Is the Government Spying on Reporters More Often Than We Think? The Justice Department’s seizure of call logs related to phone lines used by dozens of Associated Press reporters has provoked a flurry of bipartisan criticism, most of which has cast the decision as a disturbing departure from the norm. AP head Gary Pruitt condemned the decision, part of an investigation into leaks of classified information, as a “massive and unprecedented intrusion.” Yet there’s plenty of circumstantial evidence suggesting the seizure may not be unprecedented—just rarely disclosed. The Justice Department is supposed to follow special rules when it seeks the phone records of reporters, in recognition that such snooping conflicts with First Amendment values. As Pruitt complained in an angry letter to Attorney General Eric Holder, those logs provided the government a “road map” of the stories his reporters were investigating, and there is evidence that such seizures deter anonymous sources from speaking to the press—whether they’re discussing classified programs or merely facts that embarrass the government. Read more at motherjones.com http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2013/05/associated-press-phone-records-spying-journalists

China softens stand on Arunachal Pradesh: India claims China is occupying 38,000 sq. km. of territory in the Aksai Chin plateau in the western Himalayas, while China claims around 90,000 sq.km. of land including Arunachal Pradesh. There was no concrete outcome even after 15 rounds of talks. Dropping of its aggressive posture on Arunachal and other contentious issues in the Blue book, crafted carefully to avoid expressing grouse on issue like the border dispute and the presence of spiritual Tibetan leader Dalai Lama in India, is a louder message that Beijing wants early solution to the border row. The move is significant as Chinese new President Xi Jinping met Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh at Durban on the sidelines of the BRICS summit on March 14 this year, and held talks on border dispute, within days of Premier Li Kequing assuming office that reflected the importance China attached to its strengthened ties with India.. Read more at aninews.com http://www.aninews.in//newsdetail2/story111945/china-softens-stand-on-arunachal-pradesh.html

Social mobilisation key to polio eradication in India – Bill Gates: Expected to be the hardest, polio eradication was made possible in India thanks to social mobilisation and mapping of houses refusing the vaccine, according to Microsoft’s Bill Gates. “The two things that were done super well were social mobilization and mapping where the houses were,” Gates, who has made global health and, in particular, the total eradication of polio his top priority this year, said in a media interview published Friday. “Dealing with refusals is a huge part of this,” he told the Washington Post. Usually there are 10 to 20 percent refusals, but rumours like that the US government uses vaccination campaigns to sterilise Muslim women lead to much higher refusals. Read more at nydailynews.com http://india.nydailynews.com/newsarticle/0df1d3e66c8999f82d68363852b60ce8/social-mobilisation-key-to-polio-eradication-in-india-bill-gates#ixzz2TaxvOCVQ

Pakistan to free 51 Indian fishermen as goodwill gesture: In a goodwill gesture, Pakistan on Friday said it would free 51 Indian fishermen who had completed their prison terms and hoped India will reciprocate. “Prime Minister Mir Hazar Khan Khoso has decided to release 51 Indian fishermen on humanitarian grounds as a gesture of goodwill. These prisoners have already served their sentences,” said a statement from the caretaker premier’s office. Khoso expressed the hope that the Indian government would reciprocate by freeing Pakistani prisoners. The statement did not say when the prisoners would be repatriated. The decision to release the fishermen was made at a meeting attended by interim Law Minister Ahmer Bilal Soofi, caretaker Sindh Chief Minister Zahid Qurban Alvi and senior officials of the Interior, Foreign and Law Ministries and the Prime Minister’s Secretariat. Read more at zeenews.india.com http://zeenews.india.com/news/nation/pakistan-to-free-51-indian-fishermen-as-goodwill-gesture_849218.html

