At 13, she's a senior student at Lucknow University - India

31  aug  2013

At 13, she's a senior student at Lucknow University

Sushma Verma, 13, is the youngest student ever to pass the Class XII Board exam.

Lucknow: At an age when she should be in school, the 13-year-old daughter of a poor labourer in Uttar Pradesh has baffled everybody by galloping to a master's programme in microbiology.

Sushma Verma was the youngest ever to pass class 12 exams, at just over 9 years. Now the teen prodigy has finished her graduation and has been named in the merit list for microbiology at the Lucknow University. She begins her master's classes next week.

Behind her remarkable success lies the story of a family determined to educate their children, no matter what it takes.

Sushma's father Tej Bahadur Verma, a daily wage labourer, earns barely two hundred rupees a day to feed a family of five. But when he saw his daughter's name on the merit list, he paid the initial fee of Rs. 25,000 instantly, not thinking about the rest - at least 75,000 rupees - to be paid later.

The family had to sell their land to pay for Sushma's education.

At their one-room home in Lucknow, their most precious possessions are a study table and a second-hand computer.

"I think education is important for my children, so I didn't hesitate in selling the land. We never got the chance to study - I don't want my children to work as labourers, I will do whatever I can to educate them," says Verma.

It took three years of college for Sushma to get used to studying with "big boys and girls". "At first, it was intimidating but everyone was really nice to me, so I was okay," she smiles.

Many at her college are shocked to see a senior who looks little more than a schoolgirl.

"She is much younger, but I will give her the respect any senior deserves," said Renu Rathore, a third year science student and a year 'junior' to Sushma.

Sushma wants to be a doctor and tried for medical college after school but was just too young. Now she plans to give her dream another shot when she turns 18. Age, she says, is just a number.

Katrina Kaif's sister Christine ties the knot in London - India

27 aug 2013

Katrina Kaif's sister Christine ties the knot in London

 

Dr Sanjay Kumar Cardiac Cardiothoracic Heart Surgeon India

Katrina Kaif's sister Natacha (extreme right) tied the knot in London.

 

Dr Sanjay Kumar Cardiac Cardiothoracic Heart Surgeon India

Bollywood actress Katrina Kaif attended her sister Natacha's wedding in London on August 25. Katrina Kaif looked pretty in a peach gown as she turned the bridesmaid for her sister Natacha. 

Katrina Kaif's sister Christine tied the knot on Sunday and thanks to the Bollywood actress' busy schedule, she could only leave Mumbai for London just hours before the ceremony.

Katrina left Mumbai for London midnight on Saturday to join her family for the wedding,
Among Katrina's forthcoming films are "Dhoom 3" and "Bang Bang".

Ratan Tata comes to Supreme Court to watch a hearing on his Right to Privacy plea - India

21  aug  2013

Ratan Tata comes to Supreme Court to watch a hearing on his Right to Privacy plea

Dr Sanjay Kumar Cardiac Cardiothoracic Heart Surgeon India

File photo of Ratan Tata

New Delhi: One of India's best-known entrepreneurs, Ratan Tata, was in the Supreme Court today to watch a hearing in his case that his constitutional right to privacy was violated in the leak of his conversations with corporate lobbyist Niira Radia.

"Mr Tata filed this writ petition on a matter of principle. He believes privacy is an important right for every individual and is keenly following the progress of this case," said a Tata Sons spokesperson.

The Tata group was a client of Ms Radia's public relations firm Vaishnavi Communications.

In April 2011, he took the government to court after websites and magazines ran transcripts of his phone calls with Ms Radia, whose phone was tapped at various points between 2008 and 2009 as part of a tax investigation.

Mr Tata wants the court to frame guidelines on conversations tapped by government agencies, to prevent such leaks and protect the privacy of individuals.

Indian-American named for top US environmental award - India

17  aug  2013

Indian-American named for top US environmental award

Washington: An Indian-American professor of biological and agricultural engineering has been recognised for lifetime achievement by a top US environmental and water resources institute.

Vijay Singh, professor and Caroline & William N. Lehrer Distinguished Chair in the Department of Biological and Agricultural Engineering at Texas A&M University, has been named as a recipient of the 2013 Lifetime Achievement Award by the American Society of Civil Engineers Environmental and Water Resources Institute (ASCE-EWRI).

Set up in 1999, the Environmental and Water Resources Institute is a civil engineering specialty institute of the American Society of Civil Engineers, the country's oldest national engineering society.

He was born in Agra, India, July 15, 1946.

He acquired his Master of Science degree from the University of Guelph in Ontario, Canada, and then did his Ph.D. from the Colorado State University.

He also received a D.Sc. from the University of Witwatersrand in South Africa.

A recipient of various distinguished awards and author of a voluminous number of publications, Mr Singh served in the faculty of various universities in the US before joining Texas A&M University July 1, 2006.

According to the Texas A&M University website, Mr Singh has been appointed a university distinguished professor effective September1 this year.

According to the website posting, Mr Singh is an internationally recognised and pre-eminent engineer specialising in water resources engineering and hydrology.

