Category Archives: Featured

Featured News from the world.

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Anti-Government Protesters Demonstrate in Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Bahrain

The wind of revolution has engulfed entire Saudi Arabia, Yemen and Bahrain following Egypt, Tunisia and many other nations in the Middle East region.

Thousands of people demanding ouster of the current autocratic regime in Bahrain protested against the suppressive rule. It is been more than a week with violent protests and clashes between opponents of Saudi Arabian government and security forces. The protestors are demanding release of the people who are detained by the police without any charges.

More than a hundred people are estimated to have been injured after security forces used tear gas and batons against the protestors while they were marching to close down the financial center of Manama. The demonstrators threw stones and gas canisters over the security forces in return.

In Yemen, the security forces had to fire against the demonstrators demanding overthrow of autocratioc government. Seven protestors were killed while many others were injured in the clashes.

People Demonstrate in Saudi Arabia Against Government

People Demonstrate in Saudi Arabia Against Government

The United States strongly condemned security forces’ actions in Yemen and Bahrain and urged the governments of the two nations to initiate peaceful talks with opposition groups.

In Saudi Arabia too, thousands of people demonstrated against imprisonment of their relatives by the security persons without any reason. The demonstrators rallied in front of the Interior Ministry demanding immediate release of the people detained, however, there have no violence so far.

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Massive earth quake causes panic in Japanese Nuclear Plants

Friday earthquake devastated Japan

Friday earthquake devastated Japan

Following the Fierce earthquake on Friday, Japan declares states of emergency for five nuclear reactors.

The aftermath of earthquake resulted in loss of cooling abilities at two power plants. Thousands of workers and residents have been evacuated from the adjacent areas.

At the Fukushima Daiichi plant’s Unit 1, workers struggled hard to control melting and decrease temperature and pressure in the reactors. The Friday earthquake that had a 8.9 magnitude and following tsunami  led to power cuts and disabled all emergency generators, which failed the entire cooling system of reactors.

Around 3,000 people living within a sphere of two miles were evacuated initially however the sphere of evacuation was raised to 10 kilometers when experts feared that radion level might spread more.

It is first time ever in Japan’s history that the government has declared a state of emergency at a nuclear plant. Initially only the Daiichi unit — was declared in emergency zone but after few hours, the Tokyo Electric Power Co., lost its cooling ability. It operates 6 reactors at Daiichi in Northeast Japan.

Therefore now more than 14000 people have been evacuated living near these two plants. According to the International Atomic Energy Agency diesel generators are dysfunctional due to flooding by tsunami; this is why the cooling systems have failed.

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Shuttle Discovery Docks with Space Station for the Final Time

Shuttle Discovery Docks With Space Station for Final Time

Shuttle Discovery Docks With Space Station for Final Time

NASA reported that the space shuttle Discovery docked with the International Space Station successfully on Saturday. The docking was riddled with a series of problems and that has pushed the crew’s schedule.  The express logistic carrier now will be installed only on Sunday.

Hatches linking the shuttle to the station opened on Saturday at 4:16 pm and there was a welcome ceremony followed by a safety briefing. The shuttle Discovery is on a 11 day mission and will deliver a storage module, a rig and some spare parts to the six occupants of the space station.

The mission is headed by Steve Lindsey.

Interestingly the shuttle took off on Thursday afternoon from the Kennedy Space center, but not before the count down was forced to be stopped at five as there was a ‘computer problem’. The journey was not without problems. Four pieces of foam were noticed flying from the shuttle after it took off. NASA scientists didn’t foresee any problems from foams at that altitude. However, two astronauts aboard the shuttle have taken pictures of the thermal protection system for scanning for ruling out any damages.

The astronauts will move several items brought in the logistic career. A space walk is scheduled on Monday. During this, astronauts Alvin Drew and Steve Bowen will perform several operations including the installation of a power extension cable. The shuttle crew will attach a permanent module – Leonardo – to the space station.

The shuttle Discovery has so far carried crew members. It has circled the Earth 5,628 times spending 352 days in the orbit. It is sad that this will be its last mission.



