Junior Digest

SAO PAULO : Brazil’s Defense Minister Aldo Rebelo has played down the risks of massive protests during the Olympic Games, despite the country’s economy and political crisis and a mushrooming scandal at state-run oil giant Petrobras.

Rebelo told a news conference in Brasilia on Wednesday that the expected 85,000 security agents, including 38,000 members of the armed forces, will be enough to guarantee safety during the games in Rio de Janeiro from Aug. 5-21.

The minister also said that violent protests, like those witnessed during the 2013 Confederations Cup, are not likely, but would “have to be confronted and repressed if they happen”.

“I don’t think we will see what happened in 2013. During the (2014) World Cup that (tension) was much cooled down,” Rebelo said. “The Olympics will be in a much calmer atmosphere in comparison with 2013.” Rebelo was Brazil’s sports minister during the last edition of the Confederations Cup.

Many Brazilians are expected to take to the streets again this weekend, with different groups either demonstrating their opposition to — or support for — President Dilma Rousseff, who faces impeachment proceedings. Some groups have promised to protest during the games, especially those representing people who have been displaced by Olympic construction projects.

Rebelo said that Brazil is working with the United States, Britain and Russia, among others, to prevent attacks being carried out during the Olympics. However, he said the security effort was not linked to last November’s attacks in Paris.

“Since the Olympics in Munich in 1972, that concern exists,” Rebelo said, referring to the killing of 11 Israeli athletes by Palestinian attackers in the Olympic Village. “There was an attack in Atlanta 1996 too. There are many examples in the past.”

Rio’s top state security official, Jose Mariano Beltrame, has repeatedly said that preventing terrorism has “always been the No. 1 priority” in Olympic planning, even though Brazil does not have a history of attacks. The more visible problem in Rio is endemic street crime.

New York: While the negative effects of excessive video gaming have been widely reported, a new research has found that playing video games is associated with high overall school competence and less relationship problems with peers.

For the study involving over 3,000 children between ages six and eleven, the researchers assessed the association between the amount of time spent playing video games and children’s mental health and cognitive and social skills.

“Video game playing is often a collaborative leisure time activity for school-aged children. These results indicate that children who frequently play video games may be socially cohesive with peers and integrated into the school community,” said one of the researchers Katherine Keyes, assistant professor at Mailman School of Public Health,Columbia University, US.

“We caution against over interpretation, however, as setting limits on screen usage remains an important component of parental responsibility as an overall strategy for student success,” Keyes noted.

The results were published online in the journal Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology.

Results were based on data from the School Children Mental Health Europe project for children aged 6-11.

Based on parent reporting, one in five children played video games more than five hours per week.

Parents and teachers assessed their child’s mental health in a questionnaire and the children themselves responded to questions through an interactive tool. Teachers evaluated academic success.

After adjusting for child age, gender, and number of children, the researchers found that high video game usage was associated with 1.75 times the odds of high intellectual functioning and 1.88 times the odds of high overall school competence.

There were no significant associations with any child self-reported or mother- or teacher-reported mental health problems.

The researchers also found that more video game playing was associated with less relationship problems with their peers.

@Agency report.

New Delhi: Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu today said the Mumbai-Ahemdabad Bullet train being built with Japanese assistance will be more or less in the self-financing mode and will significantly help the public transporter in upgrading technology.

“This (Bullet Train project) is a stand-alone project.

This project is more or less on the self-financing mode. The Japanese Government has decided to give us almost the entire most at an interest rate of 0.1 per cent to be repayable in 50 years and for the first 15 years we do not have to service it.

“So, if you ask a banker he will tell you that it is not only free but it is more than that,” Prabhu said while replying to the Railway Budget in the Lok Sabha.

Referring to Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge’s comment he said “Kharge Saab has very rightly said that this Bullet train has been announced to run between Mumbai and Ahmedabad because the Prime Minister can come to Ahmedabad and I can go to meet him. I must compliment the previous Government for being so visionary.

“When they started talking to Japan about this project, Manmohan Singh was the Prime Minister, they knew that very soon Modi is going to be the Prime Minister and Suresh Prabhu is going to be the Railway Minister. I really must thank my friends in the Opposition for being so forthright…”

On why so much money is being spent on Bullet Train, Prabhu said “First of all, 85 per cent of this will be manufactured in India. The entire technology of knowing about it and the spin off benefit of this will be felt all across the railway network.”

Moreover, he said the Railways will not confine its partnership with Japan on one project and will seek its assistance in improving the safety standards of national transporter.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, he said, requested his Japanese counterpart “not to confine this partnership to one project and help us develop the railway network and increase the safety standards of Indian railways… because the Japanese standards are the highest and the best in the world.

