31 October 2015

Indian intellectuals alarmed by rising intolerance attacks

In this Oct. 14, 2015 file photo, Indian playwright and theater artiste Maya Krishna Rao, who returned the award she received from India's prestigious literary academy, rests at her residence in New Delhi, India. The chorus of Indian intellectuals protesting religious bigotry and communal violence grows louder by the week with a single message for Prime Minister Narendra Modi: assure the multicultural nation that the government stands for secularism and diversity.
First writers then artists, followed by filmmakers, historians and scientists. The chorus of Indian intellectuals protesting religious bigotry and communal violence grows louder by the week with a single message for Prime Minister Narendra Modi: protect India's tradition of secularism and diversity.
Those protesting are angry and worried by a spate of deadly attacks against atheist thinkers and minorities, and by Modi's relative silence through it all. That silence appears to have encouraged some of his party colleagues to make comments asserting Hindu pride and superiority.

29 October 2015

Modi says Africa, India both areas of economic opportunity

Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe, left and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi talk as they stand for a group photo during the India Africa Forum Summit at the Indira Gandhi sports complex in New Delhi, India, Thursday, Oct. 29, 2015. More than 40 African leaders are in New Delhi to attend the IAFS 2015, preceded by meetings of trade and foreign ministers from nearly all 54 African nations, to explore how Indian investment and technology can help a resurgent Africa face its development challenges.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi described India and Africa as bright spots of hope and economic opportunity and offered technology and credit in an effort to match rival China's influence over the continent at a summit with more than 40 African leaders Thursday.
As Modi opened the meeting in the Indian capital, he said Africa was now more settled and stable and "its initiatives are replacing old fault lines with new bridges of reforms and economic integration."

Labor laws questioned after Indian maid loses arm in Saudi

In this Saturday, Oct. 24, 2015, photo, Mohan Munirathinam, son of Kasthuri Munirathinam, displays his mother’s photograph and a copy her employment documents in Chennai, India. Kasthuri Munirathinam, a 55-year-old mother of four, worked as a live-in maid in Saudi Arabia. On Sept. 29, just a few weeks after arriving in the kingdom, she tried to escape from her employer’s house, using two of her saris to fashion a rope and climb from a third-floor window. Kasthuri lost most of her right arm and is now in a hospital.
Kasthuri Munirathinam, a 55-year-old mother of four from southern India, was plunged into debt after borrowing money to marry off her daughters. Like many before her, she was recruited through an agency and promised an opportunity to earn 1,000 Saudi riyals ($267) a month by working as a live-in maid in Saudi Arabia, the Arab region's largest economy where domestic help is in high demand.
On Sept. 29, just a few weeks after arriving in the kingdom, she tried to escape from her employer's house, using two of her saris to fashion a rope and climb from a third-floor window.

28 October 2015

Residents in quake-hit Pakistan demand help to rebuild homes

People injured from an earthquake receive treatment outside the Ayub Medical Hospital in Abbotabad, Pakistan, Monday, Oct. 26, 2015. One of Afghanistan’s most isolated and poverty-stricken regions was hit by a massive earthquake on Monday that reverberated across Asia, shaking buildings from Kabul to New Delhi, cutting power and communications, and killing almost 200 people, mostly in the remote mountain regions near the Afghan-Pakistan border. The number of casualties on both side of the border was expected to rise.
Residents in a northwestern Pakistani town that was among the worst-affected by this week's massive earthquake were seeking government help Wednesday to rebuild their damaged homes, after spending the second straight night with relatives.
Authorities said Monday's quake damaged 8,453 homes and 113 schools in Pakistan's impoverished northwest.

