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Militants kill dozens in north Iraq ‘massacre’: officials

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<b>BAGHDAD: 
Militants carried out a "massacre" in the northern Iraqi village of 
Kocho, killing dozens of people, most of them members of the Yazidi 
religious minority, officials said on Saturday.</b><br />
<br />
Militants
 from the Islamic State (IS) group are carrying out attacks against 
minorities in Iraq´s Nineveh province, prompting tens of thousands of 
people to flee.<br />
<br />
"We have information from multiple 
sources, in the region and through intelligence, that (on Friday) 
afternoon, a convoy of (IS) armed men entered this village," senior 
Iraqi official Hoshyar Zebari told.<br />
<br />
"They took their 
revenge on its inhabitants, who happened to be mostly Yazidis who did 
not flee their homes," Zebari said, referring to a religious community 
regarded as heretics by militants.<br />
<br />
"They committed a massacre against the people," he said. "Around 80 of them have been killed."<br />
<br />
Harim
 Kamal Agha, a senior official of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan party
 in Dohuk province, which borders Nineveh, put the death toll at 81 and 
said the militants had taken women to prisons they control.<br />
<br />
And Mohsen Tawwal, a Yazidi fighter, told by telephone that he saw a large number of bodies in the village.<br />
<br />
"We made it into a part of Kocho village, where residents were under siege, but we were too late," he said.<br />
<br />
"There were corpses everywhere. We only managed to get two people out alive. The rest had all been killed."<br />
<br />
Militants-led
 insurgents launched a major offensive in June that began in Nineveh and
 swept security forces aside, overrunning large areas of five provinces.<br />
<br />
In
 one of the most dramatic chapters of the conflict, the militants 
stormed the Sinjar area of northwestern Iraq earlier this month 
prompting tens of thousands of people, many of them Yazidis, to take 
refugee in the mountains.<br />
<br />
Kurdish fighters on the ground 
and US air strikes eventually helped most of those trapped to escape 
after more than 10 days under siege, but some remain in the mountains.<br />

Militants kill dozens in north Iraq ‘massacre’: officials

BAGHDAD: Militants carried out a "massacre" in the northern Iraqi village of Kocho, killing dozens of people, most of them members of the Yazidi religious minority, officials said on Saturday. Mil…

16 Aug 2014

Boeing, South African Airways to make jet fuel from tobacco

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<b>JOHANNESBURG:
 US planemaker Boeing has teamed up with South African Airways to 
develop jet fuel from a tobacco plant as part of efforts to cut carbon 
emissions and promote green energy in Africa's most advanced economy.</b><br />
<br />
The
 jet fuel will be made from a hybrid tobacco plant known as Solaris, 
which will be produced by alternative jet fuel maker SkyNRG, both 
companies said in a joint statement on Wednesday.<br />
<br />
Test 
farming of the plants, which are nicotine-free, is ongoing in South 
Africa, with biofuel output expected in the "next few years", the 
companies said.<br />
<br />
"By using hybrid tobacco, we can leverage 
knowledge of tobacco growers in South Africa to grow a marketable 
biofuel crop without encouraging smoking," Ian Cruickshank, SAA's Group 
Environmental Affairs Specialist, said.<br />
<br />
This biofuel has 
potential in several regions where traditional tobacco is cultivated, 
including Africa, southern and central Europe, Asia, Oceania and Latin 
America, Boeing spokeswoman Jessica Kowal said.<br />
<br />
South 
Africa has set the beginning of October next year as the date when fuel 
producers will start blending diesel and petrol with biofuel to cut its 
reliance on imported fuel.<br />
<br />
The biofuels industry in South 
Africa, the continent's biggest agricultural producer, has been held 
back by an inadequate regulatory regime and concerns that biofuels would
 hurt food security and impact food prices.<br />

Boeing, South African Airways to make jet fuel from tobacco

JOHANNESBURG: US planemaker Boeing has teamed up with South African Airways to develop jet fuel from a tobacco plant as part of efforts to cut carbon emissions and promote green energy in Africa's…

16 Aug 2014

Father made his teenage sons join ISIS

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<br />
<strong>UK: Father took his two young sons who are fans of war games 
to Israel and Syria to a dramatic bid to teach them about the harsh 
realities of war and the devastation caused by the use of guns.</strong><br />

According to the media reports, Carl-Magnus Helgegren is a Swedish 
journalist, university teacher, and a father of two boys, Leo, 11 and 
Frank, 10. It is reported that Mr Helgegren was inspired to take his 
sons on the trip after they asked if they could buy the new violent 
shooter game when they were eating dinner last year and he became 
concerned that they did not understand the impact of war.<br />

He said in a statement that:<br />

“The people [by war] affected are someone’s father and brother and sister and mother.”<br />

He further added that:<br />

“When I presented this idea at first she hesitated she said “Is it 
safe?” But she said she would come along to be there for the children so
 we both did it together. We did it for the sake of our children. I 
wanted to show them the negative effects war has once the guns and the 
canons have silenced.<br />
<br />
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<br />
He decided to make a bet with his two sons – if they visited an area 
which has been plagued by war and tension and spoke to citizens there, 
then they would be able to play any video game they desired on their 
return <br />
<br />
<br />

Father made his teenage sons join ISIS

UK: Father took his two young sons who are fans of war games to Israel and Syria to a dramatic bid to teach them about the harsh realities of war and the devastation caused by the use of guns. Acco…

