Top human rights activist arrested in Bangladesh
Dhaka, August 11
Bangladesh authorities have arrested a top human rights activist on charges of misleading people by disseminating "false information" about the police crackdown against ultra fundamentalist Hefazat-e-Islam members in May.

Kabul, August 11
Flash floods triggered by heavy rain and hailstorms killed more than 22 persons on the outskirts of Kabul, Afghan officials said today, with a mosque, houses and farmland also damaged.

The flooding hit the Shakardara and Paghman districts to the north and west of Kabul after the unseasonal rains left knee-deep water across many parts of the war-battered city.

"Over 22 persons, including several children and a woman, were killed in Shakardara," Ghulam Farooq, an official at the National Disaster Management Authority, said.

"One person was killed in Paghman and more than 20 houses destroyed in Kabul city." A mosque, several houses, three schools and some crops were also damaged by the torrential downpours which struck yesterday as Afghanistan celebrated Eid to mark the end of the holy month of Ramadan.

Harsh winters and heavy snowfalls often cause swollen rivers that lead to floods in the mountainous country in spring and summer. But Afghanistan has had one of its hottest summers in decades, and the sudden storms quickly overwhelmed Kabul''s poor drainage systems.

Last week flooding in six eastern and southeastern provinces and some districts of the capital killed more than 40 persons, destroying hundreds of hectares of farmland and displacing hundreds of people.

"We have already sent teams of rescuers to the area and taken people out of danger," senior Kabul police officer Sayed Ekramuddin Jalal said. Several people were injured and about a dozen homes were washed away. Many irrigation canals and wells, as well as orchards and fields were damaged, he said. Some of the victims were visiting relatives for the Eid al-Fitr holiday, he said. Two women were killed and four people were injured in flooding elsewhere, said Ghulam Farouq, an official at the Ministry of Disaster Preparedness. — Agencies

Colombo, August 11
A Buddhist mob attacked a mosque in Sri Lanka's capital and at least 12 persons were injured, the latest in a series of attacks on the minority Muslim community by members of the Buddhist majority.

A mob of Buddhists, who are mainly ethnic Sinhalese in Sri Lanka, threw stones at a three-storey mosque and nearby houses in a central Colombo neighbourhood during evening prayers on Saturday, residents said. Later, hundreds of Muslim residents took to the streets, some clutching sticks, to prevent any further attacks on their community, witnesses said.

Police reinforcements were sent and authorities imposed a curfew until Sunday morning. A senior member of staff at one of the city's main hospitals said 12 injured persons, including two police officers, had been brought in. Three people were still in a hospital on Sunday. The police appealed for calm.

"Support the police to maintain the law and order," Inspector General of Police NK Ilangakoon said.

There has been increasing violence against Muslims in Sri Lanka since last year, mirroring events in Buddhist-majority Myanmar, which has also seen a surge of attacks by members of the majority community against Muslims.

In Myanmar, hardline Buddhist monks have been at the forefront of campaigns against Muslims. In Sri Lanka, a group known as Bodu Bala Sena (BBS), or the "Buddhist power force", has been trying to win over Buddhists to their campaign against Muslims. A spokesman for the BBS, Dilantha Vithanage, denied any involvement by his organisation in the latest mosque attack.

The US Embassy in Colombo said the incident was particularly troubling in light of a number of recent attacks against the Muslim community in Sri Lanka. "Targeting any place of worship should never be permitted and we urge calm from all sides. We call for prosecution of perpetrators in this attack and an end to religious-based violence," the embassy said in a statement.Police chief N K Ilangakoon said the situation was brought under control and urged the people to refrain from believing misguided information.

Meanwhile, the US Embassy here expressed concern over the attack and demanded prosecution of perpetrators. "This incident is particularly troubling in light of a number of recent attacks against the Muslim community in Sri Lanka. Targeting any place of worship should never be permitted and we urge calm from all sides. — PTI

Washington, August 11
National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden’s father has received a Russian visa and will travel there to see his son "very soon," the family's lawyer said on Sunday.

Attorney Bruce Fein said in a television appearance that he and Lon Snowden were sceptical about President Barack Obama's pledge to limit government surveillance programmes, and they remain doubtful that young Snowden can receive a fair trail in the United States. "We have visas. We have a date, which we won't disclose right now because of the frenzy over the affair, Fein said during a news programme. They will travel to Russia "very soon," he said. "We intend to visit with Edward and suggest criminal defence attorneys who have got experience in Espionage Act prosecutions," Fein said.

The younger Snowden was stuck at a Moscow airport for more than five weeks before Russia granted him a year's asylum on August 1.

