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3rd
swine flu death in Delhi, toll mounts to 76
New Delhi:
A 44-year old woman died of swine flu at the Ram Manohar
Lohia hospital on Tuesday taking the city toll to three
and countrywide toll to 76. "The patient, who passed away
this morning, tested positive for swine flu virus. this
is the third case of death due to swine flu in Delhi," N
K Chaturvedi, medical superintendent, RML hospital said.
"Her condition was very critical from the day she was admitted
to the hospital. She had suffered three cardiac arrests
and her BP could not be maintained at the normal level despite
medication," he said. Usha Jain, a resident of Faridabad,
was admitted to the hospital on 21st August with symptoms
of fever, breathlessness and joint pain, he said. "She had
not undergone any medication even after eight days of showing
symptoms. She went to a private hospital for medication
and that too at the last minute when her condition had worsened,"
Chaturvedi said. Immediately after being admitted, she was
shifted to the ICU and put on a ventilator. Last week, two
deaths due to H1N1 virus were reported from New Delhi. While
38-year-old woman, Renu Gupta, resident of Gurgaon was the
first case of death due to swine flu in the city on 20th
August, 31-year-old man, Samrat Pandeya, a resident of Panchsheel
Park, died the next day.
Two
feared dead as 60-year old bridge collapses in Bihar Top
Nawada (Bihar):
At least two people were feared dead and 24 others injured
when a bridge collapsed at Kadirganj Bazaar in Bihar's Nawada
district on Tuesday. Two jeeps, two trucks, a foodgrain-laden
bullock cart and several other vehicles fell down, when
the 60-year-old bridge along the Nawada-Jamui state highway
suddenly collapsed. "At least 30 to 35 people were injured
in this accident and I also saw locals carrying bodies of
two to three persons," said Ram Kishore, an eyewitness.
While the injured were rushed to a government hospital in
the area, five critically injured persons were rushed to
Patna Medical College Hospital. Rescue operations were on
at the site and cranes have been engaged to clear the bridge
debris. Meanwhile, vehicular traffic on the route leading
to Jharkhand from Jamui and Nawada came to a halt after
the collapse of the bridge.
Govt
to pay arrears of Sixth Pay Commission Top
New Delhi:
The Central Government on Tuesday announced that it would
pay the second instalment of the Sixth Pay Commission arrears
to its five million employees. The step will put a burden
of over Rs 17,500 crore on the exchequer. The Government
has so far paid only 40 per cent of the arrears, and in
a notification, it asked employees to apply for the remaining
60 per cent of the arrears, which has to be paid as the
government implemented the new pay scales with effect from
January 1, 2006. "As in the case of the first installment
of the arrears, government servants would be permitted to
deposit their arrears in their GPF (General Provident Fund)
accounts," said a Finance Ministry's office memorandum.
"It has now been decided that the remaining 60 per cent
of the arrears may now be paid to the concerned government
servants," the memorandum added. About 3.8 million Central
Government pensioners (excluding armed forces) as estimated
by All India Central Government Pensioners Association (AICGPA)
will also get their final installment of arrears. The memorandum,
however, didn't mention any date on which the arrears would
be paid.
Air
India employees on hunger strike over non-payment of salary
Top
New Delhi:
Employees of India's flagship carrier Air India are on a
three-day hunger strike from Tuesday over delay in payment
of their salaries. "Over 20,000 members of the Aviation
Industry Employees Guild (AIEG) and the Air Corporation
Employees Union (ACEU) and some other unions from across
the nation have decided to go on hunger strike from today,
as the management is rigid over payment of our salaries,"
said J B Kadian, general secretary, ACEU. Last Friday, the
meeting of the unions with the Air India CMD in Mumbai failed
to reach any conclusion. The next round of meeting is scheduled
to be held here this afternoon. The employees threatened
that they would again go on strike on August 31 if their
negotiations with the management fail. Earlier, employees
had gone on a two-hour-long protest over non-payment of
wages. The unions had earlier called off their proposed
strike on June 30 after the management had agreed to pay
the salaries of 70 per cent of workers. Civil Aviation Minister
Praful Patel had said the government cannot bail Air India
out every time, and it is time for the flagship carrier
to tighten its belt and resolve its financial woes. Air
India's borrowings have risen from Rs.6, 550 crore in November
2007 to Rs.15, 241 crore in June this year.
Salman
Khan takes part in Ganesha idol immersion ceremony Top
Mumbai: Beaches
of Mumbai turned into a sea of humanity as hundreds of thousands
devotees gathered for the immersion of idols of Lord Ganesha,
on the first day of 'Visarjan', a ritual of the worship.
It was the first of the Visarjan ceremonies after the festival
of Ganesha Chaturthi was celebrated on Sunday across many
parts of India. Famed Bollywood actor Salman Khan joined
hundreds of Mumbaikars in bidding adieu the god Ganesha.
His brother Sohail Khan and other members of his family
also joined him. The Ganesha Chaturthi festival marks the
birth anniversary of Lord Ganesha and signifies good omen
and prosperity. During the festival, devotees offer prayers
to appease lord Ganesha and seek his blessings. The festival
is celebrated with equal fervour amidst people of all classes.
Lord Ganesha is one of the most revered Gods of Hindus,
and is worshipped at the beginning of every auspicious occasion.
Ganesha, as the God of knowledge is described as 'Vinayaka'
and as remover of obstacles he is called 'Vighanharta'.
He is worshipped at the beginning of every auspicious occasion
for blessings of luck and success.
