Fresh firing in Poonch as Pak troops target Indian posts

NEW DELHI: A day before the flag meeting between Indian and Pakistani commanders, there are reports of fresh exchange of fire in Poonch sector on Sunday.

According to TV reports, several Indian posts have been targeted by Pakistani troops.

The Indian Army retaliated leading to exchange of fire between the two sides along the LoC.

Earlier today Pakistan agreed to hold a flag meeting to defuse tension at the border after the brutal killing of two jawans.

The Indian Army had sent a hotline message to the Pakistan Army on January 11 and asked for a flag meeting to discuss the issue of brutal killing of two jawans by Pakistani troops, reportedly belonging to 29 Baloch Regiment, and increasing incidents of firing and ceasefire violations in the Poonch sector.

(With inputs from PTI)

Read More..

Pictures: Civil War Shipwreck Revealed by Sonar

Photograph by Jesse Cancelmo

A fishing net, likely only decades old, drapes over machinery that once connected the Hatteras' pistons to its paddle wheels, said Delgado.

From archived documents, the NOAA archaeologist learned that Blake, the ship's commander, surrendered as his ship was sinking. "It was listing to port, [or the left]," Delgado said. The Alabama took the wounded and the rest of the crew and put them in irons.

The officers were allowed to keep their swords and wander the deck as long as they promised not to lead an uprising against the Alabama's crew, he added.

From there, the Alabama dropped off their captives in Jamaica, leaving them to make their own way back to the U.S.

Delgado wants to dig even further into the crew of the Hatteras. He'd like see if members of the public recognize any of the names on his list of crew members and can give him background on the men.

"That's why I do archaeology," he said.

(Read about other Civil War battlefields in National Geographic magazine.)

Published January 11, 2013

Read More..

Jay Rockefeller, likely the last of a political dynasty

Uncle Nelson was vice president. Uncle Winthrop a governor. Great-grandfather Nelson a senator.

Political bloodlines, he had.

But the great American electoral dynasty that abruptly announced its end Friday, or at least signaled what looks to be a long, long pause, always evoked more. That name on the ballot — Rockefeller — meant money. It meant epic-scale success. It meant everything.

And it meant that Jay Rockefeller wasn’t ever going to be just some Democratic senator from West Virginia. Rockefeller, who said Friday that he would not seek reelection in 2014 after nearly three decades in the Senate, was always going to be the oil titan John D. Rockefeller’s great-grandson, too. One of the heirs to a legendary fortune.

“He’s proud of being a Rockefeller. He talks about his uncles and his grandfather, about that legacy. It’s an important part of who he is and how he thinks about himself,” Rockefeller’s longtime political adviser, Geoff Garin, said in an interview. “He found a way to be a Rockefeller that was about serving people.”

Dynasties like these roll across American political history. Not just Rockefellers, but Adamses and Kennedys and Bushes. A nation formed to escape power granted as a birthright still embraces power that follows the contours of a family tree. Voters even expect it, and so do political scions.

“It’s so predictable!” said Stephen Hess, a Brookings Institution senior fellow emeritus and author of the book “America’s Political Dynasties.” “It’s daddy’s business and increasingly it’ll be mommy’s business, too.”

For Hess, each dynasty takes on a different aura. There were the “crafty” Roosevelts, headlined by a couple of presidents — Franklin Delano and Theodore — and his favorites, the Tafts, whose standout, William Howard, was about the “nicest” guy ever to occupy the Oval Office, in Hess’s estimation, and who also managed to become chief justice of the Supreme Court.

The Rockefellers were almost incidental dynasty builders, Hess said. “That generation — the robber barons, if you want to call them that — wasn’t interested in politics. Politics was something you could marry into.”

Indeed, John D. Rockefeller’s only son married the daughter of Nelson Aldrich, a prominent Republican senator of the late 1800s and early 1900s who wielded tremendous influence over monetary policies. Their son, Nelson Aldrich Rockefeller, became governor of New York and was Gerald R. Ford’s vice president. Another son, Winthrop Rockefeller, became governor of Arkansas.

“My great-grandfather, John D. Rockefeller, worked at it very, very hard. There’s an ethic in the Rockefeller family of hard work,” Jay Rockefeller wrote in an e-mail late Friday. “It’s expected that everybody work hard. And there has been a tradition of public service.”