Lon Snowden in an interview on Wednesday said he had not spoken to his son since the former National Security Agency contractor left the United States for Hong Kong, just before news broke in June of the disclosures he made about the US surveillance programmes.

On Sunday, the elder Snowden criticised the Obama administration's handling of his son's case and dismissed the president's vow on Friday to improve oversight of surveillance, transparency and other efforts to restore public trust in programmes of the government.

"I believe much of what he suggested is superficial," Lon Snowden said. Snowden's father added that he is "not open" to a plea deal that would allow his 30-year-old son to return to the United States. "The only deal will be true justice," he said, repeating his concern that his son won't be treated well because his right to a fair trial has been compromised by public criticism by US officials. "When you consider many of the statements made by our leaders, leaders in Congress, they are absolutely irresponsible and inconsistent with our system of justice," said Snowden.

"They have poisoned the well, so to speak, in terms of a potential jury pool," he said. Washington's inability to persuade Russia to return Snowden to the United States has curdled US relations with Russia. — Reuters

Cairo, August 11
Supporters of ousted Egyptian president Mohamed Mursi rallied today to demand his reinstatement, amid last ditch efforts for reconciliation ahead of a threatened crackdown on protests.

A large convoy of cars carrying pictures of the deposed president beeped their horns as they drove through a neighbourhood in east Cairo.

Hundreds at a women's march in central Cairo chanted against army chief Abdel Fattah al-Sisi who was behind Morsi's overthrow, shouting: "Sisi is a traitor, Sisi is a killer." Mursi loyalists, led by the Muslim Brotherhood, have kept up two huge camps in Cairo to protest against the Islamist president's ouster by the military on July 3, with regular demonstrations around the country.

They say nothing short of his reinstatement will persuade them to disperse, despite several warnings by the interim leaders that the camps will be dismantled after the Eid al-Fitr holiday, which was to end today.

In a sign of the mounting tensions, a brief overnight power cut at the main sit-in outside the Rabaa al-Adawiya mosque struck panic among the pro-Mursi demonstrators, with some taking to social media to announce the assault had begun.

Protest organisers told AFP that as the electricity went out, they reinforced their barricades, added sandbags to the entrances of the protest site, and sent volunteers to find out what was happening, only to be told it was a false alarm.

The main coalition of Mursi supporters, the Anti-Coup Alliance, said 10 marches would take off from various parts of the capital today "to defend the electoral legitimacy" of Egypt's first freely elected president.

The fresh rallies came as Al-Azhar, Sunni Islam's highest seat of learning, called for reconciliation talks in the latest of a string of attempts to find a peaceful solution to the political deadlock.

Al-Azhar's Grand Imam, Ahmed al-Tayyeb, is to begin contacts with political factions tomorrow aimed at convincing them to sit down to talks later this week, state media reported.

"Al-Azhar has been studying all the proposals for reconciliation put forward by political and intellectual figures... to come up with a compromise formula for all Egyptians," Tayyeb's adviser, Mahmud Azab, told the state-owned Al-Ahram newspaper. — AFP

Dhaka, August 11
Bangladesh authorities have arrested a top human rights activist on charges of misleading people by disseminating "false information" about the police crackdown against ultra fundamentalist Hefazat-e-Islam members in May.

Adilur Rahman Khan Shuvro, secretary of Odhikar group, is allegedly linked closely with the right-wing Jamaat-e-Islami, and was arrested under the Information and Technology Act last night.

"He has been arrested under the Information and Communication Technology Act," a police spokesman today said, adding Detective Branch officials picked him up from his residence at up market Gulshan area here.

A Dhaka court today ordered Shuvro to be remanded in custody for five days rejecting his bail plea after he was produced before metropolitan magistrate Amit Kumar Dey.

"It is an offence to be involved with such campaigns that damage the image of the country to the world. Hijacking the rights of others in the name of human rights is not acceptable to anybody," Home Minister MK Alamgir told mediapersons at a briefing at his office.

He added there was "no scope to excuse such an offence" and Shuvro and others must face legal action for such offences.

Earlier, joint commissioner of Dhaka Metropolitan Police Monirul Islam said Shuvo was arrested as the Odhikar website also carried "distorted pictures" of so called slain Islamists using a photoshop software for their "imaginary" claim of 61 persons killed in the police action.

Odhikar claimed “hundreds" of people were killed in the police action and primarily they gathered the identities of 61 of them.

Reports said some in the human rights group also said Shuvro had circulated the report to foreign groups claiming that up to 2,500 persons had been killed in the anti-Hