Junior Digest

Opportunity landed on Mars in 2004 and covered 28 miles (45 kilometers) on the planet, securing its place in history after lasting well beyond its expected 90-day mission.

But a giant dust storm last year blocked sunlight from Mars, stopping Opportunity’s solar-powered batteries from being able to recharge.

Despite NASA engineers’ best efforts to get a response via radio channels, its last communication was on June 10, 2018.

In August, NASA caused an outcry after setting a 45-day deadline before it would declare “Oppy” dead. In October, it extended the deadline to January to reevaluate the situation.

Of 43 missions launched toward Mars, only 18 have made it intact — a success rate of around 40 percent. All those that made it came from the United States.

Robotic rover missions are an important part of human space exploration because these tools also help inform NASA’s efforts to send people to the surface of Mars sometime in the coming decades.

NASA has vowed to send people to Mars by the 2030s, but industry experts say it could take longer — at least 25 years from now — before humans could survive on the Red Planet.

The recent decline in bugs that fly, crawl, burrow and skitter across still water is part of a gathering “mass extinction,” only the sixth in the last half-billion years.

“We estimate the current proportion of insect species in decline — 41 percent — to be twice as high as that of vertebrates,” or animals with a backbone, Francisco Sanchez-Bayo of the University of Sydney and Kris Wyckhuys of the University of Queensland in Australia reported.

“At present, a third of all insect species are threatened with extinction.”

An additional one percent join their ranks every year, they estimated. Insect biomass — sheer collective weight — is declining annually by about 2.5 percent worldwide.

– ‘Hardly any insects left’ –

The study, to be published in the journal Biological Conservation, pulled together data from more than 70 datasets from across the globe, some dating back more than a century.

By a large margin, habitat change — deforestation, urbanisation, conversion to farmland — emerged as the biggest cause of insect decline and extinction threat.

Next was pollution and the widespread use of pesticides in commercial agriculture.

The recent collapse, for example, of many bird species in France was traced to the use of insecticides on industrial crops such as wheat, barley, corn and wine grapes.

“There are hardly any insects left — that’s the number one problem,” said Vincent Bretagnolle, an ecologist at Centre for Biological Studies.

Experts estimate that flying insects across Europe have declined 80 percent on average, causing bird populations to drop by more than 400 million in three decades.

Only a few species of insects — mainly in the tropics — are thought to have suffered due to climate change, while some in northern climes have expanded their range as temperatures warm.

In the long run, however, scientists fear that global warming could become another major driver of insect demise.

Up to now, rising concern about biodiversity loss has mostly focused on big mammals, birds and amphibians.

– Dung beetles in deep –

But insects comprise about two-thirds of all terrestrial species, and have been the foundation of key ecosystems since emerging almost 400 million years ago.

“The essential role that insects play as food items of many vertebrates is often forgotten,” the researchers said.

Moles, hedgehogs, anteaters, lizards, amphibians, most bats, many birds and fish all feed on insects or depend on them for rearing their offspring.

Other insects filling the void left by declining species probably cannot compensate for the sharp drop in biomass, the study said.

Insects are also the world’s top pollinators — 75 percent of 115 top global food crops depend on animal pollination, including cocoa, coffee, almonds and cherries.

One-in-six species of bees have gone regionally extinct somewhere in the world.

Dung beetles in the Mediterranean basin have also been hit particularly hard, with more than 60 percent of species fading in numbers.

The pace of insect decline appears to be the same in tropical and temperate climates, though there is far more data from North America and Europe than the rest of the world.

Britain has seen a measurable decline across 60 percent of its large insect groups, or taxa, followed by North America (51 percent) and Europe as a whole (44 percent).

Caracas [Venezuela], Feb 10 : The provisions of a humanitarian aid initiated by Washington is a “big lie”, Venezuelan Vice President Delcy Rodriguez said on Saturday (local time), adding that such moves indirectly reflected on the United States’ intention to topple President Nicolas Maduro from power.
In an interview with the Russian Times, the Venezuelan Vice President said: “This [humanitarian assistance] is a big lie.”
Addressing the ongoing political and humanitarian crisis in the country, Rodriguez added that Venezuela’s social “wounds” resulted due to the economic “blockade” exerted by the US. In order to put an end to the crisis, the incumbent government of Venezuela needs to enter into a dialogue with the Opposition, a move which is impeded by Donald Trump-led US government, the Vice President added to her statement.
“We say: ‘yes to dialog’ and ‘no to war’,” Rodriguez said, adding that the South American nation has been facing “total political and ideological rejection” by the US and its allies (over the issue) including the member nations of the European Union (EU), Canada, Colombia and many others.
Rodriguez said that the humanitarian aid is just an excuse through which the US wants to enter into Venezuela and further create situations of a coup. She also accused the Opposition led by Juan Guaido, who announced himself as the interim President of the country last month, to be acting upon the orders of Washington.
“Washington believes that [Venezuelan President] Nicolas Maduro should go. Washington’s response is its distorted doctrine of regime change [in] democratic nations that do not like it when someone twists their arms and forcibly interferes into their internal affairs,” Rodriguez explained.
The Vice President noted that the US is creating a “false positive” impression about its own policies against Caracas, which by no means requires any help from Washington, despite reeling from social and economic problems.
Recently, the Venezuelan army had barricaded the Tienditas international bridge on the border with Colombia and blocked trucks and tankers carrying aid from entering into the country.
The remarks by the Venezuelan Vice President came after Guaido told AFP last week that he could “authorize” a foreign military intervention into the country to topple President Maduro.
According to reports, President Maduro, many times since the crisis began in January has called for dialogue with the Opposition but was turned down repeatedly.
Meanwhile, Guaido has been recognised as the legitimate Head of the State by the US and the EU.

Her tilt appeared to some to be a masterstroke of back-room dealings by Thaksin Shinawatra, the billionaire self-exiled ex-premier, just weeks before the poll.

But just hours later it fell apart.

A royal command from the king put a pin in her unprecedented political aspirations, insisting the monarchy was above politics and describing his sister’s candidacy as “highly inappropriate”.

Thailand’s incredibly wealthy and powerful monarchy is revered by Thais and protected by a draconian lese majeste law. The king’s word is seen as final.

On Monday the Election Commission formally scratched her candidacy.

Islamabad : International Monetary Fund head Christine Lagarde used a meeting on Sunday with Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan to reiterate calls for reforms to its struggling economy, but there was no sign of agreement on a bailout package.

Pakistan is seeking what would be its 13th IMF bailout since the late 1980s, but the deal has been held up by differences over demands Khan’s government fears may harm growth.

While those talks have continued, Pakistan has raised more than $10 billion in loans and credit arrangements from Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and China to ease strain on its dwindling foreign currency reserves.

Lagarde said her meeting with Khan at the sidelines of the World Government Summit in Dubai had been “good and constructive” and she reiterated IMF willingness to help.

New Delhi, Feb 10 : University Grants Commission (UGC) has initiated stern action against fake universities and lodged First Information Reports (FIRs) against the New Delhi-based Indian Institute of Planning and Management (IIPM) and Bio-Chemic Education Grant Commission at Nadia, West Bengal in their respective police stations.
However, the action against the two institutes which were operating in violation of UGC norms, appears to be
merely the tip of the iceberg with as many as 24 more being detected with fake claims of university status.
The UGC has the responsibility of maintaining standards in higher education in the country.
According to Minister of State for Human Resource Development (HRD) Satya Pal Singh, ‘Show cause notices have been issued to fake universities running Undergraduate and Postgraduate degree courses and giving misleading advertisements’ to fool the public.
The action follows the concern expressed by both the Centre as well as UGC that fake universities have been quietly proliferating and running without recognition.
Besides threatening them with severe action under the provisions of the UGC Act and the Indian Penal Code,
Dr Singh in a written reply in the Rajya Sabha said that letters had been sent to the State/UT Principal Secretaries/Education Secretaries for taking appropriate action against the fake universities located in their
jurisdiction.
UGC has published a list of fake universities on its website — www.ugc.ac.in. As many as eight of the 24
institutes identified as fake universities were located in Uttar Pradesh, seven right under UGC’s nose in
the national capital, followed by two each in West Bengal and Odisha and one each in Bihar, Karnataka,
Kerala, Maharashtra and Puducherry, according to a list posted on the UGC website on April 2018.
While at the start of every academic session, UGC issues press release and public notice regarding state-wise
list of fake universities in the country in national dailies and newspapers in Hindi and English to warn aspiring
students not to take admission in the courses run by the self-styled, unauthorised fake universities, there
are many duped by these institutes
Under the University Grants Commission Act, 1956, only a university established by a Central, State/Provincial
Act or an institution deemed to be university under section 3 or an institution specially empowered by an Act of
Parliament to confer UGC specified degrees under section 22(3) of the Act.
Students have been advised to check about the reputation of the university before seeking enrolment.

