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Archives for August 2018

Astana holds 1st Asian championship for Kazakh wrestling

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About 80 wrestlers from 11 countries gathered here for the first Asian championship of “kuresi,” or traditional Kazakh wrestling.

“Today in Asia’s first kuresi competition, countries such as Sri Lanka, Japan and Iran are participating for the first time,” Energy Minister and head of the international traditional Kazakh wrestling federation, Kanat Bozumbayev, told Efe news on Sunday.

The aim of the event is to popularise the sport, which has been included since 2016 on Unesco’s Intangible Cultural Heritage List, not only in Kazakhstan itself but also in other countries.

“Our aim is to include kuresi on the list for the Los Angeles Olympic Games,” said Bozumbayev, regarding the Olympics to be held in the southern California city in 2028.

He said that kuresi, where the wrestlers confront each other on foot with the aim of simply downing their opponents and pinning them on their backs, is a sport that “is based on the fans, on the patriots, on those who are concerned about our history”.

That’s why, in the words of well-known Kazakh wrestler Ulan Ryskulov, Kazakh wrestling is different from other similar disciplines since “the kuresi athletes don’t deliver hard blows” against their adversaries and “the combat doesn’t continue after one of the rivals falls”.

Ersin Seytkazinov, who won the gold medal in the 82 kg class, applauded the celebration of the event.

“The Asian kuresi championship was very successful and very strong. Our main competitors have been athletes from Mongolia, Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan,” Seytkazinov said.

(IANS)

Asiad 2018: Saina loses semi-final, settles for bronze

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Ace India shuttler Saina Nehwal had to settle for the bronze after suffering a straight games defeat in her women’s single semi-final clash at the 2018 Asian Games here on Monday. The 28-year-old Indian lost 17-21, 14-21 to World No.1 Tai Tzu Ying of Taiwan.

Saina’s bronze is the first individual badminton medal at the Asiad for India in 36 years.

In a close fought match, Saina trailed 0-3 in the first game before making a comeback to draw at 10-10. However, her opponent took five consecutive points to take a 15-10 lead.

Putting up a good fight yet again, Saina reduced the deficit to 15-16 but the Taiwan shuttler denied the Indian any further onslaught as she wrapped up the 19-minute affair 21-17.

In the second game, Tai once again raced to a 4-1 lead and some unforced errors from Saina helped her to increase her lead to 6-2.

Saina again fought back to level the scores at 6-6 and went into the break trailing 10-11. The issue went 15-14 in Tai’s favour before the Taiwanese once again dominated the final few moments to seal the game 21-14 in her favour.

(IANS)

DNA profiling Bill full of loopholes, violates privacy: Congress

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The Congress on Sunday said the DNA profiling Bill prepared by the Narendra Modi government was full of loopholes and would violate the right to privacy in its current form. It termed the proposed legislation as “ill-conceived” and an attempt by the government to “strengthen the conformity that surveillance breeds”.

Congress Spokesman Abhishek Manu Singhvi said that the DNA profiling Bill was the latest in a series of attempts by the Modi government to “snoop and spy on ordinary citizens”.

“The introduction of DNA Technology (Use and Application) Regulation Bill, 2018, in a hush-hush manner, in the recently concluded monsoon session of Parliament is another attempt towards this mala fide objective,” Singhvi said.

“Surveillance breeds conformity. And this government is an absolute conformist government. The DNA bill is an attempt to strengthen this conformity,” he added.

He said that “fearing backlash” from opposition in the Rajya Sabha, the government withdrew the bill after listing it in the business of the House, but then it notified it in the business of the Lok Sabha, where it has a majority, at late night on August 8 and introduced it the next day.

Singhvi clarified that the Congress party was not in principle against DNA profiling, but the government should first bring a comprehensive data protection law “encompassing issues pertaining to all the sectors and ministries” after wide public consultations.

“The DNA Database could be another Aadhaar-like database, without adequate protection and safeguards. DNA samples can reveal more intrusive information about a person and hence there is a greater risk of this information getting misused,” Singhvi said.

The Congress leader pointed out that the A.P. Shah Committee on privacy has expressed its concerns on the issue of breach of privacy by DNA profiling.

