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Sunday 27 April 2014

Winners of IIFA Awards 2014

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Here is a list of some of the key winners:

TAMPA - "Bhaag Milkha Bhaag," the story of celebrated Indian sprinter Milkha Singh, was the big
winner at the International Indian Film Academy awards which ran until early Sunday.


Here is a list of some of the key winners:

BEST PICTURE: "Bhaag Milkha Bhaag"






BEST DIRECTOR: Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra, "Bhaag Milkha Bhaag"
BEST LEADING ACTOR: Farhan Akhtar, "Bhaag Milkha Bhaag"


BEST LEADING ACTRESS: Deepika Padukone, "Chennai Express"

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR: Aditya Roy Kapoor, "Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani"


BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS: Divya Dutta, "Bhaag Milkha Bhaag"

BEST STORY: Prasoon Joshi, "Bhaag Milkha Bhaag"

BEST LYRICS: Mithoon for song "Tum Hi Ho" in movie "Aashiqui 2"

BEST PLAYBACK SINGER (MALE): Arjit Singh for song "Tum Hi Ho" in movie "Aashiqui 2"

BEST PLAYBACK SINGER (FEMALE): Shreya Ghoshal for song "Sunn Raha Hai" in movie "Aashiqui 2"



HZY










Saturday 26 April 2014

Former cricketer Shahid Nazir to take Moin Khan to court

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Moin Khan allegedly owes millions of rupees to national cricketers who participated in ICL.

LAHORE (Dunya News) – Former Cricketer Shahid Nazir announced on Saturday that he will take Pakistan Cricket Board’s (PCB) Chief Selector Moin Khan to court alleging that Khan hasn’t paid his Indian Cricket League (ICL) balance payment, Dunya News reported.
PCB’s Chief Selector Moin Khan took many national players including Inzamamul Haq, Mohammad Yousaf, Rana Naveed ul Hasan, Abdul Razaq Imran Nazir and Shahid Nazir to India’s rebellious ICL.
Moin Khan coached the team Lahore Badshah comprising national cricketers.
Former fast bowler Shahid Nazir said that Moin Khan was supposed to pay 20 lakh rupees per player in addition to 70 lakh prize money.
Nazir alleged that Khan said he wouldn’t pay the debt even if taken to court. He said that others players have also decided to take the matter to court adding that their names will soon become public.

Friday 25 April 2014

Malaysia vows MH370 transparency as families vent anger

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Malaysia has pledged that any data eventually recovered from plane's black box will be made public.


KUALA LUMPUR (AFP) - Malaysia s premier pledged to release a report on flight MH370 s disappearance as passengers  families protested Friday outside the country s embassy in Beijing, venting anger at the agonising information vacuum surrounding the plane.
Prime Minister Najib Razak, whose government has faced wide questioning over its transparency on MH370, promised that a preliminary report submitted to the UN s aviation body would be released publicly.
"In the name of transparency, we will release the report next week," he told CNN in an interview aired late Thursday.
That wasn t soon enough for dozens of Chinese relatives who held an overnight protest outside the Malaysian embassy in Beijing, according to a spokesman for relatives.
Many family members, especially those in China -- two-thirds of the 239 people aboard the Malaysia Airlines plane were Chinese -- have for weeks bitterly accused Malaysia of a secretive and incompetent MH370 response.
Tensions boiled over at a briefing Thursday at a hotel where relatives are staying, after airline representatives said a Malaysian embassy official would not arrive to answer their often extremely combative questions.
"We want somebody from the embassy to come out and tell us why they didn t come," said relative Steven Wang.
He said about 100 people had waited outside the mission overnight.
Police fanned out around the embassy Friday morning.
Dozens of relatives had staged a noisy protest last month at the embassy -- apparently sanctioned by Chinese authorities, who cleared streets for their approach -- decrying Malaysian authorities and the national airline as "murderers".
The Boeing 777 vanished on March 8 en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing and is now believed to have crashed in the southern Indian Ocean, where an Australian-led search is under way.
But a difficult underwater search of the suspected crash site, using an unmanned mini-submarine equipped with a sonar device, was nearing completion with no trace of the plane found.

- Search 95 percent complete -

"Bluefin-21 has now completed approximately 95 percent of the focused underwater search area. No contacts of interest have been found to date," said a statement from the search headquarters in Perth.
The UN s International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) requires countries to submit within 30 days a factual account of what is known so far in any air crash.
A Malaysian official had said Wednesday it was uncertain whether the government would release the report.
But Najib confirmed Malaysia would release it publicly after an "internal investigation team" examined it.
Asked on CNN whether that indicated it contained embarrassing revelations, Najib replied, "No, I don t think so."
Anthony Brickhouse, a member of the International Society of Air Safety Investigators, said the report was unlikely to contain anything startling.
"This preliminary report is really just a run-down of what you know so far. And in this case, not much is known anyway," he said.
Malaysia has pledged that any data eventually recovered from the plane s "black box" will be publicly released.
It has said it is assembling what officials insist will be an independent international team operating under ICAO guidelines to conduct a comprehensive probe.
Australian and Malaysia authorities are mulling what to do next in the ocean search if the Bluefin-21 fails to find wreckage.
But they insist the search -- estimated to have cost at least $100 million and counting -- will go on, possibly using other assets including more powerful sonar devices.
Najib stressed that his government was not yet prepared to declare MH370 s passengers dead, while saying, "it is hard to imagine otherwise."
A relatives  organisation this week denounced a Malaysian official s suggestion that death certificates could soon be issued. The outraged families said that would be premature in the absence of any proof of what happened.

Thursday 24 April 2014

Major international effort seen as crucial to end South Sudan carnage

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Both the government and rebel forces have been accused of committing war crimes.

