Odisha gang-rape rape victim dies

BHUBANESWAR: A minor girl, who was gang-raped in Odisha's Rayagada town about a week ago, died at a private hospital at Visakhapatanam on Tuesday.

"The girl passed away at about 3.45pm on Tuesday in a private hospital at Visakhapatanam," Rayagada district collector SS Padhi told over phone.

The 16-year-old orphan, unable to bear the ignominy, had tried to immolate herself and had suffered over 80 per cent burns. She succumbed to her burn injuries after battling for life for about eight days.

She was admitted to the Vishakhapatnam hospital on January 7.

The girl was forcibly taken away to a nearby jungle when she was returning home from work on the evening of January 2 and gang-raped by four persons, the police said adding she tried to immolate herself the next day.

The girl was staying with her grandmother.

Meanwhile, the police have arrested four persons in connection with the incident based on the statement given by the girl.

"Four youths have been arrested and lodged at jail in two phases. We will submit the charsgesheet within 30 days of the incident," Rayagada superintendent of police Rajesh Pandit said.

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"Fantastic" New Flying Frog Found—Has Flappy Forearms

Scientists have stumbled across a new species of flying frog—on the ground.

While hiking a lowland forest in 2009, not far from Ho Chi Minh City (map), Vietnam, "we came across a huge green frog, sitting on a log," said Jodi Rowley, an amphibian biologist at the Australian Museum in Sydney and lead author of a new study on the frog.

Rowley later discovered that the 3.5-inch-long (9-centimeter-long) creature is a relatively large new type of flying frog, a group known for its ability to "parachute" from tree to tree thanks to special aerodynamic adaptations, such as webbed feet, Rowley said. (Also see "'Vampire Flying Frog' Found; Tadpoles Have Black Fangs.")

Rowley dubbed the new species Helen's flying frog, in honor of her mother, Helen Rowley, "who has steadfastly supported her only child trekking through the forests of Southeast Asia in search of frogs," according to a statement.

The newfound species—there are 80 types of flying frogs—is also "one of the most flying frogs of the flying frogs," Rowley said, "in that it's got huge hands and feet that are webbed all the way to the toepad."

"Females even have flappy skin on their forearms to glide," added Rowley, who has received funding from the National Geographic Committee on Research and Exploration. (National Geographic News is part of the National Geographic Society.) "The females are larger and heavier than males, so the little extra flaps probably don't make much of a difference," she said.

As Rowley wrote on her blog, "At first it may seem strange that such a fantastic and obvious frog could escape discovery until now—less than 100 kilometers [60 miles] from an urban centre with over nine million people."

Yet these tree dwellers can easily escape notice—they spend most of their time in the canopy, she said.

Flying Frog On the Edge

Even so, Helen's flying frog won't be able to hide from development near Ho Chi Minh City, which may encroach on its existing habitats.

So far, only five individuals have been found in two patches of lowland forest hemmed in by rice paddies in southern Vietnam, Rowley said. The animals can probably tolerate a little bit of disturbance as long as they have large trees and temporary pools, she added.

But lowland forests are among the most threatened habitats in the world, mostly because they're so accessible to people, and thus chosen for logging and development. (Get the facts on deforestation.)

"While Helen's flying frog has only just been discovered by biologists," Rowley wrote, "unfortunately this species, like many others, is under great threat from ongoing habitat loss and degradation."

The new flying frog study was published in December 2012 in the Journal of Herpetology.

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Armstrong Admits Doping in Tour, Sources Say

Lance Armstrong today admitted to Oprah Winfrey that he used performance enhancing drugs to win the Tour de France, sources told ABC News.

A government source tells ABC News that Armstrong is now talking with authorities about paying back some of the US Postal Service money from sponsoring his team. He is also talking to authorities about confessing and naming names, giving up others involved in illegal doping. This could result in a reduction of his lifetime ban, according to the source, if Armstrong provides substantial and meaningful information.

