Subhaditya News Channel Presents Science,Political,Sports and Movie News of this Week (40)

Animated NewsWeek(40) Headlines Pics

Collage of Headlines of Newsweek(40)

Science News

Science News This Week:

Freedom of Assembly: Scientists See Nanoparticles Form Larger Structures in Real Time:

1) Freedom of Assembly: Scientists See Nanoparticles Form Larger Structures in Real Time:

In a new study performed at the Center for Nanoscale Materials at the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory, researchers have for the first time seen the self-assembly of nanoparticle chains in situ, that is, in place as it occurs in real-time.

The scientists exposed a tiny liquid "cell" or pouch that contained gold nanoparticles covered with a positively charged coating to an intense beam of electrons generated with a transmission electron microscope. Some of the electrons that penetrated the outside of the cell became trapped in the fluid medium in the cell. These "hydrated" electrons attracted the positively charged nanoparticles, which in time reduced the intensity of charge of the positive coating.

As the hydrated electrons reduced the coating's positive charge, the nanoparticles no longer repelled each other as strongly. Instead, their newfound relative attraction led the nanoparticles to "jump around" and eventually stick together in long chains. This self-assembly of nanoparticle chains had been detected before in different studies, but this technique allowed researchers, for the first time, to observe the phenomenon as it occurred.

"The moment-to-moment behavior of nanoparticles is something that's not yet entirely understood by the scientific community," said Argonne nanoscientist Yuzi Liu, the study's lead author. "The potential of nanoparticles in all sorts of different applications and devices -- from tiny machines to harvesters of new sources of energy -- requires us to bring all of our resources to bear to look at how they function on the most basic physical levels."

Self-assembly is particularly interesting to scientists because it could lead to new materials that could be used to develop new, energy-relevant technologies. "When we look at self-assembly, we're looking to use nature as a springboard into man-made materials," said Argonne nanoscientist Tijana Rajh, who directed the group that carried out the study.

Because the particles under study were so tiny -- just a few dozen nanometers in diameter -- an optical microscope would not have been able to resolve, or see, individual nanoparticles. By using the liquid cell in the transmission electron microscope at the Center for Nanoscale Materials, Liu and his colleagues could create short movies showing the quick movement of the nanoparticles as their coatings contacted the hydrated electrons.Funding for the research was provided by the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Science.

Freedom of Assembly: Scientists See Nanoparticles Form Larger Structures in Real Time:

2) Hubble Sees a Unique Cluster: One of the Hidden 15:

Palomar 2 is part of a group of 15 globulars known as the Palomar clusters. These clusters, as the name suggests, were discovered in survey plates from the first Palomar Observatory Sky Survey in the 1950s, a project that involved some of the most well-known astronomers of the day, including Edwin Hubble. They were discovered quite late because they are so faint -- each is either extremely remote, very heavily hidden behind blankets of dust, or has a very small number of remaining stars.

This particular cluster is unique in more than one way. For one, it is the only globular cluster that we see in this part of the sky, the northern constellation of Auriga (The Charioteer). Globular clusters orbit the center of a galaxy like the Milky Way in the same way that satellites circle around the Earth. This means that they normally lie closer in to the galactic center than we do, and so we almost always see them in the same region of the sky. Palomar 2 is an exception to this, as it is around five times further away from the center of the Milky Way than other clusters. It also lies in the opposite direction -- further out than Earth -- and so it is classed as an "outer halo" globular.

It is also unusual due to its apparent dimness. The cluster is veiled by a mask of dust, dampening the apparent brightness of the stars within it and making it appear as a very faint burst of stars. The stunning NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image shows Palomar 2 in a way that could not be captured from smaller or ground-based telescopes -- some amateur astronomers with large telescopes attempt to observe all of the obscure and well-hidden Palomar 15 as a challenge, to see how many they can pick out from the starry sky.

 Technique Unlocks Design Principles of Quantum Biology:

3) Technique Unlocks Design Principles of Quantum Biology:

University of Chicago researchers have created a synthetic compound that mimics the complex quantum dynamics observed in photosynthesis and may enable fundamentally new routes to creating solar-energy technologies. Engineering quantum effects into synthetic light-harvesting devices is not only possible, but also easier than anyone expected, the researchers report in the April 19 edition of Science.

he researchers have engineered small molecules that support long-lived quantum coherences. Coherences are the macroscopically observable behavior of quantum superpositions. Superpositions are a fundamental quantum mechanical concept, exemplified by the classic Schrodinger's Cat thought experiment, in which a single quantum particle such as an electron occupies more than one state simultaneously.
Quantum effects are generally negligible in large, hot, disordered systems. Nevertheless, the recent ultrafast spectroscopy experiments in UChicago chemistry Prof. Greg Engel's laboratory have shown that quantum superpositions may play a role in the near perfect quantum efficiency of photosynthetic light harvesting, even at physiological temperatures.

Photosynthetic antennae -- the proteins that organize chlorophylls and other light-absorbing molecules in plants and bacteria -- support superpositions that survive for anomalously long times. Many researchers have proposed that organisms have evolved a means of protecting these superpositions. The result: improved efficiency in transferring energy from absorbed sunlight to the parts of the cell that convert solar energy to chemical energy. The newly reported results demonstrate that his particular manifestation of quantum mechanics can be engineered into human-made compounds.