14 Aug 2014

Crude oil prices become down in Asia

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<span class="upper">Singapore, Aug 14:  
</span>
</div>
<div class="body">
Oil prices fell in Asia today following a surprise 
increase in US commercial crude oil stockpiles and a slew of soft 
economic data from leading energy consumers.</div>
<div class="body">
US 
benchmark West Texas Intermediate crude for September delivery eased 28 
cents to $97.31, while Brent crude for September delivery shed 50 cents 
to $103.78 in mid-morning trade.</div>
<div class="body">
A build in US inventories for the first time in seven weeks weighed on prices, analysts said.</div>
<div class="body">
US
 crude oil inventories rose 1.4 million barrels to 367.0 million in the 
week ending August 8, the Department of Energy said. Crude oil supplies 
had contracted by roughly 22 million barrels over the prior six weeks.</div>
<div class="body">
The
 increase in inventories surprised analysts, who expected a decline of 
1.7 million barrels, according to a survey by Dow Jones Newswires.</div>
<div class="body">
Benchmark
 prices also weakened due to “soft economic data from Europe and China”,
 said Sanjeev Gupta, head of the Asia-Pacific oil and gas practice at 
consultancy firm EY.</div>
<div class="body">
A string of disappointing 
Chinese data released on Wednesday raised concerns about growth in the 
world’s second largest economy and top energy consumer.</div>
<div class="body">
The
 Asian giant’s bank lending plunged to 385.2 billion yuan ($62.5 
billion) in July, a dramatic decline from June’s 1.08 trillion yuan as 
the weakening property sector hit the demand for loans.</div>
<div class="body">
Also,
 data for industrial output, retail sales and fixed-asset investment 
were in line with expectations but slightly slower from the previous 
month’s data.</div>
<div class="body">
In Germany, investment sentiment fell 
to its lowest level in nearly two years in August amid concerns about 
the economic fallout from current global crises, a survey found on 
Tuesday.</div>
<div class="body">
The widely watched investor confidence index
 calculated by the ZEW economic institute fell by 18.5 points to 8.6 
points in August, its lowest level since December 2012.</div>
<div class="body">
Analysts had expected only a minor fall.</div>
<div class="body">
Germany,
 Europe’s largest economy, is the world’s eighth largest energy 
consumer, according to the US Energy Information Administration (EIA).</div>

Crude oil prices become down in Asia

Singapore, Aug 14: Oil prices fell in Asia today following a surprise increase in US commercial crude oil stockpiles and a slew of soft economic data from leading energy consumers. US benchmark …

14 Aug 2014

11-YEAR-OLD UK GIRL HAS HIGHER IQ THAN EINSTEIN

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<br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px;"><br /></span>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLEe-WG3E6jhjGkqO6OuX_lR6PFiVQb07yCH8DeM8L2-0vAq10g6_Xi0eo2O0XRYYjKlqnZlqffsN3Z4sHG7vpdIpHtFAUegR8X4XCQuh4VgIaA7dzNHkSeLVkwk-38zH2iGK0sy7q_hg/s1600/Cerys-Cooksammy-Parnell.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="193" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLEe-WG3E6jhjGkqO6OuX_lR6PFiVQb07yCH8DeM8L2-0vAq10g6_Xi0eo2O0XRYYjKlqnZlqffsN3Z4sHG7vpdIpHtFAUegR8X4XCQuh4VgIaA7dzNHkSeLVkwk-38zH2iGK0sy7q_hg/s1600/Cerys-Cooksammy-Parnell.jpg" width="320" /></a><span style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px;">An 11-year-old schoolgirl in the UK has achieved the highest possible score of 162 on a Mensa IQ test, making her brainier than scientists Stephen Hawking and Albert Einstein.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px;">Cerys Cooksammy-Parnell, the grade six schoolgirl took up the Mensa IQ test with the aim of beating her father's score of 142.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px;">Surprisingly, Parnell not only trounced her father in the test but also scored the highest mark possible in the test, scoring 162 on the Cattell B scale, 'The Daily Express' reported.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px;">Cerys, from Northampton, UK, took the supervised test on July 27 this year with her father Dean, who is already a member of the genius group Mensa and has an IQ of 142.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px;">"My primary aim was to beat my dad who is very smart but I didn't expect to beat him by such a huge margin," she said.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px;">"I am not sure if this score is a good thing or a bad thing as I know she will be questioning everything I tell her to do. We are a bit blown away," Dean, a lawyer, said.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px;">Cerys is one of the youngest people to have taken the test as it is only offered to children aged over 10 and a half, the report said.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px;">Cerys says she loves pop music, texting her friends and watching TV.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px;">"At 11, I do not have many intellectual discussions with my friends and to be honest there is more to a person than their IQ," she said.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px;">"I like working with numbers so I think I would like to work for a bank or even one day become the Governor of the Bank of England," she said.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px;">Cerys has been invited to join British Mensa's 21,000 members, who all have IQ scores in the top two per cent of the country's population.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px;">"Cerys' score shows that she has great potential," John Stevenage, chief executive of British Mensa, said.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px;">Although, Einstein never took an IQ test as none of the modern intelligence tests existed during the course of his life, but experts believe he had an IQ of around 160.</span>

11-YEAR-OLD UK GIRL HAS HIGHER IQ THAN EINSTEIN

An 11-year-old schoolgirl in the UK has achieved the highest possible score of 162 on a Mensa IQ test, making her brainier than scientists Stephen Hawking and Albert Einstein.Cerys Cooksammy-Parnell,…