Young people are particularly prone to risky listening habits.

Around half of those between the ages of 12 and 35, or 1.1 billion people, are at risk due to “prolonged and excessive exposure to loud sounds, including music they listen to through personal audio devices,” the UN health agency said.

WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus pointed out that the world already has “the technological know-how to prevent hearing loss”.

“It should not be the case that so many young people continue to damage their hearing while listening to music,” he said in the statement.

Young people, he said, “must understand that once they lose their hearing, it won’t come back.”

Currently, about five percent of the global population, or some 466 million people, including 34 million children, suffer from disabling hearing loss.

WHO said it remained unclear how many of them had damaged their hearing through dangerous use of audio devices.

The Safe listening devices and systems standard calls for a “sound allowance” software to be included in all audio devices, to track the volume level and duration of a user’s exposure to sound, and to evaluate the risk posed to their hearing.

This system could alert a user if they have dangerous listening habits.

WHO is also calling for parental as well as automatic volume controls on audio devices to prevent dangerous use.

While some smartphones and other audio devices already offer some of these features, the UN would like to see a uniform standard used to help protect against disabling hearing loss.

“Think of it like driving on a highway, but without a speedometer in your car or a speed limit,” Shelly Chadha of the WHO told reporters in Geneva.

“What we’ve proposed is that your smartphones come fitted with a speedometer, with a measurement system which tells you how much sound you’re getting and tells you if you are going over the limit”.

Kinshasa [DR Congo], Feb 10 : The death toll in Ebola virus outbreak in the Democratic Republic (DR) of Congo rose to a whopping 500, the country’s health ministry said on Saturday.
Al Jazeera cited a reportage released by the health ministry late on Friday, as saying, “In total, there have been 502 deaths and 271 people cured.”
However, the regular vaccination programmes have prevented thousands of more deaths from taking place in the region.
Health minister Oly Ilunga Kalenga noted that for the first time, a vaccination programme had protected approximately 76,425 people and prevented “thousands” of deaths.
“I believe we have prevented the spread of the epidemic in the big cities” in the region, he said.
“The teams also managed to contain its the spread of the epidemic to neighbouring countries.”
“The biggest problem is the high mobility of the population,” the minister added.
This is the world’s second deadliest Ebola outbreak since the virus killed 11,000 people in West Africa in 2014.
The outbreak initiated from the North Kivu region, on the borders of Uganda and Rwanda.
The Spanish wing of the aid agency Doctors Without Borders (MSF) took to Twitter on Saturday stating that the Ebola cases have reportedly risen since January 15. East African countries, including Rwanda, Uganda and South Sudan in the north are now on alert, the aid agency added.
Ebola, one of the world’s deadliest diseases, first appeared in Sudan, followed by DR Congo in 1976. The virus can be transmitted to humans from wild animals. Symptoms of the disease include fever, severe headache and haemorrhaging.
In 2014, Ebola caused global concerns when an outbreak broke out in the Western African countries of Liberia, Guinea, and Sierra Leone, claiming the lives of over 11,000 people and infecting approximately 28,600 others.

Jaipur/New Delhi, Feb 11: The Gujjar community agitation demanding five per cent quota in jobs and education turned violent Sunday with shots being fired and police vehicles torched in Dholpur district and protesters blocking road and rail traffic in many areas in Rajasthan.

As a precautionary measure, authorities have imposed prohibitory orders under CrPc section 144 in Dholpur and neighbouring Karauli districts, police said.

At least 20 trains were cancelled and seven diverted during the day as the protesters, led by the Gujjar Arakshan Sangharsh Samiti chief Kirori Singh Bainsla, continued their sit-in on railway tracks in Sawai Madhopur district for the third day on Sunday, officials said.

The sit-in began on Friday evening and has affected the movement of over 250 trains through the region since.

The agitators also blocked highways connecting major cities on Sunday.

According to police officials, three cases have been registered in connection with the blocking of traffic.

Violence broke out in Dholpur district as unidentified miscreants fired 8-10 rounds in the air while a blockade on the Agra-Morena Highway was in place, Superintendent of Police (SP) Ajay Singh told PTI.

