News

It was an encounter with a little girl who suffered from an enigmatic neurological disorder that set molecular geneticist Huda Zoghbi on a journey of unexpected scientific discovery, taking her from the paediatric clinic to a medical laboratory, where she would unravel the genetic origins of a rare and devastating condition — Rett Syndrome.

European news channel Euronews said on Monday that it will launch Africa’s first multi-language news channel in the middle of next year in partnership with the state television of the Republic of Congo. The new venture called Africanews will be headquartered in Brazzaville, the Congo capital.

As Ben Bernanke, the outgoing chairman of the Federal Reserve, must recognise, he is the victim of the law of diminishing returns. In the initial days of the 2008-09 financial crisis, he mobilised the Fed as the lender of last resort. This helped quell an intensifying financial panic and, arguably, averted a second Great Depression. Mr. Bernanke’s role has been much praised and deserves the nation’s gratitude. It is doubtful anyone else would have done better.

This was the year of the outsider at the Australian Open. Few would have picked Stanislas Wawrinka and Li Na as champions ahead of the fortnight in Melbourne. But the outcome was a reminder that the only certainty in sport is its inherent uncertainty.

In a span of about 45 days, the Supreme Court of India has delivered two judgments that have received diametrically opposite reactions — one will count among the Court’s most poorly reasoned judgments while the other is likely to be heralded as one of its finest for its clarity and fidelity to earlier decisions. The contrast between Justice Singhvi’s judgment upholding the criminalisation of homosexuality and that of Chief Justice Sathasivam affirming the rights of mercy-rejected death row prisoners could not be starker.

Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) is likely to complete its Rs 1,500 crore 2G and 3G network expansion programme in the eastern and Northeast by mid-2014. The development will boost the service quality of the State-owned telecom major in the region. “BSNL is investing around Rs.1,500 crore in expanding and improving the existing 2G and 3G network. We expect it get completed in the next few months,” BSNL CGM (Calcutta Telephones) Gautam Chakraborty said.“Work has already begun and we have received adequate equipment for the setup in our circle,” he added. Mr. Chakraborty said once the project was implemented, service quality and capacity would get a boost in the eastern regions of West Bengal, Bihar, Odisha, Jharkhand and the Northeast. BSNL was planning to expand GSM lines by over 4 million lines for the region, the contract for which was bagged by Chinese vendor ZTE Telecom India. BSNL is expanding its capacity by 10 million GSM lines (2G and 3G) to help increase its subscriber...

Journalists of Bastar are often exposed to serious security threats by Maoists who want to release a statement or by the police who want to gather information BLURRED LINE:The financial survival of a journalist in rural India, especially in Bastar, depends directly on outside interests. A condolence meeting in Bijapur district, south Chhattisgarh, for slain journalist Sai Reddy. The Maoists claim they killed him last December. —PHOTO: SUVOJIT BAGCHI Sometime in the early summer of 2013, while preparing for a motorbike ride in the forests of Bastar, the State administration came up with a request to this correspondent — to mediate with left-wing rebels to recover the body of a

A Division Bench of the Andhra Pradesh High Court on Monday directed the State Government to produce records of Cabinet decisions to hand over prime land to political parties at abnormally low rates – Rs. 100 a square yard for instance. The bench comprising Chief Justice Kalyan Jyothi Sen Gupta and Justice P.V. Sanjay Kumar was dealing with a writ petition filed by Gopi Krishna of Gudur, who challenged the alienation of prime land in Gudur town to the District Congress Committee at low prices. It may be recalled that the bench had called for information regarding such deals done earlier in the State. The government produced the GOs concerned, and contended that these alienations were done as per decisions of the Cabinet. The bench asked for the proceedings of such Cabinet meetings and adjourned the case to Monday, February 3.

SHARE   ·    PRINT    ·    T+    Sri Lanka’s Northern Provincial Council (NPC) passed a resolution on Monday calling for an international probe into the war crimes allegedly committed during the country’s ethnic conflict. The resolution was proposed by NPC membe

We have some islands of excellence like IITs, IIMs, NIITs, IIScs: expert APSCHE Chairman L. Venugopala Reddy (centre) having a word with NAAC former director V.S. Prasad at a workshop on quality in higher education in Vijayawada on Thursday. Vice-Chancellor V. Venkaiah is seen.— Photo: V. RAJU At the two-day workshop jointly organised by Krishna University and APSCHE on ‘Assessment and accreditation a tool to enhance quality and excellence in higher education’ held at KVSR Siddhartha College of Pharmaceutical Sciences, the focus was on quality in higher education.