The researchers modified fluorescein -- the same molecule once used to dye the Chicago River green for St. Patrick's Day -- and then linked different pairs of these dyes together using a rigid bridging structure. The resulting molecules were able to recreate the important properties of chlorophyll molecules in photosynthetic systems that cause coherences to persist for tens of femtoseconds at room temperature."That may not sound like a very long time -- a femtosecond is a millionth of a billionth of a second," said study co-author Dugan Hayes, a UChicago graduate student in chemistry. "But the movement of excitations through these systems also occurs on this ultrafast timescale, meaning that these quantum superpositions can play an important role in energy transfer."

To detect evidence of long-lived superpositions, the researchers created a movie of energy flow in the molecules using highly engineered laboratories and state-of-the-art femtosecond laser systems. Three precisely controlled laser pulses are directed into the sample, causing it to emit an optical signal that is captured and directed into a camera.By scanning the time delays between the arriving laser pulses, the researchers create a movie of energy flow in the system, encoded as a series two-dimensional spectra. Each two-dimensional spectrum is a single frame of the movie, and contains information about where energy resides in the system and what pathways it has followed to get there.These movies show relaxation from high energy states toward lower energy states as time proceeds, as well as oscillating signals in very specific regions of the signal, or quantum beats. "Quantum beats are the signature of quantum coherence, arising from the interference between the different energetic states in the superposition, similar to the beating heard when two instruments that are slightly out of tune with each other try to play the same note," Hayes explained.Computer simulations have shown that quantum coherences work in photosynthetic antennae to prevent excitations from getting trapped on their way to the reaction center, where the conversion to chemical energy begins. In one interpretation, as the excitation moves through the antenna, it remains in a superposition of all possible paths at once, making it inevitable that it proceeds down the proper path. "Until these coherences were observed in synthetic systems, it remained dubious that such a complex phenomenon could be recreated outside of nature," Hayes said.

New Carnivorous Dinosaur from Madagascar Raises More Questions Than It Answers:

4) New Carnivorous Dinosaur from Madagascar Raises More Questions Than It Answers:

The first new species of dinosaur from Madagascar in nearly a decade was announced today, filling an important gap in the island's fossil record. Dahalokely tokana (pronounced "dah-HAH-loo-KAY-lee too-KAH-nah") is estimated to have been between nine and 14 feet long, and it lived around 90 million years ago. Dahalokely belongs to a group called abelisauroids, carnivorous dinosaurs common to the southern continents. Up to this point, no dinosaur remains from between 165 and 70 million years ago could be identified to the species level in Madagascar-a 95 million year gap in the fossil record. Dahalokely shortens this gap by 20 million years.
The fossils of Dahalokely were excavated in 2007 and 2010, near the city of Antsiranana (Diego-Suarez) in northernmost Madagascar. Bones recovered included vertebrae and ribs. Because this area of the skeleton is so distinct in some dinosaurs, the research team was able to definitively identify the specimen as a new species. Several unique features -- including the shape of some cavities on the side of the vertebrae -- were unlike those in any other dinosaur. Other features in the vertebrae identified Dahalokely as an abelisauroid dinosaur.

When Dahalokely was alive, Madagascar was connected to India, and the two landmasses were isolated in the middle of the Indian Ocean. Geological evidence indicates that India and Madagascar separated around 88 million years ago, just after Dahalokely lived. Thus, Dahalokely potentially could have been ancestral to animals that lived later in both Madagascar and India. However, not quite enough of Dahalokely is yet known to resolve this issue. The bones known so far preserve an intriguing mix of features found in dinosaurs from both Madagascar and India."We had always suspected that abelisauroids were in Madagascar 90 million years ago, because they were also found in younger rocks on the island. Dahalokely nicely confirms this hypothesis," said project leader Andrew Farke, Augustyn Family Curator of Paleontology at the Raymond M. Alf Museum of Paleontology. Farke continued, "But, the fossils of Dahalokely are tantalizingly incomplete -- there is so much more we want to know. Was Dahalokely closely related to later abelisauroids on Madagascar, or did it die out without descendents?"

The name "Dahalokely tokana" is from the Malagasy language, meaning "lonely small bandit." This refers to the presumed carnivorous diet of the animal, as well as to the fact that it lived at a time when the landmasses of India and Madagascar together were isolated from the rest of the world."This dinosaur was closely related to other famous dinosaurs from the southern continents, like the horned Carnotaurus from Argentina and Majungasaurus, also from Madagascar," said project member Joe Sertich, Curator of Dinosaurs at the Denver Museum of Nature & Science and the team member who discovered the new dinosaur. "This just reinforces the importance of exploring new areas around the world where undiscovered dinosaur species are still waiting," added Sertich

 Research Harnesses Solar-Powered Proteins to Filter Harmful Antibiotics from Water:

5) Research Harnesses Solar-Powered Proteins to Filter Harmful Antibiotics from Water:

New research, just published, details how University of Cincinnati researchers have developed and tested a solar-powered nano filter that is able to remove harmful carcinogens and antibiotics from water sources -- lakes and rivers -- at a significantly higher rate than the currently used filtering technology made of activated carbon.In the journal Nano Letters, Vikram Kapoor, environmental engineering doctoral student, and David Wendell, assistant professor of environmental engineering, report on their development and testing of the new filter made of two bacterial proteins that was able to absorb 64 percent of antibiotics in surface waters vs. about 40 percent absorbed by the currently used filtering technology made of activated carbon. One of the more exciting aspects of their filter is the ability to reuse the antibiotics that are captured.

