grades they receive after arriving on campus.

And that’s far too late for a wake-up call, says Todd Stinebrickner, a Western economics professor, who serves as a Faculty Fellow at the CIBC Centre for Human Capital & Productivity. ... Read More

Female war prisoners should be sex slaves for men: Politician
London A woman politician from Kuwait has sparked anger and disbelief by calling for legalization of sex slaves, saying it would protect men from adultery, and suggesting that female prisoners from war-torn countries should be purchased for the same, as it would be a "better life" for them, and they would not die of starvation.

Salwa al Mutairi, who once ran for parliament, argued buying a sex slave would protect decent, devout and "virile" Kuwaiti ... Read More

Muslim girl stoned to death in Ukraine for joining beauty contest
London: A 19-year-old Muslim girl was stoned to death in Ukraine under the Islamic Sharia law after she took part in a beauty contest, a media report said on Tuesday.

Katya Koren was found dead in her village. Her battered body was buried in a forest and was found a week after she disappeared, the Daily Mail reported.

Koren's friends said she had come seventh in a beauty contest.

Police are now looking into claims ... Read More

Cool species can take the heat
Two scientists from Simon Fraser University and one from Deakin University (DU) in Australia have made a discovery that is overturning conventional wisdom about how land and marine animals react to heat.

SFU biologists Nick Dulvy and Jennifer Sunday, and DU environmental scientist Amanda Bates have discovered that all land-dwelling animals cope with extreme heat similarly, regardless of how far they live from the equator.

The puzzling finding contradicts popular belief that animals living ... Read More

Call to protect water and reject corporate conflicts of interest
CNS

Recent reports show UN Agencies increasingly beset by corporate influence, lacking oversight

(CNS): As health experts gather in Geneva to attend the 64th World Health Assembly (WHA), global civil society organizations are calling on World Health Organization (WHO) Director General Dr. Margaret Chan to address widespread concerns about corporate conflicts of interest regarding global water governance, health and nutrition policy.

Corporate Accountability International, together with its allies at Baby Milk Action, delivered a letter to Dr. ... Read More

Videos of Osama watching himself released
Washington: The Obama administration on Saturday released five videos recovered from Osama bin Laden's hide-out in Abbottabad, Pakistan, that show him threatening the United States, condemning capitalism and, in the most candid scenes, watching news coverage of himself on television.

The videos were the first materials to be released from the trove of computer files and documents seized by the United States assault team that killed bin Laden early last Monday.

A senior intelligence official, briefing ... Read More

Why Akshay Tritiya is Most auspicious day of Hindu Calendar
Day which offers everlasting benefits (Akshayphal) that is Akshay Tritiya will be celebrated by worldwide Hindus on 6th May this year. True to its name this third day of bright fortnight of Hindu lunar month of Vaishakh is one of the three and half auspicious lunar days (muhurats) of Hindu almanac and on this day each and every moment is auspicious.
As per the Hindu holy text Madanratna Lord Sri Krushna elucidates the importance of ... Read More

Osama’s mocking messages since 2001
Osama bin Laden taunted and defied the United States in a series of audio and occasional video messages for nearly a decade after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. Following are highlights from some of the several dozen
statements released by the al Qaeda leader.

Oct. 7, 2001 - Bin Laden taunts "infidel" US President George W. Bush over Sept. 11 attacks; says in a videotape shown by Al Jazeera that United States will not live in ... Read More

Why I support France's burqa ban
Nandini Krishnan

Sarkozy hasn't exactly shied away from controversy since he became French President.

First, he spent a whole lot of campaign money on making himself pretty with expensive makeup - perhaps one of the key reasons he feels people shouldn't hide their faces.

Then, he brought his girlfriend along on a state visit to India - a country that likes to think pre-marital sex doesn't exist.

And then - oh, the Muslim-hating Crusader! - he called for ... Read More

Report says 7,000 babies stillborn every day worldwide
Around 7,000 stillbirths occur globally every day, with the poorest nations worst affected, a series of papers published in The Lancet suggest.
An overwhelming 98% of the 2.6m stillbirths each year strike middle and low-income countries, they say.
Better clinical care and monitoring could halve stillbirths in poorer countries by 2020, the paper adds.
Save the Children said current opportunities to address the problem were currently being missed.
Invisible toll
The UN's Millennium Development goals set out ... Read More

“Junk” bought for 100 pounds worth 40 million
London: A painting bought for only 100 pounds from a junk shop in Britain has been estimated at 40 million pounds.
The painting's 100-pound price tag was only for its designer frame. The buyer on closer inspection noticed a signature in a corner. And under the scrawled name was the date 1854.

Experts say the piece - showing a house with an orange roof surrounded by trees next to a river - is reminiscent of ... Read More