Armstrong made the admission in what sources describe as an emotional interview with Winfrey to air on "Oprah's Next Chapter" on Jan. 17.

The 90-minute interview at his home in Austin, Texas, was Armstrong's first since officials stripped him of his world cycling titles in response to doping allegations.

Word of Armstrong's admission comes after a Livestrong official said that Armstrong apologized today to the foundation's staff ahead of his interview.

The disgraced cyclist gathered with about 100 Livestrong Foundation staffers at their Austin headquarters for a meeting that included social workers who deal directly with patients as part of the group's mission to support cancer victims.

Armstrong's "sincere and heartfelt apology" generated lots of tears, spokeswoman Katherine McLane said, adding that he "took responsibility" for the trouble he has caused the foundation.

Riccardo S. Savi/Getty Images|Ray Tamarra/Getty Images

Lance Armstrong Stripped of Tour de France Titles Watch Video

Lance Armstrong Doping Charges: Secret Tapes Watch Video

McLane declined to say whether Armstrong's comments included an admission of doping, just that the cyclist wanted the staff to hear from him in person rather than rely on second-hand accounts.

Armstrong then took questions from the staff.

Armstrong's story has never changed. In front of cameras, microphones, fans, sponsors, cancer survivors -- even under oath -- Lance Armstrong hasn't just denied ever using performance enhancing drugs, he has done so in an indignant, even threatening way.

Armstrong, 41, was stripped of his seven Tour de France titles and banned from the sport for life by the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency in October 2012, after allegations that he benefited from years of systematic doping, using banned substances and receiving illicit blood transfusions.

"Lance Armstrong has no place in cycling and he deserves to be forgotten in cycling," Pat McQuaid, the president of the International Cycling Union, said at a news conference in Switzerland announcing the decision. "This is a landmark day for cycling."

The U.S. Anti-Doping Agency issued a 200-page report Oct. 10 after a wide-scale investigation into Armstrong's alleged use of performance-enhancing substances.

Armstrong won the Tour de France from 1999 to 2005.

According to a source, speaking to ABC News, a representative of Armstrong's once offered to make a donation estimated around $250,000 to the agency, as "60 Minutes Sports" on Showtime first reported.

Lance Armstrong's attorney Tim Herman denied it. "No truth to that story," Herman said. "First Lance heard of it was today. He never made any such contribution or suggestion."

Armstrong, who himself recovered from testicular cancer, created the Lance Armstrong Foundation (now known as the LIVESTRONG Foundation) to help people with cancer cope, as well as foster a community for cancer awareness. Armstrong resigned late last year as chairman of the LIVESTRONG Foundation, which raised millions of dollars in the fight against cancer.

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Brunei to seek South China Sea code of conduct

BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN, Brunei: Brunei will pursue a binding code of conduct among competing South China Sea claimants as a top priority during its ASEAN chairmanship, officials said Monday.

The tiny, oil-rich sultanate has assumed the chair of the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) for 2013 at a time when tension over sweeping Chinese claims to the sea have rattled the region.

"Brunei sees this as a key threat to regional security and would like to resolve the issue through dialogue with all claimants, including China," said a foreign ministry official, who declined to be named.

ASEAN members Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia and Brunei, as well as Taiwan, also have claims to parts of the sea, one of the world's most important shipping lanes and believed to be rich in fossil fuels.

Simmering tensions over the issue have risen in the past two years, with the Philippines and Vietnam accusing China of becoming increasingly aggressive in staking its claims.

Cambodia's 2012 ASEAN chairmanship was marked by sharp regional discord over the affair.

The rancour led to unprecedented infighting at an ASEAN foreign ministers' meeting in Phnom Penh in July, which ended for the first time in the bloc's 45-year history without a joint communique.

As chair, Cambodia -- a close China ally -- was accused of resisting efforts by the Philippines and Vietnam to take a more aggressive position against the Chinese.

