World NEWS

 A Māori journalist has made history in New Zealand by becoming the first person with traditional facial markings to host a primetime news program on national television. Oriini Kaipara made headlines worldwide after hosting her first 6 p.m. bulletin for Newshub on the TV channel Three, with many lauding the milestone as a win for Māori representation. "I was really elated. I was over the moon," Kaipara told CNN of the moment she found out she would cover the primetime slot. "It's a huge honor. I don't know how to deal with the emotions." Kaipara's Christmas Day presenting role was the first of six consecutive days covering for the primetime news show's permanent anchors, although her stint will continue into early January and she said she may be called again in the future. Māori facial markings get visibility boost following appointment of New Zealand foreign minister The 38-year-old is already the permanent anchor of the 4:30 p.m. "Newshub Liv...

  After you finish your fries, eat the ketchup packet. When you add your pasta to boiling water, toss the bag into the pot, too. If these instructions sound confusing to you, it's only because you haven't yet heard of Notpla, a London-based startup company that is designing a seaweed-based replacement for single-use plastic packaging. Founded in 2014, the company closed a £10 million ($13.5 million) Series A financing round last month, led by the VC firm Horizons Ventures, to scale and further develop its product line. Notpla's products are meant to be composted or dissolved after use -- though some are edible, too. Current offerings include sachets for condiments, water and even alcohol; a film wrap for products in your pantry or bathroom, like coffee or toilet paper; and takeaway boxes that replace plastic-based coating with seaweed lining to make them fully biodegradable. The Ooho can replace condiment packets and other single-serve liquids, while the seaweed-lined takea...

BHUBANESWAR: Strong winds and heavy rains pounded India's eastern coastline on Saturday, as hundreds of thousands of people took shelter from a massive, powerful cyclone expected to reach land in a few hours. The skies were dark - almost black - at midmorning in Bhubaneswar, the capital of Odisha and about 60 miles (about 100 kilometres) from the coast. Roaring winds made palm trees sway wildly, and to the south, seawater was pushing inland. By Friday evening, some six lakh people had been moved to higher ground or shelters in Odisha, which is expected to bear the brunt of the cyclone, said Surya Narayan Patro, the state's top disaster management official. About 12 hours before Cyclone Phailin's landfall, meteorologists held out hope that the storm might hit while in a temporary weakened state, but no matter what it will be large and deadly. Ryan Maue, a meteorologist at Weather Bell, a private US weather firm, said even in the best-case scenario there will be a st...

http://www.google.org/crisisresponse/2013-phailin.html Emergency Operation Centres Orissa Balasore: +91-6782-262674 Bhadrak: +91-6784-251881 Cuttack: +91-671-2507842 Dhenkanal: +91-6762-221376 Gajapati: +91-6815-222943 Ganjam: +91-6811-263978 Jagatsinghpur: +91-6724-220368 Jajpur: +91-6728-222648 Kendrapara: +91-6727-232803 Keonjhar: +91-6766-255437 Khurda: +91-6755-220002 Mayurbhanj: +91-6792-252759 Nayagarh: +91-6753-252978 Puri: +91-6752-223237 Andra Pradesh Hyderabad: +91-4023-456005 / +91-4023-451043 ____________________________________________________________________ Railway Helplines Vizag-0891-2505793, 08935-249672 Vizianagaram-08922-225510 Srikakulam-08942- 28722 Naupada-08945-249728 Rayagada-06856-6222407 Koraput-06852-251802 Source:  aamjanata.com

Bulletin No.: BOB 04/2013/30 Sub: Very Severe Cyclonic Storm ‘PHAILIN’ over westcentral & adjoining northwest Bay of Bengal: Cyclone Warning for North Andhra Pradesh and Odisha Coast. The very severe cyclonic storm, PHAILIN over westcentral & adjoining northwest Bay of Bengal moved northwestwards during past 6 hours with a speed of 15 kmph and lay centred at 0830 hrs IST of today, the 12 th October 2013 over westcentral & adjoining northwest Bay of Bengal near latitude 17.8 0 N and longitude 86.0 0 E, about 200 km southeast of Gopalpur, 200 km east-southeast of Kalingapatnam and 280 km southeast of Paradip. It would move northwestwards and cross north Andhra Pradesh and Odisha coasts between Kalingapatnam and Paradip, close to Gopalpur (Odisha) by evening of today i.e. the 12 th October, 2013 as a very severe cyclonic storm with a maximum sustained wind speed of 210-220 kmph gusting to 240 kmph. Estimated track and intensity of the system are give...

Mr Mochtar was arrested at his home in Jakarta, officials say The chief justice of Indonesia's Constitutional Court has been arrested for alleged bribery, officials say. Akil Mochtar was arrested by anti-corruption officials late on Wednesday for allegedly accepting at least $250,000 (£154,000) in bribes. Officials say the arrest, the latest in a series of high-profile cases, was linked to a regional election. The Constitutional Court, established in 2001, holds the same legal standing as the country's Supreme Court. Its responsibilities include hearing cases concerning the constitution and making decisions on election-related cases. The court has developed a reputation as a respected judicial institution over the years, observers say. Mr Mochtar, 62, was elected for a five-year term to the constitutional court this year. He was previously a member of the Golkar party before joining the Constitutional Court. He was arrested at his home in Jakarta after a b...