"He has made numerous advances in hydrologic and environmental modeling and has received the most prestigious awards for hydrology from multiple professional societies," the website stated.

"He is a prolific author of journal articles and books, by some measures the most prolific author working in hydrology today..."

He also serves on the editorial boards of 27 different journals.

With over 50,000 students on its rolls, Texas A&M University at College Station, Texas, is ranked as the sixth largest university in the US.

After killing five Indian jawans, Pakistan violates ceasefire for the third time in 48 hours - India

11  Aug  2013

After killing five Indian jawans, Pakistan violates ceasefire for the third time in 48 hours

Dr Sanjay Kumar Cardiac Cardiothoracic Heart Surgeon India

The bodies of the five Indian soldiers, who were killed earlier this week

Srinagar: Less than a week after killing five soldiers from the Indian Army in an ambush at the Line of Control in Jammu and Kashmir, Pakistan has reportedly violated the ceasefire agreement thrice in the last 48 hours. The latest firing incident took place today in the Mendhar district of Jammu and Kashmir where five Indian Army posts were attacked. According to reports, firing from small arms and automatic weapons is still on.

Earlier today, a jawan from the Border Security Force (BSF) was injured in the firing by Pakistani troops in the Kanachak sector of the Kashmir Valley.

"There was sniper firing from Pakistani side this morning along the international border (IB) at Alfa Machial Border Out Post (BOP) area in Jammu frontier ," a senior BSF officer said.

Yesterday, both sides exchanged fire for around seven hours.

"Pakistan fired over 7000 rounds of heavy ammunition besides mortar shells on Indian posts during the seven-and-a-half-hour firing in Poonch," a Defence spokesperson said yesterday, adding that it was "biggest ceasefire violation" in recent times. No causalities were however reported.

On the intervening night between Monday and Tuesday, Pakistani troops ambushed a patrol party of the Indian Army, killing five soldiers, and injuring a sixth one in the Poonch sector, 200 km south of Srinagar.

At a rally in Delhi's Ramlila grounds today, BJP president Rajnath Singh urged the government to take appropriate steps and suspend all talks with Pakistan.

"Pakistan has crossed all limits. The attacks at the Line of Control can be prevented if the government takes the right steps. The Prime Minister should announce no talks will take place with Pakistan," Mr Singh said today.

The killing of the soldiers created a huge uproar in Parliament with Defence Minister AK Antony, in a second statement, stating the attacks were carried out by specialised troops from Pakistan. His first statement absolved the Pakistani army, saying the attack was carried out by militants. His statement was in contradiction with the one issued by the Defence Ministry, lea

Sonia Gandhi's son-inlaw Robert Vadra used fake documents to acquire land - India

Robert Vadra used fake documents to acquire land, claims IAS officer Ashok Khemka

Dr Sanjay Kumar Cardiac Cardiothoracic Heart Surgeon India

Senior IAS officer Ashok Khemka (File pic)

Gurgaon: Senior IAS officer Ashok Khemka has reportedly alleged that Robert Vadra, businessman and Congress president Sonia Gandhi's son-in-law, used false registration documents to execute a series of sham transactions for the sale of 3.5 acres of land in Gurgaon to real estate giant DLF for Rs. 58 crore.

Mr Khemka, who was controversially transferred by the Haryana government in October last year, three days after he cancelled the mutation of Mr Vadra's deal with DLF handed a 100-page report to the state government in May this year and the details have become public now.

The timing is embarrassing for the Congress, which has been battling various scandals just months before it makes an attempt to win a third straight term at the centre in general elections now months away.

The IAS officer has alleged Mr Vadra received sweetheart deals from the Congress government, which has been in power in Haryana since 2004. A government committee in March this year, however, concluded Mr Vadra's deal with DLF in 2008 was fair and legal. In reply to the conclusions drawn by the committee, Mr Khemka's report allegedly says that the Haryana government had shown "undue haste" in issuing a commercial colony licence to Mr Vadra.

The senior bureaucrat reportedly alleges in his report that Mr Vadra's company, Sky Light Hospitality Private Limited, did not make any payment through a Corporation Bank cheque of Rs. 7.5 crore as mentioned in the registration certificate for the land in Shikohpur village of Gurgaon, adjacent to Delhi.

Mr Khemka, who was Inspector General, Registrations in Haryana when he was transferred, had ordered an inquiry to determine if Mr Vadra, who owned property in different parts of the state, had been sold land at discounted prices.

"The Congress will soon have to open a factory of clean chits the way it's going," BJP spokesperson Meenakshi Lekhi told NDTV today.

Mr Khemka has alleged that unauthorised officials had signed off on the mutation of the land from Mr Vadra to DLF; he also raised questions about why the government appeared to have bent the rules for Mr Vadra, processing his Change of Land Use (CLU) application at lightning speed and licensing him to build a commercial housing project on his plot of 3.5 acres. That license, granted to Mr Vadra added such dramatic value that four years later, DLF paid Rs. 58 crore for the land.