NAIROBI (AFP) - As ethnic massacres in South Sudan spiral out of control and politicians lose their grip on rampaging militias, only a concerted international effort stands any chance of ending the four-month-old civil war, analysts say.
The past week has been described by a senior UN official as the "most bleak" in South Sudan s short history, with pro-government gunmen storming a UN base in an attempt to kill thousands of terrified civilians and rebels accused of conducting massacres in churches, mosques and hospitals.
According to the UN s top official in the war-torn nation, Toby Lanzer, the country has now descended into "a cycle of revenge" -- barely three years after the fanfare that accompanied its independence from Khartoum.
For John Prendergast, co-founder of the anti-genocide Enough Project, only a "high profile initiative of the international community" including the United States -- which was instrumental in helping South Sudan separate from Khartoum -- stands any chance of preventing a protracted conflict and more atrocities.
"If it s a low-key, under-the-radar begging operation, these parties are just going to laugh at it," he said.
"If you have a very serious, high level engagement that has senior representation in key countries with some level of past and present influence, that brings to bear that kind of pressure, then you ve got a chance," said Prendergast, a former Africa director for the National Security Council during Bill Clinton s presidency.
- Going after the leaders -
The war broke out on December 15 following a clash within the presidential guard and rapidly escalated as soldiers took sides with either President Salva Kiir or his sacked deputy, Riek Machar.
The conflict quickly took on an ethnic dimension, with Kiir drawing support from the ethnic Dinka community and Machar from his Nuer tribe. Thousands and possibly tens of thousands of people have died while over a million have been forced from their homes.
To further complicate matters on the ground, the notorious ethnic Nuer "White army" has joined the fray on the side of Machar s patchwork rebel force, neighbouring Uganda is backing Kiir while rival militias from neighbouring Sudan have reportedly been joining in.
Both the government and rebel forces have been accused of committing war crimes, including massacres, rape and child soldier recruitment, and Prendergast said concrete action on this could also be used as a way to halt the fighting.
"When you actually start freezing the assets, seizing the cars and the houses in Kenya and Ethiopia that are owned by most of these senior officials in government and the rebellion, when you start sending their kids home from schools... then it starts to get their attention," he said.
"We have both sides committing atrocities, so it s easy to say we re going to go after individuals on both sides. There s some level of even-handedness, with very specific targeted sanctions, very specific asset freezes."
Casie Copeland of the International Crisis Group, an international conflict resolution think-tank, said the South Sudanese currently have no intent to stop fighting -- even though they are paying lip service to peace talks being held in Ethiopia and signed a ceasefire in January.
"The two warring parties right now prefer to seek a solution on the battlefield rather than through peace talks," she said.
"Peace talks in Addis produced a ceasefire which was almost immediately violated, and right now we are seeing little commitment from either side to a negotiated solution. There needs to be concerted political action."
- Chinese clout –
Ferdinand von Habsburg-Lothringen, a Swiss citizen working in South Sudan for 16 years and a former UN and government advisor, said the crisis was now as bad as the worst days of the decades-long civil war that preceded independence.
The impact of fighting has been "catastrophic", he said, warning that "the future of the world s newest country is as insecure as it has ever been". Aid agencies say more than a million people are at risk of famine.
"Humanitarian aid will be the sticking plaster over South Sudan s gaping wounds," he said, saying the country had been essentially left "unattended by a divisive and ineffective international community."
South Sudan s oil wealth is now being bitterly fought over by the government and rebels, but could provide a key to speed up any diplomatic initiative by drawing in major investor and big power China.
"For many Western countries, it s not a big enough revenue generator to be a factor, but for some of the eastern countries like China, India and Malaysia, given their deep involvement in the oil sector over the years, particularly China, oil is a major factor," said Prendergast.
"This is an opportunity for the United States and some other countries to deepen their engagement with Beijing to jointly work together to find solutions to bring leverage on the parties to find solutions to the conflict," he said.
HZY

Fresh safety, violence fears on Mount Everest

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Three other expeditions have already cancelled their plans to scale the 8,848-metre peak.


KATHMANDU (AFP) - Three major mountaineering companies joined others in quitting Everest citing fears of violence, safety concerns and tension at base camp, deepening a crisis Thursday on the world's highest peak sparked by the death of 16 guides last week.
International expeditions said they were shutting down operations on the mountain, as a Nepalese government delegation was set to fly to Everest base camp to try to cool tensions and save this year's climbing season.
Sherpas distraught over the death of their colleagues and demanding more compensation and other benefits have threatened to boycott the season after the avalanche on Friday, the worst ever on the world's highest peak.
Leading US mountaineering company International Mountain Guides said the main route through the Khumbu Icefall, where the avalanche struck a team of guides carrying equipment for their clients, was too dangerous.
"The icefall route is currently unsafe for climbing without repairs by the icefall doctors (highly-skilled guides who fix ropes and repair ladders up the mountain), who will not be able to resume their work this season," IMG said in a statement.
Announcing it was also cancelling its expedition, US company RMI Expeditions said "the risks outweigh the possibility of success".
Peak Freaks, led by Canadian mountaineer Tim Rippel, said "the route in my professional opinion is NOT safe" saying there was a real threat of further avalanches.
"In addition 300+ sherpas have put their names on an organized protest to not climb in respect of the recent deaths, why wouldn't we listen to them?" Rippel said in a post online.
Describing a tense environment at base camp, he said sherpas keen to close down the climbing season were threatening violence against those who wanted to continue. Mountaineering companies and officials were also pressuring guides to stay on the mountain, he said.
"It's gotten too messy...now that we have an army, police and angry sherpas staging at base camp, it's time to go home," Rippel wrote.


