Have sought report on Rafale negotiations: Manohar Parrikar

Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar has sought a report from the committee negotiating the price for the Rafale fighter jets as India looks at concluding the deal in a couple of months.

In an interview to IANS, the minister also said that concluding the deal by June-July will mean the first of two Rafale squadrons will be in place in two to three year’s time. Asked about the concessions sought by France on bank guarantees, the minister said any decision taken will be “within the legal framework”.

“Whatever happens will be within legal framework, governmental framework, and according to what has been done in past,” he said.

As per reports, Fence has rejected Indian request for a sovereign guarantee or bank guarantee for the deal, and instead offered to provide a “comfort letter” from the prime minister.

“At this stage, I do not want to interfere into or influence the committee that is discussing (the deal). I have told them they should discuss it and put up a report on this… what is the conclusion of the discussions,” he said.

“If the Rafale deal concludes by June-July we will have a squadron of Rafale in two-three year’s time,” the minister said.

He said that deal is in its final stage.

The deal for purchasing 36 Rafale combat jets in fly-away condition was inked during the prime minister’s visit to France last April.

A negotiating team was constituted to decide on the deal and is holding talks with the French side.

The deal comes with a clause for delivering 50 percent offsets, expected to generate business worth at least three billion euros for Indian companies.
Source: Financial express

300 people evacuated from Korean Air plane at Tokyo airport

About 300 passengers and crew members were evacuated from a Korean Air Boeing 777 at Tokyo’s Haneda airport after one of the engines caught fire, officials said today.

TV footage from the airport showed the plane, which was bound for South Korea’s Gimpo International, surrounded by red fire trucks and with the area around its left wing doused in foam. The plane’s inflatable emergency evacuation slides had all been deployed.

“The flight (Boeing 777) had a fire on Engine No.1,” a Korean Air spokesman told AFP.

“The plane bound to Kimpo (Gimpo) Airport from Haneda had 302 passengers and 17 crew members on board. (The) fire was apparently put out.”

Smoke was seen coming from the plane as it was about to take off at around 00:40 pm (0910 IST), officials of the Japanese transportation ministry and the airport told AFP.

Passengers and crew were evacuated and there were no reported injuries, NHK and Jiji Press said, citing police and fire department sources.

Source: http://www.financialexpress.com

Barack Obama pays tribute at Hiroshima nuclear memorial

Barack Obama on Friday paid tribute to the 140,000 people killed by the world's first atomic bomb attack and sought to bring global attention to his unfulfilled vision of a world without nuclear weapons, as he became the first sitting US president to visit Hiroshima.

"Death fell from the sky and the world was changed," Obama said, after laying a wreath, closing his eyes and briefly bowing his head before an arched monument in Hiroshima's Peace Memorial Park that honors those killed on August 6, 1945, when US forces dropped the bomb that ushered in the nuclear age. The bombing, Obama said, "demonstrated that mankind possessed the means to destroy itself."

Obama did not apologize, instead offering, in a carefully choreographed display, a simple reflection on the horrors of war and his hope the horror of Hiroshima could spark a "moral awakening." As he and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe stood near an iconic bombed-out domed building, Obama acknowledged the devastating toll of war and urged the world to do better.

"We stand here in the middle of this city and force ourselves to imagine the moment the bomb fell ... we listen to a silent cry." Obama said.

A second atomic bomb, dropped on Nagasaki three days later Hiroshima, killed 70,000 more.

Obama also sought to look forward to the day when there was less danger of nuclear war. He received a Nobel Peace Prize early on his presidency for his anti-nuclear agenda but has since seen uneven progress.

Source:  http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/

Rs. 1,000 Crore Spent On Modi Government's 2-Year Ads': Arvind Kejriwal

full-page newspaper ads marked the two-year anniversary of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government today, a sharp tweet came from Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, who has been accused of spending crores on publicity.

Mr Kejriwal cited sources to allege that the central government has spent "Rs. 1,000 crore" on the ads.

The Modi government has planned a mega show at Delhi's India Gate on Saturday to mark the two-year celebration that will begin with the prime minister's rally in Uttar Pradesh this evening.

Mr Kejriwal's Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government in Delhi was criticized recently for setting side Rs. 526 crore in its budget for publicity.

The Congress has alleged that the AAP government spent Rs. 100 crore for self-promotion just between February and May. The party said an RTI query had revealed that Rs. 14.5 crore had been spent just on newspaper ads and the rest on TV, radio ads and hoardings. The money, alleged the party, could have been spent by Delhi government on the salary of poor sanitation workers and pension.

In his tweet today, Mr Kejriwal said his government had spent Rs. 150 crore in a full year.

Source: http://www.ndtv.com

In 1998, He Helped Save Her After A Devastating Fire. In 2016, He Watched Her Graduate College.

Peter Getz held Josibelk Aponte in 1998, after a fire ripped through a Connecticut apartment. Getz, a patrolman at the time, performed CPR on the 5-year-old victim as she was being rushed to the hospital, working in the back of a police cruiser, the Hartford Courant reported.

The fire was fatal, killing one of Aponte's relatives. But Aponte survived. The Courant reported that when she awoke after the incident, she was "surrounded by her family and the first responders who saved her."

"I did what I was trained to do, what I had to do," Getz told the newspaper this week.

"I almost died, but I was given a second chance at life," Aponte said, according to the Courant. "And it was because of Peter and all the authorities, everyone who came to help that day."

Aponte is grown now, 23 years old. This week, she graduated from Eastern Connecticut State University. And Getz, who is now retired, was there for the commencement, watching along with her family.

"Pretty proud of her, for all the adversity that she has overcome," Getz told The Washington Post. "Both physically and mentally, having to go through that, and losing one of your loved ones, that you were very close to. That she had stayed the course and that she had come out as a shining star."

