|Animated Collage of NewsWeek (62) Headlines|
|Collage of NewsWeek (62)|
Science News This Week:
1) Physicists create 'molecules' of light:
The first "molecules" made from two photons have been created by physicists in the US. Their experiment involves firing pairs of photons through an ultracold atomic gas, where an attractive interaction causes the photons to stick together and become quantum-mechanically entangled. The breakthrough could allow both conventional and quantum computers to encode and process information using photons.Getting photons to stick together is not easy because they normally pass through each other without interacting. However, a photon has an associated electromagnetic field that can modify its surrounding medium. These changes can affect nearby photons and create an effective interaction between them. Although this effect is usually tiny, the interactions can be significant if the medium is chosen carefully. "Photonic molecules," however, behave less like traditional lasers and more like something you might find in science fiction – the light saber.
In the new study, a team led by Mikhael Lukin at Harvard University and Vladan Vuletić at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology has created strong interactions between photons by sending them through a gas of rubidium atoms chilled to a temperature of just a few degrees above absolute zero. The experiment involved using blue laser light with a carefully chosen wavelength of 479 nm, which modifies the rubidium atoms so that a photon can share some of its energy with several atoms and create a collective "Rydberg state". This state is like a Rydberg atom – in which an electron is promoted to a very high-energy state – but instead the electron is shared among several atoms.This Rydberg state propagates through the gas like a sluggish photon with a non-zero mass and when the collective state reaches the opposite edge of the gas cloud, the photon re-emerges at its original energy. When a Rydberg state forms, however, it becomes impossible for more Rydberg states to be created nearby, thanks to a process called the Rydberg blockade. So, when two photons are fired into the gas in quick succession, the first forms a Rydberg state but the second does not. As far as the second photon is concerned, the region of the Rydberg state has a different index of refraction than the rest of the gas, which causes the second photon to stay close to the first as they travel together through the gas. The result is a bound state of two photons – or a molecule – travelling through the atomic gas.
To monitor this tendency to stay together, the team measured the time interval between the detection of the first and second photons in a pair. Instead of seeing the second photon overtake the slower Rydberg-state photon, the two tend to emerge from the gas together. "It's a photonic interaction that's mediated by the atomic interaction, which makes these two photons behave like a molecule," says Lukin. "So when they exit the medium, they're much more likely to do so together than as single photons."The team was also able to show that the photons in each pair were entangled in terms of their polarization. The researchers did this by firing pairs of photons with a specific polarization into the gas. As the photons travel through the medium, their polarizations change. By measuring the correlation between the polarizations of the photons, the team was able to show that the photons had been entangled when they formed a molecule.Photonic moleculesCreating interactions between photons is not just of intrinsic interest; it could also lead to faster and more energy-efficient computers that use light pulses instead of electrical pulses to process information. Today, such systems are impractical because light pulses must first be converted to electrical pulses for processing and then back again, which is very inefficient. If the light pulses could be made to interact with each other, then all-optical logic gates could be made to process information.Photon molecules could also help in the development of quantum computers, which exploit the principle of entanglement to give two particles much stronger correlations than is allowed by classical physics. While photons are very good at transmitting quantum bits (qubits) of information over long distances, the fact that they do not normally interact with each other makes it difficult to create all-optical logic gates. "What it will be useful for we don't know yet; but it's a new state of matter, so we are hopeful that new applications may emerge as we continue to investigate these photonic molecules' properties," says Lukin.
The research is described in Nature.
2) Fusion, anyone? Not quite yet, but researchers show just how close we've come:
The dream of igniting a self-sustained fusion reaction with high yields of energy, a feat likened to creating a miniature star on Earth, is getting closer to becoming reality, according the authors of a new review article in the journal Physics of Plasmas. Researchers at the National Ignition Facility (NIF) engaged in a collaborative project led by the Department of Energy's Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, report that while there is at least one significant obstacle to overcome before achieving the highly stable, precisely directed implosion required for ignition, they have met many of the demanding challenges leading up to that goal since experiments began in 2010.
The project is a multi-institutional effort including partners from the University of Rochester's Laboratory for Laser Energetics, General Atomics, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Sandia National Laboratory, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.To reach ignition (defined as the point at which the fusion reaction produces more energy than is needed to initiate it), the NIF focuses 192 laser beams simultaneously in billionth-of-a-second pulses inside a cryogenically cooled hohlraum (from the German word for "hollow room"), a hollow cylinder the size of a pencil eraser. Within the hohlraum is a ball-bearing-size capsule containing two hydrogen isotopes, deuterium and tritium (D-T). The unified lasers deliver 1.8 megajoules of energy and 500 terawatts of power—1,000 times more than the United States uses at any one moment—to the hohlraum creating an "X-ray oven" which implodes the D-T capsule to temperatures and pressures similar to those found at the center of the sun."What we want to do is use the X-rays to blast away the outer layer of the capsule in a very controlled manner, so that the D-T pellet is compressed to just the right conditions to initiate the fusion reaction," explained John Edwards, NIF associate director for inertial confinement fusion and high-energy-density science. "In our new review article, we report that the NIF has met many of the requirements believed necessary to achieve ignition—sufficient X-ray intensity in the hohlraum, accurate energy delivery to the target and desired levels of compression—but that at least one major hurdle remains to be overcome, the premature breaking apart of the capsule."
In the article, Edwards and his colleagues discuss how they are using diagnostic tools developed at NIF to determine likely causes for the problem. "In some ignition tests, we measured the scattering of neutrons released and found different strength signals at different spots around the D-T capsule," Edwards said. "This indicates that the shell's surface is not uniformly smooth and that in some places, it's thinner and weaker than in others. In other tests, the spectrum of X-rays emitted indicated that the D-T fuel and capsule were mixing too much—the results of hydrodynamic instability—and that can quench the ignition process."
Edwards said that the team is concentrating its efforts on NIF to define the exact nature of the instability and use the knowledge gained to design an improved, sturdier capsule. Achieving that milestone, he said, should clear the path for further advances toward laboratory ignition.
3) World record solar cell with 44.7% efficiency:
German Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems, Soitec, CEA-Leti and the Helmholtz Center Berlin announced today that they have achieved a new world record for the conversion of sunlight into electricity using a new solar cell structure with four solar subcells. Surpassing competition after only over three years of research, and entering the roadmap at world class level, a new record efficiency of 44.7% was measured at a concentration of 297 suns. This indicates that 44.7% of the solar spectrum's energy, from ultraviolet through to the infrared, is converted into electrical energy. This is a major step towards reducing further the costs of solar electricity and continues to pave the way to the 50% efficiency roadmap.