John D. “Jay” Rockefeller IV entered politics unconventionally, drawn into that sphere by his experiences as a volunteer for VISTA (the precursor of Americorps) in Emmons, W.Va., a small coal mining town. “Coming to West Virginia was life-changing for him,” Garin said. “West Virginia exposed him to a whole new world that broadened his world; and in a lot of respects it gave his career a defining purpose.”

Read More..

M'sian police to investigate rally participants' violation of terms

KUALA LUMPUR: Police will carry out investigations on participants who violated the three conditions agreed to by the rally organiser, Dang Wangi police chief ACP Zainuddin Ahmad said.

The three conditions prohibit the participants from bringing children below the age of 15 and waving placards and banners with seditious words; and compel the organiser to ensure that no more than 30,000 people were participating in the rally.

Zainuddin said the conditions were among the 27 police conditions agreed to by the organiser in accordance with Malaysia's Peaceful Assembly Act.

He said no arrests were made and no unwanted incidents occurred during the rally.

"Only two minor incidents occurred as the participants rushed to enter the stadium where the gathering was officially held, causing two senior citizens to pass out and be taken to hospital," he told reporters after the rally in Kuala Lumpur on Saturday.

Zainuddin said several opposition leaders had also commended the service and cooperation given by the police throughout the rally.

He said the number of participants attending the rally was estimated at 45,000.

He also refuted the allegation that a bomb was found at Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre area.

- Bernama/xq

Read More..

Martyr's family on hunger strike, wants govt to bring back severed head

LUCKNOW: Family members of Lance Naik Hemraj Singh, who was killed and beheaded by Pakistani troops last Tuesday, along with the villagers of Sher Nagar in Mathura, went on a hunger strike on Saturday to protest the neglect, apathy and inaction of the state and central governments.

The family and the villagers want central government to give a befitting reply to Pakistan and bring back the head of the martyr.

They also want chief minister Akhilesh Yadav to visit the village and pay tribute to the martyr, instead of announcing compensation and offering lip service.

The politicians, they said, should learn to honour those who make supreme sacrifice for the country. Senior officers of the Mathura district administration have reached the spot to pacify the villagers.

According to a PTI report, the family members and the villagers have called off their fast after getting assurance on their demands from the Uttar Pradesh government.

Lance Naik Hemraj was killed along with Lance Naik Sudhakar Singh, who belonged to Sidhi in Madhya Pradesh.

While Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shivraj Singh Chauhan was present in the funeral of the martyr, his counterpart Akhilesh Yadav in Uttar Pradesh neither attended the funeral, not sent any representative of the state cabinet, leading to widespread criticism.

Though Yadav later announced Rs 20 lakh compensation for the family of the martyr, villagers and family members are angry over the initial neglect and apathy of the state administration.

Hemraj is survived by wife Dharmvati (28), two daughters Nirmal (7) and Shivam (3), son Prince (5), and mother Meena Devi. He joined Rajputana Rifles of the Army in 2001.

Angry villagers said that the central government should try and get Hemraj's head to maintain the dignity of his body.

Village head Dharam Veer demanded a befitting reply to Pakistan for 'cowardly act'. He said that villagers are proud of the supreme sacrifice made by the 32-year-old brave soldier and want that he should be awarded with Ashok Chakra for serving the nation.

Read More..

Pictures: Civil War Shipwreck Revealed by Sonar

Photograph by Jesse Cancelmo

A fishing net, likely only decades old, drapes over machinery that once connected the Hatteras' pistons to its paddle wheels, said Delgado.

From archived documents, the NOAA archaeologist learned that Blake, the ship's commander, surrendered as his ship was sinking. "It was listing to port, [or the left]," Delgado said. The Alabama took the wounded and the rest of the crew and put them in irons.

The officers were allowed to keep their swords and wander the deck as long as they promised not to lead an uprising against the Alabama's crew, he added.

From there, the Alabama dropped off their captives in Jamaica, leaving them to make their own way back to the U.S.

Delgado wants to dig even further into the crew of the Hatteras. He'd like see if members of the public recognize any of the names on his list of crew members and can give him background on the men.

"That's why I do archaeology," he said.

(Read about other Civil War battlefields in National Geographic magazine.)

Published January 11, 2013

Read More..

Poisoned Lottery Winner's Kin Were Suspicious

Urooj Khan had just brought home his $425,000 lottery check when he unexpectedly died the following day. Now, certain members of Khan's family are speaking publicly about the mystery -- and his nephew told ABC News they knew something was not right.

