Earth Is Closest to the Sun for 2013 Today

If the sun looks a little larger than usual today, you're not seeing things. Today (Jan. 2) marks the time when the Earth is at perihelion, the point in its orbit at which it is closest to the sun.
During perihelion, the Earth is exactly 91,402,560 miles (147,098,161 kilometers) from the sun.In actuality, you most likely can't see any difference between the apparent size of the sun today and its appearance at aphelion (when the Earth will be farthest from the star).The difference is only 3.4 percent, too small to be detected with the naked eye.
On average, the Earth is about 93 million miles (150 million km) from the sun. It will be farthest from the sun on July 5, when the Earth reaches aphelion, a point 94,508,960 miles (152,097,427 km) from the sun. The closest and farthest differences from the sun are very similar because the Earth’s orbit is very close to being circular. In fact, as planetary orbits go, ours is close to perfect.

TMC leader suspended for throwing money at dancing girls

A Trinamool Congress leader landed at the centre of a controversy after he threw wads of currency notes towards skimpily-clad young girls dancing at a party's foundation day function. A red-faced Trinamool on Wednesday suspended a TMC zilla parishad member and other party functionaries
who organised the function last night at South 24 Parganas district. Held at a stone's throw from the Bhangor police station Tuesday night, TMC leader and 24-Parganas Zilla Parishad member Mir Tahir Ali climbed onto the stage and was seen throwing wads of currency notes towards the dancing girls.
Police stopped the show after midnight.
Party MP Derek O'Brien said that a disciplinary committee meeting was held and the partymen were suspended for involvement in the function.
Stating that the party had taken swift action, he said, "Pending enquiry the partymen have been suspended and their expulsion is also not ruled out."
He said he spoke to party chief Mamata Banerjee, "and she had two words -- zero tolerance".
He said "Please do not portray this as something endorsed by Trinamool.
For Trinamool, cultural sensibilities and gender sensibilities are absolutely paramount. Please be reassured it is not endorsed by anyone from Trinamool Congress .... we will find out who were the people indulging in the crass display of gender insensitivity."
O' Brien said, "Thousands of events marked Trinamool's 16th birthday yesterday and one of these events from these 300 events was an abhorrent incident involving ladies dancing, it was an isolated incident, the strictest action will be taken against any party worker involved." 
National Commission for Women chairperson Mamta Sharma said, "It is shameful that they are celebrating this way. We need a change of mindset among all political parties." 
Eminent educationist Sunanda Sanyal said, "The future of young boys and girls will be destroyed if this political culture remains prevalent in West Bengal."

Syria crisis: Air strikes kill 12 around Damascus

Damascus: Activists have claimed that twelve people lost their lives due to an air strike in the vicinity of Damascus on Monday.

The air raid was on a gas station and of the people dead, there were mostly women and children.

It was in Mleiha that the incident happened and a video was uploaded on the net that showed the aftermath of the blast.

Syrian President, Bashar al-Assad’s is desperately trying to get the captured areas around Damascus back from the rebels, triggering violence and unrest in the area.

It is reported that more than 46,000 people have died so far in Syria in the conflict between the forces of President Bashar al-Assad and the rebels.

And UN-Arab League envoy Lakhdar Brahimi had already warned that 2013 could be worse.

Delhi gang-rape: Fast-track court inaugurated

New Delhi: Chief Justice Altamas Kabir on Wednesday inaugurated a fast-track court here to hear the gang-rape and murder case of the 23-year-old medical student.

Speaking on the occasion, CJI Kabir said, “It's good to know that after the December 16 tragic incident, people have started raising their voice on crime against women.”

The fast-track court in Saket is among the four that are being set up to handle all cases related to crimes against women. The other fast-track courts will function at Dwarka, Rohini and Tis Hazari. All these courts will start functioning from tomorrow onwards.

The girl was gang-raped and brutally assaulted with an iron rod on December 16 in a moving bus in South Delhi by six men. Despite the efforts put in by a big team of doctors, she died on Saturday in a Singapore hospital.

All the six accused are under arrest and would be tried for murder among other charges. The Delhi Police is said to have prepared a 1000-page chargesheet and would urge the court to take the case as rarest of rare and award death penalty to the accused.

Pune: Six-year-old allegedly raped by Class 12 student

A six-year-old girl was raped in Pune on January 1 allegedly by an 18-year-old Class 12 student who has now been arrested, the police has said.

The incident reportedly happened on Tuesday morning in suburban Hadapsar area of the city. The minor was found lying in an open ground in a seriously injured condition and was rushed to a nearby hospital. The accused was arrested on the basis of a video from a CCTV camera in the area.

The victim, who stays with her mother in a slum, had left her house in the morning along with her sister, who later helped identify the accused, the police said.

"The accused, a Class 12 student at a nearby college, was caught on the basis of the footage of a CCTV camera which was installed by a scrap dealer outside his shop," Deputy Commissioner of Police Manoj Patil told reporters.

