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Millions of country's coal miners walk off job

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India’s coal miner strike is shaping up to be the country’s largest industrial action in four decades.

Coal India is the country's second largest employer. | Photo: Reuters

Coal India is the country’s second largest employer. Photo: Reuters

by teleSUR

Millions of India’s coal miners continued to strike for a second day Wednesday against the government’s plan to allow private companies into the coal industry.

Between half and 75 percent of India’s daily coal production has been hampered by the strike, according to local media. The strike began Tuesday, after coal worker unions and the government failed to strike a deal over the entry of private firms into the market.

The state run Coal India giant has long dominated the Indian coal industry, but the neoliberal government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi plans to allow private firms to mine and sell coal. Coal India supplies over 80 percent of the country’s coal, and is the largest single coal producer in the world.

After India’s state run railway company, Coal India is the nation’s largest employer. Five unions representing around 3.7 million workers say allowing private firms into the industry could lead to widespread job culls at the state firm, and have accused the government of unfairly distributing mining rights.

The strike is expected to continue for another three days, unless the government can negotiate a deal with the infuriated unions. Unions are also mulling a second walkout on January 13.

The event is already being hailed as the largest strike for 40 years in India.

NASA's iconic 'Pillars of Creation' image gets amazing hi-res makeover

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Pillars of Creation

The Hubble Space Telescope revisited the iconic “Pillars of Creation” region of the Eagle Nebula to celebrate its 25th anniversary. The so-called “pillars” are actually large clouds of gas in the nebula. The telescope originally photographed the “Pillars of Creation” in 1995, but the new image captures a wider high-definition view. It also uses near-infrared light as well as visible light to give a penetrating look into the formation.

image via NASA/ESA/Hubble Heritage Team

8-year-old allegedly sexually harassed in Bengaluru school, accused thrashed

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school-rape-bangalore

Bengaluru: Angry parents clashed with the police, set vehicles on fire and pelted stones after an eight-year-old girl complained of sexual harassment by a physical education teacher in a school in Bengaluru. The accused Krishna has been taken into custody.

TV reports said she was allegedly also told to remove her hijab.

Angry parents and local residents in Bangalore burned school property and vehicles today and thrashed a teacher who was accused of molesting an 8-year-old.

The man, a physical education instructor at the private school located in West Bangalore, has been taken into police custody.

According to eyewitnesses, angry protestors set vehicles on fire when the police resisted and ransacked the school.

The situation is now under control and the area has been cordoned off, the report stated. Media channels quoted Police Commissioner M N Reddi, who rushed to the spot, as saying that “there should be no instant justice”, and that the “courts would decide on the punishment for the accused”.

“We have taken the accused into custody. We will take stringent action in the incident,” the Police Commissioner said. Reddi said “if anything unlawful takes place across the city, action will be taken.”

This is the second time this week that these areas have witnessed mass street violence.

A tense situation also prevailed during the Eid Milad celebrations over animal carcasses that were found near a place of worship. It wasn’t long before Wednesday’s episode — which started as a protest by the parents of the minor — degenerated into a riot with communal overtones.

The issue began to take on a communal colour because the alleged perpetrator and the victim are from different religious communities.

Naming of Modi’s loyalist as chief of top Urdu university angers community leaders & activists

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zafar_sareshwala_narendra_modi

by Mahesh Trivedi, Khaleej Times

Ahmedabad: The appointment of a Gujarat-based businessman who is seen as Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s face of ‘Muslim’ support as Chancellor of the prestigious Maulana Azad National Urdu University (MANUU), Hyderabad, has drawn sharp reactions from community leaders and activists.

Reacting to the announcement by the federal Ministry of Human Resource Development naming Zafar Sareshwala, CEO & MD of Parsoli Corporation Ltd. to the plum post, the Gujarat chapter of the All India Milli Council said that the decision was a mockery of the Urdu language as the new incumbent was not an Urdu scholar and had no notable educational background.

Abdul Hafiz Lakhani, council leader and editor of the first national Muslim Gujarati fortnightly, also said that the HRD ministry was out to saffronise education in the country and Sareshwala might now be used in the top minority university to achieve this goal of the Modi government.

