How Facebook uses your data

Last week, Facebook filed documents with the government that will allow it to sell shares of stock to the public. It is estimated to be worth at least $75 billion. But unlike other big-ticket corporations, it doesn't have an inventory of widgets or gadgets, cars or phones. Facebook's inventory consists of personal data - yours and mine.

Facebook makes money by selling ad space to companies that want to reach us. Advertisers choose key words or details - like relationship status, location, activities, favorite books and employment - and then Facebook runs the ads for the targeted subset of its 845 million users. If you indicate that you like cupcakes, live in a certain neighborhood and have invited friends over, expect an ad from a nearby bakery to appear on your page. The magnitude of online information Facebook has available about each of us for targeted marketing is stunning. In Europe, laws give people the right to know what data companies have about them, but that is not the case in the United States.

Facebook made $3.2 billion in advertising revenue last year, 85 percent of its total revenue. Yet Facebook's inventory of data and its revenue from advertising are small potatoes compared to some others. Google took in more than 10 times as much, with an estimated $36.5 billion in advertising revenue in 2011, by analyzing what people sent over Gmail and what they searched on the Web, and then using that data to sell ads.

Hundreds of other companies have also staked claims on people's online data by depositing software called cookies or other tracking mechanisms on people's computers and in their browsers. If you've mentioned anxiety in an email, done a Google search for "stress" or started using an online medical diary that lets you monitor your mood, expect ads for medications and services to treat your anxiety.

Ads that pop up on your screen might seem useful or, at worst, a nuisance. But they are much more than that. The bits and bytes about your life can easily be used against you. Whether you can obtain a job, credit or insurance can be based on your digital doppelganger - and you may never know why you've been turned down.

Material mined online has been used against people battling for child custody or defending themselves in criminal cases. LexisNexis has a product called Accurint for Law Enforcement, which gives government agents information about what people do on social networks. The Internal Revenue Service searches Facebook and MySpace for evidence of tax evaders' income and whereabouts, and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services has been known to scrutinize photos and posts to confirm family relationships or weed out sham marriages.

Employers sometimes decide whether to hire people based on their online profiles, with one study indicating that 70 per cent of recruiters and human resource professionals in the United States have rejected candidates based on data found online. A company called Spokeo gathers online data for employers, the public and anyone else who wants it. The company even posts ads urging "HR Recruiters - Click Here Now!" and asking women to submit their boyfriends' email addresses for an analysis of their online photos and activities to learn "Is He Cheating on You?"

Stereotyping is alive and well in data aggregation. Your application for credit could be declined not on the basis of your own finances or credit history, but on the basis of aggregate data - what other people whose likes and dislikes are similar to yours have done. If guitar players or divorcing couples are more likely to renege on their credit-card bills, then the fact that you've looked at guitar ads or sent an email to a divorce lawyer might cause a data aggregator to classify you as less credit-worthy.

When an Atlanta man returned from his honeymoon, he found that his credit limit had been lowered to $3,800 from $10,800. The switch was not based on anything he had done but on aggregate data. A letter from the company told him, "Other customers who have used their card at establishments where you recently shopped have a poor repayment history with American Express."

Even though laws allow people to challenge false information in credit reports, there are no laws that require data aggregators to reveal what they know about you. If I've Googled "diabetes" for a friend or "date rape drugs" for a mystery I'm writing, data aggregators assume those searches reflect my own health and proclivities. Because no laws regulate what types of data these aggregators can collect, they make their own rules.

In 2007 and 2008, the online advertising company NebuAd contracted with six internet service providers to install hardware on their networks that monitored users' internet activities and transmitted that data to NebuAd's servers for analysis and use in marketing.

For an average of six months, NebuAd copied every email, Web search or purchase that some 400,000 people sent over the Internet. Other companies, like Healthline Networks Inc, have in-house limits on which private information they will collect. Healthline does not use information about people's searches related to HIV, impotence or eating disorders to target ads to people, but it will use information about bipolar disorder, overactive bladder and anxiety, which can be as stigmatizing as the topics on its privacy-protected list.

In the 1970s, a professor of communication studies at Northwestern University named John McKnight popularized the term "redlining" to describe the failure of banks, insurers and other institutions to offer their services to inner city neighborhoods. The term came from the practice of bank officials who drew a red line on a map to indicate where they wouldn't invest. But use of the term expanded to cover a wide array of racially discriminatory practices, such as not offering home loans to African-Americans, even those who were wealthy or middle class.

Now the map used in redlining is not a geographic map, but the map of your travels across the Web. The term "weblining" describes the practice of denying people opportunities based on their digital selves. You might be refused health insurance based on a Google search you did about a medical condition. You might be shown a credit card with a lower credit limit, not because of your credit history, but because of your race, sex or ZIP code or the types of websites you visit.

Data aggregation has social implications as well. When young people in poor neighborhoods are bombarded with advertisements for trade schools, will they be more likely than others their age to forgo college? And when women are shown articles about celebrities rather than stock market trends, will they be less likely to develop financial savvy? Advertisers are drawing new redlines, limiting people to the roles society expects them to play.

Data aggregators' practices conflict with what people say they want. A 2008 Consumer Reports poll of 2,000 people found that 93 per cent thought Internet companies should always ask for permission before using personal information, and 72 per cent wanted the right to opt out of online tracking.