Hong Kong (CNN) -- Swarms of aggressive hornets, in their fall mating season, are inflicting a deadly toll in a central Chinese province. Hornets have killed 42 people and injured 1,675 people in three cities in Shaanxi province since July, according to the local government. Thirty-seven patients remain in critical or serious condition. Over the summer and early fall, hornets have invaded schools full of children and descended upon unsuspecting farm workers in China. One of them is Mu Conghui, a woman who was attacked in Ankang City while looking after her millet crop. "The hornets were horrifying," she told Xinhua, the Chinese state-run news agency. "They hit right at my head and covered my legs. All of a sudden I was stung and I couldn't move. "Even now, my legs are covered with sting holes."Killer hornets sting nearly 600 people Two months, 13 dialysis treatments and 200 stitches later, Mu still remains hospitalized and unable to move h...

President Barack Obama has called off his trip to Malaysia to tackle the US government shutdown, the office of Malaysia's PM Najib Razak has said. Secretary of State John Kerry will represent him next week instead, the office said. The US government has partially shut down after the two houses of Congress failed to agree a new budget. More than 700,000 federal employees face unpaid leave, and national parks, museums and many buildings are closed. Mr Obama earlier vowed not to allow Republicans to undermine his signature healthcare legislation as a condition to restart the US government. "They demanded ransom," Mr Obama said. Four-nation trip Mr Najib's office said Mr Obama had called the prime minister on Wednesday to inform him that Mr Kerry would address an entrepreneurship conference in Kuala Lumpur on 11 October in his place. Mr Obama's visit would have been the first by a US president to Malaysia since Lyndon B Johnson in 1966. ...

Italian markets were jolted Monday by the weekend collapse of the country's coalition government after just five months, but the chance that early elections could be averted kept losses in check. Silvio Berlusconi withdrew his support for a grand coalition led by Prime Minister Enrico Letta, just a week before a parliamentary committee was due to vote on expelling the convicted fraudster from the Senate. Milan's benchmark index fell 1.8%, and the yield on Italy's 10-year bonds rose 18 basis points to 4.6%. That is up from around 3.9% when Letta took office in April but far from the more than 7% during the peak of the eurozone debt crisis in 2011. Other European markets fell by about 1% as a U.S. government shutdown loomed. The dollar was a shade firmer against the euro.Related: Stocks weak as U.S. shutdown looms Political instability is nothing new in Italy -- governments tend to last little more than a year on average. But a prolonged period of deadlock could preve...

Nairobi, Kenya (CNN) -- A number of Kenya's Cabinet members and defense officials were warned about the possibility that the terror group Al-Shabaab was planning to carry out a Westgate-style attack a year before gunman stormed the Nairobi mall, according to several police and intelligence sources. The warnings were made by the country's National Intelligence Service as part of regular situational reports given to cabinet members, the inspector general of police, members of the National Security Advisory Council and military intelligence. CNN has seen an electronic version of those reports, which contain an extensive list of terror threats from several regions across Kenya over an extended period, but they also specify Al-Shabaab posed a threat to several targets, including Westgate Shopping Mall. The news about the intelligence warnings come amid revelations that the mall favored by Westerners and tourists was long-considered a possible terror target. CNN has also learned...

The US Congress remains deadlocked over the funding bill US Senate Majority leader Harry Reid has warned that his Democratic-led chamber will reject a House Republican bill to avert a government shutdown. Early on Sunday, the Republican-led House passed its amended version of the Senate bill, removing funding from President Obama's healthcare law. There is now less than 48 hours to avert a shutdown, which will begin on Tuesday if no spending bill is passed. The Senate is not due to meet again until Monday afternoon. In a statement, Senator Reid said that "after weeks of futile political games from Republicans, we are still at square one". He added that Republican efforts to change the bill - that would delay the healthcare law for a year and repeal a tax on medical devices - were pointless. Speaking for the president, White House spokesman Jay Carney said: "Any member of the Republican Party who votes for this bill is voting for a shutdown." ...

President Obama: "Nobody gets to threaten the full faith and credit of the US just to extract political concessions" The US government is bracing for a possible shutdown, as Republicans and Democrats in Congress remain deadlocked on a budget to continue its funding. Agencies have begun making contingency plans ahead of the 1 October deadline to pass a new funding resolution. The Senate has passed a bill to fund the government until 15 November. But House Republicans have said they refuse to approve the bill without a provision to strip funding from President Barack Obama's health law. The Senate is controlled by Mr Obama's Democratic party, while the Republicans hold the majority in the House of Representatives. As a result, lawmakers are at a stalemate as the deadline approaches. Government agencies have been selecting workers considered essential should funds stop flowing.