03 Aug 2014

BELGIAN ACADEMY TRAINS BUTLERS FOR THE SUPER-RICH

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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfbRj8ShJ_7sTn6b_qSx9WLKodRef-ZMlS5OcZsPBUCpkK1TSdZssXHU0uriaIs-MPaaKjj24Brr_yAGPVrCp3ntVjSDVZ2rM9u9NuzD7JL3dZpYJrvRDPJ5laXOTfKHnJHl76SpUjeq4/s1600/9a177d5e5c72868dec32a4330b3a10f1_ls.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfbRj8ShJ_7sTn6b_qSx9WLKodRef-ZMlS5OcZsPBUCpkK1TSdZssXHU0uriaIs-MPaaKjj24Brr_yAGPVrCp3ntVjSDVZ2rM9u9NuzD7JL3dZpYJrvRDPJ5laXOTfKHnJHl76SpUjeq4/s1600/9a177d5e5c72868dec32a4330b3a10f1_ls.jpg" /></a></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px;">The exclusive School for Butlers and Hospitality in Brussels has found a niche training people to cater to the needs of the world's wealthy, with the Belgian academy drawing applicants from around the globe.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px;">"The most important thing for a good butler is to have a good personal attitude and know how to provide maximum service with minimum intrusiveness," School for Butlers and Hospitality director Vincent Vermuelen told EFE.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px;">The academy will offer its first four-week course in September at the Plaza Hotel in Brussels for 6,980 euros ($9,380). About 100 candidates from around the world applied for the 12 slots in the class. Butlers are in demand in the wake of the financial crisis even though the public has the idea that they only exist on television series and in novels about Victorian England.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px;">Five-star hotels, embassies, yachts and mansions are among the employers of white-gloved butlers. The luxury market's strength throughout the economic crisis has led more people to seek employment as butlers, who can earn from 50,000 euros ($67,195) to 180,000 euros ($241,901) annually, based on experience and the type of employer.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px;">The School for Butlers and Hospitality is able to charge high tuition because of the quality of its instructors and courses, as well as the opportunities that its certificates open up, Vermuelen said. The Middle East, Russia and China are the markets with the greatest demand for butlers, with academies opening to train people in these areas.</span>

BELGIAN ACADEMY TRAINS BUTLERS FOR THE SUPER-RICH

The exclusive School for Butlers and Hospitality in Brussels has found a niche training people to cater to the needs of the world's wealthy, with the Belgian academy drawing applicants from around th…

03 Aug 2014

AT LEAST 175 PEOPLE WERE DEAD AFTER EARTH QUAKE HITS SOUTHWEST CHINA

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<span style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px;">BEIJING (Reuters) - A magnitude 6.3 earthquake struck southwestern China on Sunday, killing at least 175 people and leaving more than 180 missing and 1,400 injured in a remote area of Yunnan province, causing thousands of buildings, including a school, to collapse.The U.S. Geological Survey said the quake registered at a shallow depth of less than 1 mile (1.6 km). Chinese state media said it was felt most strongly in Yunnan as well as in the neighbouring provinces of Guizhou and Sichuan.The official Xinhua news agency said the epicentre was in Longtoushan town in Yunnan's mountainous Ludian county.Communications have been seriously affected and rescuers have begun arriving on the scene, the report said.Pictures posted online by state media showed troops stretchering people away and cars damaged by fallen bricks.Many people rushed out of buildings onto the street after the quake hit, electricity supplies were cut and at least one school collapsed, Xinhua added, with more than 12,000 houses having collapsed and 30,000 sustaining damage.Ludian resident Ma Liya told Xinhua the streets were like a "battlefield after bombardment".The government is sending 2,000 tents, 3,000 folding beds, 3,000 quilts and 3,000 coats to the disaster zone, where heavy rain forecast for the coming days will add to the misery, the report said.Ludian is home to some 265,900 people, Xinhua added.This region of China is frequently struck by quakes, with one killing more than 1,400 in the same part of Yunnan in 1974.A quake in Sichuan in 2008 killed almost 70,000 people. (Reporting by Ben Blanchard; Editing by Matt Driskill and Gareth Jones)This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed.</span>

AT LEAST 175 PEOPLE WERE DEAD AFTER EARTH QUAKE HITS SOUTHWEST CHINA

BEIJING (Reuters) - A magnitude 6.3 earthquake struck southwestern China on Sunday, killing at least 175 people and leaving more than 180 missing and 1,400 injured in a remote area of Yunnan province…

