Multiple Blasts Rock Mumbai Many Killed Over 100 Injured

Terror struck Mumbai when three serial blasts rocked crowded areas in Zaveri Bazar, Dadar and the Opera House this evening killing 10 people and leaving about 100 injured in three explosions in Mumbai in a grim reminder of 26/11 when 166 people were killed.


In New Delhi, the Union Home Ministry said the multiple explosions were a terror strike and that Improvised Explosive Devices (IED) were used.Home Minister P Chidambaram said that the death toll could rise and appealed to the people of the country to remain calm.He said that National Security Guard (NSG) which has a hub in Mumbai was put on standby.
Mumbai police said at least 50 people were injured in the serial blasts.


Police said the nature and intensity of the explosions were not known but the blasts revived memories of the terror attack in November 2008 in which 166 persons were killed by 10 gunmen of Pakistan-based terror outfit Lashkar-e-Toiba(LeT).


Police said all the three blasts took place in a crowded markets and busy areas.


The first explosion took place in south Mumbai's Zaveri Bazaar, near famous Mumbadevi temple, this evening in which some people were injured, said Mumbai Police spokesperson Nisar Tamboli. The bustling market also has a number of jewellery shops.


The second explosion was reported in a taxi in Dadar area, he said. The site of the explosion was close to dadar railway station.


"We are verifying the nature of explosions. At this moment I cannot say anything more than this," Tamboli said.


The third blast was reported from Opera House in Charni.


Teams of Maharashtra Anti Terrorism Squad (ATS) have rushed to the spots.


A security alert was sounded in the national capital this evening following a series of blasts in Mumbai and police personnel were fanned across the city to carry out intensive searches and checkings.


No group claimed responsibility for the blasts.

written content source:-
The EconomicTimes

War crimes court jails ex-Croatian general Ante Gotovina for 24 yrs

THE INDEPENDENT

A UN war crimes tribunal convicted a former Croatian general of orchestrating a campaign of murder and plunder to drive around 200,000 Serbs from a rebel enclave of Croatia, sentencing him to 24 years in prison.
Croatian Prime Minister Jadranka Kosor said her government would "use all legal means to fight" today's ruling, which identified Ante Gotovina - along with the late Croatian President Franjo Tudjman - as part of a criminal enterprise dedicated to expelling Serb residents of the country's Krajina region.
"We will hold a cabinet session already today to discuss our next legal moves. Operation Storm was a legal operation to liberate occupied Croatian territory," said Kosor.
She was referring to the 1995 offensive near the end of Croatia's war for independence from federal Yugoslavia. Tudjman was independent Croatia's first president. He was never indicted by the tribunal, and died in 1999.
Gotovina, 55, became a hero in his homeland for his role in the four-day blitz by the U.S.-equipped Croatian army to wrest back breakaway Krajina, and his arrest in 2005 in Spain's Canary Islands triggered street protests in Croatia.
Gotovina was sentenced today along with police general Mladen Markac, who was jailed for 18 years by the International Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, based in The Hague.
A group of war veterans announced a rally for Saturday in Zagreb's central square in support of the two men.
The mountainous Krajina, which skirts the borders of Bosnia in southern and central Croatia, had been heavily settled by ethnic Serbs for centuries.
After Croatia declared independence in 1991, Serb militia armed by Belgrade,the Yugoslav capital, drove out around 80,000 Croats in a campaign of "ethnic cleansing" and then proclaiming their own Krajina republic.
In 2007, the tribunal convicted former Krajina Serb militia chief Milan Martic of war crimes and jailed him for 35 years. Former Krajina Serb "President" Milan Babic committed suicide in 2006 while serving a 13-year prison term for war crimes.
Gotovina and Markac were convicted of orchestrating the killing of dozens of Krajina Serbs and the shelling of their towns and villages as Croatian forces retook the isolated mountainous region. They had both pleaded not guilty.
Another former Croatian army general, Ivan Cermak, who had been accused of the same crimes, was acquitted.
"Mr Gotovina's order to unlawfully attack civilians and civilian objects amounted to a significant contribution to the joint criminal enterprise," Presiding Judge Alphons Orie said.
Gotovina's arrest in 2005 removed a serious obstacle to Croatia's bid to join the European Union, which insists that all Balkan states arrest war crimes suspects from the 1990s conflict before joining the bloc.
Croatia hopes to complete the EU entry talks in the coming months.