"We could easily identify the accused with the help of the footage and during the interrogation, he confessed to the crime," Mr Patil said.

On New Year’s eve, 17-year-old raped by Facebook ‘friend’ in Delhi

Even as the nation protests over the horrific gangrape of a woman in Delhi, another case has come to light in which a 17-year-old was been allegedly raped by her Facebook friend on New Year’s Eve.
The Delhi police has arrested two men in connection with the case and said that both the accused work for an IT company. The dup have been sent to judicial custody.

Both the accused have been sent to judicial custody. AFP

According to CNN-IBN report, the class XI student has alleged that she was raped by two men on the night of 31 December after she attended a party in south Delhi’s Safdarjung Enclave area.
The girl said that one of the men who is accused of raping her had befriended her on Facebook and on a chat had asked her to come to the party so that he could meet her.
As per the complaint filed by the student, she was taken by the two accused to an apartment where she was allegedly given a drink laced with sedatives.
After she fell unconscious, the two men allegedly raped her. She later approached the police and on the basis of her statement a case was registered.
On the basis of the medical report and the girl’s statement, the police has charged the two accused under Section 376/34 (rape with common intention).
The police has said that both the accused are in their late twenties and live with their families in Sarojini Nagar. One  of them is a computer engineer with an IT company while the other accused individual works in the HR department of a MNC consultancy, they said.

Indian student arrested in Singapore over bomb threat

A 13-year-old Indian student has been arrested here by Singapore police for posting a Facebook message in which he allegedly threatened to bomb a luxury casino resort in the city-state.
The unnamed boy vowed to take "a big big revenge", "spit everywhere" and "plant bombs on Marina Bay Sands", a major tourist attraction, on the day he leaves Singapore, The Straits Times reported.
The post also contained an expletive and was critical of Singapore, the paper said.
Singapore police said the boy, a student of the Global Indian International School, was arrested under the Breach of Prohibition Against False Threats of Terrorist Acts, with reports saying the Facebook posting had been taken down.
The offence is punishable by a maximum of five years in jail or a fine of up to 100,000 dollars, or both.

Karachi: Funeral of blast victims today

KARACHI: Funeral prayers of the four persons, who died in the blast that occurred at Ayesha Manzil on Tuesday night, will be offered today while MQM has announced to observe a mourning day Wednesday, Geo News reported.

Markets, businesses, transport and educational institutions will remain functional today as MQM had made it clear that transport and businessed will not be shut in the backdrop of mourning. However, the party will not participate in any organizational and political activities.

Fateha will be offered in the honour of deceased while MQM chief Altaf Hussain has announced to give Rs 200,000 to the victims’ families who died in the tragedy.

Four persons were killed and around 50 others sustained injuries when a device installed on a motorcycle exploded near Ayesha Manzil, FB Area here on Tuesday.

DIG Police Asif Aijaz Sheikh told that the bomb was planted on a motorcycle that exploded with the remote control device. He said ball bearings were also used in the device that caused injuries.

The explosion also caused damage to the buses that were parked near the explosive-laden motorcycle. The device exploded with a big bang as the sound was heard many kilometers across the spot of the blast.

Internet quietly celebrates 30 years of taking ARPANET's place

The Internet, a revolutionary and cheap communications system that has transformed the lives of billions of people across the world, turned 30 on Tuesday.The computer network officially began its technological revolution when it fully substituted previous networking systems on January 1 1983.
Known as "flag day", it was the first time the US Department of Defence (DoD)-commissioned ARPANET network fully switched to use of the Internet protocol suite (IPS) communications system.
Using data "packet-switching", the new method of linking computers paved the way for the arrival of the World Wide Web.
"I don't think that anybody making that switch on the day would have realised the importance of what they were doing," the Daily Telegraph quoted Chris Edwards, an electronics correspondent for Engineering and Technology magazine, as saying.
"But without it the Internet and the World Wide Web as we know them could not have happened."
Commenting on the historic event's impact on the world, Edwards said: "The Internet means there is nowhere and no one in the world you can't reach easily and cheaply.''
Based on designs by Welsh scientist Donald Davies, the ARPANET network began as a military project in the late 1960s.
It was developed at prestigious American universities and research laboratories, such as the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) and the Stanford Research Institute.
Starting in 1973, work on the powerful and flexible IPS and Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) technology which would change mass communications got under way.
The new systems were designed to replace the more vulnerable Network Control Program (NCP) used previously, making sure the network was not exposed to a single point of failure.
This meant a single attack could not bring it down, making it safer and more reliable, the report said.
By January 1 1983, the substitution of the older system for the new Internet protocol had been completed and the Internet was born.
British computer scientist Tim Berners-Lee was then able to use it to host the system of interlinked hypertext documents he invented in 1989, known as the World Wide Web.

Two arrested in Delhi for allegedly raping Class 11 student

The Delhi Police has arrested two men for allegedly raping a Class 11 student last year. Both the accused work for an IT company and have been sent to judicial custody.