26 October 2015

Woman back in India 12 years after straying into Pakistan

Indian national Geeta greets media with a traditional Indian "namaste" prior her departure from the international airport in Karachi, Pakistan, Monday, Oct. 26, 2015. Geeta, who is deaf and mute, accidentally crossed the border into Pakistan from India as a child nearly 12 years ago, left for Delhi after Indian authorities issued her travel document, local media reported.
Twelve years ago, a deaf and mute 11-year-old girl crossed the Indian border into Pakistan. On Monday, finally, she flew home to a warm and emotional welcome.
Wearing a red tunic, her head loosely covered with a matching scarf, the girl — now a 23-year-old woman who had been given the name Geeta — waved to the scores of people who had gathered at the New Delhi airport to greet her. She was carrying a big bouquet of flowers given to her by Indian officials. It was a rare happy moment between hostile neighbors whose officials are often indifferent to the lives of innocent civilians.

22 October 2015

Major road in heavily polluted New Delhi briefly car-free

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, center, takes part in a cycle rally during a car-free day covered only a six-kilometer (4-mile) stretch in New Delhi, India, Thursday, Oct. 22, 2015.
One of the world's most polluted capitals, New Delhi, closed a major stretch of a road to private cars for a few hours Thursday, hoping to give its citizens a brief breath of fresh air by observing a car-free day.
Only public transport was allowed on the road from Old Delhi to the doorstep of Parliament.

20 October 2015

Sophia Loren: Retire? Never!

Sophia Loren attends the Americans for the Arts 2015 National Arts Awards at Cipriani 42nd Street on Monday, Oct. 19, 2015, in New York.
Some things about the film business have changed for actresses in the more than five decades since Sophia Loren was first discovered, and some things have stayed exactly the same.
Take pay equity, for instance, and the reality that worthy actresses sometimes make less than their male counterparts.
"It never changed. It's always the same. It's always the same like before, but not only in the movies. Even in life sometimes, unfortunately," Loren said on the red carpet Monday night before the nonprofit Americans for the Arts honored her at its National Arts Awards.

18 October 2015

Police arrest 2 teens in rape of toddler in Indian capital

In this image made from video, police collect evidence in the playground where an alleged rape of a two-year-old girl took place in New Delhi, early Saturday, Oct. 17, 2015. Two young girls — a toddler and a 5-year-old — have been raped in separate attacks in New Delhi, police said Saturday, in the latest incidents of sexual violence against girls and women in India. A 2 1/2-year-old girl who was playing outside her home was raped in a west Delhi suburb Friday evening, said Delhi Police deputy superintendent Pushpendra Kumar. Family members found the child lying unconscious and bleeding in a park three hours after she went missing during a power outage in the neighborhood. Police have detained a few men but have not yet made any arrests in the incident, Kumar said. Meanwhile, police said they were questioning three men arrested in the gang-rape of the 5-year-old Friday evening in east Delhi. Both girls were in stable condition at hospitals, police said.
Police arrested two teenagers Sunday for allegedly raping a toddler in New Delhi, in the latest incident of sexual violence against a young child in the Indian capital.
Police said they questioned more than 250 residents of the western Delhi neighborhood where the 2 1/2-year-old girl was raped and left bleeding in a park Friday evening.
The two 17-year-old boys were arrested late Saturday, said Dependra Pathak, a top police officer.

14 October 2015

41 writers return Indian award, cite climate of intolerance

Books by Indian writer Nayantara Sahgal are arranged for illustration purpose at a bookstore in New Delhi, India, Wednesday, Oct. 14, 2015. Dozens of writers, including Sahgal, have returned India's highest literary honor to protest what they call a growing climate of intolerance in the country since Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government took office.
Many in India's literary community are disgusted. Dozens of writers say every day brings more evidence of intolerance and bigotry going mainstream — a man lynched allegedly for eating beef, an atheist critic of Hindu idol worship gunned down — all met by a deafening silence from the government.
As of Wednesday, 41 novelists, essayists, playwrights and poets had returned the awards they received from India's prestigious literary academy to protest what they call a growing climate of intolerance under Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government.

