Junior Digest

In a gripping tale of unwavering dedication and passion towards the sport, a 100-year-old Indian runner has become the talk of the town after she picked up a gold medal in the 100-metre race at the Americas Masters Games in Vancouver.

Mann Kaur, hailing from Chandigarh, completed the race in a minute and a half to claim the gold medal as she is the only female competitor in her age category at the competition for older athletes.

Kaur’s son Gurdev Singh, who also competes in the Masters Games, said he knew his mother could become a star in her age category, CBCnews reported.

He further said that his mother’s energy and drive to compete has become an inspiration to participants in the unique international event for athletes over 30.

When asked to share her secret to long life, Kaur said a good diet and lots of exercise can help one to achieve a long-lasting life.

Kaur began running at age 93 at the suggestion of her son and went on to win more than 20 medals in Masters Games across the globe.

Marine archaeologists on Monday claimed to have discovered the world’s first ancient urban settlement, which could have been destroyed by a tsunami.

Addressing a press conference in Panaji, National Institute of Oceanography director SWA Naqvi said that the archaeological site of Dholavira in the Rann of Kutch in Gujarat, which was a well-planned urban settlement then, was destroyed by a tsunami around 3,450 years ago.

“This is the oldest site known to the world which we believe was hit by a tsunami,” he said.

Dholavira is a site of an ancient metropolitan town of the Harappan period and was known as the largest port-town of the Harappans which flourished around 5,000 years ago, until the tsunami destroyed it 3,450 years ago.

The Maldives said Wednesday an arrest warrant has been issued for ex-president Mohamed Nasheed for failing to return to the troubled archipelago to complete a jail sentence after receiving medical care in Britain.

Nasheed, the Maldives’ first democratically elected president, won political asylum in Britain in May after being granted permission to travel there for treatment while serving the sentence for a terror-related offence.

“A court order (has been) issued for arrest of former president Mohamed Nasheed,” the government said in a statement, released days after Nasheed flew to neighbouring Sri Lanka.

“The Maldives correctional service is seeking to have him brought back to serve the remainder of his 13-year sentence,” the statement said.

Opposition sources said Nasheed has been meeting Maldives opposition groups in Sri Lanka in recent days to hatch a plan to topple President Abdulla Yameen.

Nasheed was among members of several exiled opposition groups meeting in Colombo, two people in Nasheed’s Maldivian Democratic Party told AFP at the weekend.

The Indian Ocean island chain has been gripped by political turmoil since Nasheed was forced to resign in 2012, denting its image as a paradise for upmarket tourists.

Nasheed was sentenced to prison in March 2015 after being convicted on a charge of terrorism for having a judge arrested during his time as president.

The international community has fiercely criticised what they say is Yameen’s unlawful jailing of Nasheed as well as a string of other opponents in a crackdown on dissent.

The Maldives government has accused Nasheed — whose legal team includes high-profile human rights lawyer Amal Clooney — of only securing asylum to avoid serving jail time.

Nasheed’s party on Wednesday played down the chances of his being arrested abroad since he had already secured asylum.

“I am wondering how the Maldivian government plans to execute the arrest warrant,” Colombo-based party spokesman Hamid Abdul Ghafoor told AFP.

Ghafoor declined to say if Nasheed planned to return voluntarily to his homeland at some stage in the future, something he told reporters in London earlier this year was on the cards.

– ‘Democracy under threat’ –

Nasheed, a climate change activist who was also imprisoned during the three-decade rule of former strongman Maumoon Abdul Gayoom, was elected president in 2008.

But he was forced to resign in February 2012 after a mutiny by police and troops, which followed protests over the arrest of the top judge for alleged corruption as well as for politically motivated rulings.

Yameen, a half-brother of former strongman Gayoom, won a presidential election run-off against Nasheed in late 2013.

US Secretary of State John Kerry warned in May last year that democracy in the Maldives was under threat, saying Nasheed had been “imprisoned without due process”.

In June Yameen’s former deputy Ahmed Adeeb was jailed for 15 years on a charge of plotting to assassinate the president.

Sources close to Nasheed said he was eager to discuss the Maldives turmoil with UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, who is due to arrive in Colombo late Wednesday on a two-day visit for talks with Sri Lankan leaders.

“He would be keen to meet with Ban Ki-moon,” a person close to Nasheed said, adding that no formal request for a meeting has been made.

The story of Mumbai’s Malvika Raj Joshi, who shown that “merit” has more weightage than “marks”, is about self-belief and a mother’s conviction to break stereotypes.

Seventeen-year-old Malvika doesn’t have a Class 10 or 12 certificate but has made it to the prestigious Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), thanks to her computer programming talent.

She has got a scholarship from MIT and she is pursuing a bachelor of science degree after getting a seat for being a three-time medal winner (two silver and a bronze) at International Olympiad of Informatics or commonly known as Programming Olympiad.

The MIT accepts students who are medal winners at various Olympiads (maths, physics or computer) and it was Malvika’s medals that ensured that she could fulfil her aspirations of pursuing research work in her favourite subject – computer science.

“When I started unschooling, that was 4 years back, I explored many different subjects. Programming was one of them. I found programming interesting and I used to give more time to it than to other subjects, so, I started liking it at that time,” she says in an email interaction from Boston.

Malvika found it difficult to get admission in elite Indian institutes like the Indian Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), where one needs to clear the Class 12 board exams.

The only institute that allowed her to enroll was Chennai Mathematical Institute (CMI) where she got into an MSc level course as her knowledge was on par with BSc standard.