Getz said he was dispatched to the scene of the blaze along with other officers, who worked on crowd and traffic control. Fire crews who responded to the apartment found two victims inside the building, including the 5-year-old Aponte.

"Josi was unconscious and basically in cardiac arrest, and I took Josi from the fireman, because he was in full bunker gear - there was no ambulance available," Getz said. "And since we were kind of close to the hospital, I was not going to wait for an ambulance, so I had another officer drive my cruiser, and I did CPR on her on the way to the hospital."

It really was a group effort, Getz said. Dispatchers took down the correct information, and let responders know that people were in the apartment. Firefighters made their way through a smoke-filled apartment, he said. Someone drove the cruiser to the hospital, where medical personnel took over.

"This is how the process is supposed to work," Getz said.

He was photographed cradling Aponte during the incident, a moment that was captured by a Courant photographer. And in the years that followed, he said, he kept tabs on her, "to make sure that she was on track." Then, about two years ago, Aponte got in touch with the retired Hartford police detective.

"She started to reach out to me and sent me an email," he said. "I think she Facebook-stalked me, is what she calls it."

And they've been communicating ever since.

"Honestly, a lump came in my throat," Getz said, describing how he felt when he received the first message from Aponte. "It was kind of cool, you know, that somebody would even remember you from that long ago. I mean, I always remembered her. There's a picture on my desk that her mom gave me a year or two after one of her birthdays."

When asked if he considered Aponte to be family, Getz said: "Oh yeah."

"I mean, physically, not in my house," he said, "but she'll always be a part of me and a part of my family."

Source: http://www.ndtv.com/

Stockholders Okay Twitter CEO's Plan to Donate Shares to Employees

Celebrating Twitter's 10th birthday at its annual meeting on Wednesday, stockholders of the micro-blogging site have approved CEO Jack Dorsey's pledge to give away one-third of his shares to employees.

Last October, Dorsey had pledged to donate shares to a pool to be "granted over time to Twitter's employees and other service providers," Forbes reported on Thursday.

The 6.8 million shares that the Twitter CEO plans to donate were worth about $200 million (roughly Rs. 1,343 crores) when he promised to give them to employees in October.

Since then, Twitter stocks have slid more than 50 percent owing to stalled users growth and falling revenues, lowering the value of the promised shares to $98 million (roughly Rs. 658 crores), the report added.

Twitter shares fell sharply about 12 percent after the micro-blogging website - which managed to add 5 million people to take its monthly active user base to 310 million - missed the first quarter revenue estimates last month.

The company posted $595 million revenue in the first quarter ending March 31. It was up 36 percent from $435.9 million (roughly Rs. 2,924 crores) in the same quarter last year but missed the $607.9 million (roughly Rs. 4,079 crores) expected on average among analysts, Forbes reported.

Twitter posted a net loss of $79.7 million (roughly Rs. 534 crores) compared with a year-earlier loss of $162.4 million (roughly Rs. 1,089 crores).

Twitter has predicted revenue for the second quarter between $590 million (roughly Rs. 3,962 crores) and $610 million (roughly Rs. 4,096 crores) much lower than the $678 million (roughly Rs. 4,551 crores) analysts expected.

"Revenue came in at the low end of our guidance range, as brand marketers did not increase spend as quickly as expected in Q1," the company tweeted.

According to Dorsey, the engagement on Twitter is growing. Direct messages are up about 50 percent year-over-year and tweets shared via direct message are up more than 75 percent quarter-over-quarter.

Twitter said more than 800 million people visit the site and there are more than 1 billion monthly unique visitors to pages that syndicate Twitter content.

The company also said that new follows on the service are up about 48 percent.

Dorsey hinted that Twitter's deal with the National Football League (NFL) to stream 10 games this fall will help the company earn better traffic.

Source: http://gadgets.ndtv.com

Spread of Locky Virus in Mantralaya PCs Contained, Data Safe: Official

The state's Information Technology department has managed to contain the spread of Locky virus, a file-encrypting ransomware, in computer systems at Mantralaya and all the data are safe, a senior official claimed.

The virus had affected about 150 computers, mostly in Revenue, Public Works Department and some isolated computers in other departments of Mantralaya and these computers have now been isolated and being sent for forensic tests, Principal Secretary, IT department, V K Gautam, said.

All the data on the Maharashtra Local Area Network (Maha LAN) are safe, he said.

"The virus first showed its presence around Friday last week, which probably sneaked into the Maha LAN through a spam mail," Gautam said.

After gaining entry into the system, the virus begins encrypting the DOC, PPT or other files into Locky files, the official said.

"When one tries to access these encrypted files, the system asks the user for lock key and then asks to pay for it in Bitcoins for granting access to the files," he said.

He added that the virus is actually very dangerous for the world of finance and corporates, wherein data related to financial accounts and other sensitive information gets locked and the user is asked to pay for the access to own data.

"The virus begins to send spam mails using the official e-mail ID deceiving the user in opening it or its mail attachments allowing the virus to enter the system," he said.

Users need to guard against accessing spam mails of such nature by clicking on to the senders' e-mail address to know the real sender and better still use only the official government e-mail Intra-net rather than private e-mails like Gmail, Yahoo and others, Gautam added.

"There are around 53,000 computers in various government departments in Mantralaya that are on the Maha LAN," he said, adding that following the incident, the IT department has fortified its server and data center and that no damage has been caused to the government files.

Both the Centre and the state government have a policy that mandates all its employees to use the official government intra-net rather than private e-mail, he said.

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Source: http://gadgets.ndtv.com

EgyptAir plane 'did not swerve' before crash

The head of Egypt's state-run provider of air navigation services says that EgyptAir flight 804 did not swerve or lose altitude before it disappeared off radar, challenging an earlier account by Greece's defence minister.

Ehab Azmy, head of the National Air Navigation Services Company, told The Associated Press news agency on Monday that in the minutes before the plane disappeared it was flying at its normal altitude of 37,000 feet, according to the radar reading.