41 writers return Indian award, cite climate of intolerance

Books by Indian writer Nayantara Sahgal are arranged for illustration purpose at a bookstore in New Delhi, India, Wednesday, Oct. 14, 2015. Dozens of writers, including Sahgal, have returned India's highest literary honor to protest what they call a growing climate of intolerance in the country since Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government took office.
Dozens of writers have returned India's highest literary honor to protest what they call a growing climate of intolerance in the country since Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government took office.
As of Wednesday, 41 novelists, essayists, playwrights and poets had returned the awards they received from India's prestigious literary academy, saying they cannot remain silent about numerous incidents of communal violence or attacks on intellectuals across the country over the past year.

13 October 2015

Princeton economist wins Nobel for work on poverty

A view of the screen showing an image of Professor Angus Deaton, winner of the 2015 Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel, as the Permanent Secretary for the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences addresses a press conference to announce the winner of the prize, at the Royal Swedish Academy of Science, in Stockholm, Sweden, Monday, Oct. 12, 2015. Scottish economist Angus Deaton has won the Nobel memorial prize in economic sciences for "his analysis of consumption, poverty, and welfare," the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said Monday.
Angus Deaton has dug into obscure data to explore a range of problems: The scope of poverty in India. How poor countries treat young girls. The link between income inequality and economic growth.
The Princeton University economist's research has raised doubts about sweeping solutions to poverty and about the effectiveness of aid programs. And on Monday, it earned him the Nobel prize in economics.

12 October 2015

VW recalls diesel vehicles in China to correct emissions

In this Sept. 22, 2015, file photo, the logo of Volkswagen at a car is photographed during the Car Show in Frankfurt, Germany. Volkswagen is recalling 1,950 diesel vehicles in China to correct engine software that the automaker has admitted cheats on emissions tests. The recall applies to 1,946 Tiguan sport utility vehicles and four Passat B6 sedans, all of them imported, the company said Monday, Oct. 12, 2015. It said technical solutions are being developed and have yet to be submitted to Chinese authorities for approval.
Volkswagen is recalling 1,950 diesel vehicles in China to correct engine software that the automaker has admitted cheats on emissions tests.
The recall applies to 1,946 Tiguan sport utility vehicles and four Passat B6 sedans, all of them imported, the company said Monday. It said technical solutions are being developed and have yet to be submitted to Chinese authorities for approval.

11 October 2015

Nepal elects Communist party leader new prime minister

In this Wednesday, Sept. 16, 2015 file photo, Nepal’s Prime Minister Sushil Koirala, center right, Communist Party of Nepal-Unified Marxist Leninist leader Khadga Prasad Oli, center, and Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal, center left, shake hands after the final constitution process at Constitution Assembly hall in Kathmandu, Nepal. Nepal’s 598 members of parliament will select the nation's new prime minister on Sunday, Oct. 11, choosing between Koirala and Oli. Koirala became prime minister in 2014, but the constitution that was adopted last month required him to step down. He is, however, eligible to become prime minister again.
Nepal's parliament elected Communist party leader Khadga Prasad Oli the new prime minister Sunday, thrusting him into the center of daunting challenges, from ethnic protests over the new constitution that has also upset vital neighbor India to rebuilding from April's devastating earthquake.
Oli received 338 votes from the 597-member chamber, Parliament speaker Subash Nemwang announced. Oli defeated his predecessor Sushil Koirala, who received 249 votes.

With Hindu party leading India, beef grows more political

In this Friday, Oct. 9, 2015 photo, a Hindu temple priest Ram Mangal Das caresses a cow at his 'Gaushala' or shelter for cattle, in New Delhi, India. “We should drink cow’s milk, not its blood,” Das said. “If someone attacks mother cow, or eats it, then this sort of reaction should happen,” he said of the killing of a Muslim farmer who was rumored to have slaughtered cows, adding “It is justified.”
The legislator was full of outrage when he arrived in the north Indian village days after the killing of a Muslim farmer who was rumored to have slaughtered cows. A Hindu mob had smashed through the heavy wooden door to the man's home, then beat him to death with his wife's sewing machine.
The legislator's anger, though, was not about the killing. Instead, Sangeet Som was furious that men had been arrested in the attack in the village, just 30 miles from New Delhi. Som, a member of India's ruling Bharatiya Janata Party, called the arrests "atrocities on innocent villagers." As for the family of the dead man, he dismissed them as "those cow killers."

