Asian Lite News Archive

Category: -Top News

  • IAF fetches nearly 2,000 Indians back

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      The Indian Air Force has fetched 1,935 Indian back from Kathmandu to New Delhi , even as its personnel continued with “Operation Maitri” in quake-hit Nepal overnight despite inclement weather, Sitanshu Kar, spokesperson for defence ministry, said. “As of now, the IAF has evacuated 1,935 passengers from Kathmandu utilising 12 aircraft sorties,” he said.…

  • Miliband promise help for first time buyers

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    First-time buyers would be exempt from stamp duty when buying homes for less than £300,000 under a Labour government, Ed Miliband will say. He will attack the coalition for “the lowest level of housebuilding for almost 100 years and the lowest rate of home ownership for a generation”. His party will also pledge to begin…

  • ‘Gandhi’ joins Tory campaign in Manchester

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    This is the first time in the history of Greater Manchester, the Indian community launching a procession in support of a political party…writes Kaliph Anaz for Asian Lite, UK’s No 1 newspaper for British-Asians Finally the election fever gripped the immigrant Indian community at Trafford in Greater Manchester. As the general election just 11 days away, a…

  • World rushes aid to Nepal amid 2,300 deaths

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    By Anil Giri   Another tremblor measuring 6.9 on the Richter scale shook Nepal on Sunday causing fresh panic as rescuers pulled out bodies from debris, a day after a 7.9 magnitude earthquake left over 2,300 dead and forced tens of thousands to spend the night on the streets. As the world rushed emergency aid to…

  • 19 bodies found at Everest base camp

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    Nineteen bodies have been recovered from Everest base camp which was hit by an avalanche following Saturday’s 7.9-magnitude earthquake in Nepal, the Indian defence ministry said  even as the stranded climbers kept tweeting about themselves for the world. “Nineteen bodies have been recovered from the Everest base camp. About 50 others are injured,” defence ministry…

  • India will wipe the tear of every Nepali: Modi

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    Prime Minister Narendra Modi said India stands with Nepal in its time of sorrow following the massive quake and will do its best to wipe the tear of every Nepali, hold their hand and be with them in this hour of tragedy. In his monthly edition of Mann ki Baat radio address, Modi said he…

  • Malala condemns female activist’s murder in Pakistan

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    Pakistani Nobel Prize laureate Malala Yousafzai has condemned the killing of female human rights activist Sabeen Mahmud in Karachi and demanded the earliest arrest of the assailants, a media report said. Mahmud, who founded the social forum T2F, was shot dead on Friday night minutes after the end of an interactive discussion on “Unsilencing Balochistan”.…

  • US to speed up visa approvals for Indian doctors

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    By Arun Kumar   Citing a shortage of physicians in the US, two lawmakers have introduced a bipartisan legislation to speed-up visa approval for Indian and Pakistani doctors slated to work at US hospitals. Called the Grant Residency for Additional Doctors (GRAD) Act of 2015, the legislation introduced by Democrat Grace Meng and Republican Tom Emmer,…

  • India begins ‘Operation Maitri’ in Nepal

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      The Indian Army has named the aid to Nepal ‘Operation Maitri’ or friendship, a day after it started extending help to the neighbouring country that was hit by a massive earthquake just before noon on Saturday, leaving a trail of death and destruction. India is with the “sisters and brothers” of Nepal in its…

  • Over 1,800 killed in Nepal earthquake

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    The earthquake that hit Nepal  has killed at least 1,805 people, an official statement said. The earthquake, measuring 7.9 on the Richter scale, had its epicenter in Lamjung district, around 75 km northwest of capital Kathmandu. Following the massive quake, over 50 aftershocks were also felt. The statement issued by the Nepal home ministry states…

  • Tories pledges more opportunities for BAMEs

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    Conservatives promise a 20 per cent increase in jobs, apprenticeships for the BAME communities. Mr Cameron announced a new set of ambitions for the next five years, aimed at delivering jobs, apprenticeships, homes and new opportunities for people from Black, Asian and minority ethnic communities. As the campaign enters the crucial final phase, Conservatives unveiled new…

  • When the earth shook in Nepal

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    First Person report by Anil Giri  It was a morning like no other. Life in Kathmandu was proceeding slowly with people enjoying the weekend when it happened. The earth shook! People ran out from homes, shops screaming. With the quake measuring 7.9 on the Richter scale, over 1,000 buildings, including historical structures, collapsed. There is no…

  • Disney targets mass Indian audience

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    Disney India is creating an experience with “ABCD- AnyBody Can Dance” for all Indian fans. With the “ABCD 2”, sequel to the first successful instalment “ABCD…”, the company is planning to extend the cinematic experience to a television show on bindass; a dance-inspired game and branded merchandise. “Globally, Disney has created some of the biggest…

  • What makes YouTube so popular?