Vadodara-based social activist J.S. Bandukwala, a retired physics professor of the famed M.S. University whose home was attacked by Hindu rioters in 2002, said that the appointment of a diploma holder in mechanical engineering to the hallowed post was made at the behest of the Modi government but the political appointee was a square peg in a round hole.

Pratik Sinha, who runs human rights organisations like the Truth of Gujarat and Jan Sangharsh Manch and has taken up the cudgels for the Muslim riot survivors, said Modi had rewarded a sycophant like Sareshwala for spreading lies in the country on his behalf during the Lok Sabha poll campaigns.

Gujarat High Court advocate Iqbal Masud Khan said he was surprised how a businessman with practically no background in education could be named the chancellor of a public-funded university.

“Such persons will not only spell the doom for the beautiful Urdu language but will also make the younger generation forget the contribution of Maulana Azad to the country’s freedom struggle and framing of a secular education policy as the federal education minister,” said Khan, who has fought the authorities to preserve heritage in the historical city of Ahmedabad.

Khan, a former newspaper journalist, also pointed out that Sareshwala was a staunch Tabligh Jamat member which, he said, had hidden sympathies with the notorious ISIS.

Shabnam Hashmi, managing trustee of the Act Now for Harmony and Democracy, described the appointment as ‘horrendous’ and said it was high time “the future generation was saved”.

Sareshwala, 51, had played a critical role in Modi’s attempt to reach out to the minorities, from organising conclaves for Muslim business leaders to facilitating kite-flying with actor Salman Khan during election campaigns.

Many say his credentials in business itself are dubious as his company Parsoli Group had faced the ire of the Securities and Exchange Board of India on several occasions.

But admits Sareshwala: “I don’t know much about MANUU. But I know that empowerment of a community is not possible without proper education.”

Your life is Facebook’s business model – like it or not

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Facebook can remember it for you wholesale - whether you like it or not. Anikei/Shutterstock

Facebook can remember it for you wholesale – whether you like it or not. Anikei/Shutterstock

by Paul Levy, The Conversation

Facebook’s recent apology for its Year in Review feature, which had displayed to a grieving father images of his dead daughter, highlights again the tricky relationship between the social media behemoth and its users’ data.

The free service Facebook offers to its 1.2 billion users is free because of the advertising revenue the site generates from the time that users spend on the site. This model drives a need to keep users on the site as much as possible.

“Sticky” qualities that keep users coming back include the essentially addictive nature of social media sites – one that’s been compared to gambling and alcohol addictions. Another is to provide interesting new features that present Facebook’s vast pool of historical data in new ways – the Year in Review is such a feature, which automatically pulls together a collection of photos from significant moments through the year.

In your face(book)

But innovations pose creative challenges, such as how to develop an algorithm that selects content for the Year in Review that you’d want to see and share. In most cases this works perfectly well, offering up memories from your historical Facebook timeline to bring a smile to your face. But in other cases there is the phenomenon described by writer Eric Meyer as “inadvertent algorithmic cruelty”: his Year in Review arrived with a picture of his recently deceased daughter, six-year-old Rebecca, as the headline image.

Meyer’s blog was widely reported and prompted an apology from Facebook.

But what Facebook didn’t apologise for was offering a new feature that thrust content directly into the user’s face. Yes, the algorithm was clumsy, but the notion of forcing content, un-asked for, upon the user is almost taken for granted. In business terms, this is sometimes called “supplier push”. It becomes part of a business philosophy that sees users as crowds, and innovation as a process of “mass customisation”. The danger of appealing to the crowd en masse, is that a significant minority will always fall between the gaps.

So, a minority get to see their dead relatives, dead dogs, their exes, and even their past bad behaviour they’d rather forget in their Year in Review. To be clear here, Facebook doesn’t publish the Year in Review directly, but offers a sample for further customisation and publication if the user chooses. Regardless it’s still thrust in your face, whether or not you wish it; Eric Meyer got an image of his dead daughter whether he wanted to or not.

Remembering for you, like it or not

And this is where the relationship dynamics that sit at the heart of Facebook’s “free” social media model come in. By preventing us from deleting our own content, Facebook becomes the equivalent of an ever-growing attic of memories – many of which we, if we could choose, would choose to forget. This content is harvested for information with which to further refine advertising offers.

