Sadhvi Pragya brought to Nashik court, 3 more arrested

The Maharashtra ATS brought the prime accused Sadhvi Pragya Thakur to the Nashik court today, along with her co-accused Sahu , and Shivnarayan.


Meanwhile, the three accused were allowed to meet their siblings and the meetings happened with the lawyers in the court room.


Shiv Sena activists protested outside the court, to demonstrate their anger at the arrest and trial of the sadhvi.


Three other people too have been arrested in the Malegaon blasts case, that the ATF has arrested the sadhvi under.


She has already undergone several brain mapping tests in Mumbai. Reports say that a large number of activists from the Shiv Sena may gather outside the court as a show of support to the sadhvi.


On Sunday, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) joined the Shiv Sena and the BJP in saying that they would provide all legal help to the sadhvi.


They claim that the ATS had absolutely no evidence against her and that her arrest was just a larger part of a political ploy of the UPA government to tarnish the saffron outfits.


The editor of the party mouthpiece Saamana, Sanjay Raut had told CNN-IBN that the Sena is ready to provide legal aide to the accused, including sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur.


"If Dawood Ibrahim's brother was represented by eminent lawyers like Majeed Memon, shouldn't sadhvi Pragya, Ramesh Upadhyay and Sameer Kulkarni be represented by somebody?" said a previous editorial in Saamna.


"The government does not save Hindus from terrorists, and if Hindus defend themselves, they are maligned," it had said.


The Mumbai Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) has arrested Pragya Singh Thakur in the September 29 Malegaon bomb blast case in which five people were killed.

Shah Rukh to play his age in Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi

Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan sheds his casanova image for a new film, basing his character on a middle-aged man he met while hosting a popular game show on Indian television.


Shah Rukh, who turned 43 on Sunday, has mostly played the young romantic lead in a career spanning nearly two decades and 60 films. But for filmmaker Aditya Chopra's Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi, Shah Rukh casts off his designer suits and jeans to play a bespectacled government employee in ill-fitting trousers.


"I want to play the exact opposite of Raj and Rahul, the romantic hero that I have played all these days. I want to show that it is special to be ordinary, which is why I am doing this film," Khan said at a press conference on Sunday.



SRK, Bollywood's most bankable star, said the character was inspired by a "sweet, unassuming" contestant he met last year on the sets of Kaun Banega Crorepati, the Indian version of the worldwide hit TV show, Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?.


"I want everyone who watches the film to realise that the person they love is the best romantic hero there could be," he added.


Not much is known about the storyline of Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi except that the film is a love story and it also features SRK in a younger role which is again inspired by a contestant in another TV show hosted by the actor.


SRK did not elaborate but said this second character was based on another contestant he met this year on Kya Aap Paanchvi Pass Se Tez Hain?, the Indian version of another American game show Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader?. Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi opens in cinemas in December.

North Indian youths attack Maharashtra Sadan in Delhi

The Maharashtrian-North Indian standoff in Mumbai has spilled on to the streets of Delhi.


A group of 20 youths, reportedly from Bihar, attacked Maharashtra Sadan in the capital on Monday.


The Rashtrawadi Sena has claimed responsibility for the attack.


The youths were protesting attacks on North Indians in Maharashtra. The mob ransacked the reception of the building and raised slogans against Maharashtra Navnirman Sena chief Raj Thackeray.


Deputy Commissioner of Police Anand Mohan said that the situation was brought under control soon. However, no one has been arrested.


A journalist, Balasaheb Ambekar working a regional language paper in Maharashtra, Jivhala, said that the guards couldn't stop the attackers.


"The security guards tried to stop them but couldn't. They all looked like bouncers and they went on a rampage," Ambekar said.

Student mistaken for a criminal, shot dead by cops

Haryana Police gunned a student in Bhiwani late on Sunday night in a case of mistaken identity.


The 20-year-old student, Kuldeep Singh, was shot dead while he was returning back home after a party with his friends. The police were allegedly on the lookout for a criminal, Dara Singh, when the tragic incident occurred.


An FIR has been registered in the case and one policeman has been arrested. The main accused constable Karmbir Singh was arrested after the registration of a case against eight cops following the killing of Kuldeep, a student of a local Vaish College.


"There were four men in a jeep and two of them got out. The one in plain clothes shot my brother on the forehead. When they realised he had been shot the policemen ran away," the victim's brother said.


Bhiwani District Commissioner Satya Prakash clarified that the act was unintentional and a FIR has been registered.


"In a case of bank robbery the police had nabbed two people and there was search going on for the other two involved. They belonged to a village in Bhiwani. There was some information that the people would be coming to the same place. The police were waiting and at 0115 hrs IST and they saw three people coming and after repeated requests they did not stop," Prakash said.


"It was an unintentional act. An FIR has been filed. The victim was taken to hospital at 0415 hrs IST. We are investigating the policeman who fired. They went to the thana (police station) and confession was made," he added.