“There is absolutely no question that Malvika’s admission to MIT is based on her superlative achievements at IOI. It is a credit to MIT’s flexibility that they can offer admission to a student who demonstrates excellent intellectual potential despite having no formal high school credentials,” CMI’s Madhavan Mukund says.

Madhavan, who is also national coordinator of Indian Computing Olympiad, made it clear that Malvika is not a product of the system but despite it.

“This is possible only for a student whose academic achievements are outstanding, which is the case with Malvika’s performance at IOI,” he says.

Malvika’s fascinating story started four years ago when her mother Supriya took an unbelievably tough decision. She was in Class 7 at Dadar Parsee Youth Assembly School in Mumbai and doing exceedingly well in academics when her mother decided to pull her out of school. She has a younger daughter, Radha.

“We are a middle-class family. Malvika was doing well in school but somehow I felt that my children need to be happy. Happiness is more important than conventional knowledge,” Supriya told PTI.

“I was working with an NGO that takes care of cancer patients. I would see students who are in 8th or 9th standard being affected by cancer. It affected me deeply and I decided that my daughters need to be happy.”

The decision no way was an easy one. “In India, people are still not very aware of the term “homeschooled” or “unschooled” as it is commonly referred.”

It also took some time to convince Malvika’s father, an engineer who runs his own business.

“My husband Raj wasn’t convinced initially as it was a risky proposition. The kids won’t have a 10th or 12th standard certificate and there was bound to be fear. I quit my NGO job and designed an academic curriculum for Malvika. I created a simulation (classroom like situation) at home. The confidence I had as a mother was that I am capable of imparting knowledge to my daughter.”

But it worked.

“Suddenly I saw that my daughter was so happy. She was learning more than ever – from the time she woke up to the time she was off to sleep. Knowledge became a passion,” the proud mother recalls.

For three consecutive years, she was among the top four students who represented India at the Programming Olympiad. Madhavan, who prepared Malvika for all three Olympiads, spoke about her brilliance.

“During the past three years, she spent extensive periods at CMI acquiring the background in mathematics and algorithm that she needed to excel at Informatics Olympiad. As part of this training for IOI, she had to fill in unexpected gaps in her education arising from the fact that she had not been formally enrolled in school,” he said.

“For instance, she had never studied matrices. She was never intimidated even when faced with a mountain of things to learn and went about achieving her goals very methodically.”

When Supriya was asked if more parents want to know about her daughter, she says, “They are all interested in knowing how to get into MIT. I just tell them that we never aimed for her admission in MIT. I tell parents to understand what their children like.”

President Xi Jinping has embarked on an unprecedented drive to censor media that do not reflect the views of Communist Party leaders. Authorities have already issued rules limiting “foreign-inspired” television shows and put tougher penalties on the spread of rumours via social media.

Social and entertainment news must be dominated by mainstream ideologies and “positive energy”, the official Xinhua news agency said late on Monday, citing the State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television (SAPPRFT).

News content should not make improper jokes, defile classics, or “express overt admiration for Western lifestyles”, the regulator said in a circular, according to Xinhua.

“They should also avoid putting stars, billionaires or internet celebrities on pedestals”, and not advocate overnight fame or hype family disputes, Xinhua said.

China’s legislature this week is also reviewing a draft law that would require film industry workers to maintain excellent “moral integrity”, after recent cases in which celebrities had been arrested for drug offences and prostitution, Xinhua said in a separate report.

Xi has been explicit that media must follow the party line, uphold the correct guidance on public opinion and promote “positive propaganda”.

The term “positive energy” is a catch phrase that has been favoured by China’s propaganda and internet authorities under Xi, referring to content that is morally uplifting and patriotic.

The government aggressively censors the internet, blocking many foreign sites, such as Facebook and Twitter, which it deems a potential challenge to party rule or a threat to stability.

Regulators say such controls are necessary in the face of growing security threats, and are done in accordance with law.

Despite government controls, foreign television shows are widely available in China as illegal downloads or on pirated DVDs. Many are also available legally online through distribution deals with domestic websites.

Brazil’s Senate removed President Dilma Rousseff from office on Wednesday for breaking budgetary laws, ending an impeachment process that has polarised the scandal-plagued country and paralysed its politics for nine months.

Senators voted 61-20 to convict Rousseff for illegally using money from state banks to boost public spending, putting an end to 13 years of leftist Workers Party rule in Latin America’s largest economy.

Conservative Michel Temer, the former vice president who has run Brazil since Rousseff’s suspension in May, will be sworn in on Wednesday to serve out the remainder of the presidential term through 2018.

A separate Senate vote, however, voted not to bar Rousseff from public office for eight years.

Brazil’s first female president has denied any wrongdoing and said the impeachment process was aimed at protecting the interests of the country’s economic elite and rolling back social programs that lifted millions of Brazilians from poverty during the last decade.

Her opponents, however, have hailed the chance to turn the page on a drawn-out political crisis, the country’s worst recession in generations and a sweeping corruption scandal at state oil company Petrobras .

Motorists honked car horns in the Brazilian capital in a blaring tribute to the removal of a president whose popularity had dwindled to single figures since winning re-election in 2014. In Brazil’s largest city, Sao Paulo, fireworks exploded in celebration after the vote.

Temer has vowed to boost an economy that has shrunk for six consecutive quarters and implement austerity measures to plug a record budget deficit, which cost Brazil its investment-grade credit rating last year.

However, he is likely to face bitter political opposition from the Workers Party, which has vowed to take to the streets in protest.