The existence of this problem has been recognised elsewhere: the Mailing Preference Service provides an opt out register for direct mail advertising for baby-related products to prevent unwanted reminders, for example in the event of a baby’s death. Online services have yet to incorporate these measures. And generally speaking, aren’t there often things from our past that wewouldn’t respond well to when re-presented to us?

As social media grows in sophistication, algorithms attempt to target you with content that will keep you interested and so more connected and engaged. Software can currently recognise smiling faces, but not that the smile on one face is of someone no longer with us. Why? Because the user didn’t tag “dead” on the photo.

Tagging is another example of “in your face” social media, in that it also prompts you to look at a image to approve someone else’s tag on your image, or that you have been tagged in someone else’s image. Of course, it might not be an image you wanted ever to see again. There will be more of this in the future: if you can’t delete photos of your past without leaving Facebook altogether, do you lose the right to privacy at the moment you feel you need it? If your Year in Review shows you engaged mostly in dangerous sports, will that affect your next insurance quote?

If you thought you were going to start your new year with a clean sheet, then, as a social media user, think again. Facebook’s new and revised terms and conditions will see it observe your behaviour, location and the sites you visit in even more detail. In order, no doubt, to create further features to keep you engaged. Inevitably, these will also throw up further issues of badly targeted content and intrusion into our personal lives – a double-edged sword that can bring pleasure, or pain.

Paul Levy is a Senior Researcher in Innovation Management at University of Brighton.

The Conversation

Tail of crashed AirAsia flight found

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Search teams locate the tail of crashed flight QZ8501, marking a major step in locating the plane’s black boxes.

AirAsia's logo, an upside down "A", was seen on a piece of metal at the site in the Java sea [AP]

AirAsia’s logo, an upside down “A”, was seen on a piece of metal at the site in the Java sea [AP]

by Al Jazeera

The tail of AirAsia flight QZ8501 has been found, potentially marking a major step towards locating the plane’s black boxes and helping shed light on what caused it to crash into the sea 11 days ago.

Search teams located the tail of the passenger jet in the Java Sea on Wednesday, on which the company’s logo, an upside down “A” could be seen.

“We’ve found the tail that has been our main target today,” the head of the search and rescue agency, Fransiskus Bambang Soelistyo, told a news conference in Jakarta.

The tail had been identified using an underwater remote operated vehicle, Soelistyo said, adding that the team “now is still desperately trying to locate the black box”.

Al Jazeera’s Rob McBride, reporting from the Indonesian capital, Jakarta, said improvements on Wednesday in weather and visibility played a key role in locating the crash site.

Locating the tail has been a priority because the cockpit voice and flight data recorders, crucial for investigators trying to establish why the plane crashed, are located in the rear section of the Airbus A320-200.

“If right part of tail section, then the black box should be there… We need to find all parts soon so we can find all our guests to ease the pain of our families. That still is our priority,” AirAsia boss Tony Fernandes wrote on Twitter after the announcement.

Dark and shallow waters at the site have made it difficult for divers to retrieve the wreckage age, Erik van Sebille, an oceanographer at the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia, told the Associated Press news agency.

Despite a huge recovery operation assisted by several countries, progress has been hampered by strong winds and high waves.

So far only 40 bodies have been found, all of them floating on the sea.

The flight went down December 28, halfway through a two-hour flight between Indonesia’s second-largest city of Indonesia and Singapore, killing all 162 people on board.

It is not clear what caused the crash, but bad weather is believed to be a contributing factor.

The search team is trying to locate the black box [AP]

UN: Syrians largest refugee group after Palestinians

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Syrian refugee children sit outside their tent near the hills of Ersal. Al-Akhbar/Marwan Tahtah

Syrian refugee children sit outside their tent near the hills of Ersal. Al-Akhbar/Marwan Tahtah

by Al-Akhbar

Syrians have overtaken Afghans as the largest refugee population aside from Palestinians, fleeing to more than 100 countries to escape war in their homeland, the United Nations said on Wednesday.

At more than 3 million as of mid-2014, Syrians accounted for nearly one in four of the 13 million refugees worldwide being assisted by the UN refugee agency, the highest figure since 1996, it said in a report. Some 5 million Palestinians refugees are cared for by a separate agency, UNRWA.