Delhi court grants bail to suspected Hizb militant Liyaqat Shah: Suspected Hizbul Mujahideen militant Liyaqat Shah, arrested by the Delhi Police for allegedly conspiring to carry out terror attacks in the national capital, was on Friday granted bail by a special NIA court here. District Judge IS Mehta enlarged Liyaqat on bail on a personal bond of Rs 20,000 with a surety of the like amount. The court imposed several conditions on Liyaqat while granting him bail and directed him not to leave the country without its prior permission. 45-year-old Liyaqat was arrested on March 20 while crossing the Indo-Nepal border in Gorakhpur with his family. Liyaqat had said that he had come to surrender under the Jammu and Kashmir government’s rehabilitation policy.Read more at indiatimes.com http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Delhi-court-grants-bail-to-suspected-Hizb-militant-Liyaqat-Shah/articleshow/20101485.cms

Jordan to host ‘world’s largest refugee camp: Al-Zaatari refugee camp near Jordan’s northern border with Syria is the second largest refugee camp in the world. On days when violence in Syria worsens, between 2,000-4,000 Syrians flood into Zaatari, and the stories they tell are horrific. “Things are happening in Syria that our minds couldn’t even imagine,” 65-year-old Nada Salim Abdullah, who has been in the camp four months, told Al Jazeera. “People were being captured and they were slaughtering them like chickens.” Abdullah, who fled his home in Deraa with his family, spoke of atrocities committed by forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad. Other refugees told Al Jazeera of atrocities carried out by opposition forces. Read more at aljazeera.com

US scientists clone human stem cells: Scientists have recovered stem cells from cloned human embryos in a breakthrough that could lead to new treatments for such illnesses as Parkinson’s disease and diabetes. US scientists said in Wednesday’s edition of the journal Cell that they had harvested stem cells from six embryos created from donated eggs, in a technique using methods like those that produced Dolly the sheep in Britain. Shoukhrat Mitalipov of the Oregon Health & Science University, who led the research, said that two embryos had been given DNA from skin cells of a child with a genetic in disorder and the others had DNA from fetal skin cells. Mitalipov said the success came not from a single technical innovation, but from revising a series of steps in the process. He noted it had taken six years to reach the goal after doing it with monkey embryos. Read more at aljazeera.com

Nigeria president declares state of emergency: Goodluck Jonathan, the Nigerian president, has imposed a “state of emergency” in three states in an attempt to curb the increasingly violent attacks by armed group Boko Haram, saying the level of violence called for “extraordinary measures”. The decision comes after a spate of attacks on security forces and government targets by Boko Haram in its northeast stronghold this month. In a televised statement on Tuesday, the president said, “I hereby declare a state of emergency in Borno, Yobe and Adamawa states.” Jonathan said more troops would “immediately” be deployed to the areas. Read more at aljazeera.com

GuatemalaIlluminates its Dark History With a Stunning Guilty Verdict for Rios Montt: After years of tireless effort and weeks of proceedings in the trial of US-supported former Guatemalan dictator Jose Efrain Rios Montt for genocide and crimes against humanity, Judge Jazmin Barrios delivered a stunning victory for truth and justice. Though her voice quivered initially under the gravity of her charge, as she detailed the court’s findings, Judge Barrios was eloquent, forceful and righteous, vindicating all those who toiled for years and risked their lives to shed light on the bloody past. Declaring Rios Montt guilty of genocide and crimes against humanity and sentencing him to 80 years in prison, Judge Barrios echoed the voices of the victims:  “For there to be peace in Guatemala, first there must be justice.” This historic verdict will reverberate from the packed courtroom to the highlands where the rivers ran red with blood, to the global community, to send an unmistakable message that justice can prevail over the most ardent efforts of those whose ruthless acts are cloaked by impunity. Read more at truth-out.org 

Climate Tipping Point? Concentration of Carbon Dioxide Tops 400 ppm for First Time in Human History: Scientists are warning the planet has now reached a grim climate milestone not seen for two or three million years. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration says the amount of heat-trapping carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has topped 400 parts per million. The 400 ppm threshold has been an important marker in U.N. climate change negotiations, widely recognized as a dangerous level that could drastically worsen human-caused global warming. Read more at democracynow.org 