Suicide bombings kill 95 people at Ankara peace rally

Bodies of victims are covered with flags and banners as police officers secure the area after an explosion in Ankara, Turkey, Saturday, Oct. 10, 2015. Two bomb explosions apparently targeting a peace rally in Turkey's capital Ankara on Saturday has killed many people a news agency and witnesses said. The explosions occurred minutes apart near Ankara's train station as people gathered for the rally organized by the country's public sector workers' trade union.
Nearly simultaneous explosions targeted a Turkish peace rally Saturday in Ankara, killing at least 95 people and wounding hundreds in Turkey's deadliest attack in years — one that threatens to inflame the nation's ethnic tensions.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility but Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said there were "strong signs" that the two explosions — which struck 50 meters (yards) apart just after 10 a.m. — were suicide bombings. He suggested that Kurdish rebels or Islamic State group militants were to blame.

10 October 2015

30 killed, 126 injured in Ankara bomb attacks

Bodies of victims are covered with flags and banners as police officers secure the area after an explosion in Ankara, Turkey, Saturday, Oct. 10, 2015. Two bomb explosions apparently targeting a peace rally in Turkey's capital Ankara on Saturday has killed many people a news agency and witnesses said. The explosions occurred minutes apart near Ankara's train station as people gathered for the rally organized by the country's public sector workers' trade union.
Two bomb explosions targeting a peace rally in Turkey's capital Ankara on Saturday killed at least 30 people and injured 126 others, Turkey's Interior Ministry said.
The explosions occurred minutes apart near Ankara's main train station as people were gathering for the rally, organized by the country's public sector workers' trade union and other civic society groups. The rally aimed to call for an end to the renewed violence between Kurdish rebels and Turkish security forces.

9 October 2015

Egypt to restore King Tut mask after botched epoxy job

The Discovery of King Tut
The restoration of King Tutankhamun's world-famous golden mask will begin Saturday, over a year after the beard was accidentally broken off and hastily glued back with epoxy, Egypt's state-run news agency said Friday.

New Nobel literature prize winner transcends easy categories

Belarusian journalist and writer Svetlana Alexievich the 2015 Nobel literature winner, center, is surrounded after her news conference in Minsk, Belarus, Thursday, Oct. 8, 2015. Belarusian writer Svetlana Alexievich won the Nobel Prize in literature Thursday, for works that the prize judges called "a monument to suffering and courage."
With a reporter's eye and an artist's heart, Svetlana Alexievich writes of the catastrophes, upheaval and personal woes that have afflicted the Soviet Union and the troubled countries that succeeded it. Her writings, characterized by plain language and detail so visceral it's sometimes painful to read, won her this year's Nobel literature prize.
She is an unusual choice. The Swedish Academy, which picks the prestigious literature laureates, has only twice before bestowed the award on non-fiction — to Winston Churchill and Bertrand Russell — and had never honored journalistic work with a Nobel.

8 October 2015

Trio wins Nobel Prize for mapping how cells fix DNA damage

Professor Sara Snogerup Linse, left explains why the laureates were awarded as Goran K. Hansson, centre and Claes Gustafsson, members of the Nobel Assembly sit, during a press conference at the Royal Swedish Academy in Stockholm, Wednesday, Oct. 7, 2015. Sweden's Tomas Lindahl, American Paul Modrich and U.S.-Turkish scientist Aziz Sancar won the Nobel Prize in chemistry on Wednesday for "mechanistic studies of DNA repair."
Tomas Lindahl was eating his breakfast in England on Wednesday when the call came — ostensibly, from the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. It occurred to him that this might be a hoax, but then the caller started speaking Swedish.
It was no joke: Lindahl and two others had won the Nobel Prize in chemistry for pioneering studies into the way our bodies repair damage to DNA.