- Govt to work out deal -

Three other expeditions have already cancelled their plans to scale the 8,848-metre (29,029-foot) peak, and the latest announcements throw the climbing season into further disarray.
Under fire over its handling of the disaster, the Nepal government is desperate to avoid a shutdown of the season that could lead to messy refund claims and a huge loss of revenue for the impoverished country.
A team of government officials was expected to arrive at base camp Thursday and attempt to work out a deal with the sherpas.
Sherpas on Tuesday threatened to abandon the season, after issuing a string of demands to the government, including higher compensation for the dead and injured, an increase in insurance payments and a welfare fund.
The avalanche underlined the huge risks borne by sherpas who carve out the routes and carry gear up the mountain for their foreign clients. The tragedy also reignited debate about whether the government does enough for sherpas who are key to the industry's success.
The government has offered to set up a relief fund for injured guides using up to five percent of fees paid by climbers, while increasing life insurance payments by 50 percent, both amounts falling short of the sherpas' demands.
The government, which has earned $3.6 million this year from Everest climbing fees alone, has issued permits to 734 people, including 400 guides, for 32 expeditions this season.

Wednesday 23 April 2014

Ahmed Shahzad strong contender for national T20 captaincy

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The race for captaincy began after T20 captain Mohammad Hafeez vacated the position.

LAHORE  – Opener Ahmed Shahzad has reportedly become a strong contender for national Twenty20 cricket captaincy. Opener’s aggressive style has become an interesting subject for cricket circles, Dunya News reported.
The race for captaincy began after T20 captain Mohammad Hafeez vacated the position. According to sources, Ahmed Shahzad is highly likely to become T20 captain and his aggressive opening style is sort of a question mark.
Ahmed Shahzad’s confrontation of Sri Lankan batsman Sangakara was also recorded and seen through the eyes of camera. National opener has faced penalties in the past because of aggressive attitude. The names of Kamran Akmal and Shahid Afridi are also deemed favourite for the position.
Sources also say that Shahid Afridi’s ‘boom boom’ statements at the airport upon return from Bangladesh also kicked him out of PCB chairman Najam Sethi’s good books.
HZY

Tuesday 22 April 2014

With awards, Bollywood shows growing imprint in US

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The United States has topped Britain in recent years as the largest overseas market for Bollywoood

  - Bollywood this week throws its premier awards event for the first time in the United States, which has quietly become the leading overseas market for India s prolific film industry.
The International Indian Film Academy on Wednesday kicks off four days of festivities in Tampa culminating in an awards ceremony Saturday that will bring out Bollywood s glitterati and Hollywood legend John Travolta.
While Bollywood is known for its extravagant song-and-dance routines, its expansion into the United States has been more understated. Indian films are increasingly shown in mainstream US cinemas which set aside specific screens and times.
The United States has topped Britain in recent years as the largest overseas market for Bollywood, fueled by demand from the three million-strong Indian American community and the growing ease of distributing movies through the digital format.
"Dhoom 3," the latest installment of a thriller series which is nominated for best picture at the Tampa awards, broke US records for Indian cinema after it was released last year.
Set largely in Chicago, "Dhoom 3" grossed more than $8 million in the United States and Canada, roughly on par with "Before Midnight," the second sequel to the US romantic classic "Before Sunrise."
Indian cinema s growth can easily fly beneath the radar in the United States, which has by far the world s largest box office and is thoroughly dominated by domestic fare. India, in turn, has the largest output of films at more than 1,100 a year.
But Gitesh Pandya, a US-based consultant for Bollywood studios, said that Indian cinema had innate advantages as it has a consistent audience of Indian Americans who are often well-educated and generally do not need expensive promotional campaigns to woo them to the movies.
Indian films that just five years ago would have opened at 80 to 85 screens in the United States now start in more than 200 theaters including in smaller cities where cinemas are happy to fill seats however they can, Pandya said.
"It s incredible growth. Theaters that five years ago would never think about playing one of these movies are now anxious to get the latest Shah Rukh Khan or Aamir Khan movie," Pandya said, referring to two stars whose films are considered relatively high-brow in Bollywood.


- Seeking a wider audience -

Pandya, who also manages the website boxofficeguru.com, said that India was the only foreign country with a self-sustaining film industry in the United States, as European, Latin American or other international movies rely on Hollywood or art-house distributors to select and distribute them.
"India is the only one that, 12 months a year, has films that come in and play in theaters here in the US," Pandya said.
In addition to Bollywood films, which are in Hindi, US cinemas regularly screen movies in other Indian languages such as Tamil and Telugu.
Despite the growth, no Bollywood film has won over mainstream US audiences and the annual awards -- always held outside of India to show the industry s global reach -- had shied away from the potentially massive market.
In hopes of crossing over to a non-South Asian audience, the International Indian Film Academy will kick off its Tampa weekend with a public party Wednesday in a park aimed at introducing US audiences to India s culture and film.
Prominent Indian actress Vidya Balan, who will appear at the awards, saw hope in her experience serving last year on the Cannes Film Festival jury.
She said she shared DVDs of Indian movies with her co-jurors, who included directors Steven Spielberg and Ang Lee, and that they quickly realized that Indian cinema offered more than formulaic songs and dances.
"People are slowing waking up to the reality that there is something universal in Indian films," she told AFP.

David Moyes season of disaster at Manchester United

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Manchester United has announced that David Moyes has left the Club.


MANCHESTER (AFP) - Timeline of how David Moyes' season at Manchester United went wrong following his sacking on Tuesday:


2013

July 1: Moyes starts work as Manchester United manager after the retirement of Alex Ferguson.
September 1: Liverpool beat United 1-0 at Anfield, inflicting the first Premier League defeat under Moyes' leadership in his third league game in charge.
September 22: Manchester City hammer city rivals United 4-1. One week later lowly West Brom beat United at Old Trafford where they have not won in 35 years of trying.
December 4: Moyes former side Everton win 1-0 at Manchester United -- a first victory at Old Trafford in 21 years.
December 6: Rio Ferdinand criticises Moyes' late team selection policy, saying on BT Sport: "It turns you into a madman."