“As long as the international community continues to fail to find political solutions to existing conflicts and to prevent new ones from starting, we will continue to have to deal with the dramatic humanitarian consequences,” UN High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres said in a statement.

At least 200,000 people have died and half the Syrian population has been displaced since the conflict began in March 2011 with protests that spiraled into violent clashes between extremist groups and the Syrian army.

Worldwide, an estimated 5.5 million people were forcibly uprooted during the first six months of last year, 1.4 million of them fleeing abroad, the UNHCR said.

The Middle East and North Africa has become the main region of origin of refugees, overtaking the Asia and Pacific region that held the top spot for more than a decade.

Afghan refugees, the biggest group for three decades, have fallen to second place, with 2.6 million hosted by Pakistan and Iran at mid-year, it said. Somalis ranked as the third largest refugee group at 1.1 million.

Syria’s neighbors — Lebanon, Iraq, Jordan and Turkey — continue to bear the brunt of the crisis.

Lebanon’s population has grown by nearly 25 percent since the war in Syria began in 2011, with over 1.5 million Syrian refugees sheltered in a country with a population of 4 million, making it the highest per capita concentration of refugees in the world.

“With 257 refugees per 1,000 inhabitants, Lebanon remains the country with the highest refugee density at mid-2014,” UNHCR said, noting that Jordan ranked second.

The refugee influx has put huge pressure on Lebanon’s already scarce resources and poor infrastructure, education and health systems, and has also contributed to rising tensions in a nation vulnerable to security breaches and instability.

Overwhelmed by a massive influx of desperate refugees, Lebanon began imposing unprecedented visa restrictions on Syrians on Monday.

The new rule is the latest in a series of measures taken by Lebanon to stem the influx of Syrians.

In October, Social Affairs Minister Rashid Derbas said Lebanon was effectively no longer receiving Syrian refugees, with limited exceptions for “humanitarian reasons.”

Meanwhile, Sweden, with 12 refugees per 1,000 inhabitants, is the only industrialized country among major hosts, ranking 10th, it said.

Syrians also formed the largest group of asylum-seekers worldwide during the first half of 2014, lodging 59,600 applications, it said. Germany and Sweden together received 40 percent of these claims, it added.

According to a report by Amnesty in December, wealthy nations have only taken in a “pitiful” number of the millions of refugees uprooted by Syria’s conflict, placing the burden on the country’s ill-equipped neighbors.

“Around 3.8 million refugees from Syria are being hosted in five main countries within the region: Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan, Iraq and Egypt,” said Amnesty.

“Only 1.7 percent of this number have been offered sanctuary by the rest of the world,” the rights group added.

Excluding Germany, the European Union as a whole has pledged to take in only 0.17 percent of the refugees now housed in the main host countries around Syria.

“The shortfall… is truly shocking,” said Sherif Elsayed-Ali, Amnesty’s head of refugee and migrants’ rights.

“The complete absence of resettlement pledges from the Gulf is particularly shameful,” he said, adding, “linguistic and religious ties should place the Gulf states at the forefront of those offering safe shelter.”

Iraqis fleeing conflict were the second largest group of asylum-seekers during the period, at 28,900, the report said.

Last year nearly 3,500 migrants perished while trying to cross the Mediterranean to reach Europe, the UNHCR says.

(Reuters, Al-Akhbar)

Australia in command as India trail by 501 runs

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steven-smith

Sydney: An all-round performance by Australia saw them end the second day’s play with a first innings lead of 501 runs as India finished at 71 for one at stumps in the fourth and final Test at the Sydney Cricket Ground (SCG) here Wednesday.

Resuming at 348 for two, Australian batsmen hammered the flat Indian bowling attack to declare at 572 for seven with David Warner (101) and captain Steven Smith (117) scoring centuries. In reply, India lost in-form Murali Vijay for a duck on the third ball of the innings.

However, opener Lokesh Rahul (31 not out), playing his second Test and Rohit Sharma (40 not out) stabilised the innings for India and stayed at the crease till the close of the play.

Australia started the day slowly but steadily as Smith scored his fourth century of the series with Shane Watson (81) providing him strong support from the other end.