Prakash also said that the Sub Divisional Magistrate, Bhiwani Shiv Prasad Sharma has been asked to investigate the incident.


The SDM would complete his probe at the earliest and submit a report to the District Administration after which further action would be taken against the guilty.



Meanwhile, students went on a rampage in Bhiwani after the tragic incident.


Haryana Chief Minister Bhupender Singh Hooda said that the guilty will not be spared.


"The police are at fault. It is an unfortunate incident and a case has been registered. The guilty will be punished and we have given Rs 5 lakh to the victim's family," Hooda said.


However, Kuldeep's father said that he won't accept the compensation offered by the Chief Minister.


Meanwhile, former chief minister Bhajan Lal visited Kuldeep's home and demanded strict action against the guilty.


Abhay Chautala, the son of another former chief minister Om Prakash Chautala, accused the state police of orchestrating fake encounters.


"The Chief Minister and his government claim that they have chased away anti-social elements from the state. In reality the police are killing innocent people in fake encounters," Chautala said

Big Bang: First protons fired, world still safe

Scientists at the world's largest particle collider have fired the first protons into a 17-mile-long tunnel in science's next great step to understand the makeup of the universe.

Project leader Lyn Evans gave the go-ahead to send the protons into the accelerator below the Swiss-French border early Wednesday.

The $3.8 billion Large Hadron Collider was under construction since 2003. Scientists hope it will provide the necessary power to smash the components of atoms so that they can see how they are made.

The startup has been eagerly awaited by 9,000 physicists around the world who will conduct experiments here.

Some skeptics have said they fear the collisions of protons could eventually imperil Earth.
'It's nonsense,'' said James Gillies, chief spokesman for CERN, the host European Organization for Nuclear Research.

CERN is backed by leading scientists like Britain's Stephen Hawking in dismissing the fears and declaring the experiments to be absolutely safe.

Gillies told the AP that the most dangerous thing that could happen would be if a beam at full power were to go out of control, and that would only damage the accelerator itself and burrow into the rock around the tunnel deep below the Swiss-French border.

And full power is probably a year away.

''On Wednesday we start small,'' said Gillies. ''What we're putting in to start with is one single low intensity bunch at low energy and we thread that around. We get experience with low energy things and then we ramp up as we get to know the machine better.''

He said a good result for Wednesday would be to have one beam going all the way around the tunnel in a counterclockwise direction. If that works, the scientists will then try to send a beam in the other direction.

''A really good result would be to have the other beam going around, too, because once you've got a beam around once in both directions you know that there is no show stopper,'' Gillies said. ''It's going to work.''

However, if there is some blockage in the machine, experts will have to go in and fix the problem, and that could take time.

The LHC, as the collider is known, will take scientists to within a split second of a laboratory recreation of the big bang, which they theorize was the massive explosion that created the universe.

The project organized by the 20 European member nations of CERN has attracted researchers of 80 nationalities. Some 1,200 are from the United States, an observer country which contributed $531 million. Japan, another observer, also is a major contributor.

The collider is designed to push the proton beam close to the speed of light, whizzing 11,000 times a second around the tunnel.

Smaller colliders have been used for decades to study the makeup of the atom. Less than 100 years ago scientists thought protons and neutrons were the smallest components of an atom's nucleus, but in stages since then experiments have shown they were made of still smaller quarks and gluons and that there were other forces and particles.

The CERN experiments could reveal more about ''dark matter,'' antimatter and possibly hidden dimensions of space and time. It could also find evidence of the hypothetical particle _ the Higgs boson _ believed to give mass to all other particles, and thus to matter that makes up the universe.

Some scientists have been waiting for 20 years to use the LHC. But even their younger colleagues are excited that startup has finally arrived.

''I think it's a very important project,'' said Katie McAlpine, 23, a Michigan State University graduate who made a rap video about the project.

''It's mostly out of scientific curiosity, what is the universe made of? How does it work? What are the rules? That's very exciting and it's important to advance our knowledge,'' she told Associated Press Television News.

She said she was surprised by the success of the video, which has had more than a million views on YouTube and which has received approval from CERN for its scientific accuracy, especially in its success with young people.

''I was really hoping that this would get taken into classrooms,'' McAlpine said. ''I don't imagine that elementary school and most middle school children will understand it very well, but a lot of parents have e-mailed me, saying I have a 9-year-old or a 7-year-old and showed them your rap and they really love it.

''If elementary kids can get excited about it, too, that's just great.''

India's condom ring tone a huge global hit

Guess which Indian ring tone is being downloaded the most all over the world? No, it is not the latest Bollywood chartbuster, but a public health message that goes 'condom, condom'.

Its makers are amazed by the popularity of the ring tone that was launched last month and aims to promote safe sex, the use of condom and to thus tackle the growing HIV/AIDS epidemic in the country where about 2.5 million people are estimated to be living with it.

'It is a hit internationally. Nowhere in the world are we aware of a ring tone for a product,' said Yvonne MacPherson, country director of the BBC World Service Trust, the international charity of the BBC.