The curse of 'juju' that drives sex slaves to Europe

THE INDEPENDENT

Nigerian traffickers use black magic to trap thousands of women and send them to Italy as prostitutes.
It is 6pm on a Monday night on a highway outside Milan. The thermometer on the car dashboard says it is two degrees below zero, but every few metres our headlights pick out figures waiting along the roadside, some hunched with their palms splayed over makeshift fires. Silvio Berlusconi outlawed soliciting on the street three years ago, but the estimated 20,000 Nigerian women who work as prostitutes in Italy are easy to find. Even in winter, there is no shortage of customers.
This is one of hundreds of highways throughout Europe where Nigeria's trafficking victims are forced to work. We could be in Barcelona or Madrid, Paris or Berlin, Glasgow or London. There are 100,000 trafficked Nigerians in Europe, and 80 per cent come from Edo – a southern state that is home to only three per cent of Nigeria's population. It is the trafficking capital of Africa, and home of the traditional West African religion they call juju.
The condom-strewn lay-by near Bergamo where Rita picks up clients is a far cry from the Europe she imagined five years ago when traffickers approached her in Edo. "I was happy that I was going to Europe to feed my family," explains Rita, 27. "I didn't know it would turn out to be like this." She now sleeps with about 10 men a day, seven days a week, for €20 (£17.50) a time. She will work even if she feels ill, even if she has her period, even though she has been badly beaten in the past.
Rita says she has no choice but to carry on working. Before she left Nigeria, she swore an oath of loyalty to her traffickers in a traditional religious ritual, a practice I was investigating for Channel 4's Unreported World programme. She promised to pay back the cost of her transportation to Europe and offered up her soul as collateral for the debt. When she arrived in Italy, she was told she owed her traffickers €50,000 (£44,000), as well as extortionate living costs, including €300 a month in "rent" for the right to solicit from her particular patch. "I can't escape this unless I pay," she says. "Africans have very strong charms that can destroy someone in the twinkle of an eye."
Nigeria's human traffickers are using black magic to trap thousands of women like Rita into a life of sex slavery in Europe. Eastern European gangs use violence to coerce the women they transport, but the "madams" at the top of the Nigerian trafficking chain don't need muscle – they have juju on their side. It is a form of ritualised extortion that allows Nigerian women to be both perpetrators and victims of the exploitation.
Three thousand miles away in the small Edo village of Ewhoini, I meet 23-year-old Vivian Peter – intelligent, beautiful and full of aspirations that are hard to realise in rural Nigeria. The £2 a day she earns selling tomatoes at the market isn't enough to put her younger brothers and sisters through school, and buy a home where she can live with her boyfriend, Elonel. But he says he has the answer to their problems: he is arranging for Vivian to go and work for someone he says is his sister in Italy.
Paved roads and reliable electricity may not have reached this part of rural Nigeria, but the myth of the "Italos" – the women who have made a fortune in Italy – has permeated every household. It is an open secret that the Italos earn their money by selling sex, and there is no shame in it – Nigerian women who travel are stigmatised only if they return home penniless. But many do, often beaten and HIV-positive, and are rejected by their families.
Vivian doesn't know exactly where she will be taken, or how much she will owe her traffickers, but she imagines her debt will be paid within a few months. "I won't have any idea until I get there," she tells me. Her boyfriend has no qualms about sending her to sell sex on Italy's streets. "A lot of people do it over there," Elonel, 27, says matter-of-factly, "I'm not going to stop her." All the arrangements are in place: he has bought her plane ticket to Rome and booked her in to see Doctor Stanley, the local juju priest. He says the ritual will "help her out" and bring her luck in Italy. Juju has been practised in West Africa for centuries, and it would be hard to find anyone in Edo who is prepared to say they don't fear it. Believers say invisible spirits govern the earth and control every aspect of human existence, and nothing can be hidden from their scrutiny. The spirits can be called on to protect people, but they can also destroy them.