Eight
rescued in building collapse incident: BMC Top
Mumbai:
At least seven to eight persons were rescued out of 100-year
old residential building whose front portion collapsed at
6.45 p.m here on Lamington Road of the central Mumbai on
Tuesday, said senior official of the Brihanmumbai Municipal
Corporation. "Seven to eight person trapped under the rubble
of collapsed 100-year-old building have been saved. They
have been rushed to the hospital. There are no reports of
any death so far," said Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation's
Commissioner Jairaj Phatak while addressing the media persons.
"The rubble of the collapsed portion of the building will
be cleared within two hours," Phatak said at 8.00 o' clock.
At least 10 people were feared to be trapped under the rubble
of the central Mumbai's five-storey Khatau Mansion building
whose front part collapsed here on Tuesday evening. About
10 fire tenders were rushed to spot for rescue operation
along with the police personnel after the incident.
PM
says Indian foreign policy linked to domestic policies Top
New Delhi:
Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh on Tuesday said that India's
foreign policy should be aimed at addressing the challenges
of mass poverty, ignorance and disease in the country. Dr.
Singh emphasised the integral link of India's foreign policy
with domestic policies particularly economic policy in his
address at the Conference of Indian Heads of Missions organized
by the Ministry of External Affairs. He stated that despite
the global economic slowdown, the Indian economy was still
the second fastest growing economy in the world, but all
out efforts were needed to put the economy back on a sustained
high rate of growth if the challenges of poverty and disease
were to be effectively addressed. In order to attain this,
Dr Singh said identified three pillars of global engagement:
sustaining capital inflows to supplement our investment
efforts, the need to take advantage of rapid scientific
and technological developments in the world which provide
an opportunity for India to leap frog its technological
development, and the need to ensure that the country's growth
is not constrained by scarcity of natural resources. All
these required active engagement by India in all multilateral
fora, and in the shaping of the world order, whether in
the field of trade, international finance or the international
economy, he said. Highlighting the need of fighting global-terrorism,
Dr. Singh said India has been a victim of terrorism and
it was essential that global terrorism is tackled with full
vigour and resolve to ensure the continuing advancement
of the country. "India has a stake in the prosperity and
stability of all our South Asian neighbours. We should strive
to engage our neighbours constructively and resolve differences
through peaceful means and negotiations," he said.
Amar
Singh invites Jaswant Singh to join Samajwadi Party Top
New Delhi:
Samajwadi Party General Secretary Amar Singh on Tuesday
invited former External Affairs Minister Jaswant Singh,
who was expelled from the BJP for his remarks on Mohammad
Ali Jinnah, to join his party. Talking to a private news
channel, Amar Singh said that Jaswant Singh was welcome
in his party. Amar Singh said his party was closer to Jaswant's
views on Jinnah. He also charged the BJP of victimising
Jaswant Singh. Asked to comment on the Samajwadi Party's
continued outburst against Jaswant Singh in the past over
the Kandahar episode, he said the new revelations made by
Jaswant Singh have changed his party's views towards him.
Singh was expelled from the BJP for calling Jinnah "a great
man" in his new book, "Jinnah: India, Partition, Independence".
BJP
issues show-cause notice to Arun Shourie Top
New Delhi:
The Bharatiya Janata Party on Tuesday issued show-cause
notice to its disgruntled leader Arun Shourie over his outburst
against the party and its leadership in the media. BJP has
sought clarification from Shourie over his remarks made
in an interview to private TV channel during a programme
on Monday. The much-anticipated action came Shourie's remarks
that termed the party as "Kati Patang" (a kite without its
sting attached) and describing BJP President Rajnath as
"Alice in Blunderland" and "Humpty Dumpty" were viewed as
a matter of indiscipline. Shourie had also urged the Rashtriya
Swayamsewak Sangh to takeover the charge of the BJP and
suggested to remove all its top leaders.
Social
networking sites leak personal information to tracking sites
Top
Washington:
Popular social networking websites' users could be leaking
their personal information to tracking sites, warn researchers
at Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI). They have found
that the practices of many popular social networking sites
typically make that personal information available to companies
that track Web users' browsing habits, and allow them to
link anonymous browsing habits to specific people. "When
you sign up with a social networking site, you are assigned
a unique identifier," said Craig Wills, professor of computer
science at WPI, who conducted the study with an industry
colleague. "This is a string of numbers or characters that
points to your profile. We found that when social networking
sites pass information to tracking sites about your activities,
they often include this unique identifier. "So now a tracking
site not only has a profile of your Web browsing activities,
it can link that profile to the personal information you
post on the social networking site. Now your browsing profile
is not just of somebody, it is of you," he added. Like most
commercial websites, online social networks use third-party
tracking sites, called aggregators, to learn about the browsing
habits of their visitors. Cookies are maintained by a Web
browser, and contain information that enable tracking sites
to build profiles of the websites visited by a user. Each
time the user visits a new website, the tracking site can
review those cookies and serve up ads that might appeal
to the user. With a unique identifier, a tracking site could
gain access to a user's name, physical address, email address,
gender, birth date, educational and employment information
and much more. With the "leakage" of this type personal
information, there is a significant risk of having one's
identity linked to an inaccurate or misleading browsing
profile. When a computer is used by more than one person,
or a person browses for curiosity rather than intent, it
leaves room for misinterpretation, he notes. "Tracking sites
don't have the ability to know if, for example, a site about
cancer was visited out of curiosity, or because the user
actually has cancer. Profiling is worrisome on its own,
but inaccurate profiling could potentially lead to issues
with employment, health care coverage, or other areas of
our personal lives," Wills added. The study was presented
in Barcelona at the Workshop on Online Social Networks.
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