03 Aug 2014

'BOYFRIEND TRACKER' APP DOWNLOAD COUNTER RISES IN BRAZIL

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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEha-O5W0Fndhbgj1KebMnw6-ExKt3lWxNZEFkFAjI8ACdI41Jrcs4IXebR1-cIaOdtDwt9Yr52tQYmKo7tM0r1r-MHqZ2n94uZ-RFpFhPHrJrJfuKXxtQb35HvTrX2PCPe08T9-Mbw_xqw/s1600/0.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEha-O5W0Fndhbgj1KebMnw6-ExKt3lWxNZEFkFAjI8ACdI41Jrcs4IXebR1-cIaOdtDwt9Yr52tQYmKo7tM0r1r-MHqZ2n94uZ-RFpFhPHrJrJfuKXxtQb35HvTrX2PCPe08T9-Mbw_xqw/s1600/0.jpg" /></a></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px;">Brazilians were outraged when they learned their country was a top target of the U.S. National Security Agency's overseas spying operation, with data from billions of calls and emails swept up in Washington's top secret surveillance program.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px;">Yet when it comes to the cloak and dagger effort of catching philandering lovers, all high-tech weapons appear to be fair game - at least to the tens of thousands of Brazilians who downloaded "Boyfriend Tracker" to their smartphones before the stealthy software was removed from the Google Play app store last week, apparently in response to complaints about privacy abuses and its potential to be used for extortion or even stalking.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px;">"Brazilians are a jealous people, what can I say? Of course it's going to be popular," said Marcia Almeida, a 47-year-old woman in Rio whose marriage ended seven years ago in large part because of what she said was her husband's infidelity.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px;">"It's a different type of spying," she said of comparisons to the NSA surveillance program. "You're checking up on somebody you know intimately, not some stranger."</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px;">The app, called "Rastreador de Namorados" (Portuguese for Boyfriend Tracker), promises to act like a "private detective in your partner's pocket."</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px;">Functions include sending the person doing the tracking updates on their partner's location and forwarding duplicates of text message traffic from the targeted phone. There is even a command that allows a user to force the target phone to silently call their own, like a pocket dial, so they can listen in on what the person is saying.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px;">Similar apps are marketed for smartphone users in other countries, including Europe and the U.S., but Boyfriend Tracker is the first that has made any impact in Brazil, a country still irate as it learns more about Washington's snooping. Brazil has sent a government delegation to meet with U.S. leaders about the spy program that was revealed by Edward Snowden, the former NSA contractor who has been on the run since May and was recently granted asylum in Russia.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px;">Google spokeswoman Gina Johnson said by email that as a policy the company doesn't comment on why apps are removed.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px;">Critics say even as advertised, apps like Boyfriend Tracker can violate privacy rights, and they warn that in the wrong hands they could be used for more sinister purposes, like stalking. Some in Brazil argue it breaks an anti-online harassment and hacking law in place since April. The law is named after Brazilian actress Carolina Dieckmann, who had nude photos of herself leaked by hackers in 2012 after she refused to pay about $5,000.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px;">However, similar apps popular on Google Play market themselves to parents as a means of monitoring how teenage children use the phone and where they are at any given moment.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px;">Matheus Grijo, a 24-year-old Sao Paulo-based developer behind Boyfriend Tracker, says it has attracted around 50,000 users since its launch about two months ago, most since the site began attracting media attention two weeks ago.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px;">Grijo insists his lawyer vetted the app and determined it does not violate any Brazilian laws. Despite being removed by Google, it is still available via direct download from his company's website.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px;">A disclaimer on that website stipulates the app is for "social and recreational use" and absolves the developer of responsibility for any misuse. The first line of the download instructions says a woman installing the tracker on her boyfriend's phone should do so "with his consent."</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px;">"We are waiting for Google's position on the removal of `Boyfriend Tracker' from Google Play, which we consider an error," read a posting on a Facebook page Grijo set up for the app.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px;">To install Boyfriend Tracker, suspicious partners have to get their hands on their loved one's smartphones and upload the app. A free version leaves the app's icon visible on the target's phone, while a version that costs $2 a month masks the icon.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px;">Grijo said the app began as a joke between him and his girlfriend but the idea quickly caught on among their friends.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px;">"In Brazil, we have this culture of switching partners really quickly, so this is a way of dealing with that," said Grijo. "People really appreciate having a tool to help them find out whether they're being cheated on."</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px;">He acknowledged that "of course some people are against it, but on balance the response from users has been positive." He said he's received messages of gratitude from around 50 people who used the app to ferret out their partners' infidelity.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px;">While cheating in Brazil cuts both ways, the app is clearly marketed to women suspicious of their male partners, right down to the name. Postings on the app's Facebook page exhort: "Girls, share this."</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px;">Still, Grijo insisted he personally has never given his girlfriends any reason to worry.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px;">"I've had three steady girlfriends until now but I've never had these kinds of issues," he said.</span>

'BOYFRIEND TRACKER' APP DOWNLOAD COUNTER RISES IN BRAZIL

Brazilians were outraged when they learned their country was a top target of the U.S. National Security Agency's overseas spying operation, with data from billions of calls and emails swept up in Was…

03 Aug 2014

IMPLICATIONS OF WIFI ON AIR INDIA AIRCRAFT

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<img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEislEW472nGByXbTdu6Sbrq9mfN3BvW23Ao76fiWhwH9M4NrDTbrWEwjky76pwztppJAT25LG1HmDystmYGBnVF5GtehCnHtVNGm6aTRz25IYpX9Wti_oVo-zWbWqqsxVdZGDeL18Q67SM/s1600/03de20292c5536e9c630169fd42ed082_ls.jpg" /></div>
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Air India finally did something to make us sit up and take notice. They announced that they would provide wi-fi facilities to people on board their aircraft. This is great, but we don't think they've thought through some of the funnier consequences of their decision. Here are some examples:</div>
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<span style="margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: underline;"><strong style="margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;">1. Neighbours will become less irritating:</strong></span> That old aunty who talks about her back problem, that fat man who takes over half your seat in addition to his own - all of them can be vanquished by one simple medicine - WhatsApp.</div>
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<span style="margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: underline;"><strong style="margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;">2. Less babies will get bad wishes:</strong></span> Every person who ever wants to sleep on an aircraft is always greeted by a baby with magnificent lungs and a bad mood, and all such people spend the entire flight wishing for bad things to happen to the baby. But now, with Facebook available as a distraction, crying babies won't even be noticed.</div>
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<span style="margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: underline;"><strong style="margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;">3. The lack of in-flight entertainment won't matter:</strong></span> Air India has everything except on-demand movies on seats, but with WiFi, it won't matter any more. Everyone will just switch on their torrents together.</div>
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<span style="margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: underline;"><strong style="margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;">4. Corporate workers will be even more harassed:</strong></span> Conference calls. Urgent emails. Powerpoint slides. Excel models. All these were once not expected from an employee on a flight. No more. With WiFi, Air India has essentially transported your boss on the seat next to you.</div>
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<span style="margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: underline;"><strong style="margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;">5. There will be no more queues once the flight stops:</strong></span> In India, we queue up in the aisles 10 minutes before the flight doors open, so that we can feel that our normal life, with smartphones and Facebook and Twitter, is closer to us. After internet on planes, our life will be in our hands the whole time. The in-flight attendants will have to pull people out of seats.</div>
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<span style="margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: underline;"><strong style="margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;">6. People will start flying for the free WiFi:</strong></span> We in India do crazy things to get free WiFi. We sit in coffeeshops for hours, buying coffees that we don’t need or want. We sit in public places and try desperately to crack the insecure passwords. Basically, WiFi is, for us, a red rag to a bull, and we will do anything to get it. Even if it involves paying thousands of rupees for a flight ticket.</div>

IMPLICATIONS OF WIFI ON AIR INDIA AIRCRAFT

Air India finally did something to make us sit up and take notice. They announced that they would provide wi-fi facilities to people on board their aircraft. This is great, but we don't think they've…