Kapoor and Wendell began development of their new nano filter in 2010 and testing in 2012, with the results reported in a paper titled "Engineering Bacterial Efflux Pumps for Solar-Powered Bioremediation of Surface Waters."The presence of antibiotics in surface waters is harmful in that it breeds resistant bacteria and kills helpful microorganisms, which can degrade aquatic environments and food chains. In other words, infectious agents like viruses and illness-causing bacteria become more numerous while the health of streams and lakes degrades.So, according to Wendell, the newly developed nano filters, each much smaller in diameter than a human hair, could potentially have a big impact on both human health and on the health of the aquatic environment (since the presence of antibiotics in surface waters can also affect the endocrine systems of fish, birds and other wildlife).Surprisingly, this filter employs one of the very elements that enable drug-resistant bacteria to be so harmful, a protein pump called AcrB. Wendell explained, "These pumps are an amazing product of evolution. They are essentially selective garbage disposals for the bacteria. Our innovation was turning the disposal system around. So, instead of pumping out, we pump the compounds into the proteovesicles." (The new filtering technology is called a proteovesicle system.)One other important innovation was the power source, a light-driven bacterial protein called Delta-rhodopsin which supplies AcrB with the pumping power to move the antibiotics.

The bacterial protein system has a number of advantages over present filtration technology:The operation of the new filtering technology is powered by direct sunlight vs. the energy-intensive needs for the operation of the standard activated carbon filter.The filtering technology also allows for antibiotic recycling. After these new nano filters have absorbed antibiotics from surface waters, the filters could be extracted from the water and processed to release the drugs, allowing them to be reused. On the other hand, carbon filters are regenerated by heating to several hundred degrees, which burns off the antibiotics.
The new protein filters are highly selective. Currently used activated carbon filters serve as "catch alls," filtering a wide variety of contaminants. That means that they become clogged more quickly with natural organic matter found in rivers and lakes.Said Wendell, "So far, our innovation promises to be an environmentally friendly means for extracting antibiotics from the surface waters that we all rely on. It also has potential to provide for cost-effective antibiotic recovery and reuse. Next, we want to test our system for selectively filtering out hormones and heavy metals from surface waters."

Movie News

Movie Release This Week:

The Lords of Salem

1) The Lords of Salem:

From the singular mind of horror maestro Rob Zombie comes a chilling plunge into a nightmare world where evil runs in the blood. The Lords of Salem tells the tale of Heidi (Sheri Moon Zombie), a radio station DJ living in Salem, Massachusetts, who receives a strange wooden box containing a record, a “gift from the Lords.” Heidi listens, and the bizarre sounds within the grooves immediately trigger flashbacks of the town’s violent past. Is Heidi going mad, or are the “Lords of Salem” returning for revenge on modern-day Salem?

Oblivion

2) Oblivion:

Tom Cruise stars in Oblivion, an original and groundbreaking cinematic event from the director of TRON: Legacy and the producer of Rise of the Planet of the Apes. On a spectacular future Earth that has evolved beyond recognition, one man's confrontation with the past will lead him on a journey of redemption and discovery as he battles to save mankind.

Jack Harper (Cruise) is one of the last few drone repairmen stationed on Earth. Part of a massive operation to extract vital resources after decades of war with a terrifying threat known as the Scavs, Jack's mission is nearly complete.

Living in and patrolling the breathtaking skies from thousands of feet above, his soaring existence is brought crashing down when he rescues a beautiful stranger from a downed spacecraft. Her arrival triggers a chain of events that forces him to question everything he knows and puts the fate of humanity in his hands

Bluebird

3) Bluebird: 

In the frozen woods of an isolated Maine logging town, one woman's tragic mistake shatters the balance of the community, resulting in profound and unexpected consequences. Weaving together several connected story lines, Bluebird explores the profound and transcendent effects of a tragedy on an isolated American town.

Holla II

4) Holla II:

After narrowly escaping with her life at the hands of her mentally ill sister Veronica, Monica, with the help of her Mother, Marion, has taken great measures to ensure her safety, including changing her face and relocating to the South. Six years has past and now she finally believes she is safe from Veronica. Little does she know that death and betrayal still await her and her friends on the eve of her wedding at a southern plantation house rumored to be haunted by 13 murdered slaves. This time no one is safe and everyone is a suspect as killing becomes addictive.

The Moment

5) The Moment:

After a tumultuous affair between international photojournalist Lee (Jennifer Jason Leigh) and troubled writer John (Martin Henderson) ends in John's disappearance, Lee lands in a mental hospital to recuperate. She strikes up a friendship with a fellow patient bearing an uncanny resemblance to her missing lover. The pair works to uncover the truth behind the disappearance, but Lee's precarious sanity comes under threat when the clues lead to the last place she would ever expect.

