WASHINGTON, Oct 11: Thousands of people gathered in front of the US Capitol for a rally led by Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the Million Man March on Washington and decry racial and economic injustice. Farrakhan joined a number of speakers at the “Justice or Else” march. They addressed a largely African-American crowd that stretched for hundreds of yards from the steps of the Capitol. Speakers at the rally, which followed a number of high-profile deaths of black men at the hands of police, called for reforms to law enforcement’s use of force and greater access for poor people to health care and higher education. During his more than two-hour speech, Farrakhan urged listeners to avoid sexual immorality, abortion and violence, even as he criticized “white supremacy” and predicted a backlash against the United States. “America has now entered the time of divine judgment,” Farrakhan said. In 1995, Farrakhan led the Million Man March in Washington, which drew about 800,000 people, according to private researchers, and marked a significant moment for African-American political activism in the United States. His Justice or Else march on Saturday drew a far smaller crowd that numbered in the thousands. Many watched speakers on jumbo screens. A representative for the National Park Service declined to provide a crowd estimate. President Barack Obama, who then taught constitutional law at the University of Chicago, attended the Million Man March in 1995. Some speakers at the rally said the United States is making progress in resolving racial inequalities, such as by electing Obama in 2008 as the nation’s first black president. However, they also described other instances of racial inequality, such as US immigration policies they said were unfair to Hispanics. Ava Muhammad, a Black Muslim minister and spokeswoman for Nation of Islam, struck an aggressive tone during her speech. “The Koran says fight with those who fight with you,” she told the crowd. Members of the audience said they drew inspiration from the rally. RJ Moss, a 34-year-old Atlanta attorney, said he attended the Million Man March rally 20 years ago. “The message is the same, come together, respect one another, love one another,” he said. (agencies)
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2.NI
‘Avatar’ to get comic
book treatment
LOS ANGELES, Oct 11:
Director James Cameron has teamed up with Dark Horse Comics to bring “Avatar” comics to life.
At the New York Comic Con, Cameron and Dark Horse Comics announced a comic book series based on the “Avatar” movies.
Since the director could not attend the event, he recorded a special video message to make the announcement.
“I’m excited that starting now, even before the release of the first sequel, Dark Horse Comics will be bringing you new adventures from Pandora, covering the time before, during, and after the events of the original ‘Avatar’ film,” Cameron said of the new comic book series.
“For the past 27 years, Dark Horse has been associated with my films ‘The Terminator’, ‘Aliens’, and ‘The Abyss’. Now they’re working directly with me and our team at Lightstorm in an unprecedented ten-year partnership that’s going to create new stories that will take you deeper into the world of Avatar.”
Cameron is currently working on three follow-up movies to “Avatar” with Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldana, Stephen Lang and Sigourney Weaver expected to return.
Cameron is writing the scripts of the sequels alongside Rick Jaffa, Amanda Silver, Josh Friedman and Shane Salerno.
“Avatar 2” is expected to arrive in 2017. (PTI)
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3.NI
Drew Barrymore won’t hide her past
LOS ANGELES, Oct 11:
Drew Barrymore will not hide her troubled past from her daughters and thinks it’s inevitable she will have to discuss her “bad choices” with them eventually.
The 40-year-old actress, who battled cocaine and alcohol abuse when she was 14, said she learned a lot from her “bad choices”, reported People magazine.
“I’m not going to pretend to my daughters that I’m pure as the driven snow. Making bad decisions doesn’t make you a bad person. It is how you learn to make better choices.
But the star doesn’t want to embarrass her children because she is still mortified by her estranged mother Jaid’s erotic book “World Class Lovers”, which was released 20 years ago.
“(She) wrote a book on sex, and it was the most mortifying feeling in the world. So I know how a child feels when their parents put themselves out there too much, and I will never do that to my daughters. There are some things about your parents you just don’t need to know.” (PTI)
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4.NI
‘Extant’ canceled
after two seasons
LOS ANGELES, Oct 11:
Halle Berry’s “Extant” has been canceled by CBS after two season.
The move does not come as a shocker since the summer drama had never been a strong ratings performer for the network since it debuted in July 2014, reported Ace Showbiz.