03 Aug 2014

Microsoft Suing Samsung for Not Paying Patent Royalties

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<br />
Microsoft claims that Samsung threatened to withhold royalty payments
 related to the Android operating system and is suing them over it 
according to a <a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" target="_blank">report</a> from the <em>AP. </em>It's
 the end of a deal that Microsoft and Samsung made back in 2011 where 
Samsung would pay royalties on Android patents and allow cross-licensing
 of patents.<br />

Microsoft's patents are used by tech companies all over the world and
 its a steady stream of income that helps keep Microsoft the giant it 
is. It's not too surprising therefore that it is willing to go to court 
over it. There's far too much money at stake for for the company to let 
it go. $2 billion a year according to <em>AP, </em>and probably set to 
grow as that Android system takes up a bigger and bigger share of the 
mobile market. Right now, there are over 25 companies using the patents.<br />

"We don’t take lightly filing a legal action, especially against a 
company with which we’ve enjoyed a long and productive partnership," 
wrote David Howard, Microsoft's deputy general counsel in a <a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" target="_blank">blog post</a>
 on Friday. "Unfortunately, even partners sometimes disagree. After 
spending months trying to resolve our disagreement, Samsung has made 
clear in a series of letters and discussions that we have a fundamental 
disagreement as to the meaning of our contract."<br />

According to Howard, it all started after Microsoft acquired Nokia. 
Apparently the royalty payments came later and then just stopped. 
Despite discussions and efforts to resolve things out of court, 
Microsoft apparently feels it has to turn to the justice system to get 
it all worked out.<br />

"Microsoft and Samsung have a long history of collaboration," Howard 
wrote. "Microsoft values and respects our partnership with Samsung and 
expects it to continue. We are simply asking the Court to settle our 
disagreement, and we are confident the contract will be enforced."

Microsoft Suing Samsung for Not Paying Patent Royalties

Microsoft claims that Samsung threatened to withhold royalty payments related to the Android operating system and is suing them over it according to a report from the AP. It's the end of a deal th…

02 Aug 2014

Indian Medical Association demands ban on use of antibiotics for growth promotion in poultry

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A day after an environment body said that "large-scale and indiscriminate" use of antibiotics in poultry industry might be "strongly linked" to growing antibiotic resistance in Indians, Indian Medical Association (IMS) today called for a ban on use of antibiotics for growth promotion and mass disease prevention in poultry.</div>
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It should only be used to cure the sick based on prescription of veterinarians, the medical body said.</div>
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"Antibiotics should not be allowed in feed and feed supplement. The government should set standards for animal feed, regulate the business. Antibiotics that are critical for humans should not be allowed for use in animals," said Narendra Saini, Secretary General of IMA.</div>
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"Further, stringent control on import of antibiotics and feed supplements should be implemented. There should be a stringent act on the same," Saini said.</div>
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The IMA also stressed on the promotion of vaccination against infectious diseases and demanded proper monitoring and surveillance of antibiotics supplied to the chemists. "Lack of data on the use of antibiotics and drug resistance is a major problem in India. It is necessary to create an integrated surveillance system to monitor antibiotics use and antibiotics resistance trends in humans, animals and food chain. A national-level database should be developed and kept in the public domain," said Saini.</div>
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"Governments worldwide are adopting regulations to control the use of antibiotics. But only those countries have shown signs of improvement that have taken stringent actions. European countries were the first ones to ban penicillin, streptomycin and tetracyclines as feed additives in the 1970s," he said.</div>
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The <strong style="background: transparent; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #2731f5; font-weight: bold; outline: 0px;">Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) had on Thursday claimed that it found several antibiotic residues in chickens</strong><span style="color: #2731f5;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; box-sizing: border-box;"><b> </b></span></span>tested in Delhi-NCR region. It had said that "large-scale and indiscriminate" use of antibiotics in poultry industry might be "strongly linked" to growing antibiotic resistance in Indians.</div>
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The CSE also sought implementation of a comprehensive set of regulations including banning of antibiotic use as growth promoters in the poultry industry as it puts lives of people at risk.</div>
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It said 70 chicken samples from Delhi-NCR region were tested for six commonly used antibiotics during a recent study. While 40% tested positive, residues of more than one antibiotic were found in 17% samples. </div>

Indian Medical Association demands ban on use of antibiotics for growth promotion in poultry

A day after an environment body said that "large-scale and indiscriminate" use of antibiotics in poultry industry might be "strongly linked" to growing antibiotic resistance in Indians, Indian Medica…