"This world record increasing our efficiency level by more than 1 point in less than 4 months demonstrates the extreme potential of our four-junction solar cell design which relies on Soitec bonding techniques and expertise," says André-Jacques Auberton-Hervé, Soitec's Chairman and CEO. "It confirms the acceleration of the roadmap towards higher efficiencies which represents a key contributor to competitiveness of our own CPV systems. We are very proud of this achievement, a demonstration of a very successful collaboration."
"This new record value reinforces the credibility of the direct semiconductor bonding approaches that is developed in the frame of our collaboration with Soitec and Fraunhofer ISE. We are very proud of this new result, confirming the broad path that exists in solar technologies for advanced III-V semiconductor processing," said Leti CEO Laurent Malier. Concentrator modules are produced by Soitec (started in 2005 under the name Concentrix Solar, a spin-off of Fraunhofer ISE). This particularly efficient technology is employed in solar power plants located in sun-rich regions with a high percentage of direct radiation. Presently Soitec has CPV installations in 18 different countries including Italy, France, South Africa and California.
4) Curiosity gets the dirt on Mars:
Rover completes analysis of first soil collected from Gale Crater. Whiffs of chemicals found in rocket fuel, a dark pyramid that resembles rare volcanic rocks on Earth and glassy particles bearing traces of water are among the Curiosity rover’s finds in its first chemical investigation of Martian dirt.
“This is the first time we’ve known precisely and definitively what this stuff is made of,” says astrobiologist David Blake of the NASA Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, Calif. He and his colleagues report the results of the analysis September 26 in Science.In samples scooped from Martian dust, Blake and his colleagues found a mix of crystals from volcanic rocks plus glassy particles. Researchers discovered the blend by bombarding soil with radioactive alpha particles and using the energy signatures bounced back to identify the soil’s chemical contents.The scientists also used a shoe box–sized instrument at the front of the rover that identifies minerals based on how their crystal structures diffract, or bend, X-rays.“The exciting part for many of us is getting the X-ray diffraction data,” says mineralogist David Bish of Indiana University. An X-ray diffraction instrument used to be the size of a large refrigerator, he explains. But he and his colleagues figured out how to miniaturize the machine for Curiosity, in part by borrowing a tiny image recording device from cell phones.
To further dissect the dirt, geochemist Laurie Leshin of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, N.Y., and colleagues fired up a microwave-sized instrument in the belly of the rover. There, scientists heated a tiny pile of soil to about 835° Celsius and examined the gases that came off.They found that the sample contained around 2 percent water, probably hidden in the glassy particles. The analysis also found a variety of chlorine compounds, including perchlorate, a toxic component of rocket fuel, which could complicate future plans for humans to live and work on Mars. Both the water and the chlorine probably come from the atmosphere, Leshin explains. “The dirt is acting as a bit of a sponge,” she says. So far, they haven’t found any organic compounds that might signal life.Last, researchers examined a black, pyramid-shaped boulder about 50 centimeters tall, which they dubbed Jake_M after NASA engineer Jacob “Jake” Matijevic, who passed away in 2012.Jake_M is unlike any Martian rock ever examined, and most closely resembles a rare type of lava found on islands on Earth. “It’s not just that it looks sort of like it,” says geologist Edward Stolper of Caltech, “you would have a hard time telling them apart.” The find gives some hints about how rocks have formed on Mars, he says.
5) Biologists Confirm Role of Sperm Competition in Formation of New Species:
Female promiscuity -- something that occurs in a majority of species, including humans -- results in the ejaculates from two or more males overlapping within her reproductive tract. When this happens, sperm compete for fertilization of the female's eggs. In addition, the female has the opportunity to bias fertilization of her eggs in favor of one male's sperm over others. These processes, collectively known as postcopulatory sexual selection, drive a myriad of rapid, coordinated evolutionary changes in ejaculate and female reproductive tract traits. These changes have been predicted to be an important part of speciation, the process by which new biological species arise.Until now, traits and processes that influence fertilization success have been poorly understood, due to the challenges of observing what sperm do within the female's body and of discriminating sperm among different males. Almost nothing is known about what determines the sperm's fate in hybrid matings where there may be an evolutionary mismatch between ejaculate and female reproductive tract traits.
Professor John Belote has overcome these challenges by genetically engineering closely related species of fruit flies with different colors of glow-in-the-dark-sperm. Working closely with Scott Pitnick, Mollie Manier, and other colleagues in SU's Pitnick Lab, he is able to observe ejaculate-female interactions and sperm competition in hybrid matings."How new species arise is one of the most important questions facing biologists, and we still have a lot to learn," says Pitnick, a professor in SU's Department of Biology in The College of Arts and Sciences, adding that the mechanisms maintaining the genetic boundary between species is difficult to pin down. "This paper [in Current Biology] is perhaps the most important one of my career. It has been six years in the making."Belote, also a professor in the Department of Biology, says that sexual selection research has addressed mainly precopulatory, rather than postcopulatory selection. This disparity is due, in part, to the aforementioned difficulties of studying ejaculate-ejaculate and ejaculate-female interactions."By focusing on phenotypic divergence [i.e., the genetic make-up and environmental influences] between sister species in postcopulatory sexual selection, we can predict patterns of reproductive isolation and the causal mechanisms underlying such isolation," he says.In addition to Belote and Pitnick, the article was co-authored by William T. Starmer, professor of biology at SU; Manier, a former SU research associate who is assistant professor of biology at the George Washington University; Stefan Lüpold, an SU research assistant professor; Kirstin S. Berben, an SU lab technician; Outi Ala-Honkola, a former SU postdoctoral fellow who is a biologist at the University of Jyväskylä (Finland); and William F. Collins '12, a former student of Pitnick's who is a master's candidate at the Johns Hopkins' School of Advanced International Studies.
The study of sexual selection can trace its origins to Charles Darwin's landmark book "The Descent of Man and Selection in Relation to Sex" (1871). Since then, much has been written on the subject. That it is relatively easy to witness what males do to exert dominance -- think of elephant seals slashing one another's necks or of bighorn sheep ramming horns -- and what females look for in certain suitors, such as the iridescent plumage of the male peacock, sheds light on precopulatory sexual selection.By comparison, the study of what happens after mating (i.e., postcopulatory sexual selection) didn't get under way until the 1970s. Then there are the inherent research challenges."It's difficult to observe the competition between ejaculates and female discrimination among sperm, given that it takes place inside the female and may involve complex biochemical, physiological and morphological interactions," Pitnick says. "Although we have powerful tools for assigning paternity and for quantifying the outcome of sperm competition and cryptic female choice, it might as well be 1871, in terms of understanding the traits and processes of postcopulatory sexual selection."Members of the research team include, left to right, Mollie Manier, Stefan Lüpold, Scott Pitnick, and John Belote.
Members of the research team include, left to right, Mollie Manier, Stefan Lüpold, Scott Pitnick and John Belote.