A study by Princeton Survey Research Associates in 2009 using a random sample of 1,000 people found that 69 per cent thought that the United States should adopt a law giving people the right to learn everything a website knows about them. We need a do-not-track law, similar to the do-not-call one. Now it's not just about whether my dinner will be interrupted by a telemarketer. It's about whether my dreams will be dashed by the collection of bits and bytes over which I have no control and for which companies are currently unaccountable.

13/7 Mumbai blasts case cracked

13/7 Mumbai blasts case cracked, 2 from Bihar arrested: ATS

Maharashtra ATS on Monday claimed to have made a major breakthrough in the July 13 triple blasts in the city last year that claimed 27 lives, with the arrest of two of the accused hailing from Bihar.

Naqi Ahmed Wasi Ahmed Sheikh (22) and Nadeem Akhtar Ashfaq Sheikh (23) were arrested on January 12 but the mastermind of the crime Yasin Bhatkal, a top Indian Mujahideen operative, and the planters of the IEDs used in the blasts are still evading arrest, Anti-Terrorism Squad chief Rakesh Maria told reporters.

Maria said while Naqi came to Mumbai in September 2010, Nadeem, his co-villager, from Bihar's Darbhanga district, was living in Antop Hill area of the city.

Naqi, according to Maria, came in touch with Ahmed Zarar Siddibappa alias Yasin Bhatkal alias Imran in 2008.

He said Nadeem was called to Delhi by Bhatkal and handed over a cloth packet containing the explosive and detonators used in the blast that was handed over to Naqi.

Naqi, he said, was given Rs 1.5 lakh by Bhatkal as commission for the crime in which at least Rs 10 lakh, received through hawala channels, was used. He said Naqi and Nadeem had stolen two Activa scooters that were used for carrying out the explosions. Two motorcycles also stolen by them and kept for future use have also been recovered from Bihar.

Rubbishing media reports that Naqi was innocent and that he was being tortured in police custody, Maria said he was aware of Bhatkal antecedents.

Naqi not only assisted Bhatkal in scouting for an apartment in Habib Building in Byculla but also paid the money for accommodation, the ATS chief said.

Maria said while Bhatkal and two others, who had planted the explosives and whose names he refused to divulge lest it would hamper investigations, were eluding the police dragnet, another accused in the case--Haroon Rashid Naik--had already been arrested by ATS in a counterfeit currency case.

Naik, he said, had been arrested in August last year and ATS would on Monday seek a transfer warrant for him from the court. "We need the custody of Naik from Mumbra for investigation of economic trail and conspiracy in the case," he said.

Maria trashed media reports that Bhatkal was in the city for several months after the blasts and that he was to visit the landlady of the Byculla apartment when he got the whiff of impending action by Mumbai police due to lack of coordination between Delhi police's special cell and Maharashtra ATS and escaped.

Sleeping pills can be fatal

A recent study found those who took sleeping tablets were 36 percent more likely to die at any given time than others.

In the study American researchers focused on a brain enzyme called calcium kinase, which controls sleep in humans, said researcher Fiona Macrae, Daily Mail reported.

In an experiment conducted by the researchers, a drug was given to mice that stopped the enzyme to work in the brain and making the animal sleep more.

Encouragingly, the doses used were minimal, a study in the Journal of Neuroscience reported.

"Sleep, one of the most mysterious regular shifts in consciousness, is regulated by a delicate balance between biological processes, the environment and behaviour, but the mechanisms involved in the regulation are not well understood," said Subimal Datta, researcher, Boston University.

"Current treatments for sleep disorders do not achieve the ideal behavioural outcome, and are usually accompanied by many undesirable side effects," he said.

"A more specific, fine-tuned approach to treating these disorders by promoting alertness and treating insomnia would greatly benefit public health," he added.

Lack of sleep is linked to a host of health problems, from heart disease and memory loss to diabetes.

Ana Ivanovic Novak Djokovic wedding

Ana Ivanovic gossips on Novak Djokovic´s wedding

The former World No. 1 Ana Ivanovic said that, she feels either may not invited to wedding ceremony of fellow country mate and good friend Novak Djokovic.

The four-time Grand Slam champion Novak Djokovic, who has been dating with her long time girl friend Jelena Ristic planning to marry soon in this year. The Report says that, Djokovic and Jelena Ristic will marry in October or November, as the wedding ceremony will be held at a traditional church in his home town Monaco in Serbia in front of his family and friends. Recently, the couple also appears on the cover page of a Serbian edition of Hello Magazine.

The 2011 US Open champion Djokovic wants to enjoy his married life like Roger Federer, who has been spending his career experience with wife Mirka Vavrinec along with his twin daughters Myla Rose and Charlene Riva. Serbian star Djokovic and Ivanovic have been best friends, since their childhood and both the players are excited to watch each other matches at the Grand Slam tournaments.

The 24-year-old Djokovic, who has withdrawn from the 2011 China Open and Shanghai Rolex Masters in Beijing, where he wants to marry Jelena Ristic, during this break time. Djokovic hopes to play his next tournament at Basel Indoor courts in Switzerland, which will begin at 31st October, 2011.

Shanghai subway crash injures dozens

A subway train in China's commercial center of Shanghai has smashed into the back of another train, injuring dozens of people.

Local reports say the accident Tuesday on Line 10, one of the city's newest lines, may have been caused by problems with the signaling system, similar to a crash in July on one of China's high-speed train lines.

Shanghai TV says more than 100 people were taken to hospitals for treatment. The exact number of injuries could not be immediately confirmed.