“CBS, Halle Berry and the producers have decided to conclude the ‘Extant’ story after last season’s exciting and fitting conclusion,” CBS Entertainment president Glenn Geller announced the cancellation.
Berry, 49, said, “I am so proud of what we accomplished on ‘Extant’. This season seemed such a natural place to end Molly’s journey that I, along with CBS, felt it best served the story to leave it there.
“I’ve loved this experience working with such a talented cast and creative team. It was my first foray into episodic television, and I’m excited to continue my relationship with CBS, producing more compelling stories through my 606 Films production banner.”
CBS will continue its partnership with Berry as the Oscar-winning actress is set to executive produce a new legal drama for the network. (PTI)
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5.NI
New technique freezes
drones in midair
LONDON, Oct 11:
Three UK firms have created a new technique that uses radio beams to freeze drones in mid-flight to prevent them from entering sensitive areas.
The Anti-UAV Defense System (Auds) covertly jams a drone’s signal, making it unresponsive.
A drone flying in sensitive airspace can be detected by the Auds radar and then sighted via a camera equipped with thermal imaging capabilities so that it can be targeted visually.
Then, a high-powered radio signal can be focused on the drone – essentially overriding the connection to whoever is operating it, the BBC reported.
The Auds operator can choose to freeze the drone just for a short time – to convince its owner that there’s something wrong with it – or for a longer period, until its battery dies and it crashes.
The whole process takes as little as 25 seconds, according to Paul Taylor of Enterprise Control Systems, which developed the product along with Blighter Surveillance Systems and Chess Dynamics.
“It’s a radio signal. There are a number of frequency bands that are used by all of the manufacturers,” explained Taylor.
“We transmit into those frequencies in the direction of the UAV using a directional antenna,” he told the BBC.
“There’s quite a lot of radio power on to the UAV – so much so that it can only hear our Auds signal,” he said. (PTI)
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6.NI
14 among 17 killed in China’s
restaurant blast are students
BEIJING, Oct 11:
A day after 17 people were killed in an explosion at a restaurant in China’s east Anhui Province, authorities today said 14 students were among the casualties.
The students, aged 15 to 20, came from nearby schools when a gas cylinder exploded due to fire yesterday. Three others including a father-son duo were also killed in the explosion.
Many of the deaths were caused by carbon monoxide poisoning.
The gas cylinder at the private restaurant, located on the first floor of a six-storey building in Jinghu District of Wuhu city, caught fire followed by a blast six minutes later, state-run Xinhua news agency reported.
The fire was doused in about half an hour and the rescuers retrieved 17 bodies.
Owner of the snack bar, Zhang Baoping, 38, from Hanshan County of Anhui, has been put under police investigation.
The snack bar opened on August 18 without an official license, according to the investigation.
Zhang said he and his wife rented the restaurant more than two months ago to sell snacks including fried noodles. When the accident happened, he tried to put out the fire with water and a fire extinguisher but the blast followed shortly after. Both he and his wife were also injured.
A witness said that he heard at least two blasts. More than 30 firefighters participated in the rescue work.
Gas blasts in restaurants have become common occurrence in China recently due to lack of safety measures causing numerous casualties. (PTI)
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7.NI
K P Sharma Oli elected
new Nepal Prime Minister
KATHMANDU, Oct 11:
K P Sharma Oli was today elected as the next Prime Minister of Nepal defeating incumbent Sushil Koirala in a contest which became necessary after parties failed to forge a consensus amid violent protests over the country’s new Constitution.
In voting held in Parliament here, CPN-UML chairman Oli garnered 338 votes, 39 more than the 299 that he needed to be elected as the prime minister while Nepali Congress president Koirala could only secure 249 votes.
A total of 587 members had cast their votes. Lawmakers were not allowed to stay neutral during the voting.
While Oli was backed by UCPN-Maoist, Rastriya Prajatantra Party-Nepal, Madhesi Janaadhikar Forum-Democratic and some fringe parties; four Madhes parties in the United Democratic Madhesi Front had supported NC leader Koirala who himself became prime minister with the support from CPN-UML in 2014.