Pitnick and Belote have tackled the problem head on by genetically altering flies, so that their sperm heads are flourescent red or green. This approach has enabled them to directly observe sperm competition within the female, as well as the role of female behavior on sperm fate, such as when she discards sperm by forcefully ejecting it from her reproductive tract.Central to their research have been two related species of fruit flies, Drosophila simulans and D. mauritiana, which diverged from a common ancestor more than 260,000 years ago -- a "blink of an eye" in evolutionary terms, Pitnick says. Working with two closely related flies has helped him and his team better understand how not only sperm competition works, but also underlying mechanisms and processes rapidly evolve.As a result, Pitnick and Belote are better able to determine what happens when a female mates twice (i.e., once with a male of her own species and once with member of a related species.) Then they can assess the predictability of the outcomes, based on knowledge of evolved ejaculate-female incompatibilities."The take-away from our study is that postcopulatory sexual selection can quickly generate critical incompatibilities between ejaculates and female reproductive tracts that limit gene flow between isolated populations or species," Pitnick says. "Because female promiscuity and, by extension, postcopulatory sexual selection is so ubiquitous, it is likely to be a widespread engine of speciation."
6) Genetic Map Developed Linking Complex Diseases:
Although heavily studied, the specific genetic causes of "complex diseases," a category of disorders which includes autism, diabetes and heart disease, are largely unknown due to byzantine genetic and environmental interactions. Now, scientists from the University of Chicago have created one of the most expansive analyses to date of the genetic factors at play in complex diseases -- by using diseases with known genetic causes to guide them. Analyzing more than 120 million patient records and identifying trends of co-occurrence among hundreds of diseases, they created a unique genetic map that has the potential to guide researchers and clinicians in diagnosing, identifying risk factors for and someday developing therapies against complex diseases. The work was published Sept. 26 in Cell.
"For the first time we've found that almost every complex disease has a unique set of associations with single-gene diseases. This essentially gives us 'barcodes' of specific gene loci, which we can use to help untangle the complex genetics of complex diseases," said Andrey Rzhetsky, PhD, professor of genetic medicine and human genetics at the University of Chicago, who led the study.
The majority of human diseases are complex and caused by a combination of genetic, environmental and lifestyle factors. On the other end of the spectrum are Mendelian diseases such as cystic fibrosis and sickle-cell anemia, which are caused by abnormalities to a single gene. Some Mendelian disorders are known to predispose patients to certain complex diseases, but these co-occurrences have thus far only been studied on a small-scale basis.To expose any underlying shared genetic structures between these disease categories, Rzhetsky and his team developed computational algorithms to parse more than 120 million patient billing records from hospitals systems across the U.S. and from nearly the entire population of Demark. They looked for trends in comorbidity, or the occurrence of both complex and Mendelian disease in the same patient, that were higher than expected from random chance. They studied these correlations in 65 complex diseases affecting almost every system in the body, including arthritis, depression and lung cancer, and in 95 Mendelian disease groups (representing 213 disorders).The team uncovered 2,909 statistically significant associations, as well as corresponding levels of relative risk between every disease pair. Some comorbidities were well known, such as the strong link between lipoprotein deficiencies and heart attack, but the vast majority were previously unknown. For example, Marfan syndrome, a connective tissue disorder, was found to have significant comorbidities with neuropsychiatric diseases such as autism, bipolar disorder and depression. Fragile X syndrome, an intellectual disability disorder, has significant associations with asthma, psoriasis and viral infection, highlighting a potential immune system dysfunction in these patients.
"Since the Mendelian diseases are associated with known genetic loci, we have essentially created a genetic map for complex disease using Mendelian disorders as markers," said David Blair, a graduate student at the University of Chicago and first author on the study. "These loci represent great candidates for uncovering subtle genetic variations, some which might not directly cause Mendelian disease but still impact the risk for developing complex diseases."This genetic map is immediately useful for geneticists and clinicians as a gauge to the level of risk of developing complex disease among their patients with Mendelian diseases. But it also gives scientists a wealth of new data and a unique approach by which to better understand and develop therapeutics against complex diseases. The team also discovered that genetic insults underlying Mendelian diseases do not appear to independently contribute to complex diseases but likely interact in a combinatorial way to ultimately cause the disorders."Individuals with multiple Mendelian disease-causing genetic variants end up having a much higher risk for a complex disease than we would predict given that the variants act in isolation," Blair said.The team hopes to expand their study to even more diseases and larger population data and to compare their predictions against the whole genome data of a broad population.
7) Newfound biological clocks set by the moon:
Marine organisms have rhythms dictated by tides, lunar cycle. The sun exerts hegemony over biological rhythms of nearly every organism on Earth. But two studies now show the moon is no slouch. It controls the cadence of at least two different biological clocks: one set by tides and the other by moonlight.
The clocks, both discovered in sea creatures, work independently of the circadian clock, which synchronizes daily rhythms with the sun. The studies demonstrate that the moon’s light and its gravitational pull, which creates tides, can affect the behavior of animals.“The moon has an influence, definitely,” says Steven Reppert, a neurobiologist at the University of Massachusetts Medical School in Worcester, who was not involved with either study. “Clearly for these marine organisms, it’s very powerful and important.”Scientists established decades ago that circadian clocks govern people’s daily cycles of such things as hormone levels, blood pressure and body temperature. Nearly every organism, including single-celled creatures, has some version. Circadian clocks are composed of protein gears. In a loop that takes roughly 24 hours, levels of some proteins rise and then fall, while others fall and then rise. Sunlight sets the clocks, but once a clock is set it will keep running, even when scientists keep organisms in constant darkness.Other rhythmic behaviors occur on longer time frames, such as reproductive cycles that seem to follow the moon, annual patterns like hibernation and blooming cycles, and multiyear events like the emergence of cicadas every 13 to 17 years. Other periodic activities happen on shorter timescales, such as behavior of coastal organisms coordinated with tides. Researchers have debated whether these behaviors were really timed by an internal clock that would keep ticking if the cues used to synchronize it disappear.“What is biologically true and what is myth needs to be carefully untangled,” says Kristin Tessmar-Raible, a molecular neurobiologist at the University of Vienna. She and colleagues describe a lunar clock in a marine worm in the Oct. 17 Cell Reports.That unraveling of fact from fiction can take a long time. It took about nine years for Charalambos Kyriacou of the University of Leicester in England and his colleagues to establish that the speckled sea louse, Eurydice pulchra, has a clock that times the tides. Before the tide goes out, the creatures bury themselves in the sand to keep from being swept out to sea. When water levels rise, 12.4 hours later, the sea lice emerge to forage. When kept in dark, still water in the lab, the animals’ swimming patterns still follow the rise and fall of the tides, indicating that the rhythm is under control of a tidal clock within the sea lice, the researchers report in the Oct. 7 Current Biology.