Shanghai, a city of 23 million, has rapidly expanded its subway system in recent years. Some lines have had problems with faulty signaling, doors not opening properly and poorly trained operators.

Bomb Blast in Turkish capital

Blast kills 3, wounds 15 in Turkish capital

News Updates! A suspected car bomb went off near a high school in the Turkish capital on Tuesday, igniting other vehicles and killing three people in a nearby building, the interior minister said. The blast also wounded 15 people.

The explosion was "highly likely to be a terrorist attack," said Interior Minister Idris Naim Sahin. "The explosion occurred in a place where car and people traffic is intense. It looks like the intension was to inflict as much harm to people as possible."

The parked car was purchased a week ago but it was not yet registered.

Kurdish rebels fighting for autonomy in southeastern Turkey have recently escalated their attacks on Turkish targets, but Islamist and leftist militants have also carried out some bombings in this NATO member and U.S. ally.

Kurdish rebels were blamed for a small bomb attack in the Mediterranean resort town of Kemer that wounded 10 people, including four Swedes on Aug. 28. Turkish warplanes bombed suspected rebel hideouts in northern Iraq last month in response to the escalation of attacks by the guerrillas.

The bodies of three people were found in a building near the car that exploded in downtown Ankara, Sahin said. Fifteen people were also wounded, he added.

Deputy Prime Minister Bulent Arinc said police had information that a bomb was planted on the car, although other officials quoted a witness as saying that a burning gas canister had been tossed onto the vehicle.

The explosion sparked a series of blasts in adjacent vehicles.

Reyhan Altintas, a neighborhood administrator, said she rushed outside after hearing a loud blast. It was followed by three other blasts, apparently caused by cars catching fire.

At least five of the wounded were in serious condition, said Sahin.

"I had never heard anything like it in my life," witness Adnan Yavuz said of the initial blast. "Then came another explosion and parts of a car dropped from the tree."

The wounded were initially treated in the school yard before medics rushed to the scene and whisked them away to hospitals, NTV television said. Authorities evacuated the school as worried parents rushed to pick up their children.

Dave Lindahl

Sikkim Earthquake

Sikkim earthquake toll climbs to 66.

Earthquake News Updates: Sikkim earthquake toll climbs to 66, rescue work hampered by landslides.

Landslides and inclement weather today hampered rescue operations in quake-hit Sikkim as the death toll in the 6.8 magnitude tremblor mounted to 66, including 39 in the Himalayan state.

The earthquake, which struck last evening, left a trail of devastation damaging roads, buildings and other structures, uprooting mobile phone towers and snapping communication and power lines. After shocks made people panic in several areas forcing them to spend the night outdoors.

West and South districts in Sikkim remained inaccessible to the Army due to landslides and inclement weather and rescuers were facing an uphill task to reach these areas, Major General S L Narasimhan, GOC 17 Mountain Division told reporters here.

Sikkim accounted for 39 deaths alone, with most casualties taking place in the North District and in towns and villages like Rangpo, Dikchu, Singtam and Chungthang located along the course of Teesta river, officials in the district control room said.

Eight persons travelling in a bus of Teesta Urja Limited in North District are presumed dead as their vehicle got stuck under debris caused by a landslide, Narasimhan said. This, however, has not been incorporated in the official figure of those killed.

The overnight toll climbed to 66 which included six deaths in West Bengal and seven each in Bihar, Nepal and Tibet, official reports said. Over a hundred people have been injured.

Narasimhan said army has launched 'Operation Madad' in Gangtok and other areas by deploying over 2,500 troops."We are also sending teams to Darjeeling and Kalimpong (in West Bengal)," he said.

A group of 14 tourists were rescued by the army from north Sikkim last night, Narasimhan said.

In Delhi, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh announced Rs two lakh as ex-gratia to next of kin of those killed in the earthquake and Rs one lakh each for those seriously injured.

David Lindahl

Planet with two suns 'discovered'

Astronomers claim to have discovered a planet which orbits two suns, like the fictional planet Tatooine in the " Star Wars" sci-fi film.

An international team, which made the finding through NASA's Kepler spacecraft, says the planet, called Kepler-16b, is about 200 light years from Earth and is believed to be a frozen world of rock and gas, about the size of Saturn.

It orbits two stars that are also circling each other, one about two-thirds the size of our sun, the other about a fifth the size of our sun. Each orbit takes 229 days; the stars eclipse each other every three weeks or so.

Alan Boss, a researcher at the Carnegie Institution for Science in Washington DC and a member of the team, was quoted by the media as saying, "You would never get constant daylight because the two stars are so close together.

"They would come together in an eclipse every 20.5 days and then move apart again. As their separation increased, they would go down at different times, and that could make cocktail hour hard."

In fact, the team, led by Laurance Doyle at the Carl Sagan Centre for the Study of Life in the Universe at the Seti Institute in California, spotted the planet after noticing unusual signals in data collected by the Kepler spacecraft.

Images captured by Kepler's camera showed two stars orbiting each other and producing eclipses as they moved in front of one another. Both stars were small in comparison with our own sun, at about 69 and 20 per cent of the sun's mass.

On closer inspection, the footage revealed further eclipses that could not be explained by the movement of the two stars, or an additional third star. Instead, a subtle drop in light from the stars, which amounted to a dimming of only 1.7 per cent, was attributed to an orbiting planet.

The astronomers turned next to a ground-based telescope, the Whipple Observatory in Arizona. With this, they monitored the shifting velocity of the heaviest star as it moved around in its orbit.