63-year-old Oli was elected chief of the CPN-UML last year. He was chief of party’s International Department before being elected to the top position of the party.
Oli served as the nation’s Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Foreign Affairs in the Girija Prasad Koirala-led interim government formed immediately after the 2006 People’s Movement.
Back in 1994, he was the Minister for Home Affairs in the Cabinet led by the then UML Chairman Manmohan Adhikari.
He was elected a member of the Parliament thrice – in 1991, 1994 and 1999 – from various constituencies of Jhapa district from where he began his political career in 1966.
Oli takes over as prime minister at a crucial time as Nepal has been wracked by violent political protests by Madhesi people protesting against the new Constitution.
The country has also been locked in a diplomatic standoff with India over the supply of essential goods, including petroleum products, which has been hit due to blockade of border trade points with India following the violence.
At least 40 people have died in over a month of clashes between police and protesters from the Madhesi and Tharu communities and ethnic minorities.
The agitating Madhesi Front claims that the Constitution does not guarantee enough rights and representation to the Madhesi and Tharu communities residing in southern Nepal.
Madhesis are Indian-origin inhabitants of the Terai region bordering India who are also opposed to splitting Nepal into seven provinces. (PTI)
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8.NI
America’s obsession with
Steve Jobs decoded
WASHINGTON, Oct 11:
Americans are obsessed with Steve Jobs because the Apple co-founder’s story fits perfectly with the romantic individualist story that American culture can’t seem to get enough, according to a US researcher.
Thomas Streeter, professor of sociology at the University of Vermont, investigated America’s obsession with stories about celebrity CEOs like Jobs, suggesting it says more about American culture than the man.
Jobs’ story fits perfectly with the romantic individualist story that American culture can’t seem to get enough, despite being yet another romanticised story about a well-known business celebrity, Strreter said.
“Jobs is an interesting character, but if we were choosing whose story to tell based on the importance of their inventions or business innovations, we’d be telling stories about other people like computer scientist Dennis Ritchie, who was central to the development of the software and concepts that made the internet possible,” said Streeter.
There has to be another reason that the Steve Jobs story has been told over and over again since the 1980s instead of about men like Ritchie, Streeter wrote in a paper published in the International Journal of Communication.
“I think the reason is in our culture: we love the story of Jobs because we love the story of the guy who bucked convention, pursued his passions, and got rich doing so,” he said.
Stories like Jobs’ are perpetuated by a capitalistic machinery that infuses romantic ways of thinking into all areas of society, according to Streeter.
“Culture is not just on our screens, but also in the circuitry and institutions that make those screens work,” he said.
“Markets, property, and corporations are now infused with variants of romantic ways of thinking, alongside more traditional ways of thinking. Capitalism has gotten Byronic. The current Steve Jobs craze, which took off in a big way after he stepped down from Apple in 2011, seems to prove my point about Byronic capitalism.
“Jobs’ story nicely fits the romantic individualist story that American culture is in love with. We love the story, and the case of Steve Jobs gives us a chance to tell that story over and over,” he said.
The institutional machinery devoted to producing celebrity CEO’s is in response to populist criticisms of modern corporations in hopes of making people feel good about a more moral Capitalistic system, said Streeter. (PTI)
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9.NI
4 lakh Chinese tourists spent $830 mn
in Japan from Oct 1-7
BEIJING, Oct 11:
Notwithstanding strain in ties with Japan, about four lakh Chinese tourists visited that country and spent about USD 830 million in shopping during the National Day holiday week.
Popularly known as the Golden Week, the holiday week from October 1-7 marks a peak in travel for Chinese tourists.
Chinese customers queued up at Japanese malls to buy goods like facial masks and medical drugs. Many stores even had to put a limit on the quantity that each customer could purchase, fearing they would run out of stocks.
The spending spree by Chinese tourists have boosted the Japanese economy by around 0.1 per cent, a 20-year high, state run China Daily quoted Global Blue, an international company that handles tax refunds for international shoppers.
The more popular goods that Chinese tourists scramble for included toilet seats, medical drugs, and household items like thermoses, shavers and luxury goods.
Medical tourism in Japan has also become a new growth sector.