USDA Sticks It to Monsanto and Dow—at Least Temporarily: ….But then Christmas came and went with no announcement—leading Dow to issue a January press statement about how the unexpected delay meant it could not sell its new product to farmers for the 2013 growing season. Yet the company remained confident about the prospects for approval in time for planting in 2014—it told the trade journal Delta Farm Press it “expects all approvals will be in place for sale in late 2013,” in time for its novel seeds to be used over a “broad geography” in 2014. But on Friday, the USDA essentially trampled on those expectations—it announced it was delaying approval of the crops until it could generate full environmental impact statements (known as EIS’s) on them. The move effectively means that the crops won’t be planted in fields next year, either, a Dow spokesperson told Bloomberg News. Read more at motherjones.com 

OPT Student Deported – Chicago Port of Entry: The officer then searched for my LinkedIn profile on the web, and pointed to my profile. I had a completely different professional identity for myself on my LinkedIn profile. It consisted of my master’s degree study which was not included in my resume and also didn’t include any of the fake experience my consultant put in on my resume. The officer at the Port of Entry then called my consultant to verify the information and my consultant mentioned about him not knowing about the fake experience in my resume and thus saved his firm from getting black-listed. I was completely shocked by my employer’s response, because he is the one who dragged me into this. Read more at h1bwiki.com 

Courage under fire: Four of the bravest people in Bangladeshare undergraduate students living in a small neighbourhood near Mirpur 10 in Dhaka. They study finance, management and sociology. In their spare time, they like playing sports and watching animated videos on their smartphones. They look, sound and act like ordinary young men, but possess steadfastness well beyond what most ordinary people acquire in a lifetime. Mehdi Hassan, 25, Saiful Islam Rana, 23 Raju Shorkar, 20, and Ferdous Hossain Choyon 22, are community volunteers attached to the Mirpur 10 fire station. They are among the 18,000 volunteers that have already been trained in disaster preparedness through a programme that aims to build a legion of volunteers in urban areas, 62,000-strong, as a first-response team for terrestrial disasters like earthquakes and fires. Read more at dhakatribune.com 

Dalit woman attacked for drawing water from handpump: A dalit woman was injured when a man attacked her with a sharp weapon today for drawing water from a handpump in a village in Bihar’s Madhubani district, police said. Mantorami Devi(33) was attacked by Marhu Yadav who was infuriated with her for drawing water from a public handpump at Jhauwa village. The woman was injured in both her hands when she tried to fend him off, police said, adding she was rushed to the local primary health centre which referred her to DarbhangaMedicalCollegeand Hospital (DMCH). The attacker is absconding and raids are on to nab him, police said. Read more at roundtableindia.co.in 

Bihar is truly Shining!

Village Children in Bihar to wear “Electronic Taveez”! How does that sound ?

NRI Samay social radio will be in conversation with Social Entrepreneur ADITYA DEV SOOD founder, Centre for Knowledge Societies (http://cks.in/).!!!

The Bihar Government has come up with a unique way to identify the medical history of Children. Each Child would be wearing Taveez or amulet fitted with a radio frequency identification chip with their complete medical history.

The initiative is part of the Bihar Innovation Lab project by innovation consultancy firm Centre for Knowledge Societies (CKS), with support from the Bihar government and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. This project will help in immunizing children, labour process tracking for Pregnant Women etc

Listen to this incredible interview on www.nrisamay.comthis Sunday 9.30 PM India Time / 9 AM US PT / 12 PM US ET time.

— with Sreekanth Kocharlakota and Aditya Dev Sood.

NRIs are neither vote bank nor ground level activists. Most of them are not even going to vote in the elections. Then why are so many NRIs working for political parties? Are they raising funds, are they reaching to the voters, or are they going back and contesting the elections?