Those observations gave Doyle's team the details they needed to reconstruct the orbits of the stars and its planet.

They showed that the two suns orbit each other every 41 days at a distance of about 21 million miles. The planet completes a circular orbit around both stars every 229 days at a distance of 65 million miles, according to the findings published in the 'Science' journal.

Josh Carter, another team member, added: "Kepler-16b is the first confirmed, unambiguous example of a circumbinary planet - a planet orbiting not one, but two stars. Once again, we're finding that our solar system is only one example of the variety of planetary systems nature can create."

37 feared killed in Assam bus accident

Assam wedding bus crash leaves 27 dead

A wedding celebration turned into a mourning in Assam when a bus carrying the groom and 42 more people plunged into a gorge after hitting a wooden bridge, officials said Tuesday.

A total of 37 people have been feared killed, but six survived miraculously.

The accident occurred around 11 p.m. Monday near Charabari village in Kamrup district, about 30 km off Assam's main city of Guwahati.

The bus was on its way from Guwahati to Tihu in Nalbari district.

"The marriage rituals at the bride's home in Tihu were to take place early Tuesday, and the bus was on its way with the groom when the accident took place," Police Officer A. Das said.

The dead included the groom and their relatives.

Rescue workers have so far managed to fish out 28 bodies and efforts are on to recover more bodies.

According to witnesses, the driver failed to notice the wooden bridge without any railings or signposts and the bus plunged into the deep gorge.

"Six people were rescued by locals and admitted to hospitals, while 28 bodies have been recovered so far," the police officer said.

Meanwhile, the Assam government has ordered an enquiry into the accident.

"We have already ordered an enquiry to find out why the wooden bridge had no railings or signposts alerting drivers about the bad condition of the bridge," Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi said.

"Immediate steps are being taken to make a concrete bridge there. Besides, a statewide alert has been sounded to look for such vulnerable bridges that need urgent repair or attention," he added.

Gogoi also announced a compensation of Rs.100,000 each to the next of kin of those killed and Rs.50,000 each to the six injured.

Locals, however, accused the district and police authorities of failing to react promptly after the accident.

"The NDRF (National Disaster Response Force) was informed around 11 p.m. and they arrived at the accident site only around 7 a.m. Tuesday, saying they don't have night vision equipment and hence came in the morning," local community leader Bhabesh Bora told IANS.

7 dead in suicide attack in northern Afghanistan

Top general wounded, 7 dead in suicide attack in northern Afghanistan

A top coalition general wounded in a suicide attack Saturday in northern Afghanistan -- one that left seven dead and eight others hurt -- said weeks earlier that he'd charged international troops to "show Afghans ... respect," in part to contrast with brazen actions by the likes of the Taliban.

The attack in Taloqan occurred at a high-level meeting of Afghan and coalition officials in a governor's office, a provincial spokesman said. A Taliban spokesman said that the group, whose fight to resume control in Afghanistan has picked up in recent months, was responsible.

Maj. Gen. Markus Kneip, a veteran German office and the regional head of the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force across nine provinces of northern Afghanistan, is in stable condition after suffering non-life threatening injuries, a German general said. The provinces border Turkmenistan east to China.

A soldier since 1975, Kneip is also senior commander of all German troops in Afghanistan and Uzbekistan, according to a biography on the military alliance's website. He returned in February to the position, which he also held in 2006, leading more than 12,000 coalition troops from 16 countries.

In an April press briefing coordinated by the U.S. Department of Defense, Kneip said he'd noticed a "huge difference" in the coalition commitment to the region compared to five years earlier, saying "we are doubling and tripling our efforts." He also spoke of the "huge burden" placed on coalition troops "to be careful with their actions" in order to win over Afghans.

"We ask them to follow these rules (to) distinguish our actions from the Taliban, who take advantage of children, who take advantage of children, and put (suicide attackers) in, which is a cruel doing," Kneip said, according to a transcript of his answers on the U.S. Department of Defense website.

The attack came at a meeting, held in the governor's office in Taloqan, "to talk about security in this region, especially after the demonstrations in recent days," German Defense Minister Thomas de Maiziere told reporters.

He was referring to a May 18 incident in which German soldiers shot in front of their camp a number of demonstrators -- angry about NATO airstrike that killed four insurgents, including two armed females -- who they allege had become violent.

Provincial government spokesman Faiz Mohammad Tawhidi blamed protesters whom he said threw grenades and "opened fire on protesters and security forces." Two German soldiers and four Afghan guards were injured during the clashes, according to the German military.

"New trust was to be initiated," de Maiziere said of Saturday's meeting.

The meeting attendees included high-ranking authorities from the Afghan National Police, the Afghan National Army and ISAF members, said an interior ministry spokesman, Zemaray Bashari.

In a telephone interview, Taliban spokesman Zabulliah Mojahed said, "Our sacrificed mujahedeen targeted the high-ranking Afghan authorities together with the international forces who were attending a security meeting as advisers and they were planning to launch an operation against the Taliban in the north in this meeting."

"After our mujahedeen found (out) about this meeting, then it was targeted by our suicide bomber," he told CNN from an unknown location.

Two Germans were killed, as was thepolice chief of Takhar province, Shah Jahan Noori; and the regional police chief, Gen. Dawood Dawood, said Faiz Mohammad Tawhidi, a spokesman for provincial Gov. Abdul Jabar Taqwa.