The scientists’ work has taken on a rhythm, too, one dictated by an organism that lives for only a few months and doesn’t breed in the lab. Each spring and summer, the researchers fish the marine crustaceans out of high tides. Winters are spent analyzing the animals’ behavioral data and genetic material.Some researchers had speculated that Eurydice’s tidal rhythms might stem from a pair of out-of-phase circadian clocks, generating the roughly 12-hour tidal rhythms. Others thought an independent clock could drive tidal rhythms.So the researchers disabled genes that make two of the molecular gears in the crustaceans’ circadian clock. “It doesn’t matter what you throw at the circadian clock — you can hit it with a hammer — and the tidal rhythm is unaffected,” Kyriacou says. That is evidence that the tidal clock uses different protein gears than the circadian clock does.As Kyriacou’s group prepared to publish its results, Tessmar-Raible and her colleagues were simultaneously reporting their discovery of a lunar clock in a marine worm, Platynereis dumerilii. The worms spawn on a monthly cycle set by moonlight, the team found.Like the tidal clock in the crustaceans, the worms’ lunar clocks kept on ticking when the researchers dismantled the circadian clock. That finding indicated the monthly cycles are under control of an independent timing mechanism.
The discoveries raise the possibility that many other organisms, including humans, may have multiple timers, says Charlotte Helfrich-Förster, who studies biological clocks at the University of Würzburg in Germany. Such clocks could be behind women’s monthly menstrual cycles; recent studies have also shown that sodium levels have a monthly rhythm and that people’s sleeping habits may follow lunar cycles
Thomson Reuters makes its annual data-based picks for which scientists could collect Nobel Medals in Stockholm later this year:
This year’s Citation Laureates in Physiology or Medicine are:
University of Edinburgh geneticist Adrian Bird and Hebrew University of Jerusalem researchers Howard Cedar and Aharon Razin for “for fundamental discoveries concerning DNA methylation and gene expression.” Cedar and Razin, who have collaborated for the last 30 years, were the first to explain how DNA methylation functions in turning on or off gene expression, helping give birth to the study of epigenetic regulation. Bird extended this work by elucidating two different types of methylation.
University of Michigan biochemist Daniel Klionsky, University of Tokyo researcher Noboru Mizushima, and Tokyo Institute of Technology scientist Yoshinori Ohsumi for “for elucidating the molecular mechanisms and physiological function of autophagy.” Ohsumi and Mizushima were two of the first researchers to catalog the proteins involved in autophagy pathways in yeast, and Klionski studies autophagy in mitochondria. Klionski helped developed the understanding that autophagy was more an essential cellular function then a simple garbage disposal system for worn out cell components.
Dennis Slamon, a clinical researcher from the University of California, Los Angeles, “for pioneering research identifying the HER-2/neu oncogene, leading to more effective cancer therapy.” Slamon, along with his UCLA colleagues, discovered a monoclonal antibody that blocks HER-2, an aberrant protein found in some women with breast cancer. That antibody would eventually become the drug herceptin, which transformed HER-2-positive breast cancers from death sentences to manageable diseases.
This year’s Citation Laureates in Chemistry include:
Paul Alivisatos, Director of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Northwestern University chemist Chad Mirkin, and New York University chemist, Nadrian Seeman “for contributions to DNA nanotechnology.”
University of California, Berkeley researcher Bruce Ames “for the invention of the Ames test of mutagenicity.”
Movie Release This Week:
1) Don Jon:
Jon Martello (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) is a strong, handsome, good old fashioned guy. His buddies call him Don Jon due to his ability to "pull" a different woman every weekend, but even the finest fling doesn't compare to the bliss he finds alone in front of the computer watching pornography. Barbara Sugarman (Scarlett Johansson) is a bright, beautiful, good old fashioned girl. Raised on romantic Hollywood movies, she's determined to find her Prince Charming and ride off into the sunset. Wrestling with good old fashioned expectations of the opposite sex, Jon and Barbara struggle against a media culture full of false fantasies to try and find true intimacy in this unexpected comedy written and directed by Joseph Gordon-Levitt.
2) Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2:
Flint Lockwood now works at The Live Corp Company for his idol Chester V. But he's forced to leave his post when he learns that his most infamous machine is still operational and is churning out menacing food-animal hybrids.
3) Dark Touch:
Niamh is the lone survivor of a bloody massacre after the furniture and objects in her family’s isolated house take on a monstrous life of their own. The police ignore her wild stories and the family friends and social worker that take her in try to introduce a new life. But in this psychological thriller, Niamh is unable to leave her violent past behind her, endangering everyone who crosses her path.
Set in the lower depths of 1860s Paris, THERESE is a tale of obsessive love, adultery and revenge based on Emile Zola's scandalous novel, Thérèse Raquin. Therese (Elizabeth Olsen of "Martha Marcy May Marlene"), a sexually repressed beautiful young woman, is trapped into a loveless marriage to her sickly cousin, Camille (Tom Felton of the "Harry Potter" franchise), by her domineering aunt, Madame Raquin (two-time Oscar, Emmy and Golden Globe winner Jessica Lange). Therese spends her days confined behind the counter of a small shop and her evenings watching Madame play dominos with an eclectic group. After she meets her husband's alluring friend, Laurent (Oscar Isaac), she embarks on an illicit affair that leads to tragic consequences.
Based on the novel by Par Lagerkvist, winner of a Nobel Prize in Literature, Barabbas is a two-part mini-series that explores the story of a man whose life was spared because of the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. Filmed on location in Tunisia, this sweeping epic is an ultimate story of redemption that picks up where the Bible left off
Political News This Week:
1) Militants kill nine in Kashmir ahead of India-Pakistan talks:
Militants dressed in Indian army uniforms attacked police and soldiers near the border with Pakistan on Thursday, killing nine people and triggering calls for talks between the prime ministers of the rival nations to be called off.Just a day before the twin assault in disputed Jammu and Kashmir, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said he would meet his Pakistan counterpart, Nawaz Sharif, on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly on the weekend.The leaders of the nuclear-armed neighbours are expected to discuss rising violence in Kashmir. Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah said the assault was an attempt to derail the talks.A group of three gunmen attacked a police station in the morning, about 10 km (6 miles) from the border with Pakistan, killing five policemen. They then hijacked a truck and raided an army camp, security forces said. One civilian was killed.The militants killed three soldiers during hours of fighting at the camp, near the town of Samba.While helicopters hovered overhead, a Reuters witness heard sporadic explosions and gunfire as Indian forces closed in on, and eventually killed, the gunmen who were holed up in a building."All the three militants have been killed in the Samba army camp operation. Three army men including a lieutenant colonel rank officer are dead," said army spokesman Rajesh Kalia.State-run Doordarshan quoted Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde as saying the militants had entered from Pakistan.Pakistan's army and government were not immediately available for comment.India and Pakistan have fought two of their three wars since independence in 1947 over Muslim-majority Kashmir, which they both claim in full but rule in part.India has accused Pakistan of supporting militants fighting security forces in Indian Kashmir since 1989.