2014

January 5 - Swansea win at Old Trafford for the first time, sending United out of the FA Cup at the third-round stage for only the second time in 30 years.
January 7 - Defeat in Capital One Cup semi-final first leg at Sunderland means a third straight loss for the first time since May 2001.
February 1 - Stoke end their long wait for a win against United. Charlie Adam's double gives them their first since 1984.
February 7: Veteran Serbian defender Nemanja Vidic announces he will leave United at the end of the season.
February 9 - United come from behind to lead bottom side Fulham at Old Trafford, but Darren Bent's stoppage-time equaliser grabs a 2-2 draw. Moyes describes the result as being "as bad as it gets".
February 25: In the Champions League last 16, United lose 2-0 at Olympiakos in Greece.
March 16: Two Steven Gerrard penalties and a Luis Suarez strike earn Liverpool a crushing 3-0 win at Old Trafford.
March 25: United lose 3-0 at home to Manchester City. The result meant United were guaranteed to end the season with their lowest points total in Premier League history.
April 9: Despite an encouraging 1-1 draw in the first leg, United go down 3-1 to title holders Bayern Munich in the second leg of their Champions League quarter-final in Munich.
April 20: Moyes' return to Everton becomes a nightmare. He is jeered by the crowd and United lose 2-0 -- a club record 11th defeat in the Premier League. United cannot now qualify for the 2014-15 Champions League.
HZY

Monday 21 April 2014

Pakistan plans huge desert solar park to curb energy crisis

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The desert park in Bahawalpur district is the latest scheme to tackle the rolling blackouts.

BADAIWANI WALA, Pakistan (AFP) - For years Pakistanis have sweated and cursed through summer power cuts, but now the government plans to harness the sun's ferocious heat to help tackle the country's chronic energy crisis.
In a corner of the Cholistan desert in Punjab province, power transmission lines, water pipes and a pristine new road cross 10,000 acres (4,000 hectares) of parched, sandy land.
The provincial government has spent $5 million to put in place the infrastructure as it seeks to transform the desolate area into one of the world's largest solar power parks, capable one day of generating up to 1,000 megawatts of electricity.
The desert park in Bahawalpur district is the latest scheme to tackle the rolling blackouts which have inflicted misery on people and strangled economic growth.
Temperatures can reach 50 degrees Celsius (120 Fahrenheit) in the country's centre in June and July, sending demand for electricity soaring and leaving a shortfall of around 4,000 MW.
"In phase one, a pilot project producing 100 MW of electricity will hopefully be completed by the end of this year," Imran Sikandar Baluch, head of the Bahawalpur district administration, told AFP.
"After completion of the first 100 MW project, the government will invite investors to invest here for the 1,000 megawatts."

- A 'river' of solar panels -
=============================

Engineers and labourers are working in the desert under the scorching sun to complete the boundary wall, with authorities keen to begin generating solar electricity by November.
"If you come here after one and a half years, you will see a river of (solar) panels, residential buildings and offices -- it will be a new world," said site engineer Muhammad Sajid, gesturing to the desert.
Besides solar, Pakistan is also trying to tap its unexploited coal reserves -- which lie in another area of the same desert, in Sindh province.
In January Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif inaugurated construction on a $1.6 billion coal plant in the town of Thar, in Sindh.
Work has also begun on a pilot 660 megawatt coal-fired plant in Gadani, a small town on the Arabian Sea. Another 600 megawatt coal plant has also been given the go-ahead in the southern city of Jamshoro.
But while coal may offer a short-term fix to the energy crisis, authorities are keen to move to cleaner electricity in the long run.
"We need energy badly and we need clean energy, this is a sustainable solution for years to come," said Baluch.
"Pakistan is a place where you have a lot of solar potential. In Bahawalpur, with very little rain and a lot of sunshine, it makes the project feasible and more economical," he said.

- Clean energy -
================


Baluch believes that the new solar park will make Pakistan a leader in that energy in the region.
The initial pilot project is a government scheme but private investors are also taking an interest.
Raja Waqar of Islamabad-based Safe Solar Power is among them. His company plans to invest $10 million to build a 10 MW project in the new park.
"The government has allotted us land over here. Infrastructure -- the transmission line and road are available here, that is why we are investing," Waqar told AFP.
A million dollars per MW is a sizeable investment but Waqar said the company expected to reap returns on it over at least the next decade -- and others were keen to get on board.
"There are up to 20 companies who are investing in this park and their projects are in the pipeline," he said.
"Some of them are working on 50 MW, some on 10 and others on 20."
But not everyone is so upbeat about the project.
Arshad Abbasi, an energy expert at Islamabad's Sustainable Development Policy Institute (SDPI), said the cost of generating solar power from this project may be uneconomical for the government.
He also warned that buying in solar equipment from abroad made little economic sense.
"Had the government decided to establish more hydro or thermal plants in the country it would have generated more employment, business and construction opportunities," he said.
And farmers in the area who scrape a living herding cattle on the unforgiving land are worried about their future.
"We don't know if this energy park is good, the power will come or not, we only want the government to spare our area and allow us to continue living here with our cattle," said Malik Jalal, a local villager.
HZY

Friday 18 April 2014

Kepler Telescope Discovers Most Earth-Like Planet

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This artist's depiction shows Kepler-186f, an Earth-size world in the "habitable zone" of a red dwarf star.

    Red sunshine, seas, and maybe aliens? Scientists analyzing data from NASA's Kepler Space Telescope today report the closest thing yet to another Earth, a world in a habitable orbit around a red dwarf star some 493 light-years away.
Launched in 2009 with the goal of finding another Earth, the $600-million Kepler spacecraft has discovered more than 960 planets orbiting nearby stars. Half a dozen of those seem to be rocky, like Earth, and have orbits in the habitable zone around their star—but the newly discovered world, named Kepler-186f, is the closest in size to Earth.