'The 'condom a cappella' ringtone is really innovative. What is amazing is that India has started the trend of a ring tone which carries a social health message. People are excited about this ring tone internationally and are looking to India for this,' MacPherson told IANS.

What has perhaps caught the imagination of the people is the fresh voice, sound and music, which are totally Indian.

'I think the ring tone has international appeal. It has quirky music and sound,' said MacPherson.

In the three weeks since its launch, the makers have already received 257,744 SMS requests for download and over two million hits on the website.

The ring tone can be downloaded by SMSing 'CONDOM' to 56887 (download charges apply) or free from anywhere worldwide on the website www.condomcondom.org. The ring tone has been composed by Rupert Fernandes and sung by Vijay Prakash, who is a professional singer, and has chanted the word condom more than 50 times.

'As it became international news, there has been demand for it from all corners of the globe,' said an excited MacPherson, who got calls from radio stations from across the US and Britain.

The ring tone marks the latest phase in the three-year intense mass media campaign to make condom use more socially acceptable. It was partially launched in Aug 8 but was nationally seen on television, cinema, radio and in print in Aug 22.

The campaign uses a multitude of youth friendly platforms such as website downloads, online games, mobile advertising and downloads, along with the TV and radio advertisements, MacPherson said, adding that the campaign is funded by a grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

The National AIDS Control Organization (NACO) is also using the ad to support its condom promotion efforts.

The objective is to connect with all age groups and across the socio-economic strata, MacPherson added.

In the advertisement, a wedding is shown where a mobile rings with the sound of 'condom, condom'. An embarrassed man holds the phone and looks for others' reactions. Then he finds the reactions smart and responsible. The tagline is 'jo samjha wohi sikander' ('the one who understands is a winner').

MacPherson said the ring tone has also scored big time as many have sent messages to them.

One of the messages they have received on their website is from Denmark and it reads: 'I have just read an article about this latest ring tone from you, i have heard it and i love IT!! you are tearing down the walls around this taboo.'

Another one from the US said: 'I found this and my sons overwhelmed and they love it. ...opened up a new dialogue regarding sexual health. Thank you for such a fun way to open up with my kids about HIV and AIDS.'

It is getting accolades from Indians too. 'Awesome, from today onwards this will be my mobile ring tone, it's a good effort to spread awareness...' a message from a man in Karnataka said.

MacPherson said: 'The objective was to make condom socially acceptable and to remove the taboo around it. Condoms are a health product and a life saving device to protect a person from HIV/AIDS and sexually transmitted diseases.

'People feel embarrassed when it comes to protection so we have to first take care of this. This is how we would be able to check the epidemic nature of the disease. The shock value coupled with bringing the subject out in the open will also help in dispelling the myths,' MacPherson added.

According to Radharani Mitra, the creative director of the trust which is producing the advertisements, 'ring tones have become such personal statements that a specially created condom ring tone seemed just the right way of combining a health message in a fun way'.

How to live till 100

Want to live till 100 years of age? Well, do regular exercises, be married, wash hands and brush your teeth everyday.

That's what a new book, 'The Long Life Equation', by Dr Trisha Macnair suggests.

In the book, the author has listed activities that add years to your life.

Macnair said washing your hands adds two years, and good dental hygiene can add six more years in your life.

But smoking, fast food, no exercise and a stressful life can strip away 20 years.

"There's no doubt younger people take life and health for granted - more than any generation before, they idle time away watching TV or playing computer games, ignoring the activities that keep them healthy or develop meaning in their lives," Courier Mail quoted Macnair, as saying.

"As we get older and start to feel the years slipping away, we suddenly realise how precious it is.

"But by then we may have already established habits (smoking, drinking, obesity, lack of exercise, stressful occupations) which take their toll and are difficult to reverse.

"Still, it's never too late to change. Also, our attitudes to older age are changing so there is more freedom now to do things later in life if we are healthy and able," she added.

A 2006 study from University of California in Los Angeles showed that men and women live healthier, wealthier, happier and longer lives when they are in a stable partnership

The study confirmed that married couples were more likely to live to an old age than their divorced, widowed or unmarried counterparts.

A stable partnership can actually add on seven years to life.

Regular exercise also adds as much as two or more years to your life.

A Harvard Alumni Study, which took into account more than 71,000 men who had graduated from Harvard University and the University of Pennsylvania between 1916 and 1954, found that those men who regularly burned 8400kJ a week while exercising lived, on average, two years longer than sedentary types.

But cigarette smoking can actually reduce 8 years from your life

Tobacco smoke contains more than 4000 chemicals, many of which are highly toxic.

A divorce can also strip away 3 years from your life, as it takes longer-lasting, emotional and physical toll on former spouses than virtually any other life stress.

ecent studies indicate that divorced adults have higher rates of emotional disturbance, accidental death and death from heart disease.

The divorced also have higher rates of admission to psychiatric facilities and make more visits to doctors than people who are married, single or widowed. (ANI)