"If she breaks the promise she makes at my shrine, we need blood from her," Dr Stanley tells me on the morning of Vivian's ritual. "I can use my power to destroy anything I want. I can throw any type of sickness to a person, whether cancer or stroke." He boasts that "uncountable" trafficked women have sworn oaths at his shrine. I ask if he feels responsible for compelling so many to a life of prostitution. He fixes me with a stern gaze. "When you promise this is what you will do, unfailingly you must do it."
Tall and muscular, with crimson robes adorned with talismans, Dr Stanley strikes an imposing figure next to Vivian's small frame. While not officially part of the trafficking chain, he provides the most important component: the oath that makes women compliant. It is a lucrative source of business for him. He is making £120 from today's ritual – a serious amount of money here.
The shrine is filled with juju fetishes: rattles, idols made out of feathers, bones and sea shells, crucibles filled with bright powders. Dr Stanley commands Vivian to undress and wash in the hut outside the shrine, and when she emerges he blows chalk dust over her body and smears clay over her forehead, marking her out so the spirits can identify the soul that is being offered to them. Then he asks her to kneel before him to swear the oath. Elonel watches impassively, smoking a cigarette. The ritual over, Dr Stanley lifts Vivian to her feet. "I feel safe in his hands," she says, visibly relieved.
A few days later, in a bar an hour's drive away, Elonel says he is doing another piece of business: he claims his sister has found two other women to travel alongside Vivian, and he is arranging for them to swear their oaths tomorrow so they can all go and work for her in Italy. "When they get there, she will make money. A lot of money," he says blankly, "and if things are going well, they will send me money." Poverty has absolved him of any moral responsibility for the women he's trafficking, he says. "I don't have to feel bad. I need money."
Vivian has been outside Edo only once – when Elonel took her to Lagos to get her travel papers – but the myth of the Italos has convinced her she belongs in Italy. "I know it will be a better place for me," she says when we meet for the last time. I tell her about the women I saw at the roadside outside Milan, about the cold, the beatings, and the €50,000 debt that Rita is still paying off, five years on. "I don't think so. Mine won't be like that," Vivian frowns. "If you are hard-working, you won't suffer. I know how to plait hair. There are lots of things I know how to do," she insists. Then she pauses. "I've made up my mind that I will go there, and I must go there. I chose it."
Europe's trafficking statistics are made up of Edo women like Vivian who do not conform to the stereotype of passive "victims". It is the most determined and driven who fall prey to Nigeria's traffickers – those without dreams to exploit are left alone. No matter how strong these women might be, the juju oath leaves them manipulated, abused and utterly trapped. Without faith in ancient, traditional beliefs, this modern form of slavery would not exist. And without a thriving market for their services, no Nigerian woman would be trafficked to Europe in the first place.
An ancient African ritual
Little is known about the origins of juju – a West African tradition which encompasses a range of rituals and supernatural entities from auras, spirits and ghosts, to magical properties believed to be bound to objects.
It is not uncommon for Nigerians from all walks of life to carry amulets to ward off evil spirits and bad luck. But it is also believed that the powers of juju can be summoned and used only by a witch doctor. Contrary to popular belief, juju is not related to voodooism.
Believers hold that juju can be used for 'good' purposes, such as curing ailments, but 'bad' juju can also be used to impose a host of misfortunes, such as madness, disease and death.
Dried chameleons and chickens are often used in juju rituals.