"This is a first, validated Earth-size planet in the habitable zone of another star," says study lead author Elisa Quintana of the SETI Institute and NASA's Ames Research Center in Mountain View, California. The discovery of the planet was reported today in the journal Science and in a space agency press briefing. (Related: "Motherlode of Alien Worlds Revealed by Space Telescope.")
One of five planets orbiting a red dwarf star (called Kepler 186), Kepler-186f is 1.1 times wider than Earth. That means it's almost certainly a rocky planet too. The researchers estimate its mass is 1.5 times that of Earth's.
The new planet's orbit, meanwhile, places it at the "Goldilocks" distance from its star—not too hot or too cold for liquid water to exist on its surface. The origin of life on Earth required liquid water, notes study co-author Stephen Kane of San Francisco State University.
"This is an historic discovery—the first Earth-size planet found in the habitable zone around its star," says pioneering planet hunter Geoff Marcy of the University of California, Berkeley, who was not on the discovery team. "This is the best case for a habitable planet yet found."
The planet's red dwarf star is only about half as big as the sun, making it cooler and dimmer. But Kepler-186f is on a tighter orbit than Earth is, taking only 130 days to circle its star. Though it receives less warmth from its sun than Earth does from its own, the discovery team says, it would still be warm enough to prevent seas from freezing—provided it has an atmosphere that provides a substantial greenhouse effect.
"This planet basks in an orange-red glow from that star, much as we enjoy at sunset," Marcy says, by email. "The temperature on the planet is likely cool, similar to dawn or dusk on a spring day."
Crowded Claims:
"Sounds like a great planet to visit, if we could figure out how to travel there," says MIT astronomer Sarah Seager, by email. But amid the excitement, she and planetary scientist Alan Boss, author of The Crowded Universe: The Search for Living Planets, caution that other discoveries have led to similar claims in recent years.
Since 1995, astronomers have detected nearly 1,700 worlds orbiting nearby stars, using a variety of detection methods. About a half dozen claims of bigger Earth-size (or still larger "super-Earth") planets orbiting in habitable zones around red dwarfs have been made in recent years, Boss says. "Still, it once again proves what Kepler can do."
The next closest thing to Kepler-186f has a width 1.4 times that of Earth, Quintana says. According to Seager, a planet whose diameter is less than 1.75 Earths is likely to be rocky.
The Kepler report looks particularly reliable because of the spacecraft's track record. It detects planets that dim the light from their stars as they pass in front of them. Such transits, Quintana says, are observable only in the roughly one percent of planetary systems whose orbits can be seen edge on from Earth.
When transits occur regularly, their frequency allows scientists to calculate the distance at which a planet is orbiting a star. The amount of starlight dimming—typically on the order of 0.1 percent—is a measure of the planet's size.
Such searches are most sensitive to closer-in stars, because fewer days of observations are required to see repeated transits. That explains why the newly discovered planet's four closer-in siblings had been spotted earlier by the space telescope. "They relied on only two years of data," Quintana says. With so many planets in the system, it's likely to be stable over billions of years.

Tickets on Hold:
      Whether a life-friendly atmosphere exists on Kepler-186f depends on a bevy of factors besides having the right orbit. "We see planets in our own solar system—Venus but also Mars—that are Earthlike but where things didn't work out," Kane says.
On Venus, a runaway greenhouse climate has cooked the surface to temperatures that would melt lead. On Mars, the lack of a strong magnetic field has allowed the solar wind to strip away much of the planet's atmosphere. A magnetic field would be particularly important for a planet orbiting a red dwarf, because such stars tend to release strong flares that would sterilize the planet.
"Just because a planet is in the habitable zone doesn't mean it is habitable," Quintana says. "This is sort of a first step."
However, Kane argues that the greater mass of Kepler-186f makes it more likely than Mars to have an interior heated by radioactivity and stirred by the motion of fluids. Such motions are required to power a dynamo that generates a protective magnetic field as well as volcanoes, whose eruptions would help replenish a life-friendly atmosphere. The planet's mass would also give it enough gravity to hold on to that atmosphere.
"The other big question is whether it has water, delivered by comets or some other means," Kane says. "Any place with liquid water is a natural place to look for life."
Unfortunately, Kepler-186f is likely too dim and far away to be seen directly with any telescope now in operation, or even with NASA's James Webb Space Telescope, scheduled for launch in 2018.
"In reality we cannot know if the planet is actually habitable. We need to get a sense of the atmosphere and its greenhouse effect," Seager says. "Not possible for this particular planet, as it is too distant from Earth for follow-up observations."

Kepler's Chase:
                The latest Kepler discovery came from a trove of star observations that the spacecraft made before a reaction wheel in its steering system failed last year, hobbling the mission. A reduced "K2" mission was announced in March.
Hiding amid the existing Kepler observations, Kane says, are more unconfirmed "candidate" planets orbiting stars as big as the sun, at distances similar to Earth's 93-million-mile (150-million-kilometer) distance from the sun.
"There are still a lot more Kepler 'habitable zone' worlds out there to find," Kane says. "Almost certainly this is not the last one."
HZY

Saeed Ajmal cleared for county cricket

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Ajmal said he would fly early next week and will be available for Worcestershire's home match.

KARACHI (AFP) - Star Pakistani off-spinner Saeed Ajmal has been given clearance by his home board to play a shortened stint with Worcestershire in the English season.
The 36-year-old s departure was held up after the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) discussed the matter following confirmation of Pakistan s tour to Sri Lanka in July-August.
"We have given NOC (no-objection certificate) to Ajmal but want him to return in mid-July so that he can be part of team s tour to Sri Lanka," PCB chief operating officer Subhan Ahmed told AFP late Thursday.
Pakistan will play two Tests and three one-day internationals in Sri Lanka on a tour which was only finalised last week on the sidelines of an International Cricket Council meeting in Dubai.
Ajmal said he would fly early next week and will be available for Worcestershire s home match against Derbyshire on April 27.
"I am quite used to playing in the English season, but duty-bound to return for national duty once the PCB wants me," he told AFP.
Regarded as one of the best spinners of modern times, Ajmal has so far played 33 Tests, 110 one-day internationals and 63 Twenty20 matches.
He took 24 wickets in helping Pakistan rout then-world Test number one England 3-0 in their series in the United Arab Emirates in 2012.
HZY

Thursday 17 April 2014

Real Madrid fans jam streets to celebrate Cup win

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Madrid city hall deployed 170 police to monitor the celebrations.