Dawood Dawood was a veteran anti-Soviet and anti-Taliban resistance commander. His roles since the Taliban's ouster include being one of Afghanistan's lead point-persons in trying to stifle the production of opium poppies -- from which the drug heroin is made.

The governor's secretary and two guards were also killed, said Qari Sadiqullah, secretary of the provincial council. Most of the wounded suffered burns, he said.

Taqwa himself was wounded, his spokesman said.So, too, were three German soldiers, according to de Maiziere.

The German general told reporters that Kneip and other commanders had participated Saturday morning in a memorial ceremony for a German soldier who had died Wednesday near Kunduz.

ISAF spokesman Rear Adm. Vic Beck condemned what he called "the senseless murder of these Afghans and coalition members who have fought so hard for the people of Afghanistan.

"ISAF will remain relentless in our support to our Afghan partners to find those responsible and bring them to justice," he said.

The attack came two days after eight U.S. troops died when two improvised explosive devices blew up in Shorabak District, about 100 kilometers (62 miles) south of Kandahar, according to ISAF.

That region -- on the opposite end from where Saturday's attack occurred -- has been the site of a spate of recent violence, after Taliban forces unleashed multiple attacks earlier this month in their so-called spring offensive.

Blind ‘can develop bat-like sonar’

It’s well-known that bats use a biological version of sonar, called echolocation, to find their way around at night. That blind humans could do it too was suspected but not known. Now, Canadian researchers have proved that they can.

In ray of hope for the blind, a research has found that visually challenged people can develop “sonar”, that is, learning to navigate like bats by “seeing” objects from sounds reflected off them.

It’s well-known that bats use a biological version of sonar, called echolocation, to find their way around at night.

That blind humans could do it too was suspected but not known. Now, Canadian researchers have proved that they can.

Intriguingly, they did so by using a part of the brain normally involved in processing visual images. They discovered this by carrying out brain scans on two male volunteers, aged 43 and 27, who had both been blind since childhood.

Each was asked to stand outside and try to perceive different objects such as a car, a flag pole and a tree by making clicking noises and then picking up their very faint echoes. Tiny microphones were placed in the volunteers’ ears to record the outgoing and incoming sounds.

The men later had these sounds played back to them, while their brain activity was monitored using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scans. During playback, they were able to identify which object was which from the echoes.

The fMRI scans showed that these echoes were being processed by brain regions normally used to process visual information; no echo-related activity was seen in the auditory brain areas, which would be expected to process sound, ‘The Daily Telegraph’ reported.

The 43-year-old, who’s lost his sight earlier, performed better. His eyes were removed at 13 months due to a rare cancer called retinoblastoma. The same test on sighted people showed no ability to echolocate, and no echo-related activity in their visual brain regions.

Dr Mel Goodale from the University of Western Ontario, led the study, said: “It is clear that echolocation enables blind people to do things that are otherwise thought to be impossible without vision, and in this way it can provide blind and vision-impaired people with a high degree of independence in their daily lives.”

The study has been published in the ‘Public Library of Science One’ journal.

Indian Maoists killed 10 policemen

Nine Indian police 'killed, mutilated 'by Maoists

Suspected Maoist rebels killed at least nine Indian policemen and then mutilated their bodies in a gruesome attack in the eastern state of Orissa, a top police officer said on Tuesday.

The policemen from Raipur, the capital of the neighbouring state of Chhattisgarh, had gone on an anti-Maoist sweep through a remote and forested area near the border with Orissa before coming under attack.

"Police have recovered the bodies of nine security personnel from the gunbattle site and all have been mutilated by the Maoists," a spokesman for Chhattisgarh police, Rajesh Mishra, told AFP.

"The Maoists have done this to create terror among the forces," he added.

A search party has been sent out to try to find a 10th member of the team whose whereabouts are unknown, he said.

Raipur police chief Mukesh Gupta and other police sources told AFP that the victims were ambushed when they were returning from their mission in a tractor after their police jeep had broken down in the forest.

The attack took place 40 kilometres (25 miles) inside Orissa in Nuapada district, about 175 kilometres from Raipur.

On other occasions in the past, the Maoists have either mutilated the bodies or tied land mines on them to frighten other police involved in the fight against the insurgents.

Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Raman Singh condemned the attack and told reporters that "the mutilation of bodies has exposed the real face of the left-wing extremists."

The Maoist movement, which began in 1967, feeds off land disputes, police brutality and corruption, and is strongest in the poorest and most deprived areas of India, many of which are rich in natural resources.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has called the insurgency India's main internal security threat and has urged state governments to increase welfare measures, especially in Maoist-hit regions, to help counter the ultra-leftists.

Some 171 suspected left-wing guerrillas were killed last year along with 713 civilians in Maoist-linked violence compared to the previous year's tally of 591. A total of 285 policemen also died in 2010.

More girls being aborted selectively

Selective abortion of girls in India prevented about 4.2 to 12.1 million girls from being born between 1980 and 2010, with the largest number of girls being aborted in the 1990s decade, a latest survey has shown.

Selective abortion of girls, especially for pregnancies after a first born girl, has increased substantially in India. Most of India’s population now live in States where selective abortion is common, says the study “Trends in selective abortions of girls in India: analysis of nationally representative birth histories from 1990 to 2005 and census data from 1991 to 2011’’ published in the latest edition of The Lancet.