|They then hijacked a truck and raided an army camp, security forces said. One civilian was killed.The militants killed three soldiers during hours of fighting at the camp, near the town of Samba|
Militant strikes in Kashmir, as well as shooting and mortar fire between Indian and Pakistani forces across the border, have risen this year after a decade of falling violence.Some Indian officials fear that a new wave of Pakistan-based militants from Islamist groups such as the Lashkar-e-Taiba will turn to India as Western troops leave Afghanistan next year.In a separate incident, the Indian army said it had killed at least a dozen militants from a group of 30 it said had crossed over from Pakistan into northern Kashmir. Lieutenant General Gurmeet Singh said that operation was still going on.Immediately after the attack in Samba, politicians from opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) called for the cancellation of the weekend talks. They will be the first between the two leaders since Sharif was re-elected in May following an election campaign in which he called for better ties with India.While Prime Minister Singh strongly condemned what he called a "heinous terrorist attack" he suggested the meeting With Sharif, expected on Sunday, would go ahead."This is one more in a series of provocations and barbaric actions by the enemies of peace," Singh said in a statement. "Such attacks will not deter us and will not succeed in derailing our efforts to find a resolution to all problems through a process of dialogue."Yashwant Sinha, a leader of the BJP, said there was no point talking to Pakistan if it was unable to prevent such attacks on India.
"We are not going to achieve anything and therefore I have no hesitation in saying that the prime minister should call off the talks ... I insist he should call off the talks even at this stage." he said.Pakistan denies arming or training militants, but says it offers moral support to the Muslim people of Kashmir who it says face rights abuses by Indian forces.According to the South Asia Terrorism Portal, which tracks violence in Kashmir, 128 people, including 44 security personnel, have been killed in the region this year, before the latest attack. That compares with 117 people killed in 2012.
2) SC ruling gives voters Right to Reject all candidates in polls:
In a landmark verdict, the Supreme Court on Friday held that citizens have right to cast negative vote rejecting all candidates contesting polls, a decision which would encourage people not satisfied with contestants to turn up for voting.The apex court directed the Election Commission to provide 'none of the above options' at the end of the list of candidates in electronic voting machines and ballot papers to allow voters to reject those contesting polls.A bench headed by Chief Justice P Sathasivam said that negative voting would foster purity and vibrancy of elections and ensure wide participation as people who are not satisfied with the candidates in the fray would also turn up to express their opinion rejecting contestants.It said that the concept of negative voting would bring a systemic change in the election process as the political parties will be forced to project clean candidates in polls.The bench noted that the concept of negative voting is prevalent in 13 countries and even in India, parliamentarians are given an option to press the button for abstaining while voting takes place in the House.The court said right to reject candidates in elections is part of fundamental right to freedom of speech and expression given by the Constitution to Indian citizens.
It said that democracy is all about choice and significance of right of citizens to cast negative voting is massive.With the concept of negative voting, the voters who are dissatisfied with the candidates in the fray would turn up in large number to express their opinion which would put unscrupulous elements and impersonators out of the polls, it said.The bench, while reading out the operative portion of the judgement, did not throw light on a situation in case the votes cast under no option head outnumber the votes got by the candidates.It said that secrecy of votes cast under the no option category must be maintained by the Election Commission.
3) 6 killed, 19 injured in Mumbai building collapse:
Six persons, including three of a family, were killed and 19 injured after a five-storeyed Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation residential building collapsed in Mazgaon area in Mumbai on Friday."The death toll in the collapse has risen to six," civic officials told PTI, adding that many more people are believed to be trapped in the debris, even as rescue operations are underway.
Four of the deceased have been identified as Lakhoji Devji Chawda (60), Jamuna Chawda (30) Anil Chawda (19) and Santosh (44), they said.The injured have been admitted to state-run JJ Hospital and Nair Hospital, civic sources said. Chaos and confusion prevailed at the mishap site as kin of the victims failed to ascertain as to where they have been admitted.About 21 families, who were primarily BMC's tenants lived in the 30-year-old structure, which was categorised as a "C-2" building, which meant that it was in need of urgent repairs. The residential building was located on the Brahmadev Khot Marg near Babu Genu market in the Mazgaon area, which is close to the Dockyard Road railway station on the suburban harbour railway line.The fire brigade has sent 12 fire engines, four ambulances and two rescue vans to initiate rescue operations.
A 10-year-old boy is among those rescued by the fire brigade, sources said.Names of those rescued so far are Anish Kadam (10), Diptesh Kadam (16), Habib Shaikh (22), Tauqeer Shaikh (22), Haroon Shaikh (24) and Ajay Chendvankar (40).A fire fighter, D S Patil, was also injured during rescue operations.
4) Al-Badr's terror trail: Bangladesh, Kerala, Mumbai and Kashmir:
Militant group Al-Badr has claimed responsibility for the twin suicide attack that rocked Samba sector in Jammu region on Thursday.
Dressed in army fatigues, militants stormed a police station and then an army camp in Jammu region, killing ten people including an army officer, after they sneaked in from across the border.Al Badr militants, though based in Pakistan, enjoy close links with certain elements in south India.Security agencies, while probing the militant group a few years ago, had found that some of its members enjoyed major political patronage in Kerala.Al-Badr, also known as Al-Badr Mujahideen, was created in 1971 by the Inter Services Intelligence.The group allegedly played a role in the massacre of Bengali intellectuals during the Bangladesh freedom movement in 1971.
After carrying out the massive operation -- it is believed that nearly 10,000 Bangladeshis were slaughtered by the group -- it went underground for a decade.
In recent years, the Intelligence Bureau had picked up two operatives of the outfit, Mohammad Fahad and Mohammad Ali Hussain, from Mysore.
Fahad told interrogators that he came to Kerala to meet a relative, but his passport had expired and he was yet to get a new one. He had traveled to Mysore as he wanted to extend his stay.The IB arrested the duo after receiving a tip-off about them staying on in India despite not possessing valid documents.Investigations later revealed that the duo was planning to carry out a terror strike in Karnataka after they were assured of protection by certain politicians in Kerala.
Fahad and Hussain wanted to target the Vidhan Soudha, the seat of the state assembly, in Bangalore. Police also found satellite phones, laptops, improvised explosive devices, pistols, cell phones, detonators, AK-47 rifles and a digital camera in their possession.While Fahad is a post graduate in Analytical Chemistry, Hussain is a school drop out.During the investigation, Praveen Sood, the then police commissioner of Mysore, had said that police were trying to find out the names of politicians who had helped these terrorists.The probe had pointed towards the Peoples Democratic Party in Kerala headed by controversial leader Abdul Nasar Madani.The duo's political contacts had even helped them take over a steel factory in Kozhikode and use it as a front to assemble explosives.Touhfeen Akmal Hashmi, a divisional commander with Al Badr, was chosen by the ISI to assist terrorists who carried out the 7/11 serial train blasts in Mumbai.