He said: "That fact degrades what the Greeks are saying about aircraft suddenly losing altitude before it vanished from radar."

According to Greece's defence minister Panos Kammenos, the plane swerved and dropped to 10,000 feet before it fell off radar.

Greek civil aviation authorities say all appeared fine with the flight until air traffic controllers were to hand it over to their Egyptian counterparts.

Meanwhile the search for the plane, which crashed with 66 aboard on Thursday, continues, with French navy ships arriving in the Mediterranean Sea on Monday.

The 10 crew and 56 passengers included 30 Egyptian and 15 French nationals.
The vessel is equipped with sonar that can pick up the underwater "pings" emitted by the recorders. It is specialised in maritime surveillance, and rescue and marine police missions.

Moreover, teams searching for the black box flight recorders have been facing technical constraints.

Air crash investigation experts say the search teams have around 30 days until the batteries die to listen for pings sent out once every second from beacons attached to the two black boxes, as they scour 17,000 square kilometres of sea north of the Egyptian port city of Alexandria.

At this stage of the search, they would typically use acoustic hydrophones, bringing in more advanced robots later to scan the seabed and retrieve any objects once they have been found.

French investigators say the Egyptian jet sent warnings indicating that smoke was detected on board. The signals did not indicate what caused the smoke, and aviation experts have not ruled out deliberate sabotage or a technical fault.

Ships and planes scouring the sea have found body parts, personal belongings and debris from the Airbus 320, but are still trying to locate the black box recorders that could shed light on the cause of the crash.

The search for EgyptAir's Airbus A320 is especially challenging because its wreckage lies in one of the deepest parts of the Mediterranean, at a depth of 2,000-3,000 metres, which is on the edge of the range for hearing pinger signals.

Source: http://www.aljazeera.com

Facebook drops news outlet input in ‘trending topics’ review

Facebook says it is dropping its reliance on news outlets to help determine what gets posted as a “trending topic” on the giant social network, a move adopted after a backlash over a report saying it suppressed conservative views. Facebook’s General Counsel Colin Stretch outlined the change in a 12-page letter sent Monday to Republican Sen. John Thune, chairman of the commerce committee, which oversees the Internet and consumer protections.

The move comes less than a week after Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg met with Glenn Beck and more than a dozen other conservative commentators to address concerns stemming from a report in the tech blog Gizmodo. The Gizmodo report, which relied on a single anonymous former Facebook worker with self-described conservative leanings, claimed that Facebook downplays conservative news subjects on its trending feature.

As part of the changes outlined Monday, Facebook will stop looking to news outlets like The Wall Street Journal, Huffington Post and Drudge Report to automatically nominate topics for its trending feature. It also automatically nominates topics based on a spike in user posts about a subject.

“In our meetings last week, we received feedback that any list — even a good one — inherently raises questions of which publications are included versus which are not,” said Facebook spokeswoman Jodi Seth. “Based on this feedback, we felt that the best approach would be to clear up this issue by removing these lists entirely and focus on surfacing the conversation on Facebook.”

Trending topics are seen on the right side of the screen on computers, or after tapping on the search bar in a mobile app. As part of its review, Facebook found that members of the team working on trending topics could temporarily suppress topics if news outlets weren’t reporting on them enough.

But said it found no evidence of systemic political bias, though it couldn’t discount that a lone wolf might be able to game its system. “It is impossible to fully exclude the possibility that, over the years of the feature’s existence, a specific reviewer took isolated actions with an improper motive,” it said.


Source: http://tech.firstpost.com

NSA surveillance: Obama warns Congress against 'reckless' decision

As Rand Paul threatened to “force the expiration of the NSA illegal spy program”, Barack Obama on Saturday made a last-ditch plea to Congress to pass a bill that limits some surveillance powers, saying it would be “irresponsible” and “reckless” to allow such authorities to expire at midnight on Sunday.

“This is a matter of national security,” Obama said in his weekly address. “We shouldn’t surrender the tools that help keep us safe. It would be irresponsible. It would be reckless.”

Obama blamed “a small group of senators [who are] standing in the way”, understating the gridlock in Congress caused by several groups who support or oppose the reform-minded bill, the USA Freedom Act, over a status quo renewal of powers under the Patriot Act.

Republicans and Democrats are divided into three primary factions that do not necessarily fall in party lines. Surveillance hawks, including Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell, want a clean, temporary reauthorization of NSA and FBI powers. Another faction, backed by the White House, supports the USA Freedom Act as a “reasonable compromise” between privacy and security.

A third Senate faction, including the Republican Paul and Democrat Ron Wyden, believe the USA Freedom Act does not go far enough in limiting surveillance powers.

On Saturday, while insisting he would not “obstruct”, Paul promised to block any version of the renewal of the authorities, suggesting another after-midnight debate on Sunday.

“I acknowledge the need for a robust intelligence agency and for a vigilant national security,” Paul said in a statement. “But we do not need to give up who we are to defeat them … There has to be another way. We must find it together.”

The Republican-led House of Representatives passed the bill with bipartisan support earlier this month.

Feuding between these groups prevented either a renewal of the Patriot Act or passage of the USA Freedom Act before a legislative recess, obliging senators to reconvene over the weekend for a final attempt to vote. On Friday, Paul suggested he would filibuster the vote and force the expiration of Patriot Act provisions.

The president framed the USA Freedom Act as a set of positive reforms, including the end of the NSA’s bulk collection of American phone records – as revealed in the Guardian by the whistleblower Edward Snowden – the transition of those records to telecom companies, and greater transparency regarding the mostly secret Fisa court decisions that authorize surveillance warrants for intelligence agencies.