Growing influence of NRIs in Indian political arena: Discussion by some passionate NRIs from various Indian parties like INC, BJP, TRS, TDP, AAP, LSP and more (we are awaiting response from other parties, pls ping us if you can join) — with Srihari Atluri, Rashmi Srivastava,Kiran Tummala, Sravanthi Yalamanchili and Krishna Reddy Anugula.

Dhaka building collapse – Woman pulled alive from rubble: A woman has been pulled alive from the ruins of an eight-storey building that collapsed in a suburb of Bangladesh’s capital, Dhaka, 17 days ago. Rescuers said the woman, named Reshma, was found in the remains of the second floor of the Rana Plaza after they heard her crying: “Please save me.” She has been taken to hospital, but is not thought to have serious injuries. More than 1,000 are now confirmed to have died, most of them women working in clothes factories. Read more at bbc.co.uk http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-22477414

Bacteria that make mosquitoes resistant: Researchers have found a strain of bacteria that can infect mosquitoes and make them resistant to the malaria parasite. The study, in the journal Science, showed the parasite struggled to survive in infected mosquitoes. Malaria is spread between people by the insects so it is hoped that giving mosquitoes malaria immunity could reduce human cases. Experts said this was a first, distant prospect for malaria control. Malaria is a major global disease. The World Health Organization estimates that 220 million people are infected annually and 660,000 die. Read more at bbc.co.uk http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-22462487

Bangladesh Jamaat leader sentenced to death: A Bangladesh war crimes tribunal has convicted and sentenced assistant secretary-general of the Jamaat-e-Islami party to death for war crimes, raising fears of clashes between the police and supporters of the Islamist leader. Mohammad Kamaruzzaman, 59, was found guilty on charges of genocide and torture of unarmed civilians during the 1971 war for independence from Pakistan, lawyers and tribunal officials said on Thursday. Supporters and activists of Jamaat and its student front Islami Chatra Shibir staged violent protests against the verdict in cities across the country, including Sylhet, Rajshahi, Khulna and Patuakhali, police and witnesses said. Read more at aljazeera.com http://www.aljazeera.com/news/asia/2013/05/2013595575783613.html

Click and cultivate – Internet shows the way: One of the important reasons for the low level of agricultural knowledge dissemination from lab to land is lack of availability of appropriate extension technologies currently. Given the problems that extension workers and researchers face in facilitating direct contact with farmers due to physical distances involved and the lack of transportation needed for their mobility, application of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) offers good solutions for the problem. Read more at thehindu.com http://www.thehindu.com/sci-tech/technology/internet/farmerss-notebook-click-and-cultivate-internet-shows-the-way/article4696390.ece

30% dalits in UP ‘tech literate’: A silent revolution is taking place in the backwaters of Uttar Pradesh as more and more dalits are turning computer savvy. UP has a four-crore dalit population and nearly 30 per cent of this is already computer literate. According to the findings of a survey on computer literacy in the state, all computer-savvy dalits may not be owners of a desktop, laptop or tablet, but they know how to operate computers and the younger students are particularly opting for computer education. Salil Kumar, an intermediate student in Barabanki who is pursuing a computer education course in Lucknow, admitted that computer education was necessary to get a job. “It could be a clerical job, a salesman job or an accountant job — you need to know computers today. You could be highly educated but if you cannot operate a computer, you are considered no good,” he said. Read more at roundtableindia.co.in http://roundtableindia.co.in/index.php?option=com_content&view=category&layout=blog&id=131&Itemid=103
SC gives Posco relief: The Supreme Court order allowing the government to take a decision on giving licence to steel major Posco is relief to the company which has been waiting for the last eight years to set up 12 million tonnes per annum steel plant in Odisha. The order is essentially setting aside an earlier Odisha High Court order that went against the steel major on guaranteed supplies from the Khandadhar iron ore reserve. Here are a few facts you need to know about the case. The Supreme Court case pertained to allocation of 2,500 acres in Khandadhar hills of Sundergarh district, where Posco could mine iron ore from. Read more at firstpost.com http://www.firstpost.com/business/sc-gives-posco-relief-in-odisha-all-you-need-to-know-770303.html