Data from the Nationwide Tourist Group Services Management System shows that outbound tourists (except those heading to Hong Kong) grew by 36.6 per cent year-on-year in the first four days of the week-long holiday.
Chinese online travel platform CTrip said Japan was the most popular overseas travel destination for Chinese mainland vacationers during the holiday, followed by Thailand and South Korea.
Hong Kong came in fourth place, followed by Macao.
Compared to last year, the number of Chinese tourists going to Japan during the period doubled, according to NTA.
This despite steady decline in China-Japan relations in recent years over the disputed islands as well as Beijing accusations of massacre of millions of Chinese by Japanese army during WW-II.
Japan’s popularity among Chinese travellers was obvious within the first six months of this year when some 2.18 million Chinese tourists went to Japan, double from the year before.
Cultural affinities, devaluation of the yen and the quality of Japanese goods have been listed as the top attractions for Chinese tourists, the Daily said.
The National Day holiday has become an annual tourism event for Chinese people.
The influx of Chinese visitors has been a welcome shot for host economies.
Retailers in Japan, South Korea and France are becoming more accommodating to Chinese shoppers by introducing Chinese-speaking shopping assistants and welcome signs written in Chinese. (PTI)
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10.NI
Lanka probe into alleged sexual
favours for India-built houses
COLOMBO, Oct 11:
A joint investigation is being conducted by India’s High Commission here and the Sri Lanka Red Cross over allegations of sexual favours demanded from women for granting of India-built houses in the country’s northern province, a media report said today.
Sri Lanka Red Cross (SLRC) Kilinochchi branch secretary Thampu Sethupathy said that he had received more than 30 written and verbal complaints regarding demands for sexual favours for allotting houses, the Sunday Times reported.
He said based on the sensitivity of the issue, he had forwarded 15 of the complaints to the head office in Colombo.
“For the last two months we have been getting this kind of complaints from public,” Sethupathy said.
“The IHC took up the issue with SLRC officials and investigations are under way. India will not condone any such activity,” an Indian High Commission (IHC) spokesman was quoted as saying.
Investigations were started after a war-displaced widow from Mulankavil lodged a complaint against one of the Red Cross officials at the Kilinochchi branch, saying he demanded sexual favours from her in order to approve funds for the construction of her house under the project.
India had offered to build 50,000 houses in the war-ravaged north as part of its stepped up assistance in Sri Lanka’s post-conflict phase. The 36-month project was to be completed by middle of this year.
The SLRC in collaboration with the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), are implementing partners to the Indian government in facilitating the project. (PTI)
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11.NI
Marxism faces risk of becoming
irrelevant: Chinese General
BEIJING, Oct 11:
As China held its first world Marxism Congress, a Chinese military general has warned that Marxism would become irrelevant if the political and economic ideology that changed world failed to find answers to contemporary social problems.
In a speech read out at the World Congress on Marxism at Peking University, General Liu Yazhou, political commissar at the National Defence University, told over a 100 national and international ideologues of Marxism that “(the researchers) inability to identify and solve social problems have blocked the innovative development of Marxism in China”.
His speech went on to say that while Marxism proved to be a “historical and scientific” choice for the Chinese people and remained vital, it was necessary to innovate and expand its theoretical basis to avoid being marginalised, Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post quoted him as saying.
“It is not easy for a theory to be refuted by another theory, but it could be easily defeated by social problems. But if a theory fails to address social concerns, then society will no longer need it,” he said.
The World Congress on Marxism is being held amid the ruling Communist Party of China’s (CPC) efforts to deepen reforms to further liberalise its economy in order to halt the slowdown.
After decades of double digit growth rates, Chinese economy is hovering around seven per cent with forecast that it would further decline in the next two years.
CPC which prides to be the communist party with longest tenure in power with uninterrupted one-party rule since 1949 describes its mix of Marxism with economic reforms as “socialism with Chinese characteristics”.
More than 400 Marxist scholars from 20 countries were invited to participate in the congress with the theme of “Marxism and the Development of the Human Race”.
Speaking at the Congress, Liu Wei, vice-president of Peking University said one problem that Marxists needed to answer was how to make the market-based economy work effectively under public ownership – as opposed to private ownership in capitalism.