The leader of the far-right Golden Dawn party, Nikolaos Michaloliakos, has been formally charged with belonging to a criminal organisation. Four more Golden Dawn MPs, a party leader in an Athens suburb and 15 other people face the same charges. They were arrested on Saturday amid anger over the murder on 18 September of anti-racist musician, Pavlos Fyssas. A man held for the stabbing told police he was a Golden Dawn supporter, though the party strongly denies any link. The MPs arrested on Saturday were party spokesman Ilias Kasidiaris, Ilias Panayiotaros, Nikos Michos and Ioannis Lagos. It is the first time since 1974 that a party leader and MPs have been arrested. It was an extraordinary moment to see the five MPs being escorted in handcuffs by armed police in balaclavas, BBC Athens correspondent Mark Lowen reports. They will now return to police headquarters and are likely to be refused bail before their trial, our correspondent says. Mr Panayiotaros told reporter...

President Napolitano (right) called for political continuity in the country Italy's president is considering ways out of an acute political crisis after ex-PM Silvio Berlusconi's ministers left the coalition government. Giorgio Napolitano hinted that he would try to oversee the formation of a new coalition without calling elections. This follows weeks of worsening ties between Berlusconi's party and PM Enrico Letta's centre-left grouping. Berlusconi had already threatened to withdraw his ministers if he was expelled from the Senate for tax fraud. The current coalition government was put together after inconclusive elections in February, and the latest developments have left the eurozone's third-largest economy in chaos. It is feared that the crisis could hamper efforts to enact badly-needed reforms to tackle Italy's economic problems, including debt, recession and high youth unemployment. The International Monetary Fund has warned that coalit...

World News

Software exporter Infosys posted on Thursday a 14.1% rise in consolidated net profit, lagging forecasts as a strong rupee and wage costs offset improved outsourcing demand. Net profit for the Nasdaq-listed firm rose to 17.8 billion rupees ($397 million) during the three months to December from 15.6 billion rupees a year earlier. Revenues, by international accounting norms, for the Bangalore-based outsourcer rose 24% to 71.06 billion rupees, the company said in a statement to the Mumbai stock exchange. Analysts had expected Infosys, India's second largest software exporter, to show an 18% rise in quarterly profit. Infosys shares fell 3.2%, or 106 rupees, to 3,268 rupees in early trade after the earnings were announced. The company, which is closely watched by investors as a barometer for the country's technology sector, added 40 clients and a net 5,311 staff in the quarter.

South Asia's growth engine India is expected to slow down a tad to 8.4% this year from an estimated 9.5% in 2011 before rising again to 8.7% in 2012, the World Bank has forecast. South Asia as a whole is still projected to continue to post robust growth of 7.7% and 8.1% over the forecast horizon in  FY2011/12 and FY2012-13, respectively-albeit a deceleration from the 8.7% growth recorded in FY2010/11, it said. The projected slowdown in South Asia's real GDP growth this year follows its acceleration from 7.0% in FY2009-10, buoyed by very strong growth in India, up 1.8%age points from 7.7% in 2009, the World Bank's Global Economic Prospects 2011  released Thursday noted. Excluding India, which represents 80% of regional GDP, growth (on a fiscal year basis) firmed, but to a more modest 5.1% from 4.3% the year before. On a calendar year basis, GDP for the region as a whole is estimated to have expanded 8.4% in 2010 after 5.3% in 2009, and to 4.8% in 2010 from 3.8% in 2009 if In...

The Shipping Corporation of India (SCI) is planning to raise Rs.1,184 crore through the follow-on public offer (FPO) that is opening for subscription on November 30. The company has fixed a price band of Rs.135-140 a share. The FPO comprises a fresh issue of 4.23 crore equity shares and an ‘offer for sale' of a similar quantum of shares by the Government. The issue will close on December 2 for qualified institutional buyers (QIB) and December 3 for other bidders. “The Government will get Rs.592 crore through 10 per cent divestment and the company will get Rs.592 crore through the issue of fresh shares, which will be used to fund its vessel acquisition plans,” Chairman and Managing Director of the company S. Hajara told reporters here. “We plan to acquire 62 vessels in the XI Plan. We have already ordered 32 vessels and will place orders for 30 more vessels by the end of March 2012,” Mr. Hajara said. SCI has about 35 per cent share of Indian flagged tonnage as of June 30. It owned a...

Stock markets on Monday made a smart comeback with the Bombay Stock Exchange bellwether Sensex snapping four-day losing streak and ending with a gain of 268 points, on value buying in heavy weights like Reliance Industries and ICICI Bank. The BSE 30-share benchmark index, Sensex, which plunged by over 4 per cent in the last four trading sessions primarily on the housing finance racket and negative global cues, started the week on a firm note and settled at 19405.10, reflecting a jump of 268.49 points or 1.4 per cent. Witnessing a similar surge, the National Stock Exchange's wide-based Nifty finished the day with a gain of 1.36 per cent at 5830. Analysts attributed the market rebound to the emergence of bargain hunting following the steep fall in the Sensex in the last four trading sessions. “Last week's weakness in the market gave an opportunity to buy frontline stocks at attractive valuations. Besides, the concerns over 2G spectrum row and housing loan racket have been almost ...