01 Aug 2014

More than 700 people have died in West Africa in the latest outbreak of Ebola

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The head of the World Health Organisation has said the Ebola outbreak in West Africa is moving faster than efforts to control it.</div>
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Margaret Chan said governments may need to impose restrictions on population movements and public gatherings, and use police to guarantee the security of Ebola response teams.</div>
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The disease has killed 729 people in Guinea, Liberia, Nigeria and Sierra Leone, with the number of cases exceeding 1,330.</div>
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Ms Chan said the virus can be contained, but said the demands created by Ebola in West Africa outstrip the affected countries' capacity to respond.</div>
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She said: "If the situation continues to deteriorate, the consequences can be catastrophic in terms of lost lives but also severe socio-economic disruption and a high risk of spread to other countries."</div>
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Ms Chan described the outbreak as "by far the largest ever in the nearly four-decade history of this disease".</div>
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"It is taking place in areas with fluid population movements over porous borders, and it has demonstrated its ability to spread via air travel, contrary to what has been seen in past outbreaks.</div>
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"Cases are occurring in rural areas which are difficult to access, but also in densely populated capital cities."</div>
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The WHO has convened an emergency committee on 6-7 August to decide if Ebola constitutes a public health emergency of international concern and to recommend measures to tackle it.</div>
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Meanwhile, the leader of Guinea's Ebola task force has said that moves by Liberia and Sierra Leone to contain the disease may have the opposite effect.</div>
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Liberia has put in place several measures, including closing all schools and some government departments, as well as possibly quarantining affected communities.</div>
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Sierra Leone declared a state of emergency and called in troops to isolate Ebola victims.</div>
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"Currently, some measures taken by our neighbours could make the fight against Ebola even harder," said Aboubacar Sidiki Diakit before a meeting of heads of state from the three West African nations to coordinate a regional response.</div>
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"When children are not supervised, they can go anywhere and make the problem worse. It is part of what we will be talking about."</div>
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The outbreak of the virus, for which there is no known cure, began in the forests of eastern Guinea in February, but Sierra Leone now has the highest number of cases.</div>
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The haemorrhagic virus can kill up to 90% of those infected, though the fatality rate in this epidemic is about 60%.</div>
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In the final stages, its symptoms include external bleeding, internal bleeding, vomiting and diarrhoea - at which point Ebola becomes highly contagious.</div>
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The WHO said yesterday it would launch a €75m response plan.</div>
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The United States said it was providing material and technical support to the three countries and further assistance will be discussed next week.</div>
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The head of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has also announced plans to send an extra 50 health experts to help efforts to control the epidemic.</div>

More than 700 people have died in West Africa in the latest outbreak of Ebola

The head of the World Health Organisation has said the Ebola outbreak in West Africa is moving faster than efforts to control it. Margaret Chan said governments may need to impose restrictions on pop…

01 Aug 2014

Imam of China's biggest mosque killed in Xinjiang

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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #666666; font-family: tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; text-align: start;">Jume Tahir, the government-appointed imam of the 600-year-old Id Kah mosque in the city of Kashgar, was killed Wednesday by "three thugs influenced by religious extremist ideology", the Xinjiang government web portal Tianshan said. </span></td></tr>
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<strong class="location" style="display: block; float: left;">BEIJING: </strong>The head of China’s largest mosque was murdered after conducting morning prayers, the local government in far western Xinjiang said Thursday, amid intensifying violence in the turbulent region.</strong></div>
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Jume Tahir, the government-appointed imam of the 600-year-old Id Kah mosque in the city of Kashgar, was killed Wednesday by “three thugs influenced by religious extremist ideology”, the Xinjiang government web portal Tianshan said.</div>
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Police launched an all-out investigation and shot dead two of the alleged assailants while capturing the other at about noon on Wednesday as they violently resisted with “knives and hatchets,” Tianshan said.</div>
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Tianshan said Tahir’s killing was “premeditated” and that the suspects intended to commit a “ruthless murder”.</div>
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It also said they wanted to “increase their influence through ‘doing something big’”.</div>
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Tianshan identified the suspects by their names in phonetic Chinese. The official <i>Xinhua</i> news agency in an English-language report gave their names as Turghun Tursun, Memetjan Remutillan and Nurmemet Abidilimit.</div>
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Neither Tianshan nor <i>Xinhua</i> initially identified who among them was shot dead and who was apprehended.</div>
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Tahir was found dead in a pool of blood outside the mosque’s prayer house, Radio Free Asia (RFA) reported earlier on its website.</div>
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Xinjiang, home to China’s mostly Muslim Uighur ethnic minority, has seen escalating violence which in the past year has spilled over into other parts of China.</div>
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RFA cited what it described as “witnesses and other officials”, including the director of a neighbourhood stability committee in Kashgar, who described the killing as an assassination.</div>
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Imams and other religious leaders in China are appointed by the government and subject to strict control on the content of their preaching.</div>
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US-based RFA said that Tahir had been critical of violence carried out by Uighurs, and China’s official <i>Xinhua</i> news agency in early July quoted him as condemning terrorist violence carried out in the name of ethnicity and religion.</div>
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Tahir, 74, “enjoyed a high reputation among Muslims nationwide”, <i>Xinhua</i> said in its dispatch Thursday.</div>
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Dilxat Raxit, spokesperson for the exiled World Uyghur Congress (WUC), did not condemn the killing.</div>
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“Chinese policies in the area have caused things to happen which should not happen,” he told AFP in an email.</div>
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“According to local Uighurs, Jume Tahir consistently cooperated with the government, aided the monitoring of religious activities, and used his position in the mosque to promote Chinese policies which are unacceptable to Uighurs,” he said.</div>
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“Local Uighurs suspected he had a special relationship with the Chinese ministry of security.”</div>
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The Id Kah mosque is said to have a capacity of up to 20,000 people.</div>
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Kashgar, where the mosque is located, is an old oasis city that was part of the Silk Road trade route that ran from Europe to Asia.</div>
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The killing of Tahir came two days after dozens of people died in violence between Uighurs and security authorities in the Kashgar region.</div>
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Nearly 100 people were left dead or wounded, the WUC said, while authorities put the toll in the “several tens” in what they called a “terror attack” on a police station and township in Shache county, known as Yarkand in the Uighur language.</div>
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Beijing commonly blames separatists from Xinjiang for carrying out terror attacks which have grown in scale over the past year and spread outside the restive and resource-rich region.</div>
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A market attack in Urumqi, Xinjiang’s capital city, in May left 39 people dead, while a deadly rampage by knife-wielding assailants at a train station in Kunming in China’s southwest in March killed 29 people.</div>
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They came after a fiery vehicle crash at Tiananmen Square, Beijing’s symbolic heart, in October last year.</div>
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The violence has led China to carry out a broad crackdown on terrorism. President Xi Jinping on a visit to Xinjiang in late April called for a “strike first” strategy to fight terrorism and said the Kashgar area is China’s “front line in anti-terrorist efforts”.</div>
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Chinese prosecutors on Wednesday brought charges of separatism — which can carry the death penalty — against prominent Uighur academic Ilham Tohti, detained earlier this year.</div>
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Rights groups and analysts accuse China’s government of cultural and religious repression which they say fuels unrest in Xinjiang, which borders Central Asia.</div>
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The government, however, argues it has boosted economic development in the area and that it upholds minority rights in a country with 56 recognised ethnic groups.</div>