MADRID  - Thousands of cheering Real Madrid fans welcomed their team back to the Spanish capital early Thursday after winning the Copa del Rey with a 2-1 victory over arch rivals Barcelona.
Supporters, many wrapped in the club's flag, cheered as the squad arrived at Madrid's central Cibeles Square, the traditional home for raucous Real Madrid victory celebrations, in a white open-topped bus with the word "champions" written in black letters on its sides.
Fans applauded Real goalkeeper and captain Iker Casillas as, following tradition, he leant over the side of the bus and wrapped a Madrid insignia and club scarf around the statue of the Roman goddess that adorns a fountain in the square.
The victory bus drove three times around the fountain as fans twirled Real scarves in the air and took photos of the players.

"Winning the cup is fantastic, winning against Barcelona is even better," said Ezequiel Munoz, a 20-year-old student who came to the square with a group of friends after the match.

"We are going to celebrate all night long," added Munoz, who wore a black and white Real jersey with the name of the club's defender Sergio Ramos on its back.
Gareth Bale scored a stunning individual goal five minutes from time to secure Real Madrid's 19th Copa del Rey at the Mestalla in Valencia on Wednesday.
The jubilant crowd had started gathering around the stage set up by the fountain in the middle of the square as soon as the final whistle blew on Real Madrid's win.
The celebrating fans included large groups of teenagers, fathers with their young sons, elderly couples and a few people with dogs wearing Real scarves around their necks.
Fans chanted, set off firecrackers and danced in the streets while they waited for the players to arrive, as images of a football and a trophy along with the word "champions" were beamed onto the walls of city hall.
"I am very happy. I had no doubts that they were going to win because I saw that Madrid's defence was very tight and the counter attack was very well studied," said Juan Moreno, a 61-year-old Venezuelan plumber who waved a large Real Madrid flag.
After failing to win the cup competition between 1993 and 2011, Real Madrid have now won it twice in the last four years.
"Real Madrid is the best club in the world, they deserve this win, they are playing very well," said Adel Aboukar, 24, sporting a black blazer and jeans as he joined the celebrations with a friend after watching the match in a nearby bar.
Madrid city hall deployed 170 police to monitor the celebrations.
Emergency services said they treated 16 people for dizziness, anxiety attacks and minor injuries, mainly cuts and bruises due to falls.
Real Madrid's win made the front pages of Spain's newspapers on Thursday.
"Bale's Cup," wrote centre-right daily El Mundo on its front page while top-selling daily newspaper El Pais wrote "A ray from Bale decides the Cup" below a photo of Casillas raising the trophy in the air.
HZY

Captian America,The winter soldier

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For Steve Rogers, awakening after decades of suspended animation involves more than catching up on pop culture; it also means that this old school idealist must face a world of subtler threats and difficult moral complexities. That comes clear when Director Nick Fury is killed by the mysterious assassin, the Winter Soldier, but not before warning Rogers that SHIELD has been subverted by its enemies. When Rogers acts on Fury's warning to trust no one there, he is branded as a traitor by the organization. Now a fugitive, Captain America must get to the bottom of this deadly mystery with the help of the Black Widow and his new friend, The Falcon. However, the battle will be costly for the Sentinel of Liberty, with Rogers finding enemies where he least expects them while learning that the Winter Soldier looks disturbingly familiar
Click the following to watch and download 


HZY

Heartbreaking texts from students on sinking S. Korea ferry

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Nearly 300 people are still missing after the ferry sank on Wednesday morning.

 Heart-wrenching messages of fear, love and despair, sent by high school students from a sinking South Korean ferry, added extra emotional weight Thursday to a tragedy that has stunned the nation.
Nearly 300 people -- most of them students on a high school trip to a holiday island -- are still missing after the ferry capsized and sank on Wednesday morning.

"Sending this in case I may not be able to say this again. Mom, I love you," student Shin Young-Jin said in a text to his mother that was widely circulated in the South Korean media.

"Oh, I love you too son," texted back his mother -- unaware at the time that her boy was caught in a life and death struggle to escape the rapidly sinking vessel.
Unlike many others, the exchange had a happy ending as Shin was one of only 179 survivors rescued before the ferry capsized and went under the water.
Others were not so fortunate.
Another student, 16-year-old Kim Woong-Ki, sent a desperate text for help to his elder brother as the ship listed violently over to one side.

"My room is tilting about 45 degrees. My mobile is not working very well," Kim messaged.

 Seeking to reassure him, his brother said he was sure help was on the way.

"So don't panic and just do whatever you're told to do. Then you'll be fine," he messaged back.

    There was no further communication and Kim was listed among the 287 people on board still unaccounted for.
Sadly his brother's advice was similar to that of the crew, who controversially ordered passengers to stay put when the ship first foundered.
Angry relatives said this resulted in the passengers getting trapped when the ferry keeled over, cutting off routes of escape.
That grim scenario was encapsulated in the texts of an 18-year-old student, identified in the local media by her surname Shin.
"Dad, don't worry. I'm wearing a life vest and am with other girls. We're inside the ship, still in the hallway," the girl messaged to her father.

Her distraught father wrote back urging her to try and get out, but it was already too late.

"Dad, I can't. The ship is too tilted. The hallway is crowded with so many people," she responded in a final message.