Walls have eyes: houses that look like people

THE INDEPENDENT

A house in Wales that 'looks like Hitler' has become a hit on Twitter. But, says Rebecca Gonsalves, that's just the start of it
Estate agents are fond of saying that a property has plenty of "character".But some characters are most desirable than others. An end-of-terrace house in Port Tennant, Swansea, has become an unlikely internet sensation after a passer-by uploaded a picture of the "Hitler House" to Twitter.
Charli Dickenson had passed the house many times before noticing, as she sat in traffic outside, that its stony façade and sloping roof resembled the late leader of the Nazi party. The angled roof suggested his fringe,while the door echoed his toothbrush moustache.
The 22-year-old first uploaded the image to the Comic Relief Twitter feed of the comedian Armando Ianucci, where it was picked up by Jimmy Carr, causing it to go viral, gaining news coverage across the UK and as far away as New Zealand.

South African ritual animal slaughters given the go-ahead

THE AUSTRALIAN

SOUTH Africans can perform ritual animal slaughters in urban areas as long as they respect basic hygiene and city ordinances, the national cultural rights commission says.
Its ruling came after animal rights activists challenged the traditional ritual of slaughtering cattle to communicate with God and the ancestors for blessings, protection or healing.
Such rituals are common in rural areas but have migrated to cities as the urban population has grown, said Wesley Mabuza, head of the Commission on the Rights of Culture and Religion.
"Many of them (traditional leaders) feel that they should be able to perform the ritual in the yards of their city homes without encountering problems," he said.
"This has fuelled debate on the subject as issues of the contravention of the municipal by-laws, environmental health, animal abuse and cruelty are always raised."
After a series of public debates, the commission ruled that ritual slaughters are allowed in cities as long as municipal sanitation laws are followed and the suffering caused to the animal is minimised.
Last year a South African court granted an order that allowed the Zulu ritual killing of a bull by youths using only their hands.
The ritual is performed every year at a harvest festival at King Goodwill Zwelithini's residence in northern KwaZulu Natal province where a bull is attacked by young men who twist its tail and genitals and beat it to death.

Can caffeine make us healthy?

THE INDEPENDENT

For years we have been told to beware of caffeine. Now we seem to have swung in the opposite direction, with studies claiming that moderate amounts of coffee may reduce headaches and protect against diabetes, Alzheimer's and heart disease, among others. So where does the truth lie?
We don't all have the same reactions to caffeine, Mehul Dhinoja, a consultant cardiologist at BMI London Independent Hospital, says.
"Each of us has an enzyme in the liver that breaks down and metabolises caffeine. It's that process that enables caffeine to have its effect around the body," he says. "Some people are born with an enzyme that works extremely efficiently and others have quite the opposite. Because this isn't controlled in studies about caffeine, it's not surprising to find statistical contradictions."
Peter Rogers, head of experimental psychology, says some people are more sensitive to the effects of caffeine, while others develop a tolerance. "One of the things caffeine has been found to do is increase blood pressure and make your hands shake a little," he says. "But actually this depends if you're a person who regularly consumes caffeine."
You can even develop a dependence of caffeine so that without it, you can feel fatigued and headachey, he says. "That's why if coffee drinkers haven't had caffeine for a while – for example, overnight – the coffee they have in the morning is likely to make them feel more energetic and alert, while for a non-regular drinker, it will make them jittery."
So while some studies say coffee stimulates the brain and makes drinkers feel more awake, Rogers and his team have found the "caffeine high" may just be a reaction to the body craving the drug. Caffeine may even have radically different effects on the sexes. Studies from Bristol University have found that drinking caffeinated coffee boosted a woman's performance in stressful situations, but had the opposite effect on men, who became less confident and took longer to complete tasks once they had several coffees.
What caffeine is good for
Forget hair of the dog. If you want to cure a hangover, a good old cup of coffee and aspirin really is best, according to a new study from Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia. Confirming what many have suspected for years, the research found that the caffeine in coffee and the anti-inflammatory ingredients of aspirin reacted against the chemical compounds of ethanol, or pure alcohol, which – even in small doses – can bring on headaches.