6 October 2015

Nobel Prize for missing piece in neutrino mass puzzle

A screen shows the winners as members of the Nobel Assembly announce the winner of the 2015 Nobel Prize in physics, in Stockholm, Tuesday Oct. 6, 2015. Takaaki Kajita of Japan and Arthur McDonald of Canada won the Nobel Prize in physics for the discovery of neutrino oscillations. The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said the two researchers had made key contributions to experiments showing that neutrinos change identities.
Takaaki Kajita of Japan and Arthur McDonald of Canada won the Nobel Prize in physics on Tuesday for discovering that tiny particles called neutrinos change identities as they whiz through the universe, proving that they have mass.
By uncovering the "chameleon-like" nature of neutrinos, the laureates had solved a long-standing puzzle in particle physics that could alter our grasp of the cosmos, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said.

AP PHOTOS: Kashmir's floating market reopens after floods

Kashmiri men take a break to chat while selling their produce at the floating vegetable market on Dal Lake in Srinagar, Indian controlled Kashmir, Tuesday, Oct. 6, 2015. Vegetables traded in this floating market are supplied to Srinagar and many towns across the Kashmir valley. It's one of the major sources of income for the lake dwellers who spend years carefully nurturing their floating gardens from the weed and rich soil extracted from the lake bed.
Boats laden with fresh produce appear just after dawn, floating through a maze of waterways on Dal Lake in the main city of India's portion of Kashmir.
This is Kashmir's floating vegetable market, deep inside the lake and surrounded by scenic house boats and water lilies.

5 October 2015

3 share Nobel medicine prize for new tools to kill parasites

Jan Andersson, Juleen Zierath and Hans Forssberg, members of the Karolinska Institute Nobel committee, talk to media at a press conference in Stockholm, Monday Oct. 5, 2015. The Nobel judges awarded the prize to Irish-born William Campbell, Satoshi Omura of Japan and Tu Youyou of China, the first ever medicine laureate from China.
Three scientists from the U.S., Japan and China won the Nobel Prize in medicine on Monday for discovering drugs to fight malaria and other tropical diseases that affect hundreds of millions of people every year.
The Nobel judges in Stockholm awarded the prestigious prize to William Campbell, who was born in Ireland and became a U.S. citizen in 1962, Satoshi Omura of Japan and Tu Youyou — the first-ever Chinese medicine laureate.

Japan says outraged by killing of Japanese man in Bangladesh

People walk past a screen showing TV news reports of Saturday's militant attack on a Japanese in Bangladesh, in Tokyo, Sunday, Oct. 4, 2015. Japanese officials said Sunday that they were investigating the fatal shooting of a Japanese citizen in Bangladesh as a possible terrorist attack after the Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the killing.
Japan's top government spokesman expressed outrage Monday over the killing of a Japanese citizen who became the second foreigner to be gunned down in Bangladesh in less than a week.
Kunio Hoshi was shot to death by unidentified assailants in northern Bangladesh on Saturday. Bangladesh's government rejected a statement by the Islamic State group claiming responsibility for the attack.