Over the next one year, the ISI directed its modules in Kerala to recruit young men and send them to Pakistan to receive training. The ultimate aim was to 'wage a war' in Jammu and Kashmir.Two youths from Kerala were sent for fidayeen training; they were killed while launching an attack in the Valley.
Fahad, a resident of Karachi, was first sent to Jammu and Kashmir, where he stayed for four years before heading to Kozhikode in Kerala.He reportedly killed as many as 20 Indian soldiers during his stint in Kashmir.Pleased with his activities, the ISI decided to entrust him with the task of building a module in south of India.The Intelligence Bureau believes that after each major operation, Al-Badr goes off the radar for a long period, and it is likely to do the same this time too.
5) Indian treasure worth Rs 2 crore found on frozen French peak!:
A French climber recently found a box full of precious stones while trekking at Mont Blanc, the highest mountain range in the European Union, with jewellery worth over Rs 2 crore.The metal box had nearly 100 pieces of emeralds, rubies and sapphires packed into sachets that were marked 'made in India'.The box is believed to have belonged to a passenger of one of the two ill-fated Air India flights that crashed at the spot, in 1950 and in 1966.Incidentally, a bag of surprisingly well-preserved Indian diplomatic mail was found by two climbers at Mont Blanc last year.The bag, marked 'ministry of external affairs', was believed to have belonged to someone on board the Boeing 707 that had crashed at the site in January 1966.As many as 11 crew members and 106 passengers had been killed in the crash.
Since one of the passengers killed in the crash was Homi Jehangir Bhaba, considered the father of India's nuclear programme, many conspiracy theories had surfaced after the mishap.The real reason behind the crash was never ascertained.An Air India propeller plane had crashed in the same region 16 years earlier -- in 1950 -- killing 48 passengers and crew members.The French climber, who remains unnamed, carried the box on his way down from the summit and handed it over to the local police."You can say the climber who made this find is someone very honest," the local police chief was quoted as saying by the Guardian.The daily also described Mont Blanc as “one of the world's most beautiful mountains, with a deadly history of dangerous storms and fatal avalanches.”The French authorities will now contact their Indian counterparts and try to return the jewel box to its rightful owner.If Indian authorities fail to find the owner of the treasure, the jewels can be given back to the climber who found them, said the Guardian.
6) Coal scam: CBI questions Naveen Jindal:
Three months after registering a first information report against him, the Central Bureau of Investigation on Thursday questioned Congress Member of Parliament and industrialist Naveen Jindal in connection with a case of alleged cheating and criminal conspiracy in bagging Amarkonda Murgadangal coal block in Jharkhand in 2008.Highly-placed sources in the agency said Jindal was summoned by the CBI after which he expressed the desire to appear before it on Thursday.
He met the investigation team in the afternoon and his examination continued till late in the evening, the sources said.The agency conceded to his request that he should not be subjected to media glare after which the venue was changed from the CBI headquarters to a safe house where his examination took place, they said.
The agency has booked him in its 12th FIR in connection with coal blocks allocation scam registered in June this year. Former Minister of State for Coal Dasari Narayan Rao has also been booked by the agency in the case.Neither the company JSPL nor Jindal gave their comments on the issue as messages and emails sent to them remained unanswered.During its probe into the scam, it was for the first time the then Minister of State was named as an accused in an FIR by the CBI in which it was alleged that he had received Rs 2.25 crore camouflaged as investment from one of Jindal's firms within a year of allocation of a coal block to him.
CBI sources said Jindal Steel and Power Limited and Gagan Sponge Iron Limited, also a Jindal firm, had bagged Amarkonda Murgadangal coal block in Birbhum, Jharkhand in 2008 by alleged misrepresentation of facts when Rao was the minister of state for coal.The CBI has claimed in its FIR that the misrepresentation was allegedly done on three counts--land, water supply and previous allocations.The sources said JSPL had allegedly claimed in the application submitted in January 2007 that it had only three coal blocks with it whereas actually it had at least six coal blocks.They said this was done to boost its eligibility for the coal block allocation as the government was mulling avoiding monopoly of a single company by not allocating large number of blocks to one firm.Within a year, a block was allocated to the JSPL in January 2008, they claimed, noting that shares of Rao's firm Saubhagya Media listed at Rs 28 at that time were purchased by one of Jindal's firms New Delhi Exim Limited at whopping Rs 100 per share with a total investment of nearly Rs 2.25 crore which is alleged to be illegal gratification.
The sources said in the account books of New Delhi Exim, the said money was shown as loans from Jindal Realty which in turn had received the money as loan from Gagan Sponge Iron Limited to show it to be a genuine investment.Besides Jindal and Rao, the CBI has also booked companies Jindal Steel and Power Limited, Gagan Sponge Iron Limited Jindal's companies--Jindal Realty and ND Exim and Rao's company Saubhagya Media.The sources said unknown members of the screening committee, which cleared the allocations, and unknown directors of the accused private companies also figure in the FIR.
7) Kenya mall attack mastermind studied in Pakistan: Report:
The alleged Somali mastermind of the attack on a Kenyan mall connected with jihadists while studying in Pakistan and later fought in Afghanistan and Kashmir, according to a media report on Thursday.Mukhtar Abu Zubeyr, known as Godane, earned a scholarship in the 1990s to study in Pakistan, where he "connected with jihadist circles", analysts were quoted as saying by Washington Post.Godane then travelled to "Afghanistan to train and fight, as well as to Kashmir", the report said. The militant commander, thought to be in his mid-30s, returned to Somalia in 2002 and joined the Islamic Courts Union, an Islamist group that controlled large swaths in the southern part of the country. He held senior positions until late 2006, when the transitional government drove the Islamists out.Hard-liners from the group then formed Al Shabab, which claimed responsibility for the attack on the Westgate mall in Nairobi that killed 67 people, including three Indian nationals.The report described Godane as "a man of contradictions". He is "bookish, eloquent in both Arabic and Somali, recites poetry and is known to quote from obscure academic journals".
But he also ruthlessly killed most of his rivals to seize control of Al Shabab, the Somali militia linked to Al Qaeda. Al Shabab said the attack in Nairobi was revenge for Kenya sending troops into Somalia. But the report said the carnage was just as much to do with the struggles inside the militia and Godane's desire to make Al Shabab -- and himself – stronger and more relevant in the global jihad."The attack was Godane's way of solidifying his recent quelling of internal dissent and firmly placing the organisation as a global jihadist entity," said Abdi Aynte, director of the Heritage Institute for Policy Studies, a Mogadishu-based think tank.Al Shabab's larger footprint under Godane comes as Al Qaeda's central branch in Pakistan and Afghanistan is increasingly diminished.