“The Committee made several recommendations including ensuring safeguards against breach of data by the government, right of citizens against retention of data, notification and mandatory consent of data subject taken before sharing the data with third party, besides many. The bill does not seem to consider either of the recommendations,” he said.

Film, music celebs support telethon for Kerala

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 Celebrities from the Indian film and music industries, including names like Rana Daggubati, Abhishek Bachchan, Nandita Das, Javed Akhtar and Hariharan, came together to support a telethon to raise funds for flood-hit Kerala.

Some of the other names who lent support to the telethon as a part of the NDTV-Tata Sky campaign #IndiaForKerala, included Raveena Tandon, Manisha Koirala, Resul Pookutty, Jimmy Shergill, Aanand L. Rai, Sonakshi Sinha, Mudassar Aziz, Shruti Haasan, Ustad Amjad Ali Khan, Amaan Ali Bangash and Ayaan Ali Bangash.

Singers Ankur Tewari, Shaan, Tochi Raina, Kanika Kapoor, Shilpa Rao, Purbayan Chatterjee, Jasbir Jassi and “Indian Idol” participants Nitin Kumar and Renu Nagar also sang and played during the six-hour telethon aimed at helping in rebuilding flooded villages and damaged and destroyed homes in Kerala, read a statement.

The telethon on Sunday had specific goals – to enable the rebuilding of villages in the three worst-affected districts and provide immediate assistance in terms of rehabilitation and food kits to people in the worst affected areas. All donations received will be directed to NGO Plan India.

Also lending support were Union Ministers Nitin Gadkari and K.J. Alphons; Rajiv Kumar and Amitabh Kant from Niti Ayog; Chief Ministers Pinarayi Vijayan, Conrad Sangma, N Biren Singh, Raman Singh, Naveen Patnaik and Devendra Fadnavis; as well as Thomas Isaac, Khushbu Sundar, Priya Dutt, Aditya Thackeray and Shashi Tharoor.

 

(IANS)

Sushma has no job, spends time on people’s visas: Rahul

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Hitting out at Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Congress President Rahul Gandhi on Friday said there is a monopoly of the PMO on the External Affairs Ministry and that External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj has no job except spending a lot of time working on people’s visas.

Speaking at an event in London in the International Institute of Strategic Studies (IISS), Gandhi said: “You notice one thing, everybody says that it is a great thing that India’s Foreign Minister spends a lot of her time working on visas.

“Do you realise what that statement means? It means the Foreign Minister has nothing better to do than get people visas. So, only there is the monopoly of the Foreign Ministry, and the PMO (Prime Minister’s Office) has monopoly over the Foreign Ministry.”

Sushma Swaraj really has nothing to do, though she is quite a capable lady, the Congress leader said. “If you actually give her the power to do something, she could probably break that monopoly (in the ministry).”

He maintained: “In India…if you’re seeing something that is not scaling in India, just look at the monopoly that is not letting that happen.

“If you bring in new voices, if you bring in business, if you bring in other think tanks and give them actual power in the Foreign Ministry, it’ll scale immediately.”

(IANA)

DK shivkumar  says coalition govt is not an earthen pot to be broken easilY

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Bengaluru: Water resources minister, D. K. Shivakumar hit out at critics for casting aspersions on the longevity of the coalition government in the state stating that the Congress-Janata Dal (Secular) coalition government was not an ‘earthen pot’ which could be broken by anyone.

His remarks came a day after former chief minister Siddaramaiah clarified on his ‘CM again’ remark made at a public gathering in Hassan.

Speaking to media persons, Shivakumar said that he was a loyal party worker and would stand by the Congress party decision to forge an alliance with the Janata Dal (Secular). The alliance was forged based on certain values and ideologies to keep communal forces at bay, he said.

“I will be the last one to pull the rug from beneath anyone’s feet. I stood like a rock behind our party leader Siddaramaiah for five years without a murmur. I will do the same with Mr Kumaraswamy as well,” he said adding that anyone dreaming of breaking the alliance will meet with disappointment

Backing Siddaramaiah, Shivakumar said that the veteran leader would not the coalition government fall and he may have made the statement to motivate party workers.

Replying to a question on whether he is aspiring for the CM post, Shivkumar said that he was not in the race for the coveted Chief Minister’s post for the next five years and later on a decision on who will be the CM candidate will be taken by party central leaders.