"He was a healthy guy, you know?" said the nephew, Minhaj Khan said. "He worked so hard. He was always going about his business and, the thing is: After he won the lottery and the next day later he passes away -- it's awkward. It raises some eyebrows."

The medical examiner initially ruled Urooj Khan, 46, an immigrant from India who owned dry-cleaning businesses in Chicago, died July 20, 2012, of natural causes. But after a family member demanded more tests, authorities in November found a lethal amount of cyanide in his blood, turning the case into a homicide investigation.

"When we found out there was cyanide in his blood after the extensive toxicology reports, we had to believe that ... somebody had to kill him," Minhaj Khan said. "It had to happen, because where can you get cyanide?"

In Photos: Biggest Lotto Jackpot Winners

Authorities could be one step closer to learning what happened to Urooj Khan. A judge Friday approved an order to exhume his body at Rosehill Cemetery in Chicago as early as Thursday to perform further tests.

Lottery Winner Murdered: Widow Questioned By Police Watch Video

Moments after the court hearing, Urooj Khan's sister, Meraj Khan, remembered her brother as the kind of person who would've shared his jackpot with anyone. Speaking at the Cook County Courthouse, she hoped the exhumation would help the investigation.

"It's very hard because I wanted my brother to rest in peace, but then we have to have justice served," she said, according to ABC News station WLS in Chicago. "So if that's what it takes for him to bring justice and peace, then that's what needs to be done."

Khan reportedly did not have a will. With the investigation moving forward, his family is waging a legal fight against his widow, Shabana Ansari, 32, over more than $1 million, including Urooj Khan's lottery winnings, as well as his business and real estate holdings.

Khan's brother filed a petition Wednesday to a judge asking Citibank to release information about Khan's assets to "ultimately ensure" that [Khan's] minor daughter from a prior marriage "receives her proper share."

Ansari may have tried to cash the jackpot check after Khan's death, according to court documents, which also showed Urooj Khan's family is questioning if the couple was ever even legally married.

Ansari, Urooj Khan's second wife, who still works at the couple's dry cleaning business, has insisted they were married legally.

She has told reporters the night before her husband died, she cooked a traditional Indian meal for him and their family, including Khan's daughter and Ansari's father. Not feeling well, Khan retired early, Ansari told the Chicago Sun-Times, falling asleep in a chair, waking up in agony, then collapsing in the middle of the night. She said she called 911.

"It has been an incredibly hard time," she told ABC News earlier this week. "We went from being the happiest the day we got the check. It was the best sleep I've had. And then the next day, everything was gone.

"I am cooperating with the investigation," Ansari told ABC News. "I want the truth to come out."

Ansari has not been named a suspect, but her attorney, Steven Kozicki, said investigators did question her for more than four hours.

Read More..

"Tsunami" of property cooling measures, say analysts

SINGAPORE: Property analysts have described the latest set of government measures as the "tsunami" of property cooling measures, as it affects public and private housing, executive condominiums, and industrial properties.

Some say, the additional stamp duty will hit investors wanting to own a second or subsequent property.

Mr Mohamed Ismail, CEO of PropNex, said: "Such a drastic move will have a downward spiral effect, loss of confidence in the market... will the current property prices go under such that people who bought in recent times... will their property be a negative asset moving forward?

"More pertinent, as far as public housing here, is the restrictions on PR (Permanent Resident). I think there has been a lot of concerns and people have raised about PR being able to benefit while holding on to public housing and investing. These measures will increase the supply of public housing, and overall, this will help the public housing to be further moderated."

Meanwhile, some analysts say the new measures on industrial properties did not come as a surprise.

Mr Donald Han, Managing Director of HSR Property Consultants, said: "The measures are quite timely and could have come earlier because if you notice, industrial prices have actually increased by about average 25 per cent per annum since 2010, and if you look at last year, the full year price estimate capital values have increased by more than 30 per cent.

"So all in, all the government could have actually reacted earlier on, perhaps 12 months early rather than now. But it's never too late. I think that will have a huge impact on the pace of price movement, moving forward. I expect industrial price movement this year to be a bit more moderated to a single-digit increase, if any."

- CNA/de

Read More..

Hate speech: Akbaruddin Owaisi sent to 5-day police custody

NIRMAL/HYDERABAD: A court at Nirmal in Adilabad district of Andhra Pradesh on Friday granted police a five-day custody of Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (MIM) MLA Akbaruddin Owaisi, accused of sedition over his "hate speech".