 Some parents managed a last, traumatic phone call with their children as they tried to escape.

"He told me the ship was tilted over and he couldn't see anything," one mother recalled of a panicked conversation with her student son.

"He said 'I haven't put on the life jacket yet', and then the phone went dead," the mother told the Dong-A Ilbo newspaper.

The JoongAng Ilbo published excerpts from a chatroom conversation between several students on the ferry.
"Hey guys, let's make sure we meet up alive," messaged one.
"I love you all," responded another.
It was not clear if the students were among those rescued.
HZY

Wednesday 16 April 2014

Galaxy S5 fingerprint scanner hacked with glue mould

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The researchers fooled the new handset using a mould made out of glue

The fingerprint sensor on Samsung's Galaxy S5 handset has been hacked less than a week after the device went on sale.
Berlin-based Security Research Labs fooled the equipment using a mould it had previously created to spoof the sensor on Apple's iPhone 5S.
The researchers said they were concerned that thieves could exploit the flaw in Samsung's device to trigger money transfers via PayPal.
The payments firm played down the risk.
"While we take the findings from Security Research Labs [SRL] very seriously, we are still confident that fingerprint authentication offers an easier and more secure way to pay on mobile devices than passwords or credit cards," it said.
It added that even if users were hacked it would cover their losses.
 A spokesman for Samsung was unable to comment.
 
REJECT PILE
SRL created its hack by lifting a real fingerprint from a smartphone screen and then carrying out a fairly elaborate process to create a mould out of glue and graphite spray. This was then swiped across the sensor that sits in the phone's home button.
"The fingerprint mould was actually one I made for the Apple device back in September," project manager Ben Schlabs told the BBC.
"All I had to do was take it out of the reject pile as it wasn't one of the ones that ended up working on the iPhone 5S for whatever reason.
"It was the first one I tried and it worked immediately on the S5." 

Although the fake fingerprint proved easy to use, Mr Schlabs added that he was concerned that Samsung's software would not lock out thieves who had less luck, allowing them to make repeated attempts.
"Samsung could have enforced a password [lock-out] after five failed swipe attempts," he said.
"But the way it works is that if it fails five times and asks for a password, if you just turn the screen off and back on again you can have another try."
This is not true of the iPhone 5S.

Reveal transactions 

   While Apple currently limits its fingerprint scanner to unlocking the iPhone and verifying purchases in its own online store, Samsung has allowed its sensor to be used by third-party apps that add its Pass API (application program interface) to their code.
The researchers were able to use the mould to access PayPal's app
PayPal's mobile app is the first to take advantage of this. The software can be used to send and request money and reveal past transactions.
SRL acknowledged that the fingerprint scanner made it simpler to access, but criticised the company for not requiring a second form of authentication, such as a Pin code.
However, PayPal said Galaxy S5 users should not be deterred from using the feature.
"The scan unlocks a secure cryptographic key that serves as a password replacement for the phone," it said.
"We can simply deactivate the key from a lost or stolen device, and you can create a new one.
"PayPal also uses sophisticated fraud and risk management tools to try to prevent fraud before it happens. However, in the rare instances that it does, you are covered by our purchase protection policy."
Tech blog Engadget agreed that users should not be too concerned.
"The odds are low that a street thief will get past your phone's defences, or that a talented hacker will get in before you've had a chance to remotely wipe your content," it reported.
But Mr Schlabs said that did not mean the risk of fingerprint hacks could be ignored.
"If you think into the future, once ATMs have fingerprint scanners and once heads of state start using fingerprint authentication it's going to become a lot more attractive," he said.
"Our method is pretty rudimentary and has been around for at least a decade and it worked on a phone that was only released last week.
"Once people develop better or faster methods, or once there are fingerprint databases of images that get leaked, it's definitely a concern."
HZY


Blood clue to prostate cancer recurrence

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Patients with blood group O were 35 percent less likely to have a recurrence of cancer.

PARIS (AFP) - Men with blood group O are far less likely to suffer a recurrence of cancer after prostate tumour surgery than men with other blood types, researchers reported on Monday.
A standard treatment for localised prostate cancer is to remove the whole gland, a procedure called radical prostatectomy, but this fails to stop the cancer in nearly a third of patients.
Japanese researchers looked at 555 men who had had radical prostatectomy, examining their case 52 months on average after the operation.
Patients with blood group O were 35 percent less likely to have a recurrence of cancer compared with patients with blood group A, they found.
"This is the first time that anyone has shown that prostate cancer recurrence can vary with blood group," Yoshio Ohno of Tokyo Medical University said in a press release.
More work is needed to explore this surprising finding, but if the results are confirmed, important changes lie in store for medical practice, he said.
"For example, should we be counselling people with certain blood groups that they have a greater or lesser chance of recurrence, and should these risk factors be built into decisions on treatment?"
The research was issued at a conference in Stockholm of the European Association of Urology.

Tuesday 15 April 2014

Unbeliveable dance performance

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Unbelievable dance performance in which a child challenges a mature man and we see some unbelievable dance steps from both the child and the man.see by yourself and then conclude whether I am right or wrong
 

I am sure you would get amazed after watching this video. No doubt that both the persons have danced very well and showed their abilities.
In case if the video file does not open then click the link below
http://www.yunblock.com/browse.php?u=gEvWPbgoN2joXTTmMdrP3oWBfmgfvC3bD15WoPyLXXaHe2vqcso%3D&b=29
HZY

what science thinks about red moon

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Most of the time, the Moon is a bright yellow color; it’s reflecting light from the Sun. But sometimes the Moon can turn a beautiful dramatic red color. What’s going on? What causes a red moon?