Japan almost has a Zero accident rate.”

Prabhu said RDSO and Japanese research organisation have already signed an agreement for research and improving safety standards.

@Agency report.

At least 271 persons in the national capital were bitten by dogs on an average everyday in the past one year, Rajya Sabha was told today.

98,965 cases of dog bite were reported during the last one year in Delhi while the figure for cases of monkey bite stood at 1490, according to the statistics presented by Minister of State for Home Affairs Haribhai Chaudhury.

The maximum number of dog bites were reported from areas under the East Delhi Municipal Corporation (EDMC) whereas North Delhi Municipal Corporation (NDMC) reported maximum monkey bites.

Such cases were at the lowest in the NDMC area which houses Parliament House, buildings of all the ministries, Supreme court, High court and residences of Supreme court judges, senior bureaucrats and senior military officers.

“The Delhi Cantonment Board has informed that it has taken necessary action like controlling the population of biting animals and provision of necessary treatments.

“Three MCDs (South, North and East) and NDMC have informed that action is taken as per the Animal Birth Control (Dog) Rules, 2001 and monkey catchers have been deployed for catching and rehabilitating them at Asola Wildlife Sanctuary,” Chaudhury said in his response.

@Agency report

Seoul: North Korea threatened “indiscriminate” nuclear strikes against South Korea and the US mainland if the two allies push ahead with joint military drills scheduled to begin today.

The threat to carry out what it described as a “pre- emptive nuclear strike of justice” was made in a statement by the North’s powerful National Defence Commission, citing the Supreme Command of the Korean People’s Army (KPA).

It came just days after leader Kim Jong-Un ordered the country’s nuclear arsenal to be placed on standby for use “at any moment,” in response to tough new UN sanctions imposed over the North’s fourth nuclear test in January and last month’s long-range rocket launch.

Pyongyang has issued dire warnings of nuclear attack in the past, usually during periods of elevated military tensions of the Korean peninsula.

While the North is known to have a small stockpile of nuclear warheads, experts are divided about its ability to mount them on a working missile delivery system.

The national Defence Commission described the annual South Korea-US military exercises as “undisguised nuclear war drills” that threatened the North’s national sovereignty, and vowed an all-out offensive in response.

“The indiscriminate nuclear strike… will clearly show those keen on aggression and war, the military mettle of (North Korea),” said the statement published by the North’s official KCNA news agency.

Any strike would not just target operational theatres on the Korean peninsula, but also US bases on the mainland and in the rest of the Asia-Pacific region.

“If we push the buttons to annihilate the enemies even right now, all bases of provocations will be reduced to seas in flames and ashes in a moment,” it added.

The annual exercises slated to begin today – called “Foal Eagle” and “Key Resolve” last for weeks and involve tens of thousands of US and South Korean troops.

Pyongyang has long condemned the drills as provocative rehearsals for invasion, while Seoul and Washington insist they are purely defensive in nature.

@Agency report.

Earthquakes from far away and close by, sounds of baleen whales, and a typhoon can all be distinctly heard on the recording, Robert Dziak, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) research oceanographer, said in a statement. Listen for yourself:

“There was also a lot of noise from ship traffic, identifiable by the clear sound pattern the ship propellers make when they pass by,” he added.

Researchers from NOAA and Oregon State University worked with the US Coast Guard to conduct the experiment, which was designed to establish a baseline level of noise at the bottom of the Mariana Trench. Future scientists will be able to repeat the process to establish the extent to which manmade noise is increasing.

In order to make the recording, the scientists had to take into account the massive atmospheric pressure that builds at such depth.

“We had never put a hydrophone deeper than a mile or so below the surface, so putting an instrument down some seven miles into the ocean was daunting,” said Oregon State engineer Haru Matsumoto. “We had to drop the hydrophone mooring down through the water column at no more than about five meters per second. Structures don’t like rapid change and we were afraid we would crack the ceramic housing outside the hydrophone.”

It took more than six hours for the hydrophone to reach the bottom in July 2015 and, after recording sound for 23 days, the researchers had to wait until November for passing ships and typhoons to clear so that they could retrieve the device.

Having successfully recorded sound at this depth, an Oregon State University researcher is planning to return to the Mariana Trench in 2017—this time, with a deep-ocean camera.

@Agency report.

Los Angeles: Five-time Grand Slam tennis champion Maria Sharapova has announced that she failed a dope test at the Australian Open, and isn’t sure what punishment she’ll face for her “huge mistake.”

The former world number one from Russia yesterday said a change in the World Anti-Doping Agency’s banned list for 2016 led to an inadvertent violation, for which she will be “provisionally suspended” by the International Tennis Federation.