The protesters set afire three police vehicles — two jeeps and a bus, he added.

The SP said the protesters also pelted stones, injuring four personnel, adding that police had to lob tear gas shells to disperse the crowd.

The Hindoli-Uniyara state highway was blocked in Bundi district, where hundreds of people demonstrated throughout the day.

The Thai Raksa Chart party, affiliated with the powerful Shinawatra political clan, had announced the princess as their candidate Friday morning.

The move rattled the status quo and threatened the ambitions of the generals who have controlled Thailand since they toppled the administration of Yingluck Shinawatra almost five years ago. Her brother Thaksin was ousted as premier in a 2006 coup.

But the Thai king torpedoed his sister’s bid in a sharply worded statement the same day that said bringing senior royal family members into politics was against tradition and “highly inappropriate”.

Thai Raksa Chart responded swiftly, cancelling a campaign event Saturday and issuing a statement saying it “complies with the royal command”.

 

New Delhi , Feb 12 : In a victory for environmental crusaders, a report published by NASA reveals that India and China are leading the increase of green cover on land.
“The world is literally a greener place than it was 20 years ago, and data from NASA satellites has revealed a counterintuitive source for much of this new foliage: China and India. A new study shows that the two emerging countries with the world’s biggest populations are leading the increase in greening on land,” the United States’ National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) announced in a report published on February 11.
The study, co-authored by Chi Chen from the Department of Earth and Environment at Boston University and Rama Nemani, a research scientist at NASA’s Ames Research Center, bases its findings on a nearly 20-year-long data record from a NASA instrument, called the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) which orbits the Earth on two satellites. The findings have been published online in the journal, ‘Nature Sustainability’.
The study attributes this spurt in the green cover to New Delhi and Beijing’s “ambitious” tree planting programmes and the intensive agriculture practised in both the nations.
Putting forth the findings, Chen, the lead author of the study, says: “China and India account for one-third of the greening, but contain only 9 per cent of the planet’s land area covered in vegetation – a surprising finding, considering the general notion of land degradation in populous countries from overexploitation.”
Nemani outlines that human contribution has led to the phenomenon. “When the greening of the Earth was first observed, we thought it was due to a warmer, wetter climate and fertilization from the added carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, leading to more leaf growth in northern forests, for instance. Now, with the MODIS data that lets us understand the phenomenon at really small scales, we see that humans are also contributing,” Nemani noted.
The study highlights that there are now more than two million square miles of extra green leaf area per year, as compared to the early 2000s which is a direct 5 per cent increase.
While the area used to grow crops in India and China has not increased since the 2000s, these regions have greatly increased both their annual total green leaf area and food production owing to better cropping practices.
However, the study cautions of a trend change if there is a depletion of groundwater – which facilitates increased food production – in India.
Calling humans resilient, the study also lauds the spirit of the people who have taken it upon themselves to fix the issue of vegetation loss.
“Once people realize there’s a problem, they tend to fix it,” Nemani says.
“In the 70s and 80s in India and China, the situation around vegetation loss wasn’t good; in the 90s, people realized it; and today things have improved. Humans are incredibly resilient. That’s what we see in the satellite data,” he added.
Despite criticism from western nations regarding increased pollution, India has maintained that all nations share common but differentiated responsibilities when it comes to curbing climate change. Emerging countries like India and China have always sought a room to develop and the recent findings indicate that the countries are also taking their responsibility towards the environment seriously.
Conscious efforts have been made in India to tackle the issues of green cover loss and climate change, including mass tree plantation drives in regions like Delhi and Maharashtra amongst others. Moreover, in a push towards shifting to cleaner sources of energy, India is home to two of the largest wind farms in the world – the Jaisalmer Wind Park and the Muppandal wind farm – along with being the headquarters of the International Solar Alliance.

Prayagraj, Feb 11: Over 10 million pilgrims, took a holy bath at Sangam, the confluence of sacred river Ganga, Yamuna and mythical Saraswati on the occasion of the third and last auspicious bathing day of Basant Panchami on Sunday.

On Saturday around 5 million took the dip in Sangam.

The Mela commenced on January 15 on Makar Sankranti, the first bathing day, and the Mahashivratri on March 4 will mark its last bathing day. Till date over 140 million people have taken a dip.