Tim Grattan, who developed the technology for the new paracetamol and caffeine product, Panado Extra Advance, isn't surprised: "There's plenty of clinical evidence that shows caffeine actually speeds up the painkilling properties of various painkillers. In fact, caffeine has played a role in making our new product 37 per cent more tough on pain than ordinary paracetamol tablets."
Drinking lots of coffee can also boost sports performance by as much as 6 per cent – but, critically, only in any activity where muscles are not being worked to the limit, meaning coffee or tea could benefit a long-distance runner but not a sprinter.
Rob James, from the University of Coventry's department of Biomolecular and Sports Science, believes caffeine in the bloodstream may influence receptors on skeletal muscle, making a person temporarily more powerful. If you overdo it, fear not – caffeine can help here, too. A study from the University of Georgia found that caffeine can help reduce the soreness that discourages some people from keeping up their workouts.
What it's bad for
Contrary to popular opinion, one thing coffee doesn't do is sober you up – it may even further impair your judgement, scientists at Temple University in Philadelphia have found. Combining alcohol and caffeine at the same time produces a potentially lethal mix that makes it harder to realise you are drunk, according to the study published in Behavioural Neuroscience. Perhaps Less of a surprise is the discovery that energy drinks – some of them, at least – are bad for our health. "There have been increasing instances of atrial fibrillation (AF), a heart-rhythm problem, among young people who consume large amounts of energy drinks," Dhinoja says. It's not just drinks that can cause this problem. In 2009, a 13-year-old boy needed hospital treatment after ingesting "energy" chewing gum that contained 320mg of caffeine – more than in three cups of coffee.
Large amounts of caffeine in pregnancy also appear to be risky. Back in 2008, the Food Standards Agency warned women to have no more than two cups of coffee a day after a study linked caffeine to low birth weight. Caffeine may affect your chances of getting pregnant in the first place, too, according to a Netherlands study that found that women who drank four cups of coffee a day were 26 per cent less likely than average to have conceived naturally.
Caffeine could even shrink some women's breasts. Swedish research found that too much of it can affect hormones, playing havoc with their bust size.
Cancer and heart disease
An analysis of 59 studies just published on the BioMed Central Cancer website suggests that coffee consumption may reduce your overall risk of getting cancer and that it may be inversely associated with the risk of bladder,breast, pharynx, pancreas and prostate cancers and leukaemia, among others.One study even discovered that caffeine can cut the risk of skin cancer by more than a third.
But women who drink more than four cups of coffee a day increase their risk of developing breast cancer by a third, according to Harvard University. A high caffeine intake can also increase the chance of developing larger tumours,which are harder to treat.
The jury is still out on caffeine's relationship with the heart, too. Arthur Klatsky, a cardiologist, and his team at the Kaiser Permanente Division of Research in California discovered that regular coffee drinkers were less likely to be treated in hospital for irregular heartbeats or rhythms. The more cups of coffee they drank each day, the less likely they were to suffer from the condition. Spanish research has even shown that women who drink three cups a day could reduce their risk of dying from heart disease by a quarter, whilst another study found that men who drank five or more cups a day were 44 per cent less likely to die from the disease.
Other factors
Women who drink tea were recently found by American researchers to be at greater risk of developing rheumatoid arthritis. Other studies have shown tea drinkers can halve their risk of dementia and cut their risk of a stroke. Yet the same cannot be said about coffee drinkers."This highlights a really important point – that the other constituents in tea and coffee may have their very own impact on health and well-being," Rogers says.
Australian scientists found that drinking three to four cups of coffee a day can lower the risk of type 2 diabetes by 25 per cent, but those who drank decaffeinated coffee showed similar results. And a study of almost 50,000 men found that those who drank the most coffee were 60 per cent less likely to develop the most aggressive form of prostate cancer.
Should we give it up?
Doctors often tell patients to quit caffeine, but that may not be necessary, Rogers says. "It seems to me odd to be telling someone to give up something they enjoy and when there's no real evidence." Rogers followed a group of people with tinnitus – a condition for which caffeine has traditionally been deemed by doctors as a big no-no. "We found that those who did give up caffeine didn't improve their condition in any way."He adds: "Not to undermine the importance of my own research, but tea and coffee are things to worry about so much less than if you're a smoker, overweight or have a poor diet.