There are few situations that can cause a red moon. The most common way to see the Moon turn red is when the Moon is low in the sky, just after moonrise or before it’s about to set below the horizon. Just like the Sun, light from the Moon has to pass through a larger amount of atmosphere when it’s down near the horizon, compared to when it’s overhead. The Earth’s atmosphere can scatter sunlight, and since moonlight is just scattered sunlight, it can scatter that too. Red light can pass through the atmosphere and not get scattered much, while light at the blue end of the spectrum is more easily scattered. When you see a red moon, you’re seeing the red light that wasn’t scattered, but the blue and green light have been scattered away. That’s why the Moon looks red.
The second reason for a red moon is if there’s some kind of particle in the air. A forest fire or volcanic eruption can fill the air with tiny particles that partially obscure light from the Sun and Moon. Once again, these particles tend to scatter blue and green light away, while permitting red light to pass through more easily. When you see a red moon, high up in the sky, it’s probably because there’s a large amount of dust in the air.
A third – and dramatic – way to get a red moon is during a lunar eclipse. During a lunar eclipse, the Moon passes behind the Earth’s shadow, which darkens it. If you could take a look at the Earth from inside its shadow, you would see that the atmosphere around the edge of the entire planet glows red. Once again, this is because large amounts of atmosphere will scatter away the blue/green light and let the red light go straight through. During a lunar eclipse, the Moon passes fully into the shadow of the Earth and it’s no longer being illuminated by the Sun; however, this red light passing through the Earth’s atmosphere does reach the Moon, and shines on it.
And that’s how we can get a red moon.
HZY

Monday 14 April 2014

MTV award 2014

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Winners at the 22nd annual MTV Movie Awards in Los Angeles on Sunday:
Whole the awards given in the awards ceremony to the celebrities are as below


The Associated Press

Movie of the year award  is given to

"The Hunger Games: Catching Fire."










Best female performance:  

 Jennifer Lawrence, "The Hunger Games: Catching Fire."















Best male performance:


 Josh Hutcherson, "The Hunger Games: Catching Fire."










 Breakthrough performance:

 Will Poulter, "We re the Millers."













Best kiss:


 Emma Roberts, Jennifer Aniston and Will Poulter, "We re the Millers."






Best fight:
 

 Orlando Bloom and Evangeline Lilly vs. Orcs in "The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug."




Best comedic performance:
 

 Jonah Hill, "The Wolf of Wall Street."









Best shirtless performance:

 Zac Efron, "That Awkward Moment."






Best villain:


Mila Kunis, "Oz the Great and Powerful."






Best on-screen transformation:


 Jared Leto, "Dallas Buyers Club."






Best musical moment: 
 

 Backstreet Boys, Jay Baruchel, Seth Rogen and Craig Robinson perform in 
Heaven, "This is the End."









Best cameo performance: 


 Rihanna, "This is the End."










Favorite character:  


Tris, played by Shailene Woodley in "Divergent."




Best scared-as-s--- performance:


Brad Pitt, "World War Z."




Best on-screen duo:


 Vin Diesel and Paul Walker, "Fast & Furious 6."





#WTF moment: Leonardo DiCaprio,



 "The Wolf of Wall Street."





Best hero:


                      Henry Cavill, "Man of Steel."





Trailblazer award:


                      Channing Tatum.







Generation award: 



                           Mark Wahlberg.









HZY

Friday 11 April 2014

Samsung Galaxy S5 makes global debut

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Samsung made more than 30 percent of all smartphones sold in the world last year.

  - The latest version of Samsung's flagship Galaxy smartphone went on sale worldwide Friday, days after the electronics giant announced it was facing a second consecutive quarter of profit decline.
The Galaxy S5 has a lot riding on it to steer the South Korean firm's profit-making machine back on track as growth in smartphone sales slows, with mature markets like North America and Europe near saturation.
Reviews of the S5 have mostly concluded that it is one of the best high-end smartphones on the market, but there is also a general consensus that it lacks the "wow" factor needed to differentiate it from its predecessors and competitors.
"It can swim, but it won't make any waves," was the verdict of the Wall Street Journal, referring to one innovation in the S5's waterproof covering.
"The Galaxy S5 is a good phone. It earns an unreserved recommendation," said the Washington Post.
"But the truth of the matter is that there's really nothing here that's worth breaking your contract to buy," it added.
Samsung's mobile unit has been the driving force behind the record profits of recent years, and it needs the S5 to perform well as a retort to doom-mongers who say the company lacks a clear strategy to flourish in an increasingly competitive, saturated market.
Samsung made more than 30 percent of all smartphones sold in the world last year, nearly twice the share of its arch-rival Apple.
But on Tuesday, the company estimated its first quarter operating profit at 8.4 trillion won ($7.96 billion), marking a second straight year-on-year decline.
As well as the constant challenge from Apple, Samsung has had to face the rapid expansion of smaller rivals like China's Huawei, which has pressured it into rolling out cheaper handsets to woo consumers in emerging markets, especially China.


-- Falling smartphone prices --

In a sign of the challenge the company faces, the S5 was priced lower at its commercial launch Friday than the previous S4 model.
Research firm IDC estimated the average selling price of smartphones will fall to $265 globally by 2017 from $337 in 2013 and $387 in 2012.
Samsung is believed to have reduced its marketing spend on the S5 and is also under pressure to set aside more cash for legal bills as years-long patent battles against Apple continue.
The two have locked horns in patent suits in several nations involving design and technologies on their smartphones and tablet computers.
A fresh patent trial opened in the United States last week, with Apple vowing to prove that Samsung flagrantly copied iPhone features and should pay more than $2 billion in damages.
Major handset makers have recently stepped up efforts to develop wearable devices, seen as a new source for growth -- though few have managed to garner large consumer excitement or sales.
Samsung's first Internet-enabled smartwatch, introduced last September, was greeted coldly by consumers who viewed it unfashionable. Its second edition, the Gear 2, was launched in February.
Apple is believed to be planning its own smartwatch launch soon, while Google is moving towards a wider consumer launch of its Internet-enabled eyewear Glass.
HZY