The 2011 census has revealed about there were 7.1 million fewer girls than boys aged 0-6 years, a substantial increase in the gap of 6 million fewer girls recorded in the 2001 census and 4.2 million fewer girls recorded in the 1991 census. These declines in girl to boy ratios are larger in better-educated and in richer households than in illiterate and poorer households, and now imply that 90 per cent people in India live in States where selective abortion of girls is common.

In the study, the authors analysed census data to determine absolute numbers of selective abortions and examined over 250,000 births from national surveys to estimate differences in the girl-boy ratio for second births in families in which the first born child had been a girl. The Lancet article is written by Prof. Prabhat Jha, Centre for Global Health Research, Dalla Lala School of Public Health, University of Toronto and colleagues from India including the former Registrar-General of India, D. Jayant K. Banthia.

The study has found that this girl-boy ratio fell from 906 girls per 1000 boys in 1990 to 836 in 2005: an annual decline of 0.52 per cent. Declines were much greater in mothers with 10 or more years of education than in mothers with no education, and in wealthier households compared with poorer households. But, if the first child had been a boy, there was no fall in the girl-boy ratio for the second child over the study period, strongly suggesting that families particularly those that are more wealthy and educated, are selectively aborting girls if their first born child I also a girl.

After adjusting for excess mortality rates in girls, the authors ranges estimates the number of selective abortions of girls rose from 0-2.0 millions in the 1980s, 1.2-4.1 million in the 1990s, and to 3.1-6.0 million in the 2000s. Each 1 per cent decline in child sex ratio at 0-6 year age implied between 1.2 and 3.6 million more selective abortions of girls.

The authors point out that between 2001 and 2011 censuses, more than twice the number of Indian districts showed declines in the child sex ratio compared to districts with no change or increases. They also point out that a Pre-Conception and Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques Act in 1996 to prevent the misuse of techniques for the purpose of prenatal sex determination has been effective nationally but a reliable monitoring and reporting of sex ratios by birth order in each district could be a reasonable part of any effort to curb the growth of selective abortions of girls,’’ the paper recommends.

Pakistan naval base siege ends

16 die as Pakistan naval base siege ends

Pakistani security forces Monday ended a 15-hour siege here of a key naval base that terrorists stormed overnight, sparking fierce battles that left 16 people dead, officials said.

The dead included 12 security personnel and four of the attackers who exploded themselves at PNS Mehran naval base in one of the worst and most aduacious of terror attacks in Pakistan in recent times.

Four terrorists were arrested, media reports said. The attack targeted P-3C Orion aircraft, two of which were destroyed.

The terrorists reportedly took hostage a number of people, including Chinese military personnel. Their fate was not immediately known.

A large number of terrorists, their number estimated between 10 and 25, stormed the base Sunday night, Xinhua reported citing local media reports. They were armed with automatic weapons, rocket launchers and grenades.

The mayhem began in no time as the armed men scattered in the complex with one aim: kill and destroy.

Over 20 bomb explosions quickly shook the otherwise heavily-guarded naval facility Sunday night.

Four equally powerful blasts were also heard at the nearby air force base. Television footage showed thick smoke billowing from the area.

Fierce gunfights raged through the night as reinforcements of security forces rushed to the base.

The Pakistani Taliban, which is opposed to Islamabad's pro-US policies, reportedly claimed responsibility for the attack, Xinhua said.

At one point, the terrorist retreated into a building within the base holding hostages as human shield to fight back the navy commandos, Rangers and security personnel.

Pakistani commandos supported by helicopters battled the terrorists.

Four militants who had camouflaged themselves in dark outfits were arrested, Geo News reported.

After 15 hours of intermittent fighting, the security forces managed to regain control of the complex, BBC reported.

A police official said 12 security personnel were killed.

The terror attack comes within three weeks of Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden's killing May 2 in Abbottabad by US commandos. The Taliban had vowed retaliation.

Earlier reports said four foreigners were killed. They were believed to be US engineers working at the air force base.

But a spokesperson from the US consulate denied the report.

It was the third militant attack on the navy in Karachi in a month.

At least five people were killed and 18 injured in a bombing of a Pakistan Navy bus here April 28, two days after twin blasts blew up two naval buses killing four people.

Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani condemned the attack.

On May 13, Pakistani Taliban suicide bombers blew themselves up near a paramilitary training centre in Charsadda in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, killing over 80 newly-trained personnel.

Last week, a Saudi consulate official was gunned down in Karachi.

2G scam

2G scam: Morani's bail plea dismissed

A special Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) court here Monday dismissed the anticipatory bail plea of Cineyug Films' founder Karim Morani, named as co-conspirator in the 2G spectrum allocation scam , and asked him to appear before the court Tuesday.

Special CBI Judge O.P. Saini said: "Morani's bail application is dismissed. He will have to appear before the court tomorrow at 10 a.m."

Morani had been exempted from personal appearance in court due to ill-health.

The CBI's first chargesheet April 2 had named, besides former communication minister A. Raja, former telecom secretary Siddharth Behura, Swan Telecom promoter Shahid Balwa, Raja's aide R.K. Chandolia, Swan Telecom's Vinod Goenka, Unitech's Sanjay Chandra and three executives of the Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group: Gautam Doshi, Hari Nair and Surendra Pipara.

In its April 25 supplementary chargesheet, the CBI named DMK chief M. Karunanidhi's daughter Kanimozhi and Kalaignar TV managing director Sharad Kumar as co-conspirators after it traced an illegal money trail of Rs.214 crore in the scam.