Bangladesh building collapse death toll approaches 1,300, now the worst industrial disaster in the world since Bhopal accident (1984): Police said that around 900 were still missing presumed dead in the rubble of Rana Plaza, where the rescue effort has been called off. The official death toll from last Wednesday’s disaster stands at 384; the figure for the number of missing suggests the final total could be more than three times higher. Thousands were inside Rana Plaza when it suddenly collapsed, including workers at four garment factories, one of which was supplying the British retailers Primark and Bonmarche. Read more at telegraph.co.uk 

Europe Bans Bee-Harming Pesticides – US Keeps Spraying:  On Monday, the European Commission voted to place a two-year moratorium on most uses of neonicotinoid pesticides, which are a widely used class of chemicals suspected of contributing to a severe global decline in honeybee health.In the wake of Europe’s decisive action, the US Environmental Protection Agency dithered. Well, it did release a joint report with the US Department of Agriculture on Thursday, generated from a “National Honey Bee Health Stakeholder Conference” the two agencies held last fall. The report fingered no single culprit behind colony collapse disorder, the name for the steep annual bee die-offs that have been stumping beekeepers since 2006. Instead, it pointed to a “complex set of stressors and pathogens,” including poor nutrition (mainly from loss of flowering weeds due to increased herbicide use), viruses, gut parasites, and, yes, pesticides. But it includes a summary of a presentation by USDA scientist Jeff Pettis noting that “several studies” have shown that low-level exposure to neonics make bees more vulnerable to the common gut parasite Nosema. (Pettis himself is the coauthor of one of those studies.) Read more at motherjones.com 

Government to close belt shops at once: The government has decided to end the menace of ‘belt shops” (unauthorised liquor outlets) in the State by undertaking a drive now to close them all immediately. Chief Minister N. Kiran Kumar Reddy set a 30-day time-limit for officials of the Excise Department to come back with a report suggesting a policy and action plan to prevent opening of these shops again by unscrupulous elements. It is a follow up to the assurance he had given to the Self Help Group women at Eluru two days ago after Union Rural Development Minister, Jairam Ramesh sought his intervention. When Mr. Ramesh asked the women whether these shops should be closed, they responded with a resounding yes. He then appealed to the Chief Minister to listen to the voice of the women and ensure their closure. Read more at roundtableindia.co.in

PHC declares drone strikes war crime: US drone strikes in Pakistan’s tribal belt are illegal, Peshawar High Court declared on Thursday and directed the Foreign Ministry to move a resolution in the UN against such attacks. The PHC issued the verdict against the strikes by CIA-operated aircraft in response to four petitions that contended the attacks killed civilians and caused collateral damage. PHC Chief Justice Dost Muhammad Khan, who headed a two-judge bench that heard the petitions, ruled that drone strikes were illegal, inhuman and a violation of the UN charter on human rights. The court observed that the strikes must be declared a war crime as they kill innocent people. The PHC ordered the government to contact International War Crime Tribunal (IWCT) over the issue. Read more at nation.com.pk

Too early to die: It cannot get any worse than this. Over three lakh newborns in India die on the very first day of their birth. With this the country ranks as number one in terms of first day of birth mortality; its share in global first-day deaths stands at 29 per cent. The appalling state of Indian health care to which this speaks is further highlighted by the fact that the next worst performer, Nigeria, is a distant second with less than 90,000 deaths a year and a nine per cent share of global deaths. These are some of the statistics in the “State of the World’s Mothers” report released by Save the Children recently. With 28,000 deaths a year, Bangladesh is not only better off than India, but is also one of the 12 developing countries that have made the greatest strides in achieving a significant decline in deaths between 1990 and 2011. As one of the most populous countries, it is inevitable that India may continue to register a greater number of deaths even if it achieves an appreciable decline in percentage mortality. Hence it must simultaneously adopt multiple strategies, and with greater immediacy, for a large reduction in the number of newborn deaths. Tremendous gain can be achieved by preventing childhood marriages as teenage pregnancy greatly contributes to first-day deaths. Read more at thehindu.com