Source: http://www.theguardian.com

How the Pentagon punished NSA whistleblowers

By now, almost everyone knows what Edward Snowden did. He leaked top-secret documents revealing that the National Security Agency was spying on hundreds of millions of people across the world, collecting the phone calls and emails of virtually everyone on Earth who used a mobile phone or the internet. When this newspaper began publishing the NSA documents in June 2013, it ignited a fierce political debate that continues to this day – about government surveillance, but also about the morality, legality and civic value of whistleblowing.

But if you want to know why Snowden did it, and the way he did it, you have to know the stories of two other men.

The first is Thomas Drake, who blew the whistle on the very same NSA activities 10 years before Snowden did. Drake was a much higher-ranking NSA official than Snowden, and he obeyed US whistleblower laws, raising his concerns through official channels. And he got crushed.

Drake was fired, arrested at dawn by gun-wielding FBI agents, stripped of his security clearance, charged with crimes that could have sent him to prison for the rest of his life, and all but ruined financially and professionally. The only job he could find afterwards was working in an Apple store in suburban Washington, where he remains today. Adding insult to injury, his warnings about the dangers of the NSA’s surveillance programme were largely ignored.
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“The government spent many years trying to break me, and the more I resisted, the nastier they got,” Drake told me.

Drake’s story has since been told – and in fact, it had a profound impact on Snowden, who told an interviewer in 2015 that: “It’s fair to say that if there hadn’t been a Thomas Drake, there wouldn’t have been an Edward Snowden.”

But there is another man whose story has never been told before, who is speaking out publicly for the first time here. His name is John Crane, and he was a senior official in the Department of Defense who fought to provide fair treatment for whistleblowers such as Thomas Drake – until Crane himself was forced out of his job and became a whistleblower as well.

His testimony reveals a crucial new chapter in the Snowden story – and Crane’s failed battle to protect earlier whistleblowers should now make it very clear that Snowden had good reasons to go public with his revelations.
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During dozens of hours of interviews, Crane told me how senior Defense Department officials repeatedly broke the law to persecute Drake. First, he alleged, they revealed Drake’s identity to the Justice Department; then they withheld (and perhaps destroyed) evidence after Drake was indicted; finally, they lied about all this to a federal judge.

The supreme irony? In their zeal to punish Drake, these Pentagon officials unwittingly taught Snowden how to evade their clutches when the 29-year-old NSA contract employee blew the whistle himself. Snowden was unaware of the hidden machinations inside the Pentagon that undid Drake, but the outcome of those machinations – Drake’s arrest, indictment and persecution – sent an unmistakable message: raising concerns within the system promised doom.

“Name one whistleblower from the intelligence community whose disclosures led to real change – overturning laws, ending policies – who didn’t face retaliation as a result. The protections just aren’t there,” Snowden told the Guardian this week. “The sad reality of today’s policies is that going to the inspector general with evidence of truly serious wrongdoing is often a mistake. Going to the press involves serious risks, but at least you’ve got a chance.”

Snowden saw what had happened to Drake and other whistleblowers like him. The key to Snowden’s effectiveness, according to Thomas Devine, the legal director of the Government Accountability Project (GAP), was that he practised “civil disobedience” rather than “lawful” whistleblowing. (GAP, a non-profit group in Washington, DC, that defends whistleblowers, has represented Snowden, Drake and Crane.)

Source: http://www.theguardian.com

Snowden calls for whistleblower shield after claims by new Pentagon source

Edward Snowden has called for a complete overhaul of US whistleblower protections after a new source from deep inside the Pentagon came forward with a startling account of how the system became a “trap” for those seeking to expose wrongdoing.

The account of John Crane, a former senior Pentagon investigator, appears to undermine Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and other major establishment figures who argue that there were established routes for Snowden other than leaking to the media.

Crane, a longtime assistant inspector general at the Pentagon, has accused his old office of retaliating against a major surveillance whistleblower, Thomas Drake, in an episode that helps explain Snowden’s 2013 National Security Agency disclosures. Not only did Pentagon officials provide Drake’s name to criminal investigators, Crane told the Guardian, they destroyed documents relevant to his defence.

Snowden, responding to Crane’s revelations, said he had tried to raise his concerns with colleagues, supervisors and lawyers and been told by all of them: “You’re playing with fire.”

Source: http://www.theguardian.com

A lifelong focus: Photographer Santiago Lyon's forced resilience

What makes a person choose a profession in which they know that scores of their colleagues, some of them friends, will be killed each year, while hundreds of other colleagues will be arrested and some will go missing, never to be found? Why choose a profession that entails running toward grave danger while those around flee from it? If you can answer these questions, you begin to gain some insight into the complex world of the front-line journalist.

In the case of Santiago Lyon, his choice of combat photography has a preordained element to it. His father, New York-born and a journalist with an overriding passion for bullfighting, named him after Santiago Martin (“El Viti”), one of the great matadors, hinting at a life of adventure to come. Soon the young Lyon was leading a peripatetic existence, shuttling between his mother and schooling in Ireland, and his father and the newswire services in Spain and Portugal.

Some of his earliest memories are of hanging around the Associated Press bureau in Lisbon, paging through their annual reports, beautifully produced hardcover books filled with photographs from around the world. He remembers standing on a chair in the AP darkroom in Lisbon after a military coup that overthrew the Salazarist regime of Marcelo Caetano and being asked by an indecisive photographer to pick out the prints for publication. Too young to grasp the political significance of the moment, he fondly recalls the stillness of the darkroom and the “miracle” of an image appearing in the wash. He also vividly recollects how the tranquillity of the darkroom vanished on a later trip to Madrid where, to his amazement, he saw that a huge blowup of Eddie Adam’s infamous Vietnam street execution photograph now filled a wall in the bureau.