Political News

Political News This Week:

Blasts at Boston Marathon Kill 3 and Injure 100

1) Blasts at Boston Marathon Kill 3 and Injure 100:

Two powerful bombs exploded near the finish line of the Boston Marathon on Monday afternoon, killing three people, including an 8-year-old child, and injuring more than 100, as one of this city’s most cherished rites of spring was transformed from a scene of cheers and sweaty triumph to one of screams and carnage.
Almost three-quarters of the 23,000 runners who participated in the race had already crossed the finish line when a bomb that had apparently been placed in a garbage can exploded around 2:50 p.m. in a haze of smoke amid a crowd of spectators on Boylston Street, just off Copley Square in the heart of the city. Thirteen seconds later, another bomb exploded several hundred feet away.

Pandemonium erupted as panicked runners and spectators scattered, and rescue workers rushed in to care for the dozens of maimed and injured, some of whom lost legs in the blast, witnesses said. The F.B.I. took the lead role in the investigation on Monday night, and Richard DesLauriers, the special agent in charge of the bureau’s Boston office, described the inquiry at a news conference as “a criminal investigation that is a potential terrorist investigation.”

The reverberations were felt far outside the city, with officials in New York and Washington stepping up security at important locations. Near the White House, the Secret Service cordoned off Pennsylvania Avenue out of what one official described as “an abundance of caution.”

President Obama, speaking at the White House, vowed to bring those responsible for the blasts to justice. “We will get to the bottom of this,” the president said. “We will find who did this, and we will find out why they did this. Any responsible individuals, any responsible groups will feel the full weight of justice.”

Mr. Obama did not refer to the attacks as an act of terrorism, and he cautioned people from “jumping to conclusions” based on incomplete information. But a White House official, speaking on the condition of anonymity afterward, said, “Any event with multiple explosive devices — as this appears to be — is clearly an act of terror, and will be approached as an act of terror.”“However,” the official added, “we don’t yet know who carried out this attack, and a thorough investigation will have to determine whether it was planned and carried out by a terrorist group, foreign or domestic.”Some runners were approaching the end of the 26.2-mile race when the two blasts, in rapid succession, sent them running away from the finish line.“The first one went off, I thought it was a big celebratory thing, and I just kept going,” recalled Jarrett Sylvester, 26, a runner from East Boston, who said it had sounded like a cannon blast. “And then the second one went off, and I saw debris fly in the air. And I realized it was a bomb at that point. And I just took off and ran in the complete opposite direction.”There were conflicting reports about how many devices there were. One law enforcement official said there had been four: the two that exploded at the marathon and two others that were disabled by the police. The official said that the devices appeared to have been made with black powder and ball bearings, but that investigators were unsure how the two that exploded had been set off.It was unclear Monday evening who might be responsible for the blast. Although investigators said that they were speaking to a Saudi citizen who was injured in the blast, several law enforcement officials took pains to note that no one was in custody.

Some law enforcement officials noted that the blasts came at the start of a week that has sometimes been seen as significant for radical American antigovernment groups: it was the April 15 deadline for filing taxes, and Patriots’ Day in Massachusetts, the start of a week that has seen violence in the past. April 19 is the anniversary of the 1995 bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City.The explosive devices used in the attacks on Monday were similar in size to the device used in the 1996 attack at the Centennial Olympic Park bombing in Atlanta but were not nearly as large as the one used in Oklahoma City. In the Atlanta attack, a pipe bomb was detonated near pedestrians, killing 2 and injuring more than 100 — similar numbers to Monday’s attack.The attack in Oklahoma City was far larger because the perpetrator used a truck packed with thousands of pounds of explosives. The device killed more than 150 people.The attack on Monday occurred in areas that had been largely cleared of vehicles for the marathon. Without vehicles to pack explosives into, the perpetrators would have been forced to rely on much smaller devices.Officials stressed that they had no suspects in the attack. The Saudi man, who was interviewed at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, had been seen running from the scene of the first explosion, a person briefed on preliminary developments in the investigation said on Monday afternoon. A law enforcement official said later Monday that the man, was in the United States on a student visa and came under scrutiny because of his injuries, his proximity to the blasts and his nationality — but added that he was not known to federal authorities and that his role in the attack, if any, was unclear.The explosions brought life in Boston to a halt. Police officials effectively closed a large part of the Back Bay neighborhood, which surrounds the blast site; some transit stops were closed; planes were briefly grounded at Boston Logan International Airport and the Boston Symphony Orchestra canceled its Monday night concert. A Boston Celtics game scheduled for Tuesday was also canceled.

Boston was bracing for a heightened law enforcement presence on Tuesday, with its transit riders subject to random checks of their backpacks and bags, and many streets in the center of the city likely to be closed to traffic as the investigation continues. Gov. Deval Patrick said Monday night that “the city of Boston is open and will be open tomorrow, but it will not be business as usual.”Boston’s police commissioner, Ed Davis, urged people to stay off the streets. “We’re recommending to people that they stay home, that if they’re in hotels in the area that they return to their rooms, and that they don’t go any place and congregate in large crowds,” he said at an afternoon news conference.It had begun as a perfect day for the Boston Marathon, one of running’s most storied events, with blue skies and temperatures just shy of 50 degrees. The race typically draws half a million spectators. And long after the world-class runners had finished — the men’s race was won by Lelisa Desisa Benti of Ethiopia, who finished it in 2 hours, 10 minutes and 22 seconds — the sidewalks of Back Bay were still thick with spectators cheering on friends and relatives as they loped, exhausted, toward the finish line.Dr. Natalie Stavas, a pediatric resident at Boston Children’s Hospital, was running in the marathon with her father and was nearing the finish line when the explosions shook the street.“The police were trying to keep us back, but I told them that I was a physician and they let me through,” she recalled in an interview.First she performed CPR on one woman. “She was on the ground, she wasn’t breathing, her legs were pretty much gone,” she said, adding that she feared that the woman had not survived.