Efforts to secure a legally binding code of conduct involving ASEAN and China have floundered for years amid Beijing's insistence on handling disputes bilaterally with individual countries, while ASEAN wants to speak as a group.

China and ASEAN signed a broad declaration in 2002 pledging the parties would handle disputes peacefully and not take actions that threaten peace and stability.

During an ASEAN summit in November, the organisation called on China to get serious in working toward a binding code of conduct.

Brunei will host ASEAN leader summits in April and October.

- AFP/xq

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Martyr Hemraj's family calls off fast after UP CM Akhilesh Yadav's visit

KHAIRAIR: Martyred soldier Hemraj's family ended their six-day-old fast on Monday after the visit of Uttar Pradesh chief minister Akhilesh Yadav.

According to TV reports, the martyr's wife and mother agreed to end the fast after a meeting with Akhilesh.

UP chief minister Akhilesh Yadav met the family and promised to fulfill their demands. "We have already given Rs 25 lakh... Money is not a big thing but to support and respect the family is the duty of the government," Akhilesh said.

"The family has shown the strength to face this (tragedy). We have to stand by them. We should all support the family of Lance Naik Hemraj. We have assured that whatever demands they have made for village will be met," he told reporters.

He said the jawan's mother and wife were weak and in grief. "So this is the time to stand by the family," he said.

Hemraj's wife Dharamvati, mother Meena Devi and cousin Narender were on fast and had refused to take "even liquid" as they remained steadfast on their demand for getting back Hemraj's head, which was severed by Pakistani troops who raided Indian territory in Poonch sector on January 8.

Earlier on Monday, the family had sought a visit by Army chief Gen Bikram Singh as a precondition to end their fast.

"We are not going to call off our fast if a leader comes here and request us to do so. We want the Army chief to come here and assure us that he will get Hemraj's head back from Pakistan. Only then we will call off our fast," martyr's cousin Narendra told reporters.

The family's demands came as Army chief Gen Bikram Singh addressed a press conference in New Delhi and said the beheading of two Indian soldiers in Pakistan army attack was unacceptable.

The General said the Army understands the grief of the families of the brave soldiers who laid down their lives as they are "our families too" and they will make all attempts to ease the pain and suffering of Lance Naik Hemraj's family.

BJP president Gadkari and senior leaders Swaraj and Rajnath Singh reached Hemraj's residence, 160 kms from Delhi and 50 km from Mathura, on Monday afternoon while Congress MP Avtar Singh Badana met the family earlier in the day.

But it did little to console the family. Narender questioned the visit of politicians at the house days after the incident alleging that they were trying to capitalise on the issue.

(With inputs from PTI)

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Pictures: Civil War Shipwreck Revealed by Sonar

Photograph by Jesse Cancelmo

A fishing net, likely only decades old, drapes over machinery that once connected the Hatteras' pistons to its paddle wheels, said Delgado.

From archived documents, the NOAA archaeologist learned that Blake, the ship's commander, surrendered as his ship was sinking. "It was listing to port, [or the left]," Delgado said. The Alabama took the wounded and the rest of the crew and put them in irons.

The officers were allowed to keep their swords and wander the deck as long as they promised not to lead an uprising against the Alabama's crew, he added.

From there, the Alabama dropped off their captives in Jamaica, leaving them to make their own way back to the U.S.

Delgado wants to dig even further into the crew of the Hatteras. He'd like see if members of the public recognize any of the names on his list of crew members and can give him background on the men.

"That's why I do archaeology," he said.

(Read about other Civil War battlefields in National Geographic magazine.)

Published January 11, 2013

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Gun Control to Crowd Obama's Second Term

Jan 14, 2013 6:00am

(Win McNamee/Getty Images)

WASHINGTON — President Obama is putting his chips on guns.

It wasn’t an issue he campaigned on — actually, it was almost the opposite of that. It did more to grab him than he did to grab it.

