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MJ’s doc guilty of manslaughter
Half of Americans ‘against’ another term for Obama
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Netanyahu is a ‘liar’, Sarkozy tells Obama
IAEA may show N-bomb work by Iran
Cambridge to study ancient Sanskrit texts There was no bigger panicker than
Ganguly: Chappell Greg Chappell
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MJ’s doc guilty of manslaughter
Los Angeles, November 8 Dr Conrad Murray, 58, was led away in handcuffs after the jury in Los Angeles reached a unanimous verdict. Dozens of fans outside the court erupted in cheers and some burst into tears. "Justice was served. Michael is with us," said Jackson's brother Jermaine. Murray faces up to four years behind bars when he is sentenced on Nov. 29 but may spend only months in Los Angeles' overcrowded cells. Murray pleaded not guilty to giving the "Thriller" singer a fatal dose of the powerful anesthetic propofol, normally used in surgery, that was ruled the main cause of his death at the age of 50. Prosecutors argued Murray was grossly negligent in administering the propofol to help Jackson sleep. Defence lawyers claimed Jackson delivered the fatal dose to himself. The judge ordered Murray, who had been free on bail for two years, held in custody until his sentencing. The doctor did not testify at the six-week trial and looked impassive as the guilty verdict was announced in the packed courtroom. Jackson's mother Katherine and sister Rebbie cried silently at the result. Other family members in court included his siblings La Toya and Randy, along with his father Joe. "I am," Katherine Jackson said when reporters asked if she was pleased with the verdict. Jackson was found lifeless at his Los Angeles mansion on June 25, 2009, about three weeks before he was due to begin a series of concerts in London aimed at returning him to the limelight after the humiliation of his 2005 trial and acquittal on child molestation allegations. Murray admitted giving Jackson a small dose of propofol to help him sleep. But his lawyers argued the singer was dependent on the drug and likely gave himself an extra, fatal dose, and swallowed a handful of sedatives, without Murray knowing. Murray's lawyer J. Michael Flanagan was asked by reporters if he was disappointed and he replied: "Of course." Prosecutors said Murray was negligent for administering the drug in a home setting, failing to monitor Jackson, delaying a call to emergency services and failing to tell medical personnel he gave the singer propofol. Judge Michael Pastor said Murray was "now a convicted felon who has been deemed the causative factor in Michael Jackson's death". Pastor said the doctor should be detained before being sentenced to protect public safety. — Reuters
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Half of Americans ‘against’ another term for Obama Washington, November 8 A new poll conducted by Christian Science Monitor/TIPP exactly one year before the 2012 Presidential election shows that independents, the critical mass of voters with the power to swing ballots, have lost faith in the 50-year-old Democrat. While 35 per cent of independents say Obama deserves to be re-elected, 56 per cent believe he does not, the poll shows. Ten per cent of independents polled are not sure or did not say anything. Among Americans of all political persuasions, 40 per cent of those polled would give Obama four more years, 50 per cent would not, 6 per cent were not sure and 4 per cent declined to answer. “The independent support is key. They are a key voting bloc to get him reelected,” says Raghavan Mayur, the Indian- American President of TechnoMetrica Market Intelligence, which conducted the poll of 901 Americans. At the same time, the report said Obama’s current approval ratings will be an unreliable predictor of his fate in the November 2012 contest. With the Republican nomination race in full swing and early-state primary elections just two months away, the GOP’s lack of consensus around or enthusiasm for a particular candidate could play in Obama’s favour, it said. Gallup’s historical data indicate that Obama’s approval ratings, while grim, are not without precedent for re-election. In the 10th quarter of his presidency (between April 20 and July 19, 2011), Obama’s job approval average, at 46.8 per cent, was sub-50 per cent, the threshold that pundits use to gauge a leader’s appeal in the run-up to an election. But Bill Clinton and Ronald Reagan also rated below that marker during the same period of their respective first terms. Clinton was at 49.3 per cent, and Reagan scored a meager 44.4 per cent. Both, of course, went on to be re-elected, the report noted. In the Monitor/TIPP poll, 37 per cent of those surveyed rated Obama’s overall performance an A or B. But 38 per cent gave him a D or F. One-quarter graded Obama bestowing a C grade. — PTI TROUBLE AHEAD Among Americans of all political persuasions, 40 per cent of those polled will give Obama four more years, 50 per cent will not, 6 per cent are not sure and 4 per cent declined to answer.