4 October 2015

5 things to know about the Nobel Prizes

In this file photo dated Friday, April 17, 2015, A national libray employee shows the gold Nobel Prize medal awarded to the late novelist Gabriel Garcia Marquez, in Bogota, Colombia. The beginning of October 2015 means Nobel Prize time, when committees in Stockholm and Oslo announce the winners of what many consider the most prestigious awards in the world, each worth some 8 million Swedish kronor (US dlrs 960,000) presented to the worthy recipients with a diploma and a gold medal.
The beginning of October means Nobel Prize time, when committees in Stockholm and Oslo announce the winners of what many consider the most prestigious awards in the world.
This year's Nobel season kicks off Monday with the medicine award being announced for the 106th time.
Daily announcements will follow during the week with physics Tuesday, chemistry Wednesday and probably, though the date has not been confirmed, literature on Thursday. The 2015 Nobel Peace Prize will be announced on Friday and, finally, the economics award on Oct. 12.

3 October 2015

Dalai Lama assures followers of health upon return to India

Exile Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama greets devotees as he exits the Kangra Airport in Dharmsala, India, Saturday, Oct. 3, 2015. The Dalai Lama has assured his followers that he is in excellent health upon his return to the Tibetan government-in-exile's headquarters in northern India. The Tibetan leader's assurances came days after doctors at the Mayo Clinic instructed him to rest. He later canceled his October appearances in the United States.
The Dalai Lama has assured his followers that he is in excellent health upon his return Saturday to the Tibetan government-in-exile's headquarters in northern India.
Hundreds of Tibetans, holding incense sticks and scarves, lined the streets of Dharamsala town to celebrate the return of the Tibetan spiritual leader. Prayer flags fluttered and colorful banners with Tibetan symbols were strung across the streets of the mountain town in the Himalayan foothills.

A terrible shake, then roar as Guatemala slide kills 26

A fireman carries the body of a child recovered from the site of a landslide in Cambray, a neighborhood in the suburb of Santa Catarina Pinula, about 10 miles east of Guatemala City, Friday, Oct. 2, 2015. The hill that towers over Cambray collapsed late Thursday after heavy rains, burying several houses with dirt, mud and rocks. Family members have reported 100 people missing, but the number could be as high as 600 based on at least 100 homes in the area of the slide, said Alejandro Maldonado, executive secretary of Conred, the country's emergency disaster agency.
Homemaker Dulce del Carmen Lavarenzo Pu had just returned from church when the ground shook and she heard a terrible noise. A wave of mud slid from the nearby mountainside and buried everything just 150 feet (50 meters) from her house.
"Everything went black, because the lights went out," said the 28-year-old of the mudslide that struck Thursday night in her neighborhood on the outskirts of Guatemala City. "Ash and dust were falling, so we left the house. You couldn't see anything."

2 October 2015

India vows to cut carbon intensity in Paris pledge

Cow dung cakes left to dry out on the wall of a house in Allahabad, India, Friday, Oct. 2, 2015. Cow dung cakes are popularly used as fuel for cooking in rural India. India plans a fivefold boost in renewable energy capacity in the next five years to 175 gigawatts, including solar power, wind, biomass and small hydropower dams.
India's long-awaited pledge for a global climate pact shows how the world's No. 3 carbon polluter is making significant efforts to rein in the growth of emissions linked to its fast-surging demands for energy, analysts said Friday.

India vowed to reduce its emissions intensity by 33-35 percent by 2030 from 2005 levels, primarily by boosting the share of electricity generated by sources other than fossil fuels such as coal and gas to 40 percent.

1 October 2015

Anti-India anger in Nepal as essential supplies dry up

In this Wednesday, Sept. 30, 2015 photo, A Nepalese cab driver waits for his turn to fill fuel on his cab at a fuel pump run by the Nepalese police in Kathmandu, Nepal. Nepal is running out of gasoline and Medical supplies are becoming scarce after an unofficial economic blockade imposed by neighboring India from where Nepal gets almost all its essential supplies. Many Nepalese believe that India is retaliating against their government for approving a new Constitution that is seen by New Delhi as discriminatory to an ethnic Indian community living in Nepal's border districts.
Nepal feels like it is being choked. It's running out of gasoline. Medical supplies are becoming scarce. All because of an unofficial economic blockade imposed by neighboring India from where Nepal gets almost all its essential supplies.