In a related development, a court in Hyderabad directed police to investigate a speech made by Owaisi in Nanded in 2012, which allegedly targeted a particular community.

Upon a complaint filed by Hyderabad corporator Raja Singh, the court on Friday asked Mangalghat police here to probe the Nanded speech and file a report by February 11.

Magistrate's court in Nirmal today allowed police to take Akbaruddin in custody from tomorrow.

Akbaruddin, arrested by Nirmal police on January 8 from Gandhi Hospital in Hyderabad in connection with a hate speech case, is at present in judicial custody in Adilabad district jail. The police had sought a seven-day custody.

Owaisi has been booked for alleged hate speeches by the police of Nirmal and Nizambad Two town, and Osmania University police here. Further, the metropolitan magistrate's court of L B Nagar on Thursday took cognisance of another complaint over one of his speeches, and summoned him to the court on February 4.

Osmania University police have issued notice to a local TV channel for airing the controversial speeches that Akbaruddin had made at Nizamabad and Nirmal. The channel has also been asked to hand over video footage of the speeches to the investigating officer.

Read More..

Google and Twitter Help Track Influenza Outbreaks

This flu season could be the longest and worst in years. So far 18 children have died from flu-related symptoms, and 2,257 people have been hospitalized.

Yesterday Boston Mayor Thomas Menino declared a citywide public health emergency, with roughly 700 confirmed flu cases—ten times the number the city saw last year.

"It arrived five weeks early, and it's shaping up to be a pretty bad flu season," said Lyn Finelli, who heads the Influenza Outbreak Response Team at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Boston isn't alone. According to the CDC, 41 states have reported widespread influenza activity, and in the last week of 2012, 5.6 percent of doctor's office visits across the country were for influenza-like illnesses. The severity likely stems from this year's predominant virus: H3N2, a strain known to severely affect children and the elderly. Finelli notes that the 2003-2004 flu season, also dominated by H3N2, produced similar numbers. (See "Are You Prepped? The Influenza Roundup.")

In tracking the flu, physicians and public health officials have a host of new surveillance tools at their disposal thanks to crowdsourcing and social media. Such tools let them get a sense of the flu's reach in real time rather than wait weeks for doctor's offices and state health departments to report in.

Pulling data from online sources "is no different than getting information on over-the-counter medication or thermometer purchases [to track against an outbreak]," said Philip Polgreen, an epidemiologist at the University of Iowa.

The most successful of these endeavors, Google Flu Trends, analyzes flu-related Internet search terms like "flu symptoms" or "flu medication" to estimate flu activity in different areas. It tracks flu outbreaks globally.

Another tool, HealthMap, which is sponsored by Boston Children's Hospital, mines online news reports to track outbreaks in real time. Sickweather draws from posts on Twitter and Facebook that mention the flu for its data.

People can be flu-hunters themselves with Flu Near You, a project that asks people to report their symptoms once a week. So far more than 38,000 people have signed up for this crowdsourced virus tracker. And of course, there's an app for that.

Both Finelli, a Flu Near You user, and Polgreen find the new tools exciting but agree that they have limits. "It's not as if we can replace traditional surveillance. It's really just a supplement, but it's timely," said Polgreen.

When people have timely warning that there's flu in the community, they can get vaccinated, and hospitals can plan ahead. According to a 2012 study in Clinical Infectious Diseases, Google Flu Trends has shown promise predicting emergency room flu traffic. Some researchers are even using a combination of the web database and weather data to predict when outbreaks will peak.

As for the current flu season, it's still impossible to predict week-to-week peaks and troughs. "We expect that it will last a few more weeks, but we can never tell how bad it's going to get," said Finelli.

Hospitals are already taking precautionary measures. One Pennsylvania hospital erected a separate emergency room tent for additional flu patients. This week, several Illinois hospitals went on "bypass," alerting local first responders that they're at capacity—due to an uptick in both flu and non-flu cases—so that patients will be taken to alternative facilities, if possible.

In the meantime, the CDC advises vaccination, first and foremost. On the bright side, the flu vaccine being used this year is a good match for the H3N2 strain. Though Finelli cautions, "Sometimes drifted strains pop up toward the end of the season."

It looks like there won't be shortages of seasonal flu vaccine like there have been in past years. HealthMap sports a Flu Vaccine Finder to make it a snap to find a dose nearby. And if the flu-shot line at the neighborhood pharmacy seems overwhelming, more health departments and clinics are offering drive-through options.

Read More..