But a month after the unfathomable tragedy at Sandy Hook, the president has positioned himself to take on a fight with long odds as his biggest domestic-policy initiative this side of the never-ending fiscal fights.

The valuable run-up to the inauguration — traditionally a White House’s best chance to put forward a bold new policy initiative — is being dominated by the polarizing debate over gun control. The coming fight has broad implications on virtually every other Washington priority in 2013 and beyond.

Vice President Joe Biden’s guns task force is strongly signaling recommending a robust menu of policy options, spanning executive actions and legislative initiatives. Each piece is sure to require the full force of presidential leadership to turn into action.

“The public demands we speak to it,” Biden said last week, referencing the emotions that followed a tragedy involving young children.

It may yet be a solid bet that this moment is different than past shootings. Powerful allies including New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and former Rep. Gabrielle Giffords are lending their considerable political weight to the efforts, prodding action along.

Already, the fact that Washington hasn’t lost interest bodes well for a major legislative push that includes more background checks and a renewed assault weapons ban.

But the gun lobby has been explicit that it won’t be giving in. The fight will consume valuable political oxygen, perhaps all of what’s available to a reelected president whose party controls only half of Capitol Hill.

That means other ambitious subject areas — immigration reform, energy and environmental policy, a major infrastructure initiative — will have to wait. Moreover, the coming brinksmanship over spending and budget issues could further poison the chances of action, potentially grinding Washington to an effective halt.

President George W. Bush found out the hard way that political capital doesn’t last long into a second term, even if the president tries to spend it with a friendly Congress. Bush’s push for Social Security reform not only went nowhere, it helped sow the seeds of the Democratic takeover of Congress in 2006.

This fight over guns has the potential to be more than that for Obama, though. After a campaign devoid of much inspiration, a passionate debate that gets to the heart of the nation’s culture may be what the recently reelected president needs.

The fight will mobilize and energize those on both sides — even if it tires everyone out before discussions begin in other areas.

But if the president walks away with something substantial, at the very time that major progress on any front is so illusory in Washington, the moment won’t have been wasted.

SHOWS: World News

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How NRA’s true believers converted a marksmanship group into a mighty gun lobby

In gun lore it’s known as the Revolt at Cincinnati. On May 21, 1977, and into the morning of May 22, a rump caucus of gun rights radicals took over the annual meeting of the National Rifle Association.

The rebels wore orange-blaze hunting caps. They spoke on walkie-talkies as they worked the floor of the sweltering convention hall. They suspected that the NRA leaders had turned off the air-conditioning in hopes that the rabble-rousers would lose enthusiasm.

The Old Guard was caught by surprise. The NRA officers sat up front, on a dais, observing their demise. The organization, about a century old already, was thoroughly mainstream and bipartisan, focusing on hunting, conservation and marksmanship. It taught Boy Scouts how to shoot safely. But the world had changed, and everything was more political now. The rebels saw the NRA leaders as elites who lacked the heart and conviction to fight against gun-control legislation.

And these leaders were about to cut and run: They had plans to relocate the headquarters from Washington to Colorado.

“Before Cincinnati, you had a bunch of people who wanted to turn the NRA into a sports publishing organization and get rid of guns,” recalls one of the rebels, John D. Aquilino, speaking by phone from the border city of Brownsville, Tex.

What unfolded that hot night in Cincinnati forever reoriented the NRA. And this was an event with broader national reverberations. The NRA didn’t get swept up in the culture wars of the past century so much as it helped invent them — and kept inflaming them. In the process, the NRA overcame tremendous internal tumult and existential crises, developed an astonishing grass-roots operation and became closely aligned with the Republican Party.

Today it is arguably the most powerful lobbying organization in the nation’s capital and certainly one of the most feared. There is no single secret to its success, but what liberals loathe about the NRA is a key part of its power. These are the people who say no.