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Cutting Back on Meat Reduces Chances of Getting Cancer

Cutting Back on Meat Reduces Chances of Getting Cancer

Cutting Back on Meat Reduces Chances of Getting Cancer

It is believed that being a vegetarian is more beneficial for health. However, those who are meat eaters should watch out how much meat they are consuming.  The Department of Health in England advises people to eat less than 70g of red or processed meat a day to reduce the risk of cancer.

Bowel cancer is the third most common cancer in the UK and every year 36,000 are diagnosed with bowel cancer. Out of them, 16,500 people die every year. Eating 100-120 grams of red and processed meat everyday increases the chances of bowel cancer by 20-30 percent.

This could be prevented if people restricted their red and processed meat consumption levels to 70g or less. This means you should not consume more meat than what is contained in three rashers of bacon or two sausages.

But critics have pointed out that iron deficiency is an issue which meat eaters could experience when they cut back on red meat. Iron deficiency could cause dizziness, anemia and result in behavioral problems. The new meat eating limit will not cause iron deficiency.

Prof. Sally Davies interim Chief Medical Officer of England favors the cutting back on meat. She is not against the consumption of an occasional steak, but recommends limiting daily consumption of red and processed meat.

Chief executive of Beating Bowel Cancer Mark Flannagan welcomed the report saying that people can eat red meat in moderation.

Dr Rachel Thompson, its deputy science head of the World Cancer Research Fund advises to keep processed meat to a bare minimum of the 70g limit. The Fund recommends on avoiding processed meat completely.

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Obama’s Ex-Staff Rahm Emanuel Wins Chicago Mayoral Vote

Rahm Emanuel

Rahm Emanuel, President Barack Obama’s ex chief of staff has grabbedChicago mayoral seat on clearing a threshold of 50% vote.

Emanuel had won almost 55% of the vote with this he has left his rivals far behind.

Gery Chico, who headed Former Chicago School Board, stood second in the elections with 25% votes followed by City Clerk Miguel del Valle and ex-senator Carol Moseley Braun.

Tuesday’s vote was dominated by the Democrats in absence of any Republican candidate. Emanuel will replace Richard M. Daley for the post o Chicago mayor.

Daley became a mayor of Chicago in1989. His father also held the same post from 1955-76. The two Daleys have been longest serving mayors in Chicago so far.

Emanuel showed his capability to win the elections from the very beginning of his poll campaign in November as he has been a key aide to Obama. However it is true that he was not well known in his native city Chicago despite serving three terms in the Congress.

His intense campaigns including speeches at 357 stops and 229 community locations, schools, churches and subway stations brought fruitful results in making a place in the heart of Chicago people.

Emanuel also used his connections with the President Obama and Clinton to advertise himself and attack his rivals.

Emanuel also defended himself against the charges of not being a legal resident of Chicago that would defy his candidacy for the mayor’s run. Key issues on which he defeated his opponents were ways to tackle with city’s $654 million deficit and reforms in pension system and administration to curb crimes.

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Rescue personnel team up to save earthquake survivors in New Zealand

The earthquake of 6.3 magnitude at Richter Scale completely devastated Christchurch, killing approximately 75 people as per record whereas more than 300 people are still missing.

This is being considered as country’s most devastating earthquake in last 80 years of seismic phenomena.

Christchurch was the nearest point to the epicenter of the earthquake that occurred on Wednesday, and hence is the worst affected area. People are trapped in the high hills of debris and messaging through their cell phones for help.

The earthquake occurred in the middle of drizzling rain and left no choice for people who left their shelters after the tremor.

John Key, New Zealand’s prime minister revealed during a press conference that around 55 people were identified so far among those killed in the quake. He declared emergency and called on government officials to respond quickly to the national crisis.

The rescue team worked hard with floodlights to locate survivors and dead people trapped in the debris of buildings with the help of dogs and sent the injured people to hospitals

There were still many of people trapped under dozens of buildings, suspected a police official.

Pyne Gould Guinness Building alone had more than 22 people suspected to be trapped under its rubble Authorities said 22 people had been rescued from the Eight people were rescued from the debris of the Canterbury television building while many were still trapped.

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Protesters demand conciliation from Wisconsin Governor

The public unrest does not seem to settle down in Wisconsin. People take on streets demonstrating in the city despite the administrative system coming to a halt. The protests have been continued for last 7 days against Gov. Scott Walker’s plan for raising public employee’s contributions to healthcare and pension. The plan also includes removal of their bargaining rights.