The holy bath for the Basant Panchami, began with the Shahi Snan (royal bath) before dawn. The authorities are expecting around 20 million to have a dip in the Sangam during the day.
The royal procession of the 13 Akhara began well after midnight with sadhus, saints and the Mahamandeleshwar with Mahanirvanis taking the lead.
Gilded chariots and palanquins carrying the Mahamandeleshwars of the respective Akhara were the cynosure of all eyes.
The Nagar sadhus and Sanyasi–welding tridents, swords and spears–took holy bath rituals without any hindrance.
For the first time several hundred Naga Sadhus who were given Diksha in this Kumbh took the dip with their respective Naga head’s of the Akhara.

Before the sunrise the periphery of Sangam was sparkling with lights of varied hues with scores of people at Ghats. In the morning, a chopper also showered flower petals on the pilgrims bathing in Sangam.

Enchanting scene were witnessed when pilgrims foreheads smeared with Holy ashes, Kumkum and Sandalwood paste performed Ganga Pujan after the taking a bath and gave alms to beggars and proceeded to various temples in the Mela area .
According to mythology, taking a bath in and around 20 km radius of Prayagraj on this day, is considered to be auspicious.
State director general of Police (DGP) O P Singh, who is personally monitoring the Kumbh told UNI that holy festival was commencing peaceful with no untoward incident reported.

Iran’s president on Monday insisted “enemy” plots against the country would fail as vast crowds marked 40 years since the Islamic revolution at a time of heightened tensions with the United States.

“The presence of people today on the streets all over Islamic Iran… means that the enemy will never reach its evil objectives,” a defiant President Hassan Rouhani told those thronging Tehran’s Azadi (Freedom) Square, decrying a “conspiracy” involving Washington.

Chador-clad women, militia members in camouflage fatigues and ordinary citizens marched through the capital in freezing rain to commemorate the day in February 1979 that Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini ended millennia of royal rule.

The routes leading up to the square were packed with people as loudspeakers blared revolutionary anthems and slogans.

Life-size replicas of Iranian-made cruise and ballistic missiles stood in a statement of defiance after the US last year reimposed sanctions following its withdrawal from a deal on Tehran’s nuclear programme.

Rouhani lambasted calls from the United States and Europe for a fresh agreement to curb Iran’s missile programme.

“We have not, and will not, request permission from anyone for increasing our defensive power and for building all kinds of… missiles,” he told the crowd.

Speaking from a flower-festooned stage overlooking the square, the president warned that Iran was now far stronger than when it faced off against Saddam Hussein’s Iraq in a devastating 1980-1988 war.

“Today the whole world should know that the Islamic Republic of Iran is considerably more powerful than the days of the war,” Rouhani said.

Seemingly reaching out to his political critics within the country, the president added: “The more we allow different ideas, beliefs and (political) factions the stronger our system will be.”

A pre-prepared resolution was read out ahead of his speech that proclaimed “unquestioning obedience to the supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei” and called US President Donald Trump an “idiot”.

In a tweet written on the anniversary that he also sent out in Farsi, Trump said the revolution had been a complete failure.

“40 years of corruption. 40 years of repression. 40 years of terror. The regime in Iran has produced only #40YearsofFailure,” he wrote.

“The long-suffering Iranian people deserve a much brighter future,” the American president added.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned Iran that this year could be the last time it celebrates the anniversary if it attacks his country.

Her shock entrance into frontline Thai politics was a first by a member of the powerful royal family and promised to reshape the political landscape of the country.

But a late-night statement from the palace left no doubt over the King’s displeasure at the move.

“The king and royal family exist in a status above politics,” said the statement, published in the Royal Gazette and given blanket television coverage.

The statement did not criticise Ubolratana, instead praising her public work.

But it appeared aimed at those behind her sudden stride into politics.

“To bring a senior royal family member into the political system in any way is against royal traditions and the nation’s culture… which is highly inappropriate.”

While the monarchy, which is vastly wealthy and protected from criticism by a harsh royal defamation law, has been seen as above the political fray, royals have intervened in moments of political crisis.

In a day of high drama, junta chief Prayut Chan-O-Cha also declared his candidacy for premier, running for the pro-military Phalang Pracharat party, moments after the princess’s announcement.

Election authorities have a week to review which candidates put up by each party are allowed to run for premier after the March 24 poll.