 

[UDAYAVANI]

Flight times extended by major airlines to avoid payouts

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London Plane journeys are taking longer than a decade ago, according to a report that claims the change is due to airlines “padding” their schedules to create an impression that passengers are reaching their destinations on time.

The report by London-based travel guide, Which?, carriers were adding extra time to flight schedules, in some cases up to 30 minutes, to ensure they maintain punctuality and are therefore less likely to be liable for compensation payouts, the Guardian reported on Monday.

A majority of flight routes are advertised as taking longer than 10 years ago, despite improvements in aircraft technology, the report found.

Researchers examined average flight times for 125 routes operated by large airlines in 2009 and compared them with last year.

They found that 76 routes, 61 per cent, are now slated to take longer; with 87 per cent of British Airways flights analysed found to be slower. That proportion is 82 per cent for Ryanair, 75 per cent for Virgin Atlantic and 62 per cent for easyJet.

British Airways flights from Heathrow to Bangkok, New York and Singapore were extended by 20 minutes, and a Virgin Atlantic flight from Heathrow to Newark Liberty airport, New Jersey, now takes an average of 35 minutes longer.

Rory Boland, Which? travel editor, said: “Passengers are likely to feel that schedule padding is another case of airlines pulling the wool over their eyes. Instead, longer scheduled flight times are likely to mean passengers spend more time sitting around at the gate or on the plane itself, just so the airline can pat itself on the back for being ‘on time’ at your destination.”

[IANS]

This AI system spots often-missed lung cancer tumour

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New York Researchers from University of Central Florida in the US have taught a computer how to detect tiny specks of lung cancer in computed tomography (CT) scans, which radiologists often have a difficult time identifying.

The Artificial Intelligence (AI) system is about 95 per cent accurate, compared to 65 per cent when done by human eyes, the team said.

“We used the brain as a model to create our system,” one of the researchers Rodney LaLonde said in a statement released by the university.

The approach is similar to the algorithms that facial-recognition software uses. It scans thousands of faces looking for a particular pattern to find its match.

The group fed more than 1,000 CT scans into the software they developed to help the computer learn to look for the tumours, according to the research to be presented at the MICCAI 2018 conference in Spain in September.

“I believe this will have a very big impact,” said Assistant Professor Ulas Bagci.

“Lung cancer is the number one cancer killer in the US and if detected in late stages, the survival rate is only 17 percent. By finding ways to help identify earlier, I think we can help increase survival rates,” Bagci added.

The next step is to move the research project into a hospital setting. After that, the technology could be a year or two away from the marketplace, Bagci said.

[IANS]

4 killed in Taiwan rains

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Taipei At least four people were killed and 143 injured following torrential rains in Taiwan that also caused agricultural losses worth more than 563.2 million Taiwanese dollars ($18 million), authorities said on Monday.

Central and southern Taiwan have suffered floods that have paralysed factories and work on farms in addition to causing power outages and damaging several roads, reports Efe news.

According to disaster management authorities, thousands of homes have been flooded and about 7,000 people have been evacuated, including 1,827 who are living in 20 temporary shelters.

Some 70,000 households have suffered power outages, according to fire agency data.

A Taiwanese weather expert on Monday forecast three more days of torrential rains and strong winds, warning residents of increased flooding, landslides and falling rocks, while evacuations continue.

The army has mobilized more than 37,000 troops and some 5,000 aircraft and vehicles to deal with the situation arising from the torrential rains.

[IANS]

Light rains in some parts of Delhi

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New Delhi With light rains in the morning in some parts of the national capital on Monday, the minimum temperature settled at 26.5 degrees Celsius, the season’s average.

The Met Office predicted few spells of rains and thundershower to occur during the day.

“There will be a generally cloudy sky during the day with light rainfall and thundershower likely to occur,” an India Meteorological Department (IMD) official said.

The maximum temperature is likely to hover around 34.9 degrees Celsius.

The humidity at 8.30 am was recorded 72 per cent.

Sunday’s maximum temperature was recorded at 33 degrees Celsius, the season’s average, while the minimum temperature settled at 27 degrees Celsius, one notch above the season’s average.

[IANS]

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