Al Qaeda messages prompt US terror warning - India

03  aug  2013

Al Qaeda messages prompt US terror warning

Dr Sanjay Kumar Cardiac Cardiothoracic Heart Surgeon India

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Washington: The United States intercepted electronic communications this week among senior operatives of Al Qaeda, in which the terrorists discussed attacks against US interests in the Middle East and North Africa, US officials said Friday.

The intercepts and a subsequent analysis of them by US intelligence agencies prompted the United States to issue an unusual global travel alert to US citizens Friday, warning of the potential for terrorist attacks by operatives of Al Qaeda and their associates from Sunday through the end of August.

The bulletin to travelers and expatriates, issued by the State Department, came less than a day after the department announced that it was closing nearly two dozen US diplomatic missions in the Middle East and North Africa, including facilities in Egypt, Iraq, Yemen, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia. Britain said Friday that it would close its embassy in Yemen on Monday and Tuesday because of "increased security concerns."

It is unusual for the United States to come across discussions among senior Al Qaeda operatives about operational planning - through informants, intercepted emails or eavesdropping on cellphone calls. So when the high-level intercepts were collected and analyzed this week, senior officials at the CIA, State Department and White House immediately seized on their significance. Members of Congress have been provided classified briefings on the matter, officials said Friday.

"This was a lot more than the usual chatter," said one senior U.S. official who had been briefed on the information but would not provide details.

Spokesmen at the State Department and the CIA also declined to comment on the intercepts.

The importance of the intercepts was underscored by a speech that the Al Qaeda leader, Ayman al-Zawahri, posted on jihadist forums Tuesday. In his address, Zawahri called for attacks on US interests in response to its military actions in the Muslim world and US drone strikes in Pakistan and Yemen, according to the SITE Intelligence Group, which monitors statements by jihadists.

Security analysts said Friday that, in the aftermath of the furor over the Obama administration's handling of the attack last year on the diplomatic mission in Benghazi, Libya, the State Department was now more likely to publicize threat warnings when deemed credible, both to alert the public and to help deter any imminent attacks.

"A decision to close this many embassies and issue a global travel warning for a month suggests the threat is real, advanced and imminent but the intelligence is incomplete on where," said Bruce Riedel, a former CIA case officer and a Brookings Institution scholar.

The embassy closures come toward the end of the Ramadan holidays and the approaching anniversary of the terror attack September 11 on the US diplomatic compound in Benghazi that killed four Americans, including Ambassador J Christopher Stevens.

"We are particularly concerned about the security situation in the final days of Ramadan and into Eid," the British Foreign Office said in a statement, referring to the Muslim holy month that ends Wednesday evening.

Obama administration officials publicly declined to discuss what specific information had prompted the increased alarm and alerts, citing a desire to protect classified sources and methods.

But intercepting electronic communications is one the National Security Agency's main jobs, as the documents leaked by Edward J Snowden, a former NSA contractor, have underscored. At the request of intelligence officials, The New York Times withheld some details about the intercepted communications.

Some analysts and congressional officials suggested Friday that emphasizing a terrorist threat now was a good way to divert attention from the uproar over the NSA's data-collection programs, and if it showed the intercepts uncovered a possible plot, even better.

The bulletin by the State Department's Bureau of Consular Affairs did not advise against travel to any particular country, but it warned US citizens to be particularly mindful of their surroundings, especially in tourist areas, and recommended that they register their travel plans with the State Department.

"Terrorists may elect to use a variety of means and weapons and target both official and private interests," the bulletin said. "US citizens are reminded of the potential for terrorists to attack public transportation systems and other tourist infrastructure. Terrorists have targeted and attacked subway and rail systems, as well as aviation and maritime services."

Rep Ed Royce, R-California, the chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said Friday that the warning was linked to an Al Qaeda threat focused on the Middle East and Central Asia.

To date, the only al-Qaida affiliate that has shown a desire and ability to attack US facilities overseas is Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, a group based in Yemen.

The Al Qaeda affiliate announced in July that its second-in-command, Saeed al-Shihri, a former Guantanamo Bay prisoner, had died as a result of injuries sustained in a US missile strike in Yemen last year. But Ibrahim Hassan al-Asiri, the group's seminal bomb maker, remains at large, and, according to US officials, has trained a cadre of skilled proteges ready to take his place should he be killed.

US drones over the past week have carried out three separate strikes in Yemen, according to Long War Journal, a website that tracks drone strikes. There have been 15 US drone strikes in Yemen this year, according to the site.

The State Department has issued similar alerts and warnings in the recent past, US officials said Friday. Late last year, it warned that Al Qaeda and its global branches could seek to attack US interests around the anniversary of the September 11, 2001, attacks.

On February 19 this year, the State Department issued a "caution" notice - less severe than a "warning" or "alert" - to Americans that "current information suggests that Al Qaeda, its affiliated organizations, and other terrorist organizations continue to plan terrorist attacks against US interests in multiple regions."

Pentagon officials said Friday that there had been no movements of troops or other forces in response to the embassy closures.

After the attack in Benghazi, the military's Africa Command bolstered its quick-reaction forces in Djibouti and created new Marine Corps reaction forces in Moron, Spain, and at the naval air station in Sigonella in Italy that can respond to a crisis within a few hours.