Then she tried to help a woman with an injury in her groin area, and a man who had lost his foot. Dr. Stavas said she had applied a tourniquet to the man’s leg with someone’s belt. “He was likely in shock,” she said. “He was saying, ‘I’m O.K., doctor, I’m O.K.’ ”“Then ambulances started coming in by the dozen,” she said.The blast was so powerful that it blew out shop windows and damaged a window on the third floor of the Central Library in Copley Square, which was closed to the public for Patriots’ Day.A number of people were taken to Massachusetts General Hospital, said Dr. Alasdair Conn, the hospital’s chief of emergency services — and several had lost their legs.“This is like a bomb explosion we hear about in Baghdad or Israel or other tragic points in the world,” Dr. Conn said.Several children were among the 10 patients who were brought to Boston Children’s Hospital, including a 2-year-old boy with a head injury who was admitted to the medical/surgical intensive care unit.The police faced another problem as they tried to secure the blast scene: many spectators dropped their backpacks and bags as they scattered to safety, and investigators had to treat each abandoned bag as a potential bomb. There were bomb scares at area hotels. At one point in the afternoon, Boston police officials said that they feared that a fire at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum could have been related to the marathon bombs, but they later said it seemed to be unrelated.The Boston police said that they were getting numerous reports of suspicious packages. Asked if they had found all the explosive devices, Mr. Davis, the police commissioner, urged citizens to remain alert and said he was “not prepared to say we’re at ease at this time.”

Suspects

Suspects:

Moments after investigators went before television cameras to broadcast photos of the two men in ball caps wanted for the Boston Marathon bombing, queries from viewers started cascading in - 300,000 hits a minute that overwhelmed the FBI's website.

It marked a key turning point in a search that, for all the intensity of its first 72 hours, had failed to locate the suspects. Experts say it instantly turned up already intense pressure on the two men to flee or almost certainly be recognized - increasing the chances they'd make mistakes that would lead to them being exposed.

Late Friday, the manhunt at last reached an end in the Boston suburb of Watertown, when police cornered 19-year-old suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, hunkered down inside a blood-spattered boat parked in the backyard of a three-bedroom house.

 Over 1,000 chit fund agents urge Mamata to bail them out

2) Over 1,000 chit fund agents urge Mamata to bail them out:

Over 1,000 agents of chit fund-funded Saradha Group, which is virtually on the verge of collapse, Friday held a demonstration in front of West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's house here, urging her to bail them out.A few days ago, the Banerjee government in the state ordered the arrest of the group's chairman and managing director Sudipta Sen for defaulting on repayments.The agents gathered in front of the chief minister's south Kolkata residence and sought her intervention in the payment crisis.Saradha Group is one of the largest chit fund companies in eastern India. It has also diversified into construction, realty, tourism, hospitality, agri-businesses and media.

As capital market regulator SEBI started taking actios against chit fund companies for flouting rules, which raised concerns over safety of public money, pressure on the group's finances mounted.Crisis in the group was brewing since January, which forced it to recently wind up at least 10 media organisations - newspapers and television channels - that it had launched or acquired since 2010. Over 1,000 journalists and non-journalists have been rendered jobless.Banerjee, also the Trinamool Congress supremo, Thursday said steps were being taken to arrest Sen.

"Probably Sudipta Sen is now in north India. You will come to know whenever he is arrested," she had said.Her party, however, could not avoid a public outrage as Kunal Ghosh, a Trinamool Congress MP in the Rajya Sabha, was the editor and chief executive officer of the group's media venture.
Ghosh, however, said he was only an employee and had put in his papers."I was a salaried employee of their (Saradha Group's) media unit. I was never a director or owner. I was connected with only the media wing. I was never connected with any other aspect of the business of the group," Ghosh said in a post on social networking site Facebook."Editorial was under my jurisdiction. According to the terms of my agreement, finance, accounts were never part of my mandate," said Ghosh."Mr. Sen did not respond to any constructive proposal in favour of employees and media products. In spite of my best efforts, I was compelled to resign from Saradha media," he added.

Bomb blast near BJP office in Bangalore, Centre orders probe

3) Bomb blast near BJP office in Bangalore, Centre orders probe:

t least 16 people have been injured in a bomb blast near BJP office here in Malleshwaram on Wednesday morning. The injured include 8 cops, according to TV reports.

Investigators probing the blast say that a bomb was fitted on a motorcycle parked near the BJP office.Police sources said the blast occurred in a black Ind Suzuki motorcycle parked next to a Maruti Omni on the pavement diagonally opposite to the BJP office.As the bomb went off in the motorcycle, the Omni and another Santro car parked next to it went up in flames. A Honda Dio and Bajaj Chetak scooters parked to the left of Santro car too caught fire.Two KSRP vans, with policemen, parked near the two scooters also took the brunt of the attack. The front window panes of one of the vehicles was shattered. Initially, the police had suspected that the explosion was due to the blast of a LPG cylinder placed in the boot of a car.However, the city police chief ruled this out after initial inspection.