They are absolutist in their interpretation of the Second Amendment. The NRA learned that controversy isn’t a problem but rather, in many cases, a solution, a motivator, a recruitment tool, an inspiration.

Gun-control legislation is the NRA’s best friend: The organization claims an influx of 100,000 new members in recent weeks in the wake of the elementary school massacre in Newtown, Conn. The NRA, already with about 4 million members, hopes that the new push by Democrats in the White House and Congress to curb gun violence will bring the membership to 5 million.

The group has learned the virtues of being a single-issue organization with a very simple take on that issue. The NRA keeps close track of friends and enemies, takes names and makes lists. In the halls of power, it works quietly behind the scenes. It uses fear when necessary to motivate supporters. The ultimate goal of gun-control advocates, the NRA claims, is confiscation and then total disarmament, leading to government tyranny.

“We must declare that there are no shades of gray in American freedom. It’s black and white, all or nothing,” Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre said at an NRA annual meeting in 2002, a message that the organization has reiterated at almost every opportunity since.

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Tens of thousands rally against Ma in Taiwan

TAIPEI: Tens of thousands of slogan-chanting Taiwanese took to Taipei's streets Sunday to protest at the government's economic record in one of the biggest rallies organised by the main opposition in recent years.

The march, which stretched for miles, began after Su Tseng-chang, chairman of the Democratic Progressive Party, led the crowd in shouting: "People are furious at Ma".

Other slogans and banners also took aim at President Ma Ying-jeou from the China-friendly Kuomintang party, who was elected in 2008.

"Down with Ma Ying-jeou!" "Cabinet reshuffle!" the protesters chanted during the peaceful march.

The demonstrators were cordoned off by barbed wire and riot police after marching through the city centre and assembling in the square in front of the presidential office.

The opposition party claimed the turnout totalled 150,000. No police estimate was immediately available.

The trade-dependent economy contracted in the second quarter of 2012 for the first time in nearly three years, while its exports shrank for six months in a row until swinging back into positive territory in September.

The government has forecast growth of 1.13 percent for the whole of last year.

The China-sceptical opposition party also objects to controversial plans for expanded investment in local media by Taiwanese billionaire Tsai Eng-meng, who has substantial business interests in China.

Next Media, controlled by Hong Kong's vocal China critic Jimmy Lai, in November signed agreements with various buyers including Tsai to sell the Taiwan editions of Apple Daily and Next magazine, as well as Taiwan Sharp Daily and Next TV.

Concerns have been raised that the deals could create a pro-China media monopoly.

Such issues are still sensitive in Taiwan more than six decades after it split from China following a civil war. Beijing views the island as part of its territory awaiting reunification, through force if necessary.

- AFP/fa

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Pakistani artistes in India on peace mission

KOLKATA: Amidst the growing tension between India and Pakistan after the brutal killing of two Indian jawans along the LoC in Kashmir, a troupe of artistes from Karachi are on a peace mission in the country to strengthen people-to-people relations.

"The tension is political in nature and the people have nothing to do with it. People from both sides of the border want peace. We want regular cultural exchanges with India and a hassle-free visa process so that we can meet each other," Pakistani theatre director Zain Ahmed told PTI here today.

He rued that whenever political tension builds up between the two countries, cultural relations are made the first hostage.

"Many barriers like delaying visa process are created so that the people of the two countries cannot meet each other," he said.

Ahmed is leading a seven-member team of the National Academy of Performing Arts (NAPA) of Karachi which presented 'Manto aur Ghalib : Ek Guftagu' at the Apeejay Kolkata Literary Festival which ended during the day.

The play, which is replete with soulful songs and lively music, is a fictional conversation between Manto and Ghalib.

A team of 25 artistes of NAPA Repertory Theatre is scheduled to present a theatre 'Manto Rama' at the National School of Drama in New Delhi on Thursday after the other artistes from that country join.

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