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    The secret of 10-year-old YouTube’s popularity lies in its flexibility that provides its users an opportunity to create their own alternate music videos, says a study. One of the reasons for its popularity is that the user’s own video and the alternative variations from popular artists’ videos may reach an audience of millions, says a…

  • Quake hits historic sites in Nepal – GALLERY

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    The Dharahara, a nine-storeyed 19th-century tower, collapsed here after a huge earthquake shook Nepal and caused widespread devastation on Saturday, a media report said. Hundreds of people are reportedly trapped in the debris, a posting on Twitter said. According to bloggers, the tower, built in 1832, was an iconic monument erected by Nepal’s first prime minister, Bhimsen…

  • ‘Cord blood banks fooling the public’

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    Experts says private cord blood banks in India are fooling the public…writes K.S. Jayaraman  Cord blood banking (CBB) with dubious benefits has become a money-making scam in India and needs tighter control to protect gullible parents from being exploited, top medical researchers say. Blood collected from umbilical chord after child birth is a rich source of…

  • The plight of leprosy patients in India

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    According to the 12th Five Year Plan, India aims to achieve complete elimination of leprosy by 2017. Leprosy is perhaps the only disease against which there is no vaccine. This is because the bacteria cannot be cultured outside the human body. Despite being easily treated now and discovered to be much less contagious than previously…

  • Human traffickers on Social Media

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    Businesses are increasingly using social media — even the illegal ones. Now, even smugglers have taken to the Facebook to woo their clients. The human smugglers are offering desperate migrants passage across the Mediterranean to Europe, according to a Financial Times report. The paper reported the existence of several Facebook pages in Arabic offering passage…

  • Jonty Rhodes names daughter ‘India’

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    It’s a baby girl for former South African cricketer Jonty Rhodes whose wife Melanie Jeanee delivered at a Santa Cruz hospital. The couple have named their daughter, born in the midst of the IPL cricketing season, India Jeanne Jonty Rhodes reported TOI. ”The baby girl, born by natural water birth, at 3.29 pm weighs 3.71 kg.…

  • LONDONWALLAH DAILY BLOG – Modi Gaadi

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    Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi  finally travelled in the Delhi metro! It was a big news in India but invoked cynical comments in other parts of the world. Most of the seats in his carriage and the nearby one was nearly empty. The pic clearly shows the presence of security guards all around the place!…

  • Volcanic activity prompts evacuations in Chile

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      At least 6,400 people have been forced to leave their homes because of the activity of Chile’s Calbuco volcano, which erupted two days ago for the first time in 42 years. Authorities ordered the immediate evacuation on Friday afternoon of 2,000 people from three towns in the Los Lagos region, after another 4,400 were…

  • Hundreds bid tearful adieu to Mastan Babu

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    Hundreds bid tearful adieu to India’s ace mountaineer Malli Mastan Babu, who was buried in his native village in Andhra Pradesh. The last rites of the 40-year-old, who died while scaling a mountain between Argentina and Chile, were performed with state honours in a family field in Gandhijana Sangam in Nellore district. ‘Mastan Babu amar…

  • Clegg no to SNP ‘life support’ deal

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    Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg has said he would not join a coalition dependent on “life support” from the SNP after the general election. Mr Clegg  speaking to the Financial times  he “totally” ruled out “any arrangements” with Nicola Sturgeon’s party in the event of a hung Parliament. He also suggested that any coalition formed by…

  • UN Raps UK Motor-mouth

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    “The Nazi media described people their masters wanted to eliminate as rats and cockroaches. This type of language is clearly inflammatory and unacceptable, especially in a national newspaper. The Sun’s editors took an editorial decision to publish this article, and – if it is found in breach of the law – should be held responsible along with…

  • US seeks ‘rebalance’ in Asia

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    By Arun Kumar  Citing President Barack Obama’s historic “good trip” to India in January, US officials have said that different partnerships it’s forging across Asia can contribute to the stability and prosperity of the broader region. In a conference call on Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s state visit next week, Deputy National Security Advisor Ben…