Pilots unsettled by laser pointers

THE INDEPENDENT

Civil aviation officials said pilots are complaining that laser pointers are being aimed at their planes as they land at Grenada's international airport.
The Grenada Airports Authority said pilots have reported seeing lasers while on final approach to Maurice Bishop International Airport.
Several have filed a complaint with the Eastern Caribbean Civil Aviation Authority.
The airports authority said it is looking for a culprit who could be charged with interfering with air crew duties.
The authority has posted notices in local newspapers warning that shining lights at planes is considered a security offence.
None of the pilots have had trouble landing but they say that the lasers are a hazard.

sex.sells (The World's most expensive Domain Names)

The Economist

SEX.COM is set to fetch a record $13m for a domain name on Wednesday when a Californian bankruptcy court meets to decide on the deal. The domain name last changed hands in 2006 for a reported $14m in cash and shares, but it was put up for auction in July after its owner went bust. This 2006 transaction does not appear on our chart, which compares the highest prices paid for domain names in cash only, and those that can be verified. It does not, for instance, include the purchase of Insure.com for $16m in 2009 because the related website was part of the deal. And the priciest domains may never be known. Many big sales are not made public, and these may account for the largest share of the domain-name market.

Tickets in black for Mohali tie

NDTV SPORTS

World Cup cricket fever was at its peak here Saturday with a Rs.15,000 ticket of next week's India and Pakistan semi-final match at Mohali being sold for up to Rs. 100,000 in the black market,said a man close to the black market operators.
A Rs.15,000 ticket may cost between Rs.85,000 to Rs.100,000, depending upon the negotiations by a buyer with the black marketer, said the man who did not wish to be named.
"Demand for tickets is increasing with each passing day. Nobody wants to miss the live action of India-Pakistan clash. There are buyers, who are ready to pay Rs.100,000 for a Rs.15,000 ticket.The prices can go even higher in the next couple of days," he said.
"Most of the ticket seekers are non-resident Indians, who have come to Punjab on holiday. Besides there are buyers from Delhi, Himachal Pradesh, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh," he said.
While a Rs.250-ticket was being sold on the sly for Rs.5,000, Rs.500-tickets were available in the black market for over Rs.10,000.A Rs.1,000-ticket was being sold for nearly Rs.15,000,he said.
India and Pakistan will play under floodlights Wednesday at the Punjab Cricket Association (PCA) stadium at Mohali, some 10 km from here.

US preacher warns end of the world is near: 21 May, around 6pm, to be precise

THE INDEPENDENT

The end of the world is near; 21 May, to be precise. That's the date when Harold Camping, a preacher from Oakland, California, is confidently predicting the Second Coming of the Lord. At about 6pm, he reckons 2 per cent of the world's population will be immediately "raptured" to Heaven; the rest of us will get sent straight to the Other Place.
If Mr Camping were speaking from any normal pulpit, it would be easy to dismiss him as just another religious eccentric wrongly calling the apocalypse. But thanks to this elderly man's ubiquity, on America's airwaves and billboards, his unlikely Doomsday message is almost impossible to ignore.
Every day Mr Camping, an 89-year-old former civil engineer, speaks to his followers via the Family Radio Network, a religious broadcasting organisation funded entirely by donations from listeners. Such is their generosity (assets total $120m) that his network now owns 66 stations in the US alone.
Those deep pockets were raided to allow Family Radio to launch a high-profile advertising campaign, proclaiming the approaching Day of Judgement. More than 2,000 billboards across the US are adorned with its slogans, which include "Blow the trumpet, warn the people!". A fleet of logoed camper vans is touring every state in the nation. "It's getting real close. It's really getting pretty awesome, when you think about it," Mr Camping told The Independent on Sunday. "We're not talking about a ball game, or a marriage, or graduating from college. We're talking about the end of the world, a matter of being eternally dead, or being eternally alive, and it's all coming to a head right now."
Mr Camping, who makes programmes in 48 languages, boasts tens of thousands of followers across the globe, with radio stations in South Africa, Russia and Turkey. After 70 years of studying the Bible, he claims to have developed a system that uses mathematics to interpret prophesies hidden in it. He says the world will end on 21 May, because that will be 722,500 days from 1 April AD33, which he believes was the day of the Crucifixion. The figure of 722,500 is important because you get it by multiplying three holy numbers (five, 10 and 17) together twice. "When I found this out, I tell you, it blew my mind," he said.
Recent events, such as earthquakes in Japan, New Zealand and Haiti, are harbingers of impending doom, he says, as are changing social values. "All the stealing, and the lying, and the wickedness and the sexual perversion that is going on in society is telling us something," he says. "So too is the gay pride movement. It was sent by God as a sign of the end."
Mr Camping, who founded Family Radio in the 1950s, grew up a Baptist. Many of his strongly held views – he does not believe in evolution and thinks all abortion should be banned – are relatively commonplace among America's religious right.
Critics point out that this isn't the first time Mr Camping has predicted the second coming. On 6 September 1994, hundreds of his listeners gathered at an auditorium in Alameda looking forward to Christ's return.
"At that time there was a lot of the Bible I had not really researched very carefully," he said last week. "But now, we've had the chance to do just an enormous amount of additional study and God has given us outstanding proofs that it really is going to happen."
Mr Camping's argument has convinced Adam Larsen, 32, from Kansas. He is among scores of "ambassadors" who have quit their jobs to drive around America in Family Radio vehicles warning of the impending apocalypse."My favourite pastime is raccoon hunting," Mr Larsen told CNN. "I've had to give that up. But this task is far more important."