Sports News This Week:
1) Supreme Court restrains Srinivasan from taking charge as BCCI chief:
N Srinivasan was on Friday restrained from assuming charge of the Board of Control for Cricket in India, if elected to the post, by the Supreme Court, which allowed the Board to hold its proposed Annual General Meeting scheduled for Sunday."In the meanwhile, the proposed AGM of BCCI will be held on September 29 and the election in the AGM can also be held. In case Srinivasan is elected as President, he will not take charge until further orders," a bench comprising Justices A K Patnaik and J S Kehar said.The bench took strong exception to Srinivasan still holding charge of the BCCI when his son-in-law Gurunath Meiyappan has been charge sheeted in connection with the IPL spot-fixing case."Why he is in charge (as the BCCI president) if his son-in-law has been charge sheeted?"Why you (Srinivasan) are so keen to be elected?" the bench said, making it clear that he will not take charge as Board president till the matter is decided by it.
During the hearing, the bench also questioned the holding of elections when the apex court was seized of the matter."We do not know anyone. We only know cricket. We only know BCCI," the bench observed. It posted the matter for further hearing on Monday.The court's order came on the plea of Cricket Association of Bihar (CAB) seeking interim injunction restraining Srinivasan from contesting for the post of BCCI pPresident in the AGM, to be held in Chennai.CAB has sought a direction to BCCI that Srinivasan be not inducted in any committee of the Board till the matter pending in the apex court is decided. The court had earlier posted the hearing for October on cross appeals filed by the BCCI and CAB against the Bombay high court's verdict declaring as illegal the probe panel appointed by the Board to look into the spot-fixing scandal.It had, on August 30, heard the petition filed by Aditya Verma, secretary, CAB, challenging the high court's order refusing to appoint a fresh committee to probe the scam.The court had also issued notices to the BCCI, Srinivasan, his company India Cements, which owns IPL team Chennai Super Kings, and Rajasthan Royals on the plea.CAB has pleaded that when the high court declared the panel of two judges as unconstitutional, it should have appointed a fresh committee to look into the issue.The apex court had, on August 7, refused to grant interim stay on the high court verdict, derailing the plan of Srinivasan to return as chief of BCCI.
Srinivasan had stepped aside from discharging his duties as BCCI president in the light of spot-fixing and betting scandal which allegedly involved Chennai Super Kings team's former principal Meiyappan.The high court order had come on July 30, just two days after the panel comprising two former judges of the Madras high court Justices T Jayarama Chouta and R Balasubramanian, submitted its report giving a clean chit to all those against whom the probe was conducted.The panel had gone into the charges against India Cements Ltd, Meiyappan and Raj Kundra, co-owner of Rajasthan Royals.The panel was set up by BCCI and IPL Governing Council after the surfacing of the betting and spot-fixing scandal.
2) I received a life threat at 6:16 pm on Thursday, says Aditya Verma:
Elated by the Supreme Court order restraining N Srinivasan from taking charge as BCCI President even if he is elected in the AGM, Cricket Association of Bihar Secretary Aditya Verma today alleged that he braved death threats to fight the legal battle against the Tamil Nadu strongman.
Hearing the petition filed by Verma, Supreme Court today allowed the BCCI to go ahead with its Annual General Meeting in Chennai on Sunday but has told Srinivasan not to take charge even if he is elected President."I am 300 percent happy with the verdict of the honourable Supreme Court. This is a lonely battle that I had to fight against a powerful sports administrator like Mr Srinivasan. I had full faith in judiciary," Verma told PTI.Asked that whether he can claim total victory as the court has not debarred Srinivasan from contesting the BCCI elections, Verma said, "The court has said that Srinivasan can't take charge as the case is pending.""Now it's upto the Board members to decide whether they can allow Srinivasan to contest the elections as he has no power to discharge the President's functions."
The CAB Secretary also claimed that he received a threat call from a particular cell phone number yesterday evening."I received a life threat at 6:16 pm yesterday. An anonymous caller told me to withdraw the case but for me it was a matter of truth," claimed Verma.Verma provided the cell phone number from which the alleged call was made to him.Srinivasan was forced to step aside after his son-in-law and Chennai Super Kings Team Principal Gurunath Meiyappan's name cropped up in the IPL betting scandal. CSK is owned by Srinivasan's compant India Cements.Meiyappan, who is currently out on bail, was recently charge-sheeted by the Mumbai Crime Branch.
3) India thrash Korea 6-1 in Johor Cup:
India thrashed Korea 6-1 in their penultimate round-robin match to virtually seal their place in the final of the Sultan of Johor Cup Under-21 hockey tournament on Thursday.The Indian colts scored three goal each in either half at the Taman Daya Hockey stadium to continue their unbeaten run in the six-nation tournament.
It was India's fourth win on the trot in the tournament, having defeated England (2-1), Argentina (3-2) and Pakistan (4-0) in their previous matches.For India, Amit Rohidas (7th minute), Satbir Singh (9th), Talwinder Singh (31st) netted three goals in the first half, while Amon Mirash Tikey (57th), Ramadeep Singh (62nd) and vice-captain Affan Yusof (65th) score three more on the other side of the break.Korea's lone goal came from You Seung Ju in the 34th minute.
With 12 points in their kitty, India are at the top of the league standings and will play hosts and second-placed Malaysia in their last round-robin match on Saturday.Against Korea, the Indians dominated the exchanges in the firsthalf with a comfortable 3-0 lead. It took India just seven minutes to open the scoring through drag-flicker Rohidas who converted a penalty corner with precision that Korean goalkeeper Lee Se Young had no answer.
India doubled their lead two minutes later through a field goal from Satbir after he was set up by Harjeet Singh. Talwinder made it 3-0 for the Indians four minutes from half time through another field strike.The Koreans, however, managed to pull one back threeminutes later when You Seung Ju scored from a penalty corner.
India slowed down the pace after the break and conceded a few penalty corners but the Koreans failed to utilise the scoring chances.After a slow start to the second half, India gradually took control of the proceedings and scored three more field goals to run away with the match.
4) Hernandez steels Suarez limelight as Manchester United beat Liverpool:
Javier Hernandez poached a second-half winner as Manchester United beat arch-rivals Liverpool 1-0 to move into the English League Cup fourth round on Wednesday, subduing Luis Suarez on his return from a 10-match ban.Mexican Hernandez lost his marker and steered home a Wayne Rooney corner a minute into the second half and United held on despite being outplayed for large periods by a Liverpool side welcoming back Uruguayan Suarez for the first time since April.