The supplementary chargesheet also named Karim Morani as well as Asif Balwa and Rajiv B. Aggarwal of Kusegaon Realty.

Except for Morani and Pipara, who is in judicial custody at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) here, all those named in the CBI chargesheets are in Tihar Jail.

Iceland volcano ash to hit UK by Tuesday

Ash cloud moves towards UK airspace

Ash from Iceland's Grimsvotn volcano expected to affect Heathrow by the end of the week

Airlines and airports have been warned to expect ash from an erupting Icelandic volcano to arrive in UK airspace by Tuesday, with the possibility that it could affect Heathrow by the end of the week.

Europe's air traffic control organisation, Eurocontrol, told airlines and airports on Monday that particles from the Grimsvotn volcano could reach Scotland by 1am on Tuesday and southern England by Thursday or Friday, depending on wind direction.

An aviation industry source said if the volcano continues to erupt at same intensity ash cloud could reach the west of the UK on Thursday or Friday, but the Met Office has low confidence in the forecast because of a prevailing low pressure system.

However, the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) said it was confident that a new Europe-wide safety regime introduced after the Eyjafjallajokull eruption last year would reduce disruption significantly and avoid the continental shutdown that stranded millions.

Under previous guidelines, aeroplanes were summarily grounded if there was any volcanic ash in the air. Now, airlines can fly through ash plumes if they have a safety case demonstrating that their fleets can handle medium or high-level densities of ash.

A CAA spokesman said most major airlines already have safety cases for medium-density ash clouds.

"We are in a much better position than last time," he said. "Safety will still be paramount but we will be able to drastically reduce disruption compared to last time, provided there is not a huge amount of high-density ash." The spokesman said a similar level of ash to the Eyjafjallajokull incident would not result in a mass-grounding. "It will be a different picture."

BAA, the owner of Heathrow, Stansted, Edinburgh, Glasgow and Aberdeen airports, has convened a crisis support team to prepare for a reduction in flights, as airlines and airports await a further briefing from National Air Traffic Services (Nats). "We are working closely with the CAA and Nats in preparing contingency plans if ash enters UK airspace," it said.

Under the new ash guidelines, cloud densities are split into three levels: low; medium; and high. Once Nats assigns a particular density of ash to a section of airspace, airlines must prove that they have the safety case to fly through it. A low density cloud is 2g of ash per ten cubic metres of air, with medium being 2g to 4g of ash per ten cubic metres of air. Anything above 4g is deemed high density.

The Grimsvotn volcano began erupting on Sunday, causing flights to be cancelled at Iceland's main Keflavik airport after it sent a plume of ash smoke and steam 12 miles (19km) into the air. Experts have said the eruption was unlikely to have the dramatic impact that the Eyjafjallajokull volcano had in April 2010.

"At the moment if the volcano continues to erupt to the same level it has been, and is now, the UK could be at risk of seeing volcanic ash later this week," said Helen Chivers, Met Office spokeswoman. "Quite when and how much we can't really define at the moment."

Chivers said the weather situation is set to be different to last year, with the wind direction set to change continuously.

She added: "If it moves in the way that we're currently looking, with the eruption continuing the way it is, then if the UK is at risk later this week, then France and Spain could be as well."

While the ash has grounded aircraft in Iceland, it is not anticipated that it will have a similar impact in the rest of Europe.

Dr Dave McGarvie, volcanologist at the Open University, said that the amount of ash reaching the UK "is likely to be less than in the 2010 Eyjafjallajokull eruption", and said the last two times Grimsvotn erupted it did not affect UK air travel.

"In addition, the experience gained from the 2010 eruption, especially by the Met Office, the airline industry, and the engine manufacturers, should mean less disruption to travellers."

The April eruption of the Eyjafjallajokull volcano, in south-east Iceland, caused the worst disruption to international air travel since 9/11. Flights across Europe were cancelled for six-days stranding tens of thousands of people and was estimated to have cost airlines £130m a day.

Eurocontrol said in a statement: "There is currently no impact on European or transatlantic flights and the situation is expected to remain so for the next 24 hours. Aircraft operators are constantly being kept informed of the evolving situation."

Deadly tornado ravages Missouri

A massive tornado has cut a deadly swath through a Missouri city, turning homes into rubble, destroying the local high school, ripping huge chunks out of a hospital and reportedly killing at least 24 people.

The tornado, which struck the city of Joplin near the border with Oklahoma and Kansas, was the deadliest of 46 tornadoes reported to the National Weather Service in seven American states on Sunday.

Asked about a report that 24 people had died, Joplin city spokeswoman Lynn Onstot said grimly that officials were "afraid it may be more", the Associated Press reported.

"Our fear is that's a low number," she said.

"It's a warzone," Scott Meeker from the Joplin Globe newspaper told Agence France-Presse.

"We've got hundreds of wounded being treated at Memorial Hall (hospital) but they were quickly overwhelmed and ran out of supplies so they've opened up a local school as a triage centre."

People clawed through the rubble looking for friends, family and neighbours after the late afternoon storm tore buildings apart and turned cars into crumpled heaps of metal.

Flames and thick black smoke poured out of the wreckage of completely unrecognisable homes and water gushed out of broke pipes as shocked survivors surveyed the damage, early photos showed.

A tangled medical helicopter lay in the rubble outside St John Regional Medical Center, which took a direct hit.

The hospital staff had just a few moments' notice to hustle patients into hallways before the storm struck the multi-storey building, blowing out hundreds of windows and leaving the facility useless.