  • Devastation in Kathmandu

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     A massive earthquake that rocked Nepal caused major devastation in the old area of the national capital. According to information available, there was widespread devastation in Hanmandhoka area in the old area of Kathmandu. Several casualties were feared as buildings collapsed. Authorities said they were still trying to assess the situation. Images that were tweeted…

  • Quake rocks Nepal, North India

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    A strong earthquake measuring 7.5 on the Richter scale rocked Nepal at 11.41 a.m. India time, with tremors felt from Delhi to Guwahati and Srinagar to Jaipur. Even half an hour later, the aftershocks continued. According to the India Meteorological Department, the depth of earthquake was 10 km and measured 6 on the Richter scale…

  • Wreckage found in ocean might be of MH370: Experts

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    An aviation technology expert has claimed that he has found remains of an aircraft in the ocean between Malaysia and India that may be of the missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 but said he needs £1.3 million (about $1.9 million) to find it, media reported. Andre Milne, who is voluntarily investigating the plane that disappeared…

  • Ficci to boost C’Wealth Biz forum

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    The Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI), the largest and oldest apex business organisation in India, has become a Founding Strategic Partner of the CWEIC, the apex organisation representing private sector businesses within the Commonwealth and is the only institution with a remit to promote intra-Commonwealth trade and investment.   The agreement…

  • Swedish lab creates the Invisible Man

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    Swedish scientists have created for the first time in the lab a perceptual illusion of having an invisible body among humans. The experiment involved 125 participants standing up and wearing a set of head-mounted displays. The participants were then asked to look down at their bodies but instead of their real bodies, they saw empty…

  • Women fuel binge drinking in the US

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    Heavy drinking and binge drinking have gone up sharply in the US since 2005 due in large part to rising rates of drinking among women, says a study. While heavy drinking increased sharply in 2012, up 17.2 percent since 2005, binge drinking increased 8.9 percent across the US since 2005, showed the findings of the…

  • Teens and Net Threat

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    Boosting teenagers’ ability to cope with online risks, rather than trying to stop them from using the internet, is a more effective strategy for keeping them safe, says a new study. More resilient teens were less likely to suffer negative effects even if they were frequently online, said the study. Haiyan Jia, post-doctoral scholar in information…

  • Tributes to victims of Armenian genocide

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    World leaders pay tribute to victims of Armenian genocide World leaders attending a ceremony in the Armenian capital of Yerevan on Friday to commemorate the centenary of the Armenian genocide observed a minute of silence for the 1.5 million victims killed under the Ottoman Empire, Efe news agency reported. Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan received Russian…

  • REVIEW: ‘Jai Ho! Democracy’

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    ‘Jai Ho! Democracy’ – pale, frail and stale tale…writes Subhash K. Jha  Film: “Jai Ho! Democracy”; Cast: Om Puri, Seema Biswas, Annu Kapoor, Aamir Bashir, Satish Kaushik, Adil Hussain; Director: Ranjit Kapoor; Rating: ** A farmer hangs himself from a tree at a political rally. And you wonder how much lower the below-the-belt politics of this…

  • REVIEW: Avengers: Age of Ultron

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    The latest edition of Avengers’ secret mission gone awry….writes Troy Ribeiro for Asian Lite  Film: “Avengers: Age of Ultron”; Cast: Chris Evans, Robert Downey Jr, Chris Hemsworth, Scarlett Johansson, Mark Ruffalo, Jeremy Renner, Elizabeth Olsen, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Don Cheadle, Samuel L Jackson, Cobie Smulders, Paul Bettany, Anthony Mackie, Thomas Kretschmann, Andy Serkis, Hayley Atwell, Idris Elba, Linda Cardellini,…

  • Israel strikes northern Gaza

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    Israeli forces attacked a position in the north of the Gaza Strip, an immediate response to a Palestinian rocket launched at its neighbour’s southern front, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said in a statement. “In response to rocket attack against Israel, the IDF targeted a terrorist infrastructure in northern Gaza,” the statement said. No damages…

  • HSBC considering moving HQ out of London

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    HSBC has said it is considering moving its headquarters out of London. The bank said the review followed “regulatory and structural reforms” since the financial crisis reports BBC. HSBC’s board has asked its management to “look at where the best place is for HSBC to be headquartered in this new environment,” the bank said. “The question…