With nature and nurture in seamless alignment, it comes as no surprise to learn that Lyon, after completing high school and securing a place at Trinity College in Dublin, took a gap year to work at Agencia EFE, a Spanish international news agency. Here, he had the evocative-sounding title of “copy taster.” His job was to identify stories of interest from Central America and translate them from Spanish into English. The news was dominated by lurid accounts of war and massacre. Lyon never made it to Trinity. He laughs that he is still on his gap year.

Being a copy taster may have opened the door to a distant world of conflict, but for Lyon, it was too far removed from events on the ground. Determined to taste the turmoil himself, he decided to become a photographer, swayed by the advice of a senior colleague who told him “they see all the stuff up close.” He left Agencia EFE, bought a used camera from an AP photographer, began work as a contract freelancer and set his sights on the revolutionary fervour of Central America. By the time he was 23 years of age, he had arrived in Mexico City as Reuters’s chief photographer for the region.

The desired posting was not entirely to his liking, for it came with considerable administrative responsibilities. Still, for someone who, by his own admission, “relished going into trouble,” the Civil War in El Salvador offered a long-sought-after entree into the world of a combat photographer. Lyon remembers feeling terrified during his first exposure to warfare, but in the same breath recalls Winston Churchill’s observation that “there is nothing more exhilarating than to be shot at with no result.” He quickly learned to appraise risk and observed how his more senior colleagues responded to the disturbing sight of people killed deliberately – by adopting what he saw as “forced resilience,” putting aside their feelings.

When sent to photograph the first Gulf War in 1990, his administrative duties were thankfully over, but a new, unexpected challenge arose. He was one of a number of journalists taken captive by Saddam Hussein’s forces at war’s end. His six days of captivity, in which he was well treated, were less troubling than the episode’s aftermath. In London, after his release, he recalls that a letter was slipped under his door. “While I understand the lure of a good story,” wrote one of his managers, “I want you to know you wasted valuable management time securing your release…” Lyon was also taken to task for “losing valuable company equipment.” There was no expression of concern for his safety, no relief that the captivity had ended well. Incensed by his employer’s mercenary attitude, Lyon left to join the Associated Press soon thereafter. He was posted to Cairo and it was from the Egyptian capital that he was sent to cover the break-up of Yugoslavia.

The wars in the Balkans consumed Lyon, physically and emotionally, as it did many of that generation’s journalists. The longevity of the conflict, its proximity to countries the journalists considered home, the re-emergence of ethnic cleansing within living memory of the Holocaust and a dismay at what was seen as Europe’s recidivistic bloodletting all combined to create a set of circumstances that dragged in journalists and held them captive. To many in the press, the Balkan conflict was the Spanish Civil War redux, presenting a clear moral choice between right and wrong, aggressor and victim, democracy and authoritarianism. Couched in this emotional language, it becomes easier to appreciate how journalists came to view the conflict in such a personal way. Removing or weakening the buffer of objectivity, however, ran the risk of breaching the emotional floodgates, as many were to discover.

Source: http://www.theglobeandmail.com

Egyptair Jet From Paris to Cairo Crashed, French President Says

An Egyptair flight with 66 people on board crashed while en route from Paris to Cairo on Thursday, the French president confirmed.

Flight MS804 left Charles de Gaulle Airport at 11:09 p.m. Paris time (5:09 p.m. ET) and vanished over the Mediterranean Sea.
Image: An Egyptair Airbus A320 with the registration SU-GCC
The missing Egyptair Airbus A320 — with the registration SU-GCC — sits on the tarmac at Cairo airport on Dec. 10, 2014. AP

French President Francois Hollande told a press conference that the plane had crashed, but said it was too soon to speculate as to the cause.

"No hypothesis can be ruled out," he said.

Egyptian and Greek authorities are searching for the plane, which was flying at an altitude of nearly 37,000 feet when it disappeared from radar shortly before it was due to land.

Almost immediately after entering Egyptian airspace the plane swerved sharply and then lost altitude before it dropped off radar, Greece's Defense Minister Panos Kammenos told a press conference.

When the plane vanished it was about 175 miles away from Egypt's coast, according to officials.
[Ex-NTSB Investigator on MS804: 'Commercial planes don't make abrupt turns']
Ex-NTSB Investigator on MS804: 'Commercial planes don't make abrupt turns' 3:00

There were 56 passengers — including three children — along with seven crew and three "security" personnel on board the Airbus A320, Egyptair said. The airline initially had said a total of 69 people were on board but later revised the figure.

Related: Missing Egyptair Jet Raises Fears of 'Worst-Case Scenario'

Airbus — the maker of the plane — said in a statement that it regretted to confirm that "an A320 operated by Egyptair was lost" over the Mediterranean Sea.

French and Egyptian officials stressed they were closely cooperating to determine what caused the crash. Radar showed no adverse weather in the area at the time of the jet's disappearance.

Egyptian and Greek authorities were focusing search efforts in the Mediterranean Sea.

The Greek military confirmed that one of its frigates and two of its aircraft were assisting in the operation about 130 nautical miles south-southeast of the island of Karpathos.

Two helicopters also were on standby on Karpathos, Greek Cmdr. Vasilios Beletsiotis told NBC News.

The U.S. Navy confirmed that — at the request of the Greek government — a Navy P-3 aircraft would soon be joining the search.
""The current indications are leaning toward some sort of abrupt incident as opposed to some sort of gradual malfunction""

Egyptair said the flight was carrying 30 Egyptian nationals along with citizens from 11 other countries — including Canada, France, the U.K., Belgium and Iraq.

Britain's Foreign Office told NBC News it was "in urgent contact with local authorities in Paris and Cairo" and the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs opened a crisis hotline.

Greek air traffic controllers had a normal interaction with the Egyptair pilot as he flew above the island of Kea, according to the head of the country's civil aviation authority.

Kostas Lyntzerikos told NBC News the plane exited Greek airspace at 3:26 a.m. local time (8:26 p.m. ET) and disappeared from radar screens two minutes later — at which point controllers notified Egyptian authorities.