The answer could determine the success or failure of China’s economic reforms, Liu said.
The comments come as President Xi Jinping embraced Marxism and traditional Chinese values as the nation’s ideological lodestar while suppressing liberal Western ideas such as democracy and civil society, the Post report said.
The party’s Central Committee also issued a directive earlier this year for all mainland universities to become bases for “learning, researching, and disseminating” Marxism, and making sure Chinese socialism was not only printed in textbooks, but was also “getting into students’ minds”.
Xi headed the CPC’s ideological school before taking over at the Party’s General Secretary, President of the country and Chief of armed forces in 2013, making him the most powerful leader in recent Chinese history after Deng Xiaoping who after Party founder Mao Zedong’s death in 1976 introduced widespread economic reforms diluting the socialist content of CPC’s ideology.
Peking University is planning to make the World Congress on Marxism a permanent fixture, hosted every two years, while a building named after Karl Marx will soon be built on the campus. (PTI)
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12.NI
Indian Navy’s INS Trikand
reaches Egyptian port
CAIRO, Oct 11:
As a significant initiative in the Indian Navy’s overseas deployment to West Asia and Africa, INS Trikand entered the Egyptian Safaga port today for a three-day visit to underscore India’s peaceful presence in the region and show solidarity with friendly countries.
“The ship visit underscores India’s peaceful presence and solidarity with the friendly countries and, in particular, to strengthen the existing bonds between India and Egypt,” a statement by the Indian embassy said.
INS Trikand will engage extensively with the Egyptian Navy during its stay at Safaga port on the Red Sea Coast.
It will conduct PASSEX with Egyptian ships and facilities.
Apart from professional interactions, a number of sports and social engagements are also planned, which would go a long way in enhancing cooperation and understanding between these two important and capable navies, the statement added.
Indian naval assets are regularly deployed as part of the Indian Navy’s mission of building ‘bridges of friendship’ and strengthening international cooperation with friendly countries, as well as to address maritime concerns of the region including piracy in the Gulf of Aden.
In addition, Indian Navy has also been involved in capacity building and capability enhancement of friendly navies in the Indian Ocean Region, besides providing assistance in hydrographic survey, search and rescue and in improving maritime domain awareness.
A notable recent deployment of the Indian Navy in the region was Operation Rahat for the evacuation of over 6,200 persons of whom 960 were citizens from 41 other countries including 47 Egyptians from strife-ridden Yemen in April this year.
“India and Egypt are two of the world’s ancient civilisations with a history of close contact. Building upon the rich and longstanding relations that have existed between India and Egypt over thousands of years, both nations have developed warm relations in several spheres,” the statement added.
INS Trikand, commanded by Captain Vinay Kalia, is a state-of-the-art warship of the Indian Navy equipped with a versatile range of weapons and sensors capable of addressing threats in all three dimensions – air, surface and sub- surface.
The visiting ship is part of the Indian Navy’s Western Fleet and is under the operational command of the Flag Officer Commanding-in-Chief, Western Naval Command, with its Headquarters at Mumbai. (PTI)
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13.NI
2 mn lottery goes unclaimed in
China; to be used for welfare
BEIJING, Oct 11:
A whopping two million yuan (USD 3,15,126) lottery prize in China, which has gone unclaimed, will be utilised for social welfare services, a media report said today.
Someone bought the winning ticket from sports lottery management centre on Hainan Island worth more than two million yuan but never stepped forward to claim the money and let it go to the lottery fund.
The fund will be utilised for social welfare services including education, health care as well as subsidies for the disabled, Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post reported.
Employees at the sports lottery management centre at Hainan Island said it was the largest unclaimed prize in the province’s history, according to the report.
The winning ticket was bought for 10 yuan (USD 1.58) from an outlet in Haikou city, the Hinews.Cn website reported.
The draw for the prize of 2.07 million yuan (USD 326,156) was done on August 11, and under mainland lottery rules, prize-winners have 60 days to collect the money.
Lottery officials began posting notices and banners at outlets, in an attempt to alert the punter as no one came to claim the money in the succeeding weeks. Staff reminded people to check their tickets through newspapers, TVs or websites.