Sexual Assaults in Military Raise Alarm in Washington: The problem of sexual assault in the military leapt to the forefront in Washington on Tuesday as the Pentagon released a survey estimating that 26,000 people in the armed forces were sexually assaulted last year, up from 19,000 in 2010, and an angry President Obama and Congress demanded action. The study, based on a confidential survey sent to 108,000 active-duty service members, was released two days after the officer in charge of sexual assault prevention programs for the Air Force was arrested and charged with sexual battery for grabbing a woman’s breasts and buttocks in an Arlington, Va., parking lot. Read more at nytimes.com http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/08/us/politics/pentagon-study-sees-sharp-rise-in-sexual-assaults.html?pagewanted=all

Farm workers fired for leaving fields because of heavy wildfire smoke: More than a dozen farm workers were out of a job after walking out of the fields last week, forced indoors because of heavy smoke from the massive Springs Fire burning nearby. “Oh, yeah, the smoke was very bad. That’s no doubt about that,” said Lauro Barrajas, of the United Farm Workers. As the Springs Fire continued to grow in Camarillo May 2, farm workers 11 miles south in Oxnard said they started to feel the effects of the smoke in the strawberry fields. Read more at nbclatino.com http://nbclatino.com/2013/05/08/farm-workers-fired-for-leaving-fields-because-of-heavy-wild-fire-smoke/

Death toll from Bangladesh building collapse above 800: The death toll from a building collapse in Bangladesh surpassed 800 Wednesday, as salvage workers continued to pull bodies from the rubble two weeks after the disaster. Many bodies were so badly decomposed that DNA samples were collected to identify them, the Associated Press reported. The building just outside the capital, Dhaka, housed several garment factories and was full of workers when it collapsed April 24. Some workers said they were told to enter the building despite their concern about visible cracks. Read more at latimes.com http://www.latimes.com/news/world/worldnow/la-fg-wn-bangladesh-building-collapse-20130508,0,3677909.story

SC calls CBI a caged parrot, slams govt’s interference: The Supreme Court has questioned the credibility of CBI probe into the coal scam and has asked for a thorough and qualitative investigation. Expressing strong displeasure at govt’s interference in the Coalgate probe report, the SC said, ”the heart of the report was changed on the suggestions of the govt officials.” Raising questions on the independence of CBI, the apex court called it a ‘caged parrot speaking in its master’s voice’. Read more at timesofindia.com http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Coalgate-SC-calls-CBI-a-caged-parrot-slams-govts-interference/articleshow/19946212.cms

Haiti cholera victims threaten to sue the UN: Victims of Haiti’s cholera epidemic have given the United Nations a 60-day deadline to start talks about billions of dollars worth of compensation or face legal action.The UN is accused of negligently allowing peacekeeping soldiers to pollute Haiti’s water with cholera. A UN cholera expert agrees that this is “most likely” to be true. The UN rejected an earlier call for compensation and continues to insist it is immune from legal proceedings.Read more at bbc.co.uk http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-22458006

Cyber attacks a growing irritant in US-China ties: Signs are growing that the sustained surge in cyber attacks emanating from China is straining its relations with the US, lending urgency to fledgling efforts by both governments to engage on the issue. The Pentagon this week said China appeared to be cyber spying on the US government, the first time it has made such an assertion in its annual report on Chinese military power. A bill introduced in the Senate on Tuesday would require the President to block imports of products using stolen US technology or made by companies implicated in computer theft. Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/it-pro/security-it/cyber-attacks-a-growing-irritant-in-uschina-ties-20130509-2j951.html#ixzz2SkwAJoNb