Imam of China's biggest mosque killed in Xinjiang

Jume Tahir, the government-appointed imam of the 600-year-old Id Kah mosque in the city of Kashgar, was killed Wednesday by "three thugs influenced by religious extremist ideology", the Xinjiang gove…

01 Aug 2014

Gaza: Baby delivered from mother killed in Israeli airstrike

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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghew_TSLiCFiukMLEZX1Q1FxEdTjxsh3FmrECh31lYqwc21aWRoUsgOO70kjeeV7AKkMoUJBx7vm889ILM7gKydZZ4sHBNJjYcKgxDZzK5F-Ypuyr09Zq7o0g_HQJfCtrm2CtLNJ-rkgE/s1600/877ed8412f1eb73e132aff1e4a4bace6.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghew_TSLiCFiukMLEZX1Q1FxEdTjxsh3FmrECh31lYqwc21aWRoUsgOO70kjeeV7AKkMoUJBx7vm889ILM7gKydZZ4sHBNJjYcKgxDZzK5F-Ypuyr09Zq7o0g_HQJfCtrm2CtLNJ-rkgE/s1600/877ed8412f1eb73e132aff1e4a4bace6.jpg" /></a></div>
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According to the media reports, the baby girl who is not been named yet is fighting for her life in specially cared unit of city hospital, where doctors say she has a 50 percent chance of survival.</div>
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The 18-day conflict has so far killed more than 845 people, most of them Palestinian civilians, while world powers scramble to mediate a ceasefire. Whereas, the death toll of innocent Palestinians is increasing on daily basis. One of the Palestinian doctor told media reporters that:</div>
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“I’m very angry, I’m very sad. I feel that this baby is mine.”</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3Z0yFJwDd86IU-eaUJfef90w7j4wlmq9UP1s4_Wwpq2QkJlsKGx7n8C9wopiB488S0wOi7hDNpswXbp1dcrkMBc5RC-JleAdQFqkqe0Zho5VIEqvs9uSa4lwZ0K9RU7fBOXPPB8yMMT0/s1600/premature_baby_130412.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3Z0yFJwDd86IU-eaUJfef90w7j4wlmq9UP1s4_Wwpq2QkJlsKGx7n8C9wopiB488S0wOi7hDNpswXbp1dcrkMBc5RC-JleAdQFqkqe0Zho5VIEqvs9uSa4lwZ0K9RU7fBOXPPB8yMMT0/s1600/premature_baby_130412.jpg" /></a></div>
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The bombing which killed the baby’s mother took place on a small block of flats housing civilians. The attack took place at around 2 o’clock in the morning.</div>

Gaza: Baby delivered from mother killed in Israeli airstrike

According to the media reports, the baby girl who is not been named yet is fighting for her life in specially cared unit of city hospital, where doctors say she has a 50 percent chance of survival. T…

31 Jul 2014

Gaza: Father holds dead baby after 18 days of continous shelling

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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKG7jkUCGTKy0zYYHJ_xoELAhxwmUSGJn-pOYUM8puuBMLp8S3tVDpU42AzfL-ZaG2sCbr-Dfj3oMLu0nxhiZ7toZEY5xfeXfiwzSM1Cl839z0yI36SPXYL7xNkLK29sK2d2_Q8Km6IWI/s1600/Gaza-Main.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKG7jkUCGTKy0zYYHJ_xoELAhxwmUSGJn-pOYUM8puuBMLp8S3tVDpU42AzfL-ZaG2sCbr-Dfj3oMLu0nxhiZ7toZEY5xfeXfiwzSM1Cl839z0yI36SPXYL7xNkLK29sK2d2_Q8Km6IWI/s1600/Gaza-Main.jpg" /></a></div>
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<strong style="border: 0px none; list-style: none; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;">GAZA: Israeli forces are targeting civilians especially children claiming them as terrorist.</strong></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhd3mcQOvDGBpqH61U5WVJS9mfeo2dkpMXQnygpF0SKB60AEe_8Sq0gJWWaLXwwaCpBaiASFRKkzwIhl5WENhn6tcSZszbjXBEuw0xuu0LwghPYlWJQn3QFOpusj9PIy_Cago_Xc95hQ1c/s1600/gaza-21.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="239" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhd3mcQOvDGBpqH61U5WVJS9mfeo2dkpMXQnygpF0SKB60AEe_8Sq0gJWWaLXwwaCpBaiASFRKkzwIhl5WENhn6tcSZszbjXBEuw0xuu0LwghPYlWJQn3QFOpusj9PIy_Cago_Xc95hQ1c/s1600/gaza-21.jpg" width="320" /></a>According to the media reports, the photographer captures an image of a grieving father who holds the body of his child aloft as he shows the human tragedy of the Gaza conflict. The heart-rending image is just one harrowing glimpse of the seemingly relentless tit-for-tat struggle that has appalled the world.</div>
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The heart-touching photo goes viral over the different social media websites.</div>
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It is reported that the death toll has been increased to 850 in past four weeks. The image of tot is one of around 800 Palestinians, mainly civilians and 120 of them children that were killed in 18 days of bitter bloodshed, filling the region’s graveyards almost to capacity.</div>
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Gaza: Father holds dead baby after 18 days of continous shelling

GAZA: Israeli forces are targeting civilians especially children claiming them as terrorist. According to the media reports, the photographer captures an image of a grieving father who holds the body…