New Delhi, Feb 10 : To address the burden of mental disorders, the Centre is implementing the National Mental Health Programme since 1982, under which, it is supporting implementation of the District Mental Health Programme in 517 districts of the country for detection, management and treatment of mental disorders or illness.
At the district level, funds are provided to each district under the DMHP for sensitisation training of community health workers and elected representatives of community at district hospital, community health centre for awareness generation regarding early signs and community health seeking behavior for mental illness, official sources here said.
Further, the Mental Healthcare Act, 2017 provides that the appropriate government shall take all measures to ensure that the Government officials, including police officers and other officers of the government are given periodic sensitisation and awareness training.
Health being a state subject, it is the responsibility of the respective state government to establish health facilities and hospitals in the state, they added.
However, as per available information there are 40 state run mental health Institutions in the country. Besides, three Central Mental Health Institutions like National Institute of Mental Health and Neuro Sciences, Bangalore, Lokopriya Gopinath Bordoloi Regional Institute of Mental Health, Tezpur and Central Institute of Psychiatry, Ranchi have been strengthened for augmenting the human resources in the areas of mental health and to provide quality mental health services in the country.
Till date, financial support has been provided for establishment of 25 centres of excellence and strengthening, establishment of 47 Post Graduate departments in mental health specialties in the country.
The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare regularly reviews and monitors the functioning of the three Central Mental Health Institutions and the Institutions supported under manpower development schemes of NMHP.

Prayagraj (Uttar Pradesh) , Feb 12 : Shankaracharya Swaroopanand Saraswati on Monday said the foundation stone of Ram Temple will be laid in Ayodhya on February 21.
“On February 17, we will head towards Ayodhya from Prayagraj and on February 21, we will lay the foundation stone of Ram Temple,” Shankaracharya Swaroopanand told ANI.
Earlier today, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath said that the Ayodhya Ram temple issue should be resolved within 24 hours.
Adityanath speaking in the state Assembly said, “Ayodhya is well known in India and across the world due to Lord Ram and not due to a foreign invader like Babur. The beliefs of people should be respected. I have said several times that the court should respect the sentiments of the people. The Allahabad High Court had specifically said that wherever ‘Ram Lalla’ is present, the temple will be built there.”
“I believe that the dispute should have ended then and there. There is no question regarding division (of land). The dispute exists only whether or not there is ‘Ram Janambhoomi’. That dispute has already been decided upon and so now it should not take more than 24 hours to find a solution,” he added.
The Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid dispute has been pending before the apex court for the last eight years. For a long time, parties in the case and various right-wing organisations have been asking for an early or day-to-day hearing in the matter.
On February 6, a conglomerate of saints claimed that the construction of Ram temple in Ayodhya will start on February 21.
Swami Swaroopanand earlier said that the ‘dharam sansad’, after a three-day meeting in Prayagraj, decided that foundation stone for the temple will be laid on February 21. He added that the saints mobilised for the effort would not be deterred by arrests or any other kind of obstacles.
The decision came after the central government last month approached the Supreme Court for permission to restore the “excess” land surrounding the disputed portion in Ayodhya to Ram Janambhoomi Nyas.
The government, in a petition, sought direction for releasing to the Nyas 67 acres, which it had acquired about two-and-a-half decades back, leaving untouched 0.313 acres of disputed.
In 2010, the Allahabad High Court had divided the disputed land in Ayodhya into three parts for each of the parties — the Sunni Waqf Board, the Nirmohi Akhara and Ram Lalla.

The results were published in JAMA Internal Medicine published by the American Medical Association.

But “we shouldn’t be alarmist, or say that eating a packaged meal gives you a 15-percent higher chance of dying,” cautioned Mathilde Touvier, director of the nutritional epidemiology research team at Paris 13 University, which managed the NutriNet-Sante study along with teams from Inserm, Inra and CNAM.

“It’s another step in our understanding of the link between ultra-processed food and health,” she added.

The relationship between diet and disease is complex and the results of studies are frequently misinterpreted.

Last year, the same French team published a study on organic food and how it related to the risk of cancer.

A higher rate of cancer was found in people who ate less organic food — but the study did not conclude there was a causal link — though that did not stop many media outlets from headlining the cancer-fighting effects of organic food.

Some 45,000 people over the age of 45, a majority of whom were women, took part in the latest study. Every six months, they were asked to fill out three online surveys, randomly assigned over two weeks, on everything they ate or drank over a 24-hour period.