"It's not a LPG cylinder blast as suspected," Bangalore police commissioner Raghavendra Auradkar told reporters after visiting the site.Raghavendra Aurandkar said that police suspect the blast was caused by explosives strapped to a bike, parked near BJP office.However, this can be confirmed only after investigations, he added.The motorcycle used to place explosives was completely destroyed in the explosion.The police have launched a manhunt to trace its owner.The extent of damage suggests that the bomb was strapped to the bike, sources added.Cops are questioning mechanics to find if they fitted anything suspicious on to any bike in the recent past.The police are also focusing on around half-a-dozen phone numbers on which calls were made to and from in the area between 10 and 11 am during which the blast took place.Meanwhile, the Centre has ordered an inquiry into the blast."I have ordered an inquiry. The secretary home department will look into it," Union home minister Sushilkumar Shinde told reporters in Kolkata.

Protests build in New Delhi after child rape

4) Protests build in New Delhi after child rape:

 Angry crowds demonstrated in New Delhi on Saturday after a five-year-old girl was allegedly raped, tortured and kept in captivity for 40 hours, reviving memories of last December's brutal assault on a woman that shook the country.Police arrested a man they accuse of the attack from Bihar, and brought him back to New Delhi for interrogation. Doctors say the girl suffered severe injuries and bruising, including to her neck and genitalia.Protests that began on Friday grew more intense after video footage showed a policeman slapping a woman protester, and following reports that investigators had offered the victim's family 2,000 rupees not to file a case.It was the second case of alleged rape in 48 hours to trigger protests and heavy-handed policing, after hundreds of people fought police in the city of Aligarh, 
135 km (83 miles) from Delhi on Thursday. One policeman was filmed hitting an old woman hard with a club in the protest.

woman protester

Public fury over the latest attack in the capital echoed the response to the gang rape of a 23-year-old physiotherapy student on a bus on December 16 in New Delhi, which brought thousands of people onto the streets in protest and clashes with police.The woman died of her injuries in a Singapore hospital.The gang rape provoked rare national debate about violence against women, putting the issue onto the political agenda in the nation of 1.2 billion people a year before elections.
On Saturday, about 1,000 people gathered to demonstrate outside the police headquarters in New Delhi, where several people tried to break through metal barricades. Smaller protests erupted outside the state-run hospital where the girl was being treated, the home of ruling Congress party leader Sonia Gandhi, and the residence of the home minister.

The girl was "conscious and alert" and her condition stable, but her injuries are infected and so severe she may need corrective surgery, an official of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences hospital told reporters.Police identified the accused as a 22-year-old, who they said had fled the capital after leaving the girl for dead in an apartment of the same building where her family lives.The accused was a temporary worker in garment factories and lived with his father, a juice seller, police said. TV news channels reported that some people tried to attack the man and others threw shoes at him as police led him through Patna airport in Bihar state to board a plane back to New Delhi.Police spokesman Rajan Bhagat declined to comment on reports that the girl's family had been offered money not to file a case, adding he would only do so after an investigation.Home minister Sushil Kumar Shinde said the government was conducting an inquiry into allegations of police negligence.

Will politics of mutts rule the roost again in Karnataka?

5) Will politics of mutts rule the roost again in Karnataka?:

Caste equations are majorly at play when elections are round the corner in Karnataka. However, more importantly one finds that almost all politicians go to a mutt in the state before commencing their election campaign.How much importance is attached to a mutt for the politicians in Karnataka? Very much, almost all would say.

Here are the most important mutts in Karnataka:

Siddaganga Mutt in Tumkur-Bangalore region

Suttur Mutt in Mysore region

Moorusavira Mutt in Hubli-North Karnataka

Ramba Pari Mutt in Chickmagalur

Shirigere Mutt in Davangere

Adichunchanagiri Mutt in Mysore-Mandya region

Ashtha Mutt in Udupi

These are the main mutts which have a large following of political leaders. Politicians in Karnataka feel that if they seek the blessings of these mutts then votes from the devotees would follow. It worked like a charm for the Congress once upon a time and in 2008 for the BJP when they were clear about the mutts that they identified with and hit the campaign trail based on a vote bank.

Take for instance one of the most powerful mutts in Karnataka today. The Siddaganga Mutt in Tumkur is considered to be one of the main mutts for the Lingayats. B S Yeddyurappa  commenced his campaign in 2008 from this mutt and went on to storm the elections.It is believed that the mutt was largely responsible for the win of the BJP since many Lingayats voted due to this factor.This time around the BJP may not gain much from the Siddaganga Mutt. There have been several developments and members of the mutt still subscribe to Yeddyurappa as the tallest leader of the Lingayats. This could hurt BJP’s Lingayat vote bank a bit in the Tumkur-Bangalore region.The Congress and the Janata Dal-Secular too have tried cozying up to this mutt. Congress president Sonia Gandhi  was seen sharing a dais during a function of the mutt and JD-S leader H D Kumaraswamy even visited this place recently.The JD-S, which relies entirely on a Vokkaliga vote bank, too thought it to be important to visit this mutt since every one does realise the importance of capitalising on a Lingayat vote bank.