  • Kiran shines with hybrid music

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    Born in India, raised in Canada and currently living in New York City, Kiran Ahluwalia is a modern exponent of the great vocal traditions of India and Pakistan. Interestingly, her original compositions embody the essence of Indian music while embracing influences from both the West and Africa especially the Sahara, writes Anjana Parikh AL: Why…

  • Big B floored by ‘O Kadhal Kanmani’

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      Megastar Amitabh Bachchan has heaped praise on filmmaker Mani Ratnam’s latest Tamil entertainer “O Kadhal Kanmani”, saying the film is told in an endearing way, capturing the essence of the changing times. The 72-year-old took to his official blog to share his views about the film after watching it with his daughter Shweta Nanda.…

  • British-Asian Mayor ousted in London

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    The judge said Mr Rahman had focused his electoral machine on the borough’s large Bangladeshi community – effectively bribing voters by targeting them with generous grants and using the influence of a senior cleric to tell Muslims it was their duty to vote for him…reports Asian Lite, UK’s No 1 newspaper for British-Asians Mr Lutfur Rahman,…

  • Tory campaign gets Hindi dose

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    Conservative Friends of India launch campaign song in Hindi for British Indians…reports Asian Lite, UK’s No 1 newspaper for British-Asians Conservative Friends of India launches a Hindi song especially composed for General Election 2015 – a first for any British General Election. It encourages 1.6 million British Indians to support David Cameron and let him…

  • Greater appetite for Security Council reform

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    By Arul Louis  UN General Assembly President Sam Kahamba Kutesa says there is “greater appetite” among member nations for reforming the Security Council, a process in which India is heavily invested, and he expects a breakthrough in the decade-long stalemate by the end of the Assembly’s current session. Speaking to reporters, he said the Intergovernmental…

  • INTERVIEW: Sarwat Gilani

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    By Sandeep Sharma  Sitting miles away in Karachi, the mention of India makes Pakistani actress Sarwat Gilani remember its ‘mitti ki khushboo’ (smell of the earth) which is endearing to her family till date. She is appreciative of how India has been welcoming artists from her country, and says “it’s a big deal”. The 32-year-old’s…

  • India slips on World Happiness Index

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    Indians are fast losing on the happiness front, says the UN World Happiness Report 2015, adding that the country has significantly lost six places in the well-being rankings of 158 countries since the last report that two years ago. India is placed at 117th position with a score of 4.565 on scale of zero to…

  • EU triples funding for migrant rescue

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    European Union (EU) leaders have resolved to triple funding for search-and-rescue operations aimed at migrant boats in the Mediterranean, a media report said on Friday. The decision was taken during a summit on migratory pressures held in the Belgian capital of Brussles on Thursday. European Council (EC) President Donald Tusk said leaders had asked EU…

  • British voters in the dark: IFS

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    Four of the major parties have not provided “anything like full details” on plans to cut the deficit, the Institute for Fiscal Studies has said. “Broad outlines” of the choice on offer were on show, it said, but voters were “somewhere in the dark” over cuts planned by the main UK parties and SNP. The…

  • David Petraeus sentenced to two years probation

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    Former CIA chief David Petraeus was sentenced to two years’ probation and a $100,000 fine for sharing classified information in 2011 with biographer Paula Broadwell, with whom he was having an extramarital affair. Petraeus, who led the CIA after retiring from the US Army as a four-star general, appeared for sentencing before US District Judge…

  • Celestial fireworks mark Hubble birthday

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    NASA has unveiled stunning celestial fireworks as an official image to commemorate the 25th anniversary of its Hubble space telescope that was launched on April 24, 1990. The brilliant tapestry of young stars flaring to life resemble a glittering fireworks display in the image taken by Hubble. “Hubble has completely transformed our view of the…

  • Stop hate speech on social media: India

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    To stop youth from turning to violent radicalism, nations should ensure that social media did not promote hate speech, India has told the Security Council. Participating in a Security Council debate on the “Role of Youth in Countering Violent Extremism ,” Deputy Permanent Representative Bhagwant Singh Bishnoi said religious fanaticism fueled the flames of violent…

  • Boost Indian Navy’s combat power: US think tank

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    With the US and India agreeing to explore the joint development of India’s next-generation aircraft carrier, a leading think tank has suggested US offer India latest technology to help increase Indian Navy’s combat power. “While the Indian Navy has already begun design work, wide-ranging cooperation with the United States has enormous potential,” Ashley J. Tellis,…