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Netanyahu is a ‘liar’, Sarkozy tells Obama Paris, November 8 “I cannot bear Netanyahu, he’s a liar,” Sarkozy told Obama, unaware that the microphones in their meeting room had been switched on, enabling reporters in a separate location to listen in to a simultaneous translation. “You’re fed up with him, but I have to deal with him even more often than you,” Obama replied, according to the French interpreter. The technical gaffe is likely to cause great embarrassment to all three leaders as they look to work together to intensify international pressure on Iran over its nuclear ambitions. Obama’s apparent failure to defend Netanyahu is likely to be leapt on by his Republican foes, who are looking to unseat him in next year’s presidential election and have portrayed him as hostile to Israel, Washington’s closest ally in the region. — Reuters TECHNICAL GAFFE! Sarkozy to Obama “I cannot bear Netanyahu (right), he’s a liar.” “You’re fed up with him, but I have to deal with him even more often than you.”
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IAEA may show N-bomb work by Iran Viena, November 8 "There are bits and pieces of information that go up through 2010," one Vienna-based diplomat said. If confirmed in this week's keenly awaited document by the International Atomic Energy Agency, it could stimulate new debate about a controversial US intelligence assessment in 2007 that Iran had halted outright "weaponisation" work in 2003. It would heighten Western suspicions that Iran is resolved to pursue at least some of the research and development (R&D) applicable to atom bombs, even if Tehran has made no apparent decision to actually build them, as diplomats believe. "There is still evidence there where I think the agency will be in a position to say that they have serious concerns coming up to the present day," said another envoy in the Austrian capital, where the IAEA is based. But Western officials and experts suggested that research and experiments pointing to military nuclear aims may not have continued on the same scale as before 2003, when Iran started coming under increased Western pressure over its nuclear work. "Iran is understood to have continued or restarted some R&D activities since then," said nuclear proliferation analyst Peter Crail of the U.S.-based Arms Control Association, a research and advocacy group. Iran denies accusations it is seeking nuclear arms, saying they are based on forged documents. It says its uranium enrichment programme is aimed at generating electricity. — Reuters
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Cambridge to study ancient Sanskrit texts London, November 8 Written on now-fragile birch bark, palm leaf and paper, the 2,000 manuscripts in the collection at the University Library express centuries-old South Asian thinking on religion, philosophy, astronomy, grammar, law and poetry. The project, which is led by Sanskrit-specialists Dr Vincenzo Vergiani and Dr Eivind Kahrs, will study and catalogue each of the manuscripts, placing them in their broader historical context, a university release said. Most of the holdings will also be digitised by the library and made available through the library’s new online digital library. “In a world that seems increasingly small, every artefact documenting the history of ancient civilisations has become part of a global heritage to be carefully preserved and studied,” explained Dr Vergiani, who is in the University’s Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies. “Among such artefacts, manuscripts occupy a distinctive place - they speak to us with the actual words of long-gone men and women, bringing their beliefs, ideas and sensibilities to life”. He added: “One reason this collection is so important is because of the age of many of the manuscripts. “In the heat and humidity of India, materials deteriorate quickly and manuscripts needed to be copied again and again. As a result, many of the early Indian texts no longer exist”. Some of the oldest holdings of the Library’s South Asian collection were discovered not in India but in Nepal, where the climate is more temperate. In the 1870s, Dr Daniel Wright, surgeon of the British Residency in Kathmandu, rescued the now-priceless cultural and historical artefacts from a disused temple, where they had survived largely by chance. An early catalogue of part of the collection in 1883 found among its treasures a 10th-century Buddhist Sanskrit manuscript from India, the oldest dated and illustrated Sanskrit manuscript known worldwide. More than half of the collection is in Sanskrit, a language that has dominated the literary culture of pre-modern South Asia for almost three millennia. Its earliest attestations are found in the Vedic hymns (texts that are still central “The word Sanskrit means refined or perfected. From a very early stage, its speakers