According to the police complaint registered by the 17-year-old on December 31, 2012, one of the accused raped her on New Year in 2012 and the other in 2011.

The girl has alleged that she had befriended the men on social networking site Facebook. She has claimed that she was raped at a flat in south Delhi's Safdarjung Enclave area, where she was reportedly invited for a New Year's party by her "Facebook friends".

Taliban leader killed in Afghanistan

A Taliban leader has been killed in Afghanistan's Kunduz province, the NATO-led coalition forces confirmed on Tuesday.
"During a security operation in Imam Sahib district, Kunduz province, Monday, an Afghan and coalition force killed the Taliban leader Nurullah Khan, and one other insurgent," reported Xinhua quoting a statement of the International Security Assistance Force.
Khan used to transport and distribute weapons for insurgents in Kunduz province. He was killed while coordinating the movement of explosives for use in a future attacks with improvised explosive devices (IED).
The Taliban were yet to make any comment.

Earth to be closest to Sun tomorrow

New Delhi, Jan 1 (PTI) Stargazers will get a celestial treat on New Year with Sun coming nearest to our planet tomorrow.

The Earth will be at its nearest point from the Sun at 10:10 AM tomorrow at a distance of 147 million km, Planetary Society of India General Secretary N Sri Raghunandan Kumar said today.

Gang-rape: I have written to all parties to facilitate decision making, says Shinde

New Delhi: Union Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde on Tuesday said he has written letters to all political parties asking them to send their suggestions on the issue of laws relating to crimes against women to the Justice Verma Committee so that it is easier to take decisions.

"I have written to all the political parties to give their suggestions to the Justice Verma Committee to facilitate the decision making," Shinde told mediapersons outside the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) here.

The Home Minister, however, refused to comment on the opposition's demand for an all-party meeting to discuss the contentious issue.

Shinde had earlier on Saturday said that the rape laws would be made more stringent.

"Government is committed to seek deterrent punishment for all the culprits. Government is also committed to make necessary changes in the law to make it more stringent so that such incidents do not recur in future," said Shinde is his condolence message on the demise of the gang-rape victim.

Finance Minister P Chidambaram had yesterday rubbished the BJP''s demand to convene a special session of Parliament.

Chidambaram said the government has already set up a committee headed by retired Supreme Court Chief Justice JS Verma to review the existing criminal laws to provide more severe punishment in cases of sexual assault on women.

The Finance Minister, who was responding to a media query on BJP's demand for a special session in this regard, said the need for a special session for the passage of more stringent law might arise only after the submission of the report by the committee.

The committee - headed by former Chief Justice of India JS Verma - was constituted to look into possible amendments to criminal law so as to provide for quicker trial and enhanced punishment for those accused of ''sexual assault of extreme nature against women''. The committee is to submit its report within a month.

The girl, a physiotherapy student, was gang raped and brutally assaulted allegedly by six men in a moving bus in South Delhi on the night of December 16.

Happy Birthday: Actor Vidya Balan turns 35 today Read more at: http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/happy-birthday-vidya-balan-turns-35/1/240327.html

Happy Birthday! Actor Vidya Balan  will be celebrating her 35th birthday on January 1 , 2013 with her family members. She came back from her Caribbean honeymoon to spend New Year and her birthday with her parents and in laws.

The actor ended the year 2012 by marrying UTV CEO Siddharth Roy Kapur in a non-glamorous wedding sans any Bollywood celebrity with the exception of Rekha getting invited for her menehdi ceremony.

Vidya's wedding took place with minimum fuss and simplicity.

Hyderabad: 23-yr-old Osmania University student found dead, classmate absconding

Hyderabad: A 23-year-old post-graduate student of Osmania University in Hyderabad was found dead under mysterious circumstances on Monday night. She was found at the residence of her classmate who is now absconding.
Police say that the victim appears to have been strangled to death.
The police are not ruling out a possible case of sexual assault but are awaiting the post mortem report.

Tamil Nadu: rapists will be booked under modified 'Goondas Act'

Responding to the protests across the nation, Tamil Nadu chief minister J Jayalalithaa on Tuesday ordered toughest action against rapists and sexual offenders in the state and set up fast track courts in all the districts to speed up the justice delivery system.

The chief minister favored death for rapists and chemical castration to prevent them from repeating such an offense.

She has also asked the center to immediately amend laws relating to rape, so that people dare not even think of indulging in the crime.
In a written order the chief minister also announced the launching of 24x7 women's helpline that will be monitored by senior police officials.
Reviewing of the 'Goondas act' and its modification to make it tougher, stricter are part of Jayalalithaa's plan to deal with the rapists and criminals targeting women in an exemplary manner.
The rapists will be booked under a modified 'Goondas Act', she said in her order issued a few hours ago on Tuesday.
Coming down heavily against crime against women, the chief minister asked the top police officials to review the pending rape cases and ensure that they get justice.
Application of modified provisions of the 'Goondas Act' will ensure that the accused do not escape.