The deadline passed yesterday and the unclaimed prize has gone into the lottery fund.
The tickets are printed on special paper so that the writing won’t fade in the humid climate of the southern province.
Last year, unclaimed lottery prizes nationwide hit 1.68 billion yuan. (PTI)
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14.NI
New method to reduce
antibiotic resistance
WASHINGTON, Oct 11:
Researchers have developed a novel mathematical method inspired by the Darwinian evolution to use current antibiotics to reduce the development of antibiotic-resistant bacteria.
It is estimated that each year 2 million people in the US become infected with bacteria that are resistant to one or more types of antibiotics, and at least 23,000 people will die because of these infections, researchers said.
This problem is being exacerbated by overuse of antibiotics for livestock and in community clinical practice.
This overuse combined with the slow pace of novel drug discovery is a growing threat to public health.
According to the Centres for Disease Control, one of the core actions that can be taken to fight antibiotic-resistant infections is to improve the use of existing antibiotics.
One approach to achieve this is by using different combinations or sequences of antibiotics; however, given the high number of antibiotics in existence, it would be extremely difficult to experimentally identify the best combination or sequence of drugs.
Researchers at the Moffitt Cancer Centre in US overcame this problem by developing a mathematical approach to analyse antibiotic resistance.
They showed that the ability of the bacterium E coli to survive in antibiotics could be either promoted or hindered depending on the sequence of antibiotics given.
They discovered that approximately 70 per cent of different sequences of 2 to 4 antibiotics lead to resistance to the final drug.
“Our results suggest that, through careful ordering of antibiotics, we may be able to steer evolution to a dead end from which resistance cannot emerge,” said lead author Daniel Nichol, graduate student jointly in the Oxford University Department of Computer Science and Moffitt’s Department of Integrated Mathematical Oncology.
“Our results can be easily tested in the laboratory, and if validated could be used in clinical trials immediately, as all of the compounds we studied are FDA approved and commonly prescribed,” said Jacob G Scott, senior author and member of Moffitt’s Radiation Oncology and Integrated Mathematical Oncology Departments.
The researchers explained that their results also serve as a caution to healthcare workers, as the careless or random prescription of drugs that occurs could inadvertently lead to antibiotic resistance. (PTI)
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15.NI
Mobile ad-blockers could wipe
out billions in ad revenue
PARIS, Oct 11:
Mobile Internet sites face a new threat as millions download ad-blockers to their phones and tablets, removing pesky adverts but potentially wiping out billions of dollars in advertising revenue.
There were close to 200 million downloads of ad-blocking software by mid-2015, according to research firm PageFair, but only 1.6 percent of the blocking was done on mobile devices rather than computers.
That could be changing as mobile ad-blocking software becomes increasingly popular across the globe, particularly after the high-profile move by Apple to incorporate it directly into its latest iPhone and iPad operating system iOS9.
The software tends to be cheap and effective. Quickly installed, it reduces the clutter on web pages, speeds up performance and spares users from some of the click-bait that many find hard to stomach.
“When people are even willing to pay to stop adverts, it gives you an idea of how fed up they are,” said Hicham Berrada, head of France de Teads, a video advertising firm.
While the Chinese government trawls websites for politically sensitive content, they remain littered with pop-up advertising, forcing millions to buy apps such as “360 Mobilephone Guard”.
In Hong Kong, mobile ad-blockers “Purify Blocker” and “Crystal” recently entered the top 30 paid-for iPhone apps.
A study by Adobe and PageFair in August said the losses for websites that rely on advertising could be huge — totalling an estimated $21.8 billion (19.3 billion euros) this year and rising to $41 billion in 2016.
But few mourn the loss of nuisance publicities, with Hong Kong tech site Unwire.Hk recently promoting the blocking apps even though the magazine itself relies on advertising revenue.
“As an employee of Unwire, writing this tutorial does not do good to the boss’s livelihood, but I also understand some people do not have unlimited data plans and it’s a pain to be receiving data-consuming ad banners,” said reviewer Tim Yan. (AGENCIES)
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