were obsessed with handing down their sacred texts intact,” said Vergiani. “Out of this developed an attention to how the language works. A grammatical tradition arose that produced, around the 4th century BC, the work of Panini, an amazing intellectual achievement and arguably the beginning of linguistics worldwide, which made the language constant, stable and transmissible”. It is this robustness that Vergiani believes explains how the language became so prevalent across South Asia - a situation that has been likened to the spread of Latin across Europe. “It was used by religious figures and royalty, scholars and scientists, administrators and artists. Well into modern times, Sanskritic culture was very much alive throughout India, and the language is still used by a number of intellectuals and religious figures today”. The widespread use of Sanskrit as the language of power and communication across South Asia makes the collection at the Library so significant. — PTI
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There was no bigger panicker than Ganguly: Chappell Melbourne, November 8 There was "no bigger panicker" than Ganguly, writes Chappell about the elegant left-hander who is till now India's most successful captain. Chappell acknowledges that Ganguly's support was one of the reasons he got the coach's job in 2005. But states that the Indian's idea probably was 'you scratch my back, I scratch yours'. "He expected I would be so grateful to him for getting me the job that I'd become his henchman in his battle to remain captain. I, on the other hand, took on a job with the primary responsibility to Indian cricket and the Indian people," Chappell says in the book 'Fierce Focus'. Chappell said such was the hierarchy in the team that youngsters were petrified of speaking before a senior such as Sachin Tendulkar in the team meetings. The former Australian captain said he began to separate team meetings into three groups - senior, intermediate and junior - so that he could hear their thoughts, which were later broken down by current skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni. "The real ray of hope for Indian team was Mahendra Singh Dhoni, one of the most impressive young cricketers I'd ever worked with. He was smart, and able to read the game as perceptively as the best leaders," Chappell wrote. "If I wanted to know what was going on in the middle, Dhoni became my go to man. He would eventually breakdown one of the biggest problems in the India teams," he added, referring to the young players' reluctance to express themselves," said Chappell. "...the youngster would say, 'I can't speak before so-and-so. If I speak up before a senior player, they will hold it against me forever," he wrote. — PTI
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Fauja Singh’s latest: 8 km in 50 minutes Dubai, November 8 The 100-year-old Briton of Indian origin turned out to be a major attraction here as he ran an 8 km stretch in 50 minutes, cheered by admirers and supporters. Fauja Singh was invited to Dubai by Sarbat Da Bhala, a Dubai-based non-government organisation (NGO), and the proceeds of the event would be donated to a charity. The run was hosted by Dubai Creek Striders and runners from the group joined to complete the loop around Dubai’s Zabeel area. Fauja Singh ran around the city’s landmarks alongside a group of 50 runners. Born on April 1, 1911, Fauja Singh holds many world records for long distance running in his age bracket. The centenarian attracted worldwide attention when he completed an eight-hour run in Toronto, but the Guinness Book of World Records could not register his feat as he could not produce a birth certificate and other age proofs were not found sufficient. His current personal best time for the London Marathon (2003) is 6 hours 2 minutes and his marathon record, for age 90-plus, is 5 hours 40 minutes, at the age of 92, at the 2003 Toronto Waterfront Marathon. He plans to run the 26-mile San Francisco Marathon later this month. “I am happy to be in Dubai and I really enjoyed the run,” Singh said at the end of the run. At the age of 100 (and a half), Fauja Singh has attempted and accomplished eight world age group records in one day, at the special Ontario Masters Association Fauja Singh Invitational Meet in Toronto. Three days later, on October 16, 2011, Singh became the first 100-year-old to complete a marathon, running the Toronto Waterfront Marathon in 8:11:06. His biography, ‘Turbaned Tornado’, by veteran journalist and writer Khushwant Singh, traces the runner’s roots and tries to capture his life’s journey. — PTI
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Michael Jackson's personal doctor was found guilty on Monday of involuntary manslaughter in the pop star's drug-related death in 2009 but may not spend much time in jail.
Washington, November 8
Paris, November 8
Melbourne, November 8