In a sign of what the affair could mean to Sharapova’s mass of money-spinning endorsements, US sportswear maker Nike said it would halt its relationship with her as the case moves forward.

“We are saddened and surprised by the news about Maria Sharapova,” Nike said in a statement.

“We have decided to suspend our relationship with Maria while the investigation continues.”

Sharapova tested positive for Meldonium, a drug she said she had been taking since 2006 but was only added to the banned list this year.

“I did fail the test and I take full responsibility for it,” a sombre Sharapova said at a press conference at a downtown Los Angeles hotel yesterday.

“I made a huge mistake. I let my fans down. I let my sport down that I’ve been playing since the age of four that I love so deeply,” added Sharapova, her voice wavering.

“I know that with this, I face consequences and I don’t want to end my career this way — and I really hope I will be given another chance to play this game.”

The ITF confirmed in a statement that Sharapova had tested positive on January 26 and had accepted the finding when she was notified on March 2.

“Ms Sharapova will be provisionally suspended with effect from 12 March, pending determination of the case,” the ITF said.

Sharapova said she was cooperating with the ITF and did not yet know the extent of the sanctions she would face.

Her attorney, John Haggerty, said the positive test could carry a ban of up to four years, but that mitigating circumstances could see a lesser penalty.

Shamil Tarpishchev, head of the Russian tennis federation, told the TASS news agency he believed Sharapova would still have a chance to play at the Rio Olympics in August.

@Agency report.

La Paz (Bolivia): Bolivia signed a USD 300 million deal with Russia to build a world-class nuclear research lab in the South American nation, President Evo Morales announced.

“Now we are able to deliver major cooperative projects in this case with Russia as well as with China and Europe sometimes,” the president said at a ceremony signing documents for the deal yesterday.

“How nice that some partners come here with investment and cooperation not just aggression and provocation,” Morales said in an apparent jab at the Unites States, which he often accuses of undermining efforts of his leftist government.

Work on the Russian technology plant in El Alto, next to the capital, is expected to take four years.

It is due to include components on medical research, food safety and nuclear research “with non-violent ends.”

A new state agency will be in charge of the lab project.

Washington: Ray Tomlinson, the American programmer widely credited with inventing email, has died. He was 74.

Before Tomlinson invented direct electronic messages between users on different machines on a certain network in 1971. Before then, users could only write messages to others using the same computer.

“A true technology pioneer, Ray was the man who brought us email in the early days of networked computers,” his employer, Raytheon, said in a statement.

“His work changed the way the world communicates and yet, for all his accomplishments, he remained humble, kind and generous with his time and talents, He will be missed by one and all.”

A company spokesman said Tomlinson passed away on Saturday, and the cause of death was not yet confirmed.

Tributes poured in from the online world.

“Thank you, Ray Tomlinson, for inventing email and putting the @ sign on the map. #RIP,” Google’s Gmail team tweeted.

Vint Cerf, considered one of the fathers of the Internet who was once a manager of the US Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), lamented the “very sad news” of Tomlinson’s passing.

When Tomlinson invented the user@host standard for email addresses, it was applied at DARPA’s ARPANET, the Internet’s precursor. He was the first to use the @ symbol in this way, to distinguish a user from its host.

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology graduate detailed his creation on his blog, in an attempt to prevent legend from overtaking the facts.

“The first message was sent between two machines that were literally side by side” connected only through ARPANET, he wrote on his blog.

“I sent a number of test messages to myself from one machine to the other. The test messages were entirely forgettable and I have, therefore, forgotten them.

“Most likely the first message was QWERTYUIOP or something similar,” he added, referring to the first letters on the traditional English-language keyboard.

“When I was satisfied that the program seemed to work, I sent a message to the rest of my group explaining how to send messages over the network. The first use of network email announced its own existence.

@Agency report.

Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan on Wednesday said that 83 lakh people had voluntarily given up their LPG subsidy so far.

Answering a question about whether the government would accept the Kirit Parikh Committee’s recommendations on reducing subsidy burden, Pradhan said the Prime Minister had already urged the affluent class to give up their LPG subsidy.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi started the ‘Give it up’ campaign in March last year and, as on date, 83 lakh people, including the middle class and retired, have given up their LPG subsidy, he added.

“We are very clear that subsidy should be targeted and we are committed towards reforming it,” Pradhan said.

Asked whether benefits of declining natural gas prices was being passed on to the consumer, Pradhan said that LPG cylinders were already subsidised.

He said the government will provide five crore LPG connections on concessional rates in the name of women from below poverty line (BPL) families over three years till 2018-19.