Source: http://www.nbcnews.com

French Officials Fear Missing EgyptAir Flight Crashed

An EgyptAir flight en route to Cairo from Paris disappeared from radar today, as French officials fear the plane crashed over the Mediterranean Sea.

The flight went missing about 174 miles off the Egyptian coast, shortly after entering Egyptian airspace, the airline said overnight.

French President Francois Hollande, speaking at the Elysee Palace in Paris, told a news conference that authorities there fear the flight with 66 people aboard had crashed, but said it was too soon to speculate on the cause.

"When we have the truth we need to draw all the conclusions," Hollande said. "At this stage, we must give priority to solidarity toward the families" of the victims.

Sharif Fathi, Egypt's civil aviation minister, agreed with Hollande's assessment in a news conference today.

"It's too early to talk about terrorism," he said.

According to the airline, 56 passengers, three EgyptAir security personnel and seven crew members were aboard the aircraft, an Airbus A320 manufactured in 2003.

EgyptAir flight 804's 56 passengers included one child and two infants, the airline said.

There were no Americans onboard, according to the airline.

The nationalities of those onboard is as follows: French, 15: Egyptian, 30; British, 1; Belgium, 1; Iraqi, 2; Kuwaiti, 1; Saudi, 1; Sudanese, 1; Chadian, 1; Portuguese, 1; Algerian, 1; and Canadian, 1.

Grieving relatives of passengers gathered at the Cairo International Airport in Egypt this morning, awaiting word on their missing loved ones.

Source: http://abcnews.go.com

EgyptAir flight MS804 from Paris to Cairo crashed - Hollande

An EgyptAir flight reported missing between Paris and Cairo has crashed, French President Francois Hollande confirmed.

The Airbus A320 with 66 people on board disappeared from radar at 02:30 Cairo time (00:30 GMT), soon after leaving Greek airspace.

Greece's defence minister says Flight MS804 made "sharp turns" and plunged before dropping off the radar.

A major search is under way in seas south of the Greek island of Karpathos.

Greek and Egyptian armed forces are involved in the effort, and France has offered to send boats and planes.

    Live updates

    What we know

Mr Hollande said he was keeping an open mind about the cause of the crash.

"We will draw conclusions when we have the truth about what happened," he said.

"Whether it was an accident, or whether it was - and it's something that is on our minds - terrorism."

There were 56 passengers - including three children - seven crew members and three security personnel on board. They included 30 Egyptians, 15 French citizens and a Briton.

Source: http://www.bbc.com/

EgyptAir flight MS804 to Cairo disappears from radar

EgyptAir flight 804 travelling from Paris to Cairo has disappeared from radar with 56 passengers and 10 crew members on board, the airline has said.

French President Francois Hollande said in a televised address that the plane had crashed early on Thursday.

The plane made "sudden swerves" mid-air and plunged before dropping off radars in the southern Mediterranean, Greece's defence minister said.

"At 3:39am the course of the aircraft was south and south-east of Kassos and Karpathos [islands] ... immediately after it entered Cairo FIR and made swerves and a descent I describe; 90 degrees left and then 360 degrees to the right," Defence Minister Panos Kammenos told a news conference.

Greek authorities mounted a search in the area south of the island of Karpathos without result so far, he said.

However, Egypt's civil aviation ministry said in a statement it was too early to confirm if the passenger plane had crashed.

According to EgyptAir, the plane took off from Paris' Charles De Gaulle Airport shortly after 11pm local time.

Greece is deploying military aircraft and a frigate to an area in the southern Mediterranean its defence ministry said.

The search for the missing EgyptAir plane was taking place at sea, about 130 nautical miles southeast of the island of Karpathos, the Greek defence ministry told Reuters news agency.

"One C-130 aircraft and an early-warning EMB-145H plane are already operating in the area. Another C-130 plane is on standby at Kasteli airport on the [southern Greek] island of Crete," Greece's military command said.

Source: http://www.aljazeera.com

Trump, Clinton campaign will be nasty—and that's good news

As the presidential election looks to be featuring two of the most polarizing candidates in modern American politics, we can expect a hard sell of potential stories and ads to try and make Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton more appealing. But the real deciding factor will once again be an avalanche of negative advertising, designed to tear down the policies and besmirch the personal behavior of the other side. Already, commentators are expecting an historical use of negative campaigning. And voters should be thankful for this.

Appropriately, negative ads and campaigns get a very bad rap. They turn off voters, demonize opponents for perfectly acceptable policy disputes and coarsen the political culture — all of these are legitimate complaints. But negative campaigns are still a breath of fresh air compared to the toxic potential of positive ads.

 Positive campaigns may be loved in theory, but in reality they are not idealized "Lincoln vs Douglas" debates, with each side courteously presenting their argument. They are instead frequently issue-free, focused on the perceived personal benefits of the candidate's previous career and sunny pictures of family.

By now, with a stream of embarrassing sex scandals hitting the papers—and with a grandfatherly former Speaker of the House now serving time due to his action related to sexual assaults—we should hope that voters won't buy into the tightly controlled stories about happy political families. But those stories, and the other inspirational pieces about rising from nothing to seek high office, are all part of the same problem of positive campaigns: They are really designed to tell as little as possible about a candidate's actual policy.



Even when they do manage to deal with issues, positive policy proposals are presented in a facile manner, frequently with untruths and a complete unwillingness to face up to the likelihood of success versus failure. Donald Trump's critics have loudly proclaimed that most of his ever-changing policy proclamations are impossible to carry out.

Trump and his supporters have said the same about some of his competitors' plans, and will undoubtedly try to use the same arguments against Clinton. The only way for voters to actually judge these arguments is negative campaigns. Positive ads will not expose the elisions. Only negative ones have any hope of blasting holes and exposing the policy weaknesses of a candidate's pie-in-the-sky plans.