After seven years, about 600 people died. The researchers then crunched the numbers and found that a 10 percent increase in the proportion of ultra-processed foods in the diet corresponded to a 15 percent increase in mortality.

But Touvier warned that rather than focus on the figure, what matters is the existence of a statistically significant correlation — and the study is one part of growing body of work on the matter.

Ultra-processed foods come under group four of the NOVA food classification system recognized by health agencies including the UN Food and Agriculture Organization.

They have undergone several transformation processes including heating at high temperatures and the presence of additives, emulsifiers and texturizers. Many ready-to-heat products that are rich in salt or sugar and low in vitamins and fiber fall under this category.

Last year, French researchers published results from the same NutriNet-Sante study, observing more cancers among heavy consumers of these foods.

Since it is not possible for ethical reasons to conduct a controlled experiment in which one group eats ultra-processed foods and the other does not, observational studies are the only option.

But they are inevitably flawed, hinging on accurate self-reporting, while there are also a myriad of other “invisible” factors at play — even though the results are adjusted to compensate for socio-demographic criteria and the overall quality of the diet.

The burning question remains, what is it about these foods that causes negative impacts on health?

One popular hypothesis is the presence of additives, which have been studied in lab conditions on cells and on rats, notably by the French National Institute for Agricultural Research (INRA)

The study is “an important contribution to the literature” on the subject, Casey Rebholz, Assistant Professor of Epidemiology at the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health told AFP, who noted the methodology was robust despite the inherent limitations of studies of this nature.

Another vital message to take away is that such foods are disproportionally consumed by lower-income people, argued Professor Nita Forouhi of Cambridge University’s School of Clinical Medicine.

“Consumption of highly processed foods reflects social inequalities — they are consumed disproportionately more by individuals with lower incomes or education levels, or those living alone,” she said.

“Such foods are attractive because they tend to be cheaper, are highly palatable due to high sugar, salt and saturated fat content, are widely available … More needs to be done to address these inequalities.”

After decades spent in the shadow of a death sentence pronounced by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, Salman Rushdie is quietly defiant.

“I don’t want to live hidden away,” he told AFP during a visit to Paris.

The novelist’s life changed forever on February 14, 1989, when Iran’s spiritual leader ordered Rushdie’s execution after branding his novel “The Satanic Verses” blasphemous.

Like a kind of reverse Valentine, Tehran renewed the fatwa year after year.

Rushdie, who some say is the greatest writer India has produced since Tagore, spent 13 years living under a false name and constant police protection.

“I was 41 back then, now I am 71. Things are fine now,” he said in September.

“We live in a world where the subject changes very fast. And this is a very old subject. There are now many other things to be frightened about — and other people to kill,” he added ruefully.

Rushdie stopped using an assumed name in the months after September 11 2001, three years after Tehran had said the threat against him was “over”.

But armed plainclothes police nonetheless sat outside the door of his French publisher’s office in Paris during an interview with AFP. Several others had taken up positions in the courtyard.

Earlier, Rushdie had assured a sceptical audience at a book festival in eastern France that he led a “completely normal life” in New York, where he has lived for nearly two decades.

“I take the subway,” he said.

“The Satanic Verses” was Rushdie’s fifth book, he has now written his 18th. Titled “The Golden House” it is about a man from Mumbai, who much like the author, reinvents himself in the Big Apple in a bid to shake off his past.

The dark years of riots, bomb plots and the murder of one of the book’s translators and the shooting and stabbing of two others now “feels like a very long time ago,” he said.

“Islam was not a thing. No one was thinking in that way,” he explained of the period when “The Satanic Verses” was written.

“One of the things that has happened is that people in the West are more informed than they used to be,” he added.

Even so, the book was greatly misunderstood, he insisted: “Really it’s a novel about South Asian immigrants in London.”

Damascus, Feb 12 : A total of 70 civilians were killed and wounded on Tuesday by a US-led airstrike in eastern Syria, local media reported.

The airstrikes targeted a camp for displaced people in the eastern countryside of Deir al-Zour.
The airstrikes have intensified recently on Islamic State (IS)-held areas in the eastern Euphrates river region.

On Saturday, the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) started on the final stage of attacks against the IS in the eastern Euphrates river region in eastern Syria.
Following the evacuation of over 20,000 civilians from the town of Baghouz in the eastern countryside of Deir al-Zour, the SDF started on Saturday night the operation against the remaining IS-held pocket in the eastern Euphrates region, according to Mustafa Balli, the head of the SDF media office.

