Today's Hot Stories - April 04, 2014
10 Headlines for Today(1) Mumbai Shakti Mills rape cases: Death for 3 repeat offenders
(2) Kejriwal punched while campaigning in Delhi
(3) Turkey PM criticizes court ruling lifting Twitter ban
(4) Offers galore: Air fares hit a 2-year low
(5) Liberty Retail Revolutions Ltd to merge with Liberty Shoes Ltd
(6) Mozilla CEO quits after row over gay rights
(7) Saina Nehwal knocked out of India Open Super Series
(8) FICA wants Srini to step aside from ICC functions
(9) Gambhir, Sehwag power Delhi to victory
(10) Indian warrior princess Noor Inayat Khan becomes a sensation in Britain
5 Stories for Today
(1) Nitish goes on the offensive, ridicules Gujarat model, unmasks Congress
(2) West Africa gears up to fight Ebola, killer fevers
(3) Billing system: TRAI notifies panel of auditors
(4) Global food prices rise by 2.3pc March:FAO
(5) IMF attributes dip in India's growth to internal factors
(1) Nitish goes on the offensive, ridicules Gujarat model, unmasks Congress
Showing definite signs of greater aggression, chief minister Nitish Kumar currently engaged in a grim triangular fight in the state went on an extra offensive and attacked both the BJP and Congress-RJD combine with an almost equal vengeance. The CM hit at both Modi and Sonia at an election meet at the Gaya Railway Maidan on Friday afternoon.
Whereas Nitish ridiculed the Gujarat model of development, he put several uncomfortable questions before Sonia Gandhi; the more politically harmful questions pertained to the opening of the Babari Masjid lock, Shilanyas permission, Bhagalpur riots and raw deal to the riot victims.
The CM also took on his Gujarat counterpart on the issue of animal slaughter. Describing vegetarianism and non vegetarianism as food habits having little to do with religious identity, Nitish Kumar told an appreciative audience that though he (Nitish) was a vegetarian by birth, the maximum number of non vegetarian leaders were in the BJP and on account of paucity of time, he was not in a position to present the long list of non vegetarian leaders of the saffron party.
Nitish, while referring to the Nawada speech of BJP prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi, revealed that it was the Nawada BJP candidate, who, in his capacity as the Animal Husbandry Minister in the Bihar govt facilitated the establishment of a modern slaughter house in Araria.
Referring to the Gujarat model of development, the CM quoted reports that said that 8.4 lakh candidates applied for a Rs 5300 per month job against a total vacancy of 1500 lower level revenue officials. He need not say anything as the figures tell the real story, said Nitish.
Addressing his detractors among the contract teachers of the state, the CM asked them to find out how much salary was being paid to their counterparts in Gujarat. Calling the BJP prime inisterial candidate a dream merchant promising the moon to the electorate, the CM said that the bluff has now been called and the people know everything. Nitish also welcomed LJP leader Masihudin in the JD(U) family.
Hitting back Sonia Gandhi for her Sasaram speech in which the Congress chief questioned Nitish's secular credentials, Nitish, while addressing a predominantly Muslim crowd said that he did not need the secular certificate from Sonia Gandhi. For him, secularism was a matter of faith while for Congress it was an election stunt, said the Bihar CM.
Listing his own achievements on the minority front, Nitish said that besides fencing of the graveyards, sixth pay scheme for the Madrasa teachers, he, first gave pension to riot victims and subsequently doubled the pension amount.
Making an emotional appeal to the minority voters, the CM said that he would prefer 'total perish' (khak me milna pasand karenge) over a second handshake with BJP.
Source: The Economic Times
(2) West Africa gears up to fight Ebola, killer fevers
Several west African countries geared up on Friday to tackle killer haemorraghic fevers including Ebola, which has claimed more than 80 lives in Guinea and just seen suspect cases emerge in Mali, after Liberia and Sierra Leone.
The health minister in Mali, one of Guinea's several neighbours, late Thursday announced three suspect cases of Ebola and said the victims had been placed in isolation, while test samples were sent to the US Center for Disease Control.
On Friday morning, health minister Ousmane Kone told AFP that the patients "are doing better. For example, we haven't observed ... bleeding."