But that is not the biggest benefit of negative ads. They are simply more truthful and fact-based than negative ones. Vanderbilt University Professor John Geer, the author of In "Defense of Negativity: Attack Ads in Presidential Campaigns," has noted that negative ads may be unpleasant but they end up presenting vastly more factual information—60 percent more on average—than the shiny happy positive variety.

What negative ads do is present a strong policy contrast for voters, giving them a chance to draw a real distinction between the two candidates. Negative ads distort information—context is always left out and they take the absolute worst possible interpretation of any action by an opponent. But they are usually very issue-based and much more precise and detailed than the positive and glowing ads in favor of a candidate.


Source: http://www.cnbc.com

London Mayor Sadiq Khan backs 'more accessible' Garden Bridge plans

The newly-elected London mayor said the planned £175m footbridge linking Temple with the Southbank "must be a genuinely public and open space".

Mr Khan, who has previously questioned the project's transparency, insisted on amendments in exchange for his support.

The Department for Transport and Transport for London have each invested £30 million in the project.

Mr Khan, said: "The early days of this project clearly fell short of our expectations on transparency.

"I will let the sunshine in, which is why we are today publishing the previously undisclosed full business plan for the Garden Bridge alongside a list of its funders."

The bridge to be closed for fewer than 12 days each year for private fundraising events

•The Bridge to be closed for fewer hours when it closes for fundraising events - the current plans are for it to be closed from midnight to midnight

•A guarantee children from local schools will get to visit and be involved in planting and maintenance

•The Garden Bridge Trust to build a strong working relationship with all of London's parks


Caroline Pidgeon, Liberal Democrat London Assembly Member, said Mr Khan's decision was "highly disappointing" and he should be seeking to recoup all Transport for London funding allocated to the project.

Caroline Russell, Green Party London Assembly Member, has also expressed her disappointment in the move.

"The Garden Bridge should be scrapped and the Mayor should focus on delivering bridges in East London where people need routes for walking and cycling across the river," she said.

Source: http://www.bbc.com

As India Considers Action For Wrong Maps, Pak Objects - And Is Told Off

With India considering a proposal that would punish publishers or creators of maps that distort Kashmir with a stiff fine and time in prison, Pakistan has complained to the United Nations -triggering a brusque response from Delhi.

"Pakistan or any other party has no locus standi in our internal legislative matter," said a statement from the Foreign Ministry.

Earlier, Nafees Zakaria, a spokesperson for Pakistan's Foreign Office said India was trying to propagate an "incorrect and legally untenable" map, in violation of UN Security Council resolutions.

A letter sent to the UN by Pakistan urged India "to stop acts that are in violation of international law".

As reported first by NDTV a few weeks ago, the Home Ministry has sought feedback on a plan that makes it essential for anyone offering maps online to get a license from the government. Services like Google Maps gather information from satellites and crowd-sourced data. These could become illegal without sanction.   

The proposal also offers a prison term of up to seven years and a fine of Rs. 100 crore for anyone who publishes an incorrect map of  India's borders, including in Kashmir. India has in the past acted against media companies who showed inaccurate maps, but if it becomes law, the bill would impose specific penalties for the first time.

Last year, the government took the Al Jazeera news channel off air for nearly a week, saying it had repeatedly shown incorrect maps of Kashmir.

In 2011, The Economist placed white stickers over a diagram of borders in 28,000 copies on sale in India.

The government's new proposal could be submitted for review to parliament when it meets next in July.

Source: NDTV.com

Sinead O'Connor missing: Pop singer found in US

Wilmette Police told the BBC she had been located, after earlier saying they were "seeking to check the well-being" of the 49-year-old.

Police were alerted after she went on a bike ride at 06:00 local time (11:00 GMT) on Sunday, and did not return.

O'Connor became a global star in 1990 with the worldwide hit Nothing Compares 2 U, a song written by Prince.

Local media report that she had been staying with friends in the Chicago suburb for the past several weeks.
She has recorded 10 solo albums but has also made headlines with controversial outbursts throughout her career.

In 1992, she ripped apart a photo of Pope John Paul II during a live television broadcast and has been a strong critic of the Catholic Church over its handling of the child abuse scandal.

Source: http://www.bbc.com

Let's Make You Investigating Officer, Nitish Kumar Snaps At NDTV Reporter

Nitish Kumar, Chief Minister of Bihar, was unable to keep his legendary cool today as he confronted questions about why powerful politicians linked to his government appear to have central roles in recent big crimes.

When I asked the Chief Minister today about this, referring to Manorama Devi, the woman leader from his party who has gone underground because the police wants to arrest her, Mr Kumar snapped, "You tell me where Manorama Devi is. I will make you the investigating officer."

Last week, Manorama Devi's son, Rocky Yadav was arrested for shooting a Class 12 student dead in Gaya in Bihar. Mr Yadav, 24, was allegedly unable to bear that the student, Aditya Sachdeva, had overtaken him. Though it took two days to locate Mr Yadav, hiding in a factory owned by his family, his mother has been charged not with helping to orchestrate his temporary escape, but because liquor was found in her home. Bihar is a dry state.

"I am not obsessed with prohibition," the Chief Minister told reporters today, retaliating to the opposition's charges that his administration's focus on ensuring alcohol is not sold in Bihar has come at the cost of maintaining law and order. "It's not all jungle raj in Bihar," the Chief Minister said, referring to the opposition BJP's accusation that Bihar is being torn apart by lawlessness.

On Friday night, senior journalist Rajdeo Ranjan was shot dead in Siwan in Bihar.  Mr Ranjan, the bureau chief for Hindi-language daily Hindustan, was travelling on his motorcycle when a group of men shot him five times. Mr Ranjan, 46, had reported extensively on criminal Mohammed Shahabuddin, in jail since 2005 for a series of murders. Mr Shahabuddin maintains close links to Lalu Yadav, whose party co-governs Bihar with Mr Kumar's Janata Dal United or JDU. It was during Lalu's stints as Chief Minister of Bihar that the term "jungle raj" became a top descriptor for the state.