Triage centres and shelters were set up around the city of about 50,000 people, which is about 260 kilometres south of Kansas City.

Emergency management officials rushed heavy equipment to Joplin to help lift debris and clear the way for search and recovery operations.

Missouri Governor Jay Nixon declared a state of emergency and activated National Guard troops, and US President Barack Obama sent condolences to families of those who died in storms in Joplin and across the Midwest.

The same storm system that produced the Joplin tornado sparked tornadoes from Oklahoma to Wisconsin.

At least one person was killed in Minneapolis. But the devastation in Missouri appeared to be the worst of the day, eerily reminiscent of the tornadoes that killed more than 300 people across the US south last month.

"You see pictures of World War II, the devastation and all that with the bombing. That's really what it looked like," said Kerry Sachetta, the principal of a flattened Joplin High School.

"I couldn't even make out the side of the building. It was total devastation in my view. I just couldn't believe what I saw."

Onstot said the twister was on the ground for nearly six kilometres.

It hit the hospital and a commercial area including a construction store, numerous smaller businesses and restaurants and a grocery store.

An untold number of homes were destroyed and reduced to ruin.

The emergency manager at the neighbouring county of Springfield-Greene County was told at least 24 people were killed before he rushed over to help, a spokeswoman told Agence France-Presse.

With many phones down in the area, it was difficult to get further confirmation.

"It's so devastating we can't even grasp it at this point," Rob Chappel of the Jasper County coroner's office told AFP.

"We're still trying to rescue victims that are still trapped. With it being so dark and no electricity, everyone has underestimated how much is just gone."

Chappel said authorities probably wouldn't know the exact death toll before late Monday at the earliest.

Governor Nixon warned that the storms were not finished.

"These storms have caused extensive damage across Missouri, and they continue to pose significant risk to lives and property" Nixon said in a statement late Sunday.

"As a state, we are deploying every agency and resource available to keep Missouri families safe, search for the missing, provide emergency medical care, and begin to recover," he added.

President Barack Obama sent his "deepest condolences" to victims and said the national government stood ready to help Americans as needed.

50 most-wanted fugitives hiding in Pakistan

India lists 50 most-wanted fugitives hiding in Pakistan

Turning more heat on Pakistan, India today released a list of 50 "most-wanted fugitives" hiding in that country. The list includes underworld don Dawood Ibrahim, 26/11 mastermind and LeT founder Hafiz Saeed and dreaded terrorist Zaki ur Rehman Lakhvi and has been given to the Pakistan government, which has continuously denied that terrorists and criminals that India wants are hiding there.

Hafiz Saeed, who is involved in Mumbai terror attack and various other attacks in India, tops the list which also includes Jaish-e-Mohammed chief Maulana Masood Azhar, the main accused in the 2001 Parliament attack case. He was released in exchange of hostages in the Khandhar hijack episode in 1999.

The government's action comes in the midst of acute discomfort for Pakistan which has been tying itself in knots over the charge of sheltering al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden, who was killed in a unilateral US Special Forces action in Abbottabad on May 2.

The list includes names of al Qaeda operative Illyas Kashmiri, who is accused of transnational crime and conspiracy to commit various terrorist acts in India, close associates of Dawood Ibrahim, Memon Ibrahim alias Tiger Memon, Shaikh Shakeel alias Chhota Shakeel, Memon Ayub Abdul Razak, Anis Ibrahim Kaskar Shaikh, Anwar Ahmed Haji Jamal and Mohammed Ahmed Dosa, all involved in the 1993 serial bombings in Mumbai.

Hizbul Mujahideen chief Sayeed Salauddin, Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front founder Amanullah Khan, Punjab terrorists Lakhbir Singh, Paramjit Singh Panjwar, Ranjit Singh alias Neeta and Wadhawa Singh were also named as most-wanted fugitives.

Names of Mumbai terror attack case accused Sajid Majid, Major Iqbal, Major Sameer Ali, Sayed Abdul Rehman alias Pasha and Abu Hamza were also included in the list of fugitives.

Here's the full list:

Mohd Hafiz Saeed;
Sajid Majid;
Syed Abdur Rehman;
Major Iqbal;
Ilyas Kashmiri;
Rashid Abdullah;
Major Sameer Ali;
Dawood Ibrahim
Memon Ibrahim;
Shaikh Shakeel;
Memon Ayub;
Anis Ibrahim Kaskar Shaikh;
Anwar Ahmed;
Munaf Abdul;
Mohd Tainur;
Mohd Ahmed Dosa;
Javed Patel;
Slaim Abdul;
Riyaz Abu Bakar Khatri;
Khan Bashir;
Yakub Khan;
Mohd Shafi;
Irfan Ahmed Feroz Abdul,
Ishaq Atta,
Sagir Sabir Ali,
Aftab Batki,
Maulana Mohd,
Mohd Yusuf Shah,
Cheema QAzam,
Syed Zabuiddin,
Ibrahim Athar,
Azhar Yusuf,
Mistri Zahur,
Sayeed Shahid,
Shakir Mohd,
Abdul Rauf,
Aminullah Khan,
Suffiah Mufti,
Nachan Akmal,
Khan Wazhul,
Yakub Khan Channeparambil Mohd,
Lakhbir Singh,
Paramjit Singh,
Ranjit Singh,
Wadhawa Singh,
Aabdu Hamza,
Zaki ur Rehman Lakhvi,
Amir Reza Khan