However, there is another powerful mutt, the Murusavira Mutt, which has a major influence over the Lingayats in northern Karnataka. During the 2008 elections, it was Jagadish Shettar a Lingayat, who got the support of this mutt. This time around this mutt would completely back Shettar as they believe that he would become the chief minister.There were attempts made by both the Karnataka Janatha Paksha and the Congress to split this vote bank, but the message was clear -- that Shettar is the Lingayat leader.Among the Vokkaligas the most powerful mutt is considered to be the Adichunchanagiri Mutt. The leaning here has been more towards the JD-S and this is one of the many reasons why this party does well in the Mysore-Mandya belt.The main reason, however, is that there is a major farmer community here who consider Deve Gowda  as the son of the soil or mannina maga in Kannada.Although the Congress has many Vokkaliga leaders such as S M Krishna and D K Shivakumar, the mutt and its devotees still consider Deve Gowda and Kumaraswamy as the tallest Vokkaliga leaders.The Udupi Mutt which is known as the Ashta Mutt is subscribed by the Brahmins in Karnataka. Many leaders from the Udupi-Mangalore region often commence their campaign from this mutt. However, like some other mutts in Karnataka, there has not been much of a political inclination by this mutt.

The rest of the mutts mentioned above such as the Suttur,¸Ramba Pari and Shirigere Mutt also command a lot of support. But when compared to the rest of the mutts one has not seen so much of political flocking in them.The importance of mutts was evident both in 2008 and also in 1990. In 1990 all the Lingayat mutts in the state came together and decided that they would not forgive the Congress after Veerendra Patil was removed as the chief minister. He was the tallest Lingayat leader at that time and his removal did not go down well with the community.

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IPL 2013: Chennai continue to enjoy Eden clashes against Kolkata

1) IPL 2013: Chennai continue to enjoy Eden clashes against Kolkata:

Chennai Super Kings once again registered a win against Kolkata Knight Riders at the Eden Gardens. A look at the statistical highlights.

# Chennai Super Kings have won seven out of eleven played against Kolkata Knight Riders in the IPL - winning % 63.63 (Lost four)

# Chennai Super Kings have won four out of five contested vs Kolkata at Eden Gardens, Kolkata - by 3 runs on May 18,2008, by 55 runs on March 16, 2010; by five wickets on May 14, 2012 and by four wickets on April 20, 2013.  Kolkata's only win     against Chennai at this venue is by 10 runs on May 7,2011.

Chennai Super Kings once again registered a win against Kolkata Knight Riders 

# Hyderabad (5 wins), Rajasthan (4), Chennai (4) and Bangalore (4) are the top four teams with most wins in the IPL 2013.

# Delhi (6 defeats), Pune (4) and Kolkata (4) are the three teams with most defeats in the IPL 2013.

# Jacques Kallis, Manish Pandey and Amit Mishra, with eight ducks each, share a dubious distinction at the IPL.  Both share an IPL record for most ducks.

# Manoj Tiwary and Kallis, with four ducks each, share a record for most ducks for Kolkata Knight Riders at the IPL.

# Kallis is averaging 13.50 at the IPL 2013 - 81 runs in six innings.

# Except Gambhir (260 at 43.33) and Morgan (163 at 32.60), no other batsman has managed an average of 22-plus for Kolkata at the IPL 2013.

# Ravindra Jadeja (3/20) has produced his best bowling performance against Kolkata Knight Riders at the IPL.  The said performance is his best in the present competition.  With 36 not out off 14 balls, he became the first all-rounder to register 30 or more runs and capture three wickets in the same IPL game against Kolkata Knight Riders.

# Jadeja's strike rate of 257.14 is the highest by any batsman at the IPL 2013 (minimum qualification: 25)

# Ravichandran Ashwin, with 13 wickets at 14.30 runs apiece in eight games, is the leading Chennai bowler against Kolkata Knight Riders at the IPL - the top two wicket-takers against Kolkata being RP Singh - 15 in nine games at 19.33 and and Vinay Kumar - 14 in eight games at 14.64.

# Dwayne Bravo is the first Chennai bowler to take 10 wickets at 16.00 runs apiece in six matches this IPL season, followed by 9 at 13.00 in five matches by Chris Morris.

# Suresh Raina is averaging just 17.00 at the IPL 2013 - 85 runs in five innings.

# The top two batsmen in terms of run-aggregate in the IPL overall are - Suresh Raina (2339) and Gautam Gambhir (2325).

# Despite his failure today, Raina is the top run-scorer for Chennai vs Kolkata at the IPL - his aggregate being 317 in nine innings at an average of 39.62, including three fifties.  Mahela Jayawardene is the only batsman to amass 400 runs against Chennai at the IPL - 446 (ave. 63.71) in eleven matches, including a hundred and three fifties.

# In terms of averages, Michael Hussey has the best record for Chennai at the IPL - his tally being 1175 at an average of 43.51   in 34 matches.

# Michael Hussey, with 217 runs at an average of 72.33 in five matches is the leading run-scorer for Chennai at the IPL 2013.