The police have arrested a man named Upendra Singh, seen as a right-hand aide of Mr Shahabuddin, Read more ndtv.com

Live: Chennai recorded lowest polling in TN

 Tamil Nadu witnessed brisk polling in 232 Assembly constituencies with over 25 per cent voters exercising their franchise by 11 a.m. Over 300 companies of paramilitary personnel are involved in election duty. The polling will continue till 6 p.m. today.

There were also reports of polling machines developing technical snags in Tirunelveli and Theni districts.

Stalin demands CBI inquiry into distribution of money

Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam treasurer M.K. Stalin demanded a CBI inquiry into the alleged money distribution in Aravakurichi and Thanjavur constituencies where the election have been postponed. Mr. Stalin alleged that a senior minister including Chief Minister Jayalalithaa were involved in the irregularities.

 Rajinikanth ducks query on cash distribution

Superstar Rajinikanth urged people to vote, saying it is the duty of all citizens to exercise their franchise.

 Live updates:

6.22 pm: Harbour constituency posted lowest turnout -- 53 per cent.

6.21 pm: Police arrested a man who attempted to damage ballot unit with a rival in a polling station in Ramnad district but polling was not disrupted.

6.20 pm: One person was arrested with Rs. 10,000 cash for trying to distribute cash to voters, says EC.

6.19 pm: 'Exit polls can be released after 6 pm today.'

6.18 pm: One polling officer died during polls. A presiding officer was changed in Madurai contituency.

6.17 pm: Polling by and large peaceful in the State, says EC

6.14 pm: Pennagaram has recorded the highest voting in the state -- 85 per cent.

6.13 pm: Actual polling percentage expected to be known by 8 pm, says Mr. Lakhoni.

6.11 pm: TN EC chief Rajesh Lakhoni addresses the press. Chennai has recorded lowest polling.

Overall turnout in Tamil Nadu till 5 p.m. 69.19 per cent.

6.00 p.m.: Voting ends in 232 constituencies. Those who reached the queue by 6 p.m. were issued tokens to cast their votes.

5.49 p.m.: Turnout till 5 p.m.: Coimbatore district: Mettupalayam 73 pc, Sulur 74 pc, Coimbatore South 58.94 pc, Valparai 69.80 pc, Thondamuthur 57.93 pc.; Coimbatore north 57 pc; Singanallur 59.80 pc.

Madurai district voter turnout till 5 p.m. 67.68 p.c.; Tiruppur district 69.17; Tirunelveli district 67.86; Namakkal district 77.63 per cent;

Source: thehindu.com

Yoga, meditation may reduce Alzheimer's risk: study

Yoga and meditation practise may help minimise the cognitive and emotional problems that often precede Alzheimer's disease, according to a new study.

Researchers found that yoga and meditation are even more effective than memory enhancement exercises like crosswords. They found that a three-month course of yoga and meditation practise helped minimise the cognitive and emotional problems that often precede Alzheimer's and other forms of dementia - and that it was even more effective than the memory enhancement exercises that have been considered the gold standard for managing mild cognitive impairment.

"Memory training was comparable to yoga with meditation in terms of improving memory, but yoga provided a broader benefit than memory training because it also helped with mood, anxiety and coping skills," said Helen Lavretsky from University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) in the US.

People with mild cognitive impairment are two-and-a-half times more likely to develop Alzheimer's disease and other forms of dementia, researchers said. The study is the first to compare outcomes from yoga and meditation with those from memory training, which incorporates activities ranging from crossword puzzles to commercially available computer programmes.

The research of 25 participants, all over the age of 55, measured changes not just in behaviour but also in brain activity. Researchers studied participants who had reported issues with their memory, such as tendencies to forget names, faces or appointments or to misplace things. Subjects underwent memory tests and brain scans at the beginning and end of the study.

Out of the participants, 11 received one hour a week of memory enhancement training and spent 20 minutes a day performing memory exercises - verbal and visual association and other practical strategies for improving memory, based on research-backed techniques.

The other 14 participants took a one-hour class once a week in yoga and practised meditation at home for 20 minutes each day. After 12 weeks, there were similar improvements among participants in both groups in verbal memory skills - which come into play for remembering names and lists of words. But those who had practised yoga and meditation had better improvements than the other subjects in visual-spatial memory skills, which come into play for recalling locations and navigating while walking or driving.

Source: http://www.dnaindia.com

WHO clears air: Delhi no longer most polluted, that’s Zabol in Iran

DELHI IS no longer the world’s most polluted city, says WHO. The national Capital is now the 11th most polluted city in the world, based on average annual PM 2.5 readings of 3,000 cities in 100 countries, according to the WHO’s latest urban air quality database for 2016.

Released on Thursday, the database shows that the annual PM 2.5 levels for Delhi were down from 153 micrograms per cubic metre in the WHO’s 2014 report to 122 micrograms per cubic metre.

The 2014 report was based on 2010 data while the latest report includes data from 2012, 2013 and a part of 2014 for India, a year before the new AAP government took charge in Delhi. As for other global cities, the data spans a period of 2008-2013, depending on the numbers available from those locations. The report states that global urban air pollution levels increased by eight per cent, despite improvements in some regions.

The latest PM 2.5 level rankings show Iran’s Zabol topping the list with 217 micrograms per cubic metre followed by Gwalior with 176 and Allahabad with 170. Patna at sixth place (149) and Raipur on seventh spot (144) are the other Indian cities in the top 10. In total, the top 20 global cities with highest PM 2.5 levels includes 10 Indian cities, including Kanpur, Ludhiana and Firozabad.


Source: http://indianexpress.com/