The SDF managed, with the help of the US, to defeat IS in much of the areas it had controlled in the eastern Euphrates area.

Washington D.C. [USA], Feb 12 : Think you are great at debating? Would you still win if the opposite party is a computer? A project from IBM, a computer hardware company, suggests that computers are getting quite good at arguing and debating.
Harish Natarajan, 2016’s World Debating Championships grand finalist, on Monday faced off against IBM’s Project Debater, which according to the Hardware Company, is the first artificial-intelligence system built to meaningfully debate humans.
While Natarajan ended up winning the contest, the event successfully demonstrated that the computer was capable of making increasingly complex arguments, CNN reports.
The AI project has been in the pipeline since 2012. It is designed to come up with logical, consistent and convincing speeches, while taking into consideration the argument presented by its human opponent.
The project can even generate its own arguments and rebuttal, and closing argument by using newspaper and magazine articles from its own database and also taking in the arguments of its human opponent. Another interesting element of this project is that it cannot copy arguments from sites like Wikipedia.
The topic of the debate, whether or not preschool should be subsidised, was not disclosed to the computer or Natarajan until 15 minutes before the debate was scheduled to start. AI system debated in favour of subsidised preschool.
As the debate started, each side was given 4 minutes to present their opening statements followed by a 4-minute rebuttal to the other party. As the debate concluded, both the participants gave a 2-minute closing argument.
To access the competition, the audience was asked to vote for one side or the other at the start of the debate, and again at the end of it.
Before the debate, 79 per cent of the audience voted for subsidised preschool while 13 per cent disagreed.  By the end of the event, 62 per cent of the audience agreed and 30 per cent disagreed. Since the result was decided by which side gains the most percentage points, Natarajan ended up winning the debate.
While the votes were being calculated, Natarajan stated that he found it interesting that the Project Debater could contextualise information and pull details from research
He asserted that a combination of this technology and human skills “could be incredibly powerful.”
According to the IMB, this technology can help in exploring problems that don’t necessarily have a single answer.

Washington D.C. [USA], Feb 12: Parents who homeschool their children may think that admitting them to organised sports and physical activities may keep them fit, however, a new study by Rice University researchers say that the need of youngsters are far greater.
According to faculty at the Rice Department of Kinesiology, while they gathered data from the homes of 100 home-schooled children to back the assumption, they were proved wrong.
The results of the research are available in an open-access paper in the Journal of Functional Morphology and Kinesiology.
Laura Kabiri, a sports medicine lecturer at Rice, said the problem lies in how much activity is part of organised regimens. According to the World Health Organization, children should get about an hour of primarily aerobic activity a day, but other studies have noted children involved in non-elite sports actually get only 20 to 30 minutes of moderate to vigorous exercise they require during practice.
The Rice researchers decided to quantify it through statistics Kabiri gathered about home-schooled children and adolescents as a graduate student and postdoctoral researcher at Texas Woman’s University.
Speaking about it, Kabiri said, “”We assumed – and I think parents largely do as well – that children enrolled in an organized sport or physical activity are getting the activity they need to maintain good body composition, cardiorespiratory fitness and muscular development,” adding, “”We found that is not the case. Just checking the box and enrolling them in an activity doesn’t necessarily mean they’re meeting the requirements they need to stay healthy.”
According to Kabiri, researchers suspect the same is true for public school students in general physical education classes, where much of the time is spent getting the class organized. “When you only have 50 minutes, it’s very easy for half that time or more to go to getting them in, out and on-task,” she said.
While public school data would be easier to gather, home schooling presents a different problem for researchers. “There’s a lot that’s not known about this population, and the population is expanding,” Kabiri said. “Home school is becoming very popular in the United States. It’s grown steadily.
The authors concluded parents would be wise to give their children more time for unstructured physical activity every day.

New Delhi , Feb 11 : Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu on Sunday arrived in Delhi ahead of his strike at AP Bhawan on Monday demanding special status for his state.
Naidu will stage the ‘Dharma Porata Deeksha’ (a day-long protest for justice) at the Andhra Pradesh Bhavan in the national capital from 8 am to 8 pm later today. The chief minister will sit on a hunger strike along with his ministers, party MLAs, MLCs, and MPs.
As per an official statement, he will be submitting a memorandum to President Ram Nath Kovind on Tuesday.