31 Jul 2014

Chinese river turns blood “RED” overnight

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<strong style="border: 0px none; list-style: none; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;">CHINA: River mysteriously turns into red color over night, spreads fear in the region.</strong></div>
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According to the media reports, the the incident took place in the region of Chinese city of Wenzhou. It is reported that the place is surrounded by the mountains on three sides with the front of the city facing pacific ocean. The similar incident was reported in the year of 2012 when Yangtze river also changed its color.</div>
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Locals say at 4am the water flow was normal but by 6am it had turned a frightening shade of crimson.</div>
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An elderly resident who has lived by the river all his life says it has never happened before. Some people believe that changing of river color is due to the Industrial contamination that has ruled out because there are no chemical plants along it length.</div>
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Whereas, the environmental protection officials are taking water samples to find out what is going on. Wenzhou is a well-known town in East China’s Zhejiang Province.</div>
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Officials claimed the blood-red waters were a result of sand distribution due to upstream flooding but sceptics were not convinced and social media sites were full of bizarre theories including one that it was the start of “The Apocalypse.”</div>
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Chinese river turns blood “RED” overnight

CHINA: River mysteriously turns into red color over night, spreads fear in the region. According to the media reports, the the incident took place in the region of Chinese city of Wenzhou. It is repo…

27 Jul 2014

Samina Baig becomes first Muslim woman to scale The Seven Summits

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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit;">LAHORE: It’s a moment to feel proud provided by our mountaineer</span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit;"> </span><strong style="border: 0px none; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; list-style: none; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;">Samina Baig</strong><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit;">, who has become the</span><strong style="border: 0px none; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; list-style: none; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;">first Muslim woman and first Pakistani</strong><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit;"> </span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit;">to scale</span><strong style="border: 0px none; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; list-style: none; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;">The Seven Summits</strong><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit;">,</span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit;"> </span><strong style="border: 0px none; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; list-style: none; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;">7 highest peaks</strong><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit;"> </span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit;">on each of the</span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit;"> </span><strong style="border: 0px none; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; list-style: none; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;">7 continents</strong><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit;"> </span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit;">of the world.</span></div>
<article class="post-71205 post type-post status-publish format-standard has-post-thumbnail hentry category-sports tag-adventure-diplomacy-expedition tag-mirza-ali tag-samina-baig tag-seven-summits post-listing" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #333333; list-style: none; margin: 0px 0px 20px; outline: none; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><div class="post-inner" style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; list-style: none; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 20px 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
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Samina Baig, aged 23, also became the <strong style="border: 0px none; list-style: none; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;">youngest Asian</strong> to achieve this historic landmark in the record eight months duration with her brother Mirza Ali, excluding Mount Everest as unfortunately he missed out scaling the world’s highest mountain.</div>
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The lady hailed from Hunza, Gilgit-Baltistan became first Muslim and first Pakistani woman to hoist green flag atop World’s Highest peak Mount Everest.</div>
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<li style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; list-style: decimal outside; margin: 0px 0px 5px 10px; outline: none; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit;">Mirza Ali Baig has announced that since Everest was closed this year due to an avalanche, he would attempt it again next year, which would then make him and Samina the first siblings to complete the seven summits on seven continents.</span>Mount Everest (Nepal, Asia) - May 19, 2013</li>
<li style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; list-style: decimal outside; margin: 0px 0px 5px 10px; outline: none; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Mount Aconcagua (Argentina, South America) – December 13, 2013</li>
<li style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; list-style: decimal outside; margin: 0px 0px 5px 10px; outline: none; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Mount Vinson (Antarctica) – January 17, 2014</li>
<li style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; list-style: decimal outside; margin: 0px 0px 5px 10px; outline: none; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Mount Kilimanjaro (Tanzania, Africa) – February 12, 2014</li>
<li style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; list-style: decimal outside; margin: 0px 0px 5px 10px; outline: none; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Mount Puncat Jaya (Indonesia, Oceania) – March 19, 2014</li>
<li style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; list-style: decimal outside; margin: 0px 0px 5px 10px; outline: none; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Mount Mckinley (USA, North America) – June 28, 2014</li>
<li style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; list-style: decimal outside; margin: 0px 0px 5px 10px; outline: none; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Mount Elbrus (Russia, Europe) – July 24, 2014 (ahead of the originally planned date of August 2014)</li>
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<strong style="border: 0px none; list-style: none; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;">About Seven Summits Journey:</strong></div>
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<strong style="border: 0px none; list-style: none; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjap1I_w1hCfTQLz2NmpSMbA9AuuesKmJHq-mJoRyIse3m2mI6W90O0YYpprF7KFTlmorxTa_IQqGwhT2_Bk3Hi9jRi98oB_GtemPZ0BmuZJMZoEi7nAerjYKW89Ibn6h6M5EANI48TNU/s1600/0.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjap1I_w1hCfTQLz2NmpSMbA9AuuesKmJHq-mJoRyIse3m2mI6W90O0YYpprF7KFTlmorxTa_IQqGwhT2_Bk3Hi9jRi98oB_GtemPZ0BmuZJMZoEi7nAerjYKW89Ibn6h6M5EANI48TNU/s1600/0.jpg" width="320" /></a></strong></div>
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It is pertinent to mention that Samina Baig and Mirza Ali’s adventurous journey is aimed to attempt the seven highest peaks across world’s seven continents under Adventure Diplomacy Expedition, which has been sponsored by embassies of the Republic of Argentina, Indonesia, Nepal, Russia, US and Serena Hotels.</div>
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The Seven Summit Adventure Diplomacy Expedition started in November 2013 and was expected to complete in August 2014. It has been dedicated to women’s empowerment, gender equality and environmental conservation.</div>
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Samina Baig becomes first Muslim woman to scale The Seven Summits

LAHORE: It’s a moment to feel proud provided by our mountaineer Samina Baig, who has become thefirst Muslim woman and first Pakistani to scaleThe Seven Summits, 7 highest peaks on each of the 7 conti…

27 Jul 2014

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