Cricket: Zimbabwe v Bangladesh first Test scoreboard:

2) Cricket: Zimbabwe v Bangladesh first Test scoreboard:

Cricket:Scoreboard at lunch on the fourth day of the first Test between Zimbabwe and Bangladesh on Saturday:
Zimbabwe first innings 389 all out (B. Taylor 171, M. Waller 55, G. Cremer 42, Robiul Islam 3-84, Enamul Haque Jr 3-133).Bangladesh first innings 134 all out (Jahurul Islam 43, Mohammad Ashraful 38, S. Masakadza 4-32, K. Jarvis 4-40, K. Meth 2-41)

Zimbabwe second inningsT. Maruma lbw b Robiul 10 V. Sibanda b Robiul 4 H. Masakadza c & b Robiul 0 B. Taylor not out 102 M. Waller c Nasir b Robiul 4
E. Chigumbura c Nasir b Robiul 27R. Mutumbami lbw b Robiul 0 G. Cremer run out 43 K. Meth not out 31 Extras (2lb, 2wd, 2nb) 6 Total (7 wkts dec, 64 overs, 278 mins) 227

Fall of wickets: 1-7 (Sibanda), 2-9 (H. Masakadza), 3-16 (Maruma), 4-27 (Waller), 5-84 (Chigumbura), 6-84 (Mutumbami), 7-163 (Cremer).
Did not bat: S. Masakadza, K. Jarvis.

Bowling: Robiul 19-1-71-6; Rubel 10-0-44-0; Shakib 9-2-22-0; Enamul 13-2-45-0; Sohag 9-0-24-0; Mahmudullah 4-2-19-0.

Bangladesh second innings
Jahurul Islam c Mutumbami b S. Masakadza 22 Shahriar Nafees b Jarvis 11 Mohammad Ashraful not out 8 Mahmudullah not out 0 Extras (1nb) 1
Total (2 wkts, 16 overs, 73 mins) 42

Fall of wickets: 1-21 (Shahriar Nafees), 2-41 (Jahurul Islam).

Still to bat: Mushfiqur Rahim, Shakib Al Hasan, Nasir Hossain, Sohag Gazi, Enamul Haque Jr, Rubel Hossain, Robiul Islam.

Bowling: Jarvis 6-0-31-1, Meth 8-3-7-0, S. Masakadza 2-1-4-1.

Nadal, Djokovic seal third final in Monte Carlo

3) Nadal, Djokovic seal third final in Monte Carlo:

Eight-times champion Rafael Nadal will lock horns with world number one Novak Djokovic for third time in the Monte Carlo Masters final after both sailed through their semi-finals with relative ease on Saturday.Nadal was given a fight by Frenchman Jo-Wilfried Tsonga before the Spaniard won 6-3 7-6 but Djokovic was dominant in a 6-2 6-1 thrashing of Italian showman Fabio Fognini.

Former world number one Nadal, looking for his fourth title of the year in only his fifth event since returning from a long-standing knee injury, clinched a 46th consecutive victory at the traditional claycourt event alongside the Mediterranean.The final against Djokovic will give a further measure of Nadal's physical power as he eyes the French Open, especially as the Serb is showing no obvious signs of being worried by the ankle he twisted while on Davis Cup duty two weeks ago.
"It's fantastic to be in a fifth final in a row after seven months out," Nadal told reporters."Novak always pushes you to the limits."Djokovic, who has branded Nadal "the ultimate challenge on clay", will hope to improve on his previous Monte Carlo finals against Nadal. He was beaten 6-3 6-1 in the final last year and in three sets in 2009.

Nadal set up a 16th tournament final against Djokovic despite a wobble from 5-1 up in the second set when Tsonga produced a late surge to make a match of it.
Neither the cold wind gusting off the sea, nor the inconsistent Tsonga managed to upset a solid Nadal, who has made the Centre Court stage his own since 2005.
Sixth seed Tsonga made too many mistakes from the baseline as Nadal took a stranglehold on the match.However, a change of tactics when he began charging the net briefly unsettled Nadal to the delight of the previously subdued French crowd.He attacked in waves and saved four match points to force a tiebreak before running out off steam and allowing Nadal to take the match and avoid a third set.Fognini played some crowd-pleasing winners against Djokovic but was no match for the ruthless Serb who was in no mood to mess around on the centre court.The 32nd-ranked Italian, who has enjoyed a huge support this week at a stadium located just kilometres away from his home, offered little fight and was booed off court after only 50 minutes by the restless crowd.

Watson steps down from Oz vice-skipper post for all formats over lack of form

4) Watson steps down from Oz vice-skipper post for all formats over lack of form:

Stunning Australian cricket and his fans, vice-captain Shane Watson has announced that he has stepped down from his post across all the formats.
In a statement on the website of Cricket Australia (CA), Watson said that although the decision to step down was not easy for him, but had been thinking about it since the end of the Test series against India, Fox News reports.Stating that it is the right time for a change for both him and the team, Watson said that he has informed the CA about his decision so that the selectors can consider their options for the Ashes as the squads will be announced soon.

According to Watson, he wants to improve his performance and be the best Test player for his team, adding that he thinks that he can do that by stepping down from the vice-captaincy to focus his attention on scoring runs, taking wickets and doing the necessary to help the team achieve success.Watson further said that although he will not be the vice-captain in title but he thinks that he can still be a leader and strong contributor around the group.Thanking CA for the leadership opportunity over the past two years, Watson said that he is looking forward to the next phase in his career, adding that he will help the team to win back the Ashes and get back to being ranked number one in the world.