It was a welcome fillip for United manager David Moyes, who had been desperate to avoid a second defeat to a major rival in quick succession after Sunday's 4-1 Premier League loss to Manchester City.Arsenal set up a fourth-round clash against Chelsea, coming through a penalty shootout against West Bromwich Albion after the match had finished 1-1 after extra time.An inexperienced Arsenal side had trailed 3-1 in the shootout but won 4-3 with Nacho Monreal netting the decisive spot-kick.There was gloom for holders Swansea City who suffered a shock 3-1 defeat by second tier Birmingham City and Papiss Cisse scored his first goal since April as Newcastle United beat Leeds United 2-0.
Premier League Stoke City also booked a spot in the next round, winning 2-0 at third tier Tranmere Rovers.Suarez, who missed the end of last season and the start of this one for biting Chelsea's Branislav Ivanovic, had dominated the headlines in the run-up having caused controversy in previous games against United.
The script was written for him to make a decisive impact, but he was upstaged by Hernandez who showcased his finely-tuned eye for a goal with a typically clever finish.He left his marker Jose Enrique flat-footed in the box and found a metre of space to sidefoot home."The movement is great for the goal, that's what Chicharito is all about. He finds space so well," Moyes told Sky Sports.
5) Mr IPL gets maximum:
Lalit Modi, who conceived the Indian Premier League (IPL) and was its former chairman and commissioner, was banned for life from the BCCI, its affiliates and associates during the cricket board's Special General Meeting (SGM) in Chennai on Wednesday.The SGM was preceded by a series of legal proceedings with Modi getting a stay order on the SGM from a Delhi court which was overturned by the Delhi High Court. Modi moved the Supreme Court on Wednesday in a last-ditch attempt to save himself.
But once his plea was dismissed by the apex court, it became an open-and-shut case at the SGM.In fact, the meeting was over less than half an hour after it's 2 pm start, with all 30 members present voting to expel Modi. The meeting started with BCCI secretary Sanjay Patel reading out a letter that Modi sent him on Tuesday, requesting him to postpone the meeting.Then the members were appraised of the recommendations made by the two-member disciplinary commission, comprising Arun Jaitley and Jyotiraditya Scindia, that inquired into the charges (starting with financial misappropriation) that had been levelled against Modi after his suspension following the IPL 2010 closing ceremony.Then Haryana Cricket Association secretary Anirudh Chaudhary proposed the life ban, which was seconded by the Orissa Cricket Association president Ranjib Biswal. All other members voted in favour of the motion. Modi was gone, and the meeting was over.
"The BCCI, at its Special General Meeting, held at Park Sheraton, Chennai, on Wednesday, considered and discussed the report of the Disciplinary Committee of the BCCI on the Show Cause Notices issued to Mr Lalit Kumar Modi, in accordance with Clause 32 (iv) of the Memorandum of Rules and Regulations, as well as the documents referred to by Mr Modi, in his letter dated 24 September 2013, to the Hony. Secretary, BCCI, and passed the following resolution unanimously: 'Mr Lalit Modi is guilty of committing acts of serious misconduct and indiscipline, and therefore, in exercise of powers as per Regulation 32 of the Memorandum and Rules and Regulations of the Board, Mr Lalit Modi be and is hereby expelled from the BCCI',"the BCCI said in a media release.
Some of the charges made against modi
The BCCI claims it wasn't aware that Modi's step son-in-law Gaurav Burman was the managing partner of Elephant Capital, which held 50 per cent shares in Global Cricket Ventures (Mauritius), which had entered into a contract with the BCCI with regard to Internet rights of the IPL.
Modi was charged with awarding theatrical rights to a company without the approval of the Governing Council. He also created a situation where only one entity – the technology support partner – would succeed. The company then assigned the rights to a third party with Modi's approval without the BCCi's knowledge. Modi stated the terms of the tender for theatrical rights were in the public domain, and known to the Governing Council, president and secretary.
The BCCI contended, that Multi Screen Media Satellite (Singapore), who initally won the telecast rights for the Indian subcontinent between 2008-2012 and WSG Mauritius which were later awarded these rights cut a deal where in WSG would let go of the rights; once the rights were released back to the BCCI, MSM could get them back.
In 2010, the BCCI drafted an invitation to tender [ITT] for rights to two new franchises that were to be auctioned later that year. The BCCI claimed that Modi added — without formally informing the board — two "onerous conditions" to the ITT: the bidder should have a net worth of US$1bn and must provide a bank guarantee of Rs $100 million.
The rights to the two new teams in 2010 — Pune Warriors and Kochi Tuskers — were bought by Sahara Adventure Sports and Rendezvous Sports World Pvt Ltd respectively. The BCCI's contention was that Modi was "favouring another bidder" and had threatened a "representative" of the Kochi franchise to give up the rights. The BCCI said that Modi's threat was an "act of indiscipline and misconduct".
Book of This Week:
David and Goliath: Underdogs, Misfits, and the Art of Battling Giants : by Malcolm Gladwell:
Three thousand years ago on a battlefield in ancient Palestine, a shepherd boy felled a mighty warrior with nothing more than a stone and a sling, and ever since then the names of David and Goliath have stood for battles between underdogs and giants. David's victory was improbable and miraculous. He shouldn't have won.
Or should he have?
In David and Goliath, Malcolm Gladwell challenges how we think about obstacles and disadvantages, offering a new interpretation of what it means to be discriminated against, or cope with a disability, or lose a parent, or attend a mediocre school, or suffer from any number of other apparent setbacks.
Gladwell begins with the real story of what happened between the giant and the shepherd boy those many years ago. From there, David and Goliath examines Northern Ireland's Troubles, the minds of cancer researchers and civil rights leaders, murder and the high costs of revenge, and the dynamics of successful and unsuccessful classrooms—-all to demonstrate how much of what is beautiful and important in the world arises from what looks like suffering and adversity.
In the tradition of Gladwell's previous bestsellers—-The Tipping Point, Blink, Outliers and What the Dog Saw—-David and Goliath draws upon history, psychology, and powerful storytelling to reshape the way we think of the world around us.
Author : Malcolm Gladwell:
Malcolm T. Gladwell, CM (born September 3, 1963) is an English-Canadian journalist, bestselling author, and speaker.He has been a staff writer for The New Yorker since 1996. He has written four books, The Tipping Point: How Little Things Make a Big Difference (2000), Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking (2005), Outliers: The Story of Success (2008), and What the Dog Saw: And Other Adventures (2009), a collection of his journalism. All four books were on The New York Times Best Seller list.Gladwell's books and articles often deal with the unexpected implications of research in the social sciences and make frequent and extended use of academic work, particularly in the areas of sociology, psychology, and social psychology. Gladwell was appointed to the Order of Canada on June 30, 2011