Though the Indian bowlers slowed down the run rate, Smith and Watson gradually extended their third wicket partnership to 196 runs. The enterprise finally came to an end when Watson pulled a short Mohammed Shami delivery, only to be caught by Ashwin at deep mid-wicket.

Smith, who resumed the day at 82 not out, too fell shortly after but not before playing a brilliant innings which turned out to be his eighth Test ton. The 25-year-old also caressed 15 boundaries in his 208-ball knock.

Indian bowlers lacked venom in their attack which helped the home side build another 114-run partnership between left-handed Shaun Marsh (73) and Joe Burns (58).

The duo helped their side reach a strong total with a partnership of 114 runs. Unlike the addition of a mere 72 runs from 30 overs in the morning session, Marsh and Burns, who also scored his first Test half-century, helped pile on 118 more runs in 29 overs in the post-lunch session.

While Marsh scored a fluent 73, which included nine fours and one six, he was ably supported by Burns.

The two also perished in quick succession but some last minute slogging from Ryan Harris (25 runs from 9 balls) guided Australia to reach an imposing total of 572 for seven when Smith decided to declare.

Indian bowlers, who bled runs throughout Tuesday, showed some rare discipline in the morning session. Unlike the first day when runs came at will, the pitch got slower which helped off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin (1/142) to tighten the run flow.

But pacer Shami (five for 122) was the pick of the bowlers as he clinched his second five-wicket haul in Tests and first outside India.

(IANS)

Puttur Congress leader seeks high command’s nod for Bharatiya Hindu Parishad to counter BJP's Hindutva agenda

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congress

Mangaluru: Even as the former union minister B Janardhana Poojary has warned against forming a Hindu outfit to strengthen the Congress party, a party activist from Dakshina Kannada has now sought high command’s nod for the Bharatiya Hindu Parishat (BHP).

Hemanath Shetty, the Puttur block Congress president, who has floated the BHP, as an alternative to the Vishwa Hindu Parishat (VHP), has expressed hope that party the party leaders in Delhi would consider his request.

Mr Shetty, who met KPCC leaders in Bengaluru on Tuesday, told reporters that he would soon meet senior Congress leaders in Delhi to get their support for the BHP.

“I will make an effort to convince them as to why the Congress should make an effort to create an impression that it is not against Hindus and BJP/VHP does not own Hindus,” he said.

Meanwhile, B Ramanath Rai, the district in-charge minister for Dakshina Kannada said that he had nothing to do with BHP. “Even the Congress party has nothing to do with it,” he added.

Mr Shetty said that the BJP and VHP had been successful projecting themselves as pro-Hindu outfits.

“But, all Hindus do not identify themselves with these two organisations. Hence, there is a need for the Congress to show that it is also with people of all religions including Hindus,” he said.

The activities of BHP would be spread to Udupi and Kodagu after Dakshina Kannada. Vishnu Sahasra yaga would be conducted as part of the launch and Yedaneeru Mutt Keshavananda Bharati Swamiji has been invited for the programme, he said.

Nothing wrong in 'PK', says Delhi HC, dismisses plea

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New Delhi: The Delhi High Court Wednesday dismissed a PIL filed against Raj Kumar Hirani directed and Aamir Khan starrer film “PK”, saying “the film was not offensive”.

A division bench of Chief Justice G. Rohini and Justice R.S. Endlaw refused to entertain the plea which sought ban on the film for alleged derogatory remarks against Hindu gods, Hindu beliefs, faith and worship in the movie.

The bench said: “What was wrong in the movie? We don’t find anything offensive in it. We don’t find any substance in the plea.”

The court said it will pass a detailed order on the plea later.

The PIL, filed by Gautam, argued that the film made mockery of Hindu god and Lord Shiva was shown in bad light.

“The Hindu way of worship has also been criticised in a most unwarranted manner,” he alleged.

Additional Solicitor General Sanjay Jain appearing for the Centre opposed the plea, saying similar matter came before the Supreme Court which had rejected it.

Aamir Khan and Anushka Sharma starrer “PK” may have impressed critics and audiences but the portrayal of Hindu sentiments in the film has drawn the ire of right-wing organisations which say the movie disrespects Hindu religion.

(IANS)

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