Asked about flood relief packages for Puducherry, Minister of State for Home Kiren Rijiju said a High Level committee, chaired by Home Minister Rajnath Singh, was looking into the issue. He said that for union territories, a Disaster Response Fund was also being created to deal with such calamities.

Regarding relief to fishermen, farmers and daily workers affected by floods in Tamil Nadu, Rijiju said state governments had to project such issues and the Centre could then act on them as per the rules of the Finance Commission.

On the damage in Puducherry due to the floods, Rijiju said two persons had died and 1,035 cattle heads perished. The floods also destroyed 4,327 houses.

@Agency report.

Myanmar’s National League for Democracy (NLD) has proposed a close friend of Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi as its presidential candidate, ending a four-month wait for the identity of a president expected to rule in her name. The NLD put forward Htin Kyaw, who joined the party just two months ago, as its lower house candidate. He runs a charity founded by Suu Kyi and has been close to her since the mid-1990s.

The wildly popular Suu Kyi and the NLD won a crushing electoral victory in November, but she is barred from holding the presidency under a junta-drafted 2008 constitution because her children are not Myanmar citizens. Suu Kyi has said that she would run the country regardless through a proxy. Until Thursday, she and the NLD leadership had kept the identity of their nominee a closely guarded secret even from rank-and-file MPs. In a statement on Thursday, before the nomination was revealed, Suu Kyi urged patience from her supporters. “I would like to appeal for people to support and stand by the NLD with wisdom and far-sightedness,” she said. “The NLD is determined to meet people’s expectations and will do its best.” The NLD’s huge parliamentary majority means the candidate it backs as president is almost certain to take the top job. The NLD also nominated Henry Vantriu, a member of the Chin ethnic group who hail from Chin state in the country’s northwest bordering India and Bangladesh, as its presidential candidate for the upper house. The NLD had been widely expected to name a candidate from an ethnic minority from the upper house who would become a vice president, in line with Suu Kyi’s goal of forming a government for national reconciliation.

INDIRECT ELECTION

Under Myanmar’s indirect system for electing a president, three candidates will be nominated – one by the lower house, one by the upper house, and one by the military bloc in parliament. The constitution gives the armed forces a quarter of seats in both houses. Because the NLD has a comfortable majority in both chambers it effectively controls two of the nominations. Local media have named Thet Swe, a former navy chief who stepped down last year to run in the election representing the far flung Coco Islands, as one of the possible nominees for the military. The armed forces bloc of MPs, who will make their nomination separately, were not present at the parliament building on Thursday morning. The three nominees will be vetted by a parliamentary commission. After that, both houses of parliament will come together for a joint session to vote on the presidency, with the winner elected president and the two losing nominees becoming vice presidents.

The president picks the cabinet that will take over from President Thein Sein’s outgoing government on April 1, with the exception of the heads of the home, defence and border security ministries who will be appointed by the armed forces chief. There was confusion among members of parliament over how soon the presidential vote would take place. A director from the parliament told Reuters on Wednesday that the vote would not be held until at least Monday.

@Agency report.

New Delhi: As many as 1,398 people were awarded capital punishment and three were executed in the country during 2004-14, Lok Sabha was informed today.

“As reported by National Crime Records Bureau, 1,398 people were awarded capital punishment in the country during 2004-14 and 3 persons were executed during the same period,” Minister of State for Home Haribhai Parathibhai Chaudhary said in reply to a written question.

The Minister said the Law Commission of India in its 262nd report has recommended that death penalty be abolished for all crimes other than terrorism-related offences and waging war.

“The said report has since been circulated to all the state governments and union territories for their comments as Criminal Law and Criminal Procedures are in the Concurrent List of the 7th Schedule of the Constitution,” he said.

@Agency report.

Colombo:  India today signed an agreement with Sri Lanka to provide over USD 400 million to finance three water supply projects in the country that would benefit at least one million consumers.

The agreement, between the Export-Import Bank of India and Sri Lankas National Water Supply and Drainage Board, was inked in the presence of the Minister of Water Supply Rauff Hakeem and the Indian High Commissioner in Colombo, YK Sinha.

The buyers credit arrangement is worth USD 403.1 million, the minister said in a press release.

Hakeem said the Indian assistance under this scheme would benefit at least one million water consumers in the three provincial areas outside the capital Colombo.

India has been stepping up its development assistance to Sri Lanka since the end of the separatist war in the north and east regions.

India is engaged in a number of development cooperation projects in the island-nation, including a USD 270 million project to build 50,000 houses for ethnic-Tamils displaced by 30 years of civil war, which ended in 2009.

India is also engaged in the reconstruction of the Northern Railway Line in the country’s war-ravaged north.

@Agency report.