Democrat senators escaped the protests while continuing the legislative procedure to stop voting over the controversial bill.

Bad weather and snowfall forced most of the protestors to remain under shades however; hundreds of them remained unaffected and continues to protest ar at the Capitol rotunda.

People jam-packed themselves the rails to sought slogans against Gov. Walker and his bill for budget-repairing.

The government employees– healthcare workers, the state’s teachers, and others stated that they were ready to provide the financial concessions to the governor but were against the so called union busting proposals, which they loathed.

The strikes are affecting day to day life in the state as teachers and health workers are not returning to work taking medical leaves. Parents of school going children are very worried for students’ studies and said that the Governor’s plan will do no good for any one.

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Yemen Protests – Three killed, 76 injured in clashes

Clashes between anti and pro government demonstrators resulted in the loss of lives of three anti government protestors and injuries to 76 demonstrators.

Anti government demonstrators took to the street much like Egypt and Tunisia. They shouted for economic and political reform. The ouster of President Abdullah Saleh was a part of the demand.

The 10,000 strong crowd of anti government protestors in the city of Tiaz were attacked by 8000 pro government demonstrators resulting in the loss of two lives and injuries. Yemeni soldiers had a tough time in dispersing the protestors. It took two hours for 5000 soldiers to disperse the protestors in Tiaz.

It is reported that the government supporters hurled a bomb on anti government demonstrators in Tiaz killing two of them. The other death resulted in Aden when an anti government demonstrator was shot down. Pro government demonstrators are armed with batons, rocks and knives.

The poor African nation is being torn apart by a Shiite movement in the north, a separatist movement in the south and growing terrorism across the country.

President Saleh who has been in power for 30 years refuses to step down. But his offer to have a national dialog on issues has been accepted by the opposition.

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Democrats fail to reduce entitlement program expenditure

Republicans simply stuck to criticizing Obama and the Democrats for their failure to curb federal spending on entitlement programs without offering any cuts from their sides. They are not revealing as of now what they are going to put forward in their budget plans for 2012.

President Obama has asked for adult conversation on this issue. He is of the view that the Democrat government has been able to pass the healthcare legislation even in the face of stiff Republican opposition. The bill would reduce debt by $250 billion in the next 10 years. But the effort to cut spending on entitlement programs would require both the parties to come together.

Obama is hopeful that they can handle the issue of Social Security the same way Ronald Reagan and Tip O’ Neill had done it. For this the opposing parties have to come together and make modest changes, he opines.

Democrats are working on the suggestion made by the bipartisan panel that made suggestions to cut Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security to reduce debt. USA debt stands at 62 percent of the GDP in 2010 in contrast to one third of the GDP. In 2020 debt will reach to 90 percent of GDP and by 2025 the entire tax revenues will be used to fund Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security.

Henry J. Aaron, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, is of the opinion that other programs such as food stamps, housing vouchers and disability payments that only further inflate the problem, also need to be taken in to account to address the issue. This will be a tough task as legislators have to keep their pledge of not raising taxes but they have to cut deficit deeply.

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Global oil prices fell following Mubarak’s resignation in Egypt

There was a high surge in World stocks soon after the resignation of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak as oil prices fell abruptly. This was probably due to fear among investors about coming political chaos in the Middle East.

U.S. stocks took a defensive approach by closing out gains of second week,

Ralph Preston, an analyst stated that there is a scope of global economic expansion as fear of violent transition of power has disappeared from Egypt. There is no such risk in Egyptian market for the investors now.

Egypt Index ETF <EGPT.P for Market Vectors climbed up from 4.5 percent to a record level of $18.60.

Despite the optimistic rise, the U.S. dollar kept on getting stronger with the government debt as the question of swift of power is still dwindling over Egypt that is likely to stir all oil-producing nations in the Middle East region.

The U.S. economic is improving every day with the strengthening of dollar.

commodity prices were expected to increase  and this could adversely affect the dollar.

DXY, The U.S. Dollar Index, received a hike of 0.23 percent at 78.432, whereas the euro EUR= dipped by 0.35 percent at $1.3593.

Egyptian President Mubarak finally gave up after a long mass protests by the opposition groups for 18 days. With this, his 30-years autocracy on Egypt ended paving way for democracy in the country.