External and internal bleeding are among the symptoms of highly contagious Ebola, which kills up to 90 percent of patients in its most virulent strain.
Oumar Sangare of the national health directorate said that all three patients were Malian citizens who "worked in a border zone between Mali and Guinea".
"They were separately spotted when they arrived by road on Malian soil in (the capital) Bamako or at the entrance" to the city, he said.
Mali's authorities have warned people against "unnecessary travel to epidemic zones."
The nation worst hit by the latest outbreak is Guinea, where haemorrhagic fever has killed 86 people out of 137 cases registered since January, according to the latest government toll.
The World Health Organisation said Friday that it is monitoring "just under 400" cases in the country.
Other haemorrhagic fevers, including Marburg, have similar symptoms to Ebola, including muscle pain, vomiting and diarrhoea, as well as heavy bleeding and organ failure in severe cases, causing death.
Forty-five of Guinea's cases have been confirmed as Ebola, for which there is no cure and little treatment, but "we have noted recoveries, confirmed by medical tests, in two patients affected by Ebola in Conakry," the government reported late on Thursday.
Such recoveries are a slim ray of hope in a situation described by charity Doctors Without Borders, known by its French acronym MSF, as an "unprecedented epidemic", where the unusual geographical spread of cases complicates the task "enormously" for those trying to contain it.
'Keep away from the bushmeat'
Several suspect cases, including fatalities, have been reported in Liberia and Sierra Leone, almost all due to contamination from neighbouring Guinea. Ebola tests proved positive for two cases in Liberia and negative for those in Sierra Leone.
However, an alarming new factor emerged on Thursday when Liberia's health ministry announced the discovery of a suspect case in a forest near the eastern town of Tapeta, with no Guinean connection.
"We have a case in Tapeta where a hunter who has not had any contact with anyone coming from Guinea got sick," chief medical officer Bernice Dahn told AFP.
"He was rushed to the hospital and died 30 minutes later. He never had any interaction with someone suspected to be a carrier of the virus and he has never gone to Guinea. This was an a isolated case."
Samples from the hunter have been sent to Guinea for analysis and Dahn said Friday that "while waiting for the result, we have asked the population to keep away from the bushmeat. The same precaution is taken everywhere in the country."
Sylvain Baize, who heads France's National Reference Centre for haemorrhagic fever, pointed to the fruit bat, a regional delicacy that is suspected to be a natural "reservoir" for the Ebola virus.
The disease can spread to animal primates and humans who handle infected meat -- a risk given the informal trade in "bushmeat" in forested central and west Africa.
Of Liberia's 14 cases of haemorrhagic fever, including seven deaths, every contaminated person apart from the hunter had direct or indirect contact with Guineans before heading to the Lofa region in the north.
The west African region is confronted with its first ever major outbreak of such disease, unlike such central African nations as the Democratic Republic of Congo and Gabon, where some 1,200 people have been killed by Ebola since the virus was first discovered in 1976 in the former Zaire.
Guinea's neighbours have sent health teams to border territory and introduced measures to prepare for new cases and to prevent the spread of haemorraghic fever from districts where it has emerged. Authorities in the region are informing their populations about how to avoid contamination.
Health measures and reassuring official statements have failed to quell fears among some residents of Mali's capital.
"I'm really afraid," said Mamadou Sylla, the muezzin of a mosque, adding that he visited a health centre before the official announcement of suspect cases. "A sick man came in and everybody thought he had Ebola. Everyone fled."
Source: The Times of India
(3) Billing system: TRAI notifies panel of auditors
Telecom regulator TRAI on Friday notified 17 firms in the panel of auditors which will examine metering and billing system of service providers.
The validity of the panel will be up to July 31, 2017, though TRAI may extend the validity at its discretion.
The operators are required to appoint the auditor by April 30, 2014, for the audit of metering and billing system for financial year 2014-15, Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) said in a notification.
TRAI said though the service providers are free to engage any auditor from the notified panel, they shall not engage an audit agency consecutively for more than two years.
“They shall also not engage an audit agency, which is currently their statutory auditor or internal auditor or concurrent auditor or has been engaged as consultant,” TRAI said.
TRAI had in March 2013, issued Quality of Service (Code of Practice for Metering and Billing Accuracy) (Amendment) Regulations, 2013, which can impose a financial disincentive of Rs 1 lakh per week on telecom companies for delay in submitting audit and action taken reports.
The regulations were aimed to minimise incidences of billing complaints and seeks to protect the interest of consumers, TRAI had said.
As per the regulations, service providers are required to appoint an auditor from the panel of auditors notified by TRAI to examine at its cost, metering and billing system of landline and wireless services on annual basis.
Source: The Hindu
(4) Global food prices rise by 2.3pc March:FAO
Global food prices increased by 2.3 per cent in March from the previous month, the highest level since May 2013, as some crops were affected due to unfavourable weather conditions, according to the United Nations food agency FAO.
The Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) price index measures monthly price changes for a basket of cereals, oilseeds, dairy products, meat and sugar.
The index, based on prices of a basket of globally traded food commodities, averaged 212.8 points in March, up by 2.3 per cent from February, and the highest level since May 2013.
"Last month’s increase was largely driven by unfavourable weather conditions affecting some crops and geopolitical tensions in the Black Sea region," FAO said.
Except for dairy products, which fell for the first time in four months, all the other commodity prices registered gains, with sugar and cereals increasing the most, it said.
The cereal price index averaged at 205.8 points in March, up by 5.2 per cent from February, marking the second month of significant increases.
"Last month’s strength stemmed from a surge in wheat and maize prices reflecting a strong pace in grain imports, growing concerns over the effect of continued dryness in the south-central United States on winter wheat crops, and unfavourable weather in parts of Brazil, the FAO said.
Geopolitical tensions in the Black Sea region, in particular uncertainties with regard to grain shipments from Ukraine, also provided a boost, it added.
However, global rice prices were generally stable.
The vegetable oil price index averaged 204.8 points in March, up by 4.5 per cent from February 2014 and the highest level in 18 months.
The rise in the vegetable oil prices mainly reflected a surge in palm oil, on continued concerns over the impact of protracted dry weather in Southeast Asia.
Tight inventories in Malaysia and the prospect of rising domestic consumption in Indonesia, the top palm oil producer and exporter, contributed to the strengthening in palm oil prices, as did reports about a possible El Niño weather event later this year.
International prices for soya, sunflower and rape seed oil also firmed up.
Dairy prices, however, fell by 2.5 per cent in March from the previous month. "Demand for all dairy products has been affected by reduced purchases by China and uncertainty over trade with the Russian Federation," FAO said.
Additionally, an extended season in New Zealand and a good start to the dairy-year in the northern-hemisphere have meant that supplies for export have increased.
The dairy commodity subject to the sharpest price drop was whole milk powder, reflecting reduced buying interest from China, in particular, it added.
Global sugar prices averaged 253.9 points in March, up by 7.9 per cent from February 2014 as prices kept strengthening amid concerns of declining export availabilities from Brazil and Thailand, due to drought and reduced sugarcane output, respectively.
The likelihood of sugar crops being adversely affected by El Niño later this year also contributed to the price surge, it added.
Source: The Indian Express
(5) IMF attributes dip in India's growth to internal factors
International Monetary Fund (IMF)on Thursday attributed India's declining economic growth, which has touched a decade's low of 4.5 per cent in 2012-13, to mainly internal factors.
"...the pullback in growth for some emerging market economies since 2012 is mostly attributable to internal factors.
External factors have generally been much less important compared with internal factors for relatively large or closed economies such as China, India and Indonesia," the IMF said in its World Economic Outlook (WEO).
The WEO chapter on emerging economies said that in case of India, "internal factors reduced growth from 2011 until the third quarter of 2012, but there is an increase in their contribution since late 2012".
India's economic growth, which touched 8.9 per cent in 2010-11 declined to 6.7 per cent in the following year and touched a decade's low of 4.5 per cent in 2012-13.
As for the 2013-14, the Central Statistics Office (CSO) has pegged it at 4.9 per cent.
However as per the projection of ADB and RBI, the growth in the current fiscal is likely to increase to 5.5 per cent.
Source: Hindustan Times
Disclaimer: All news stories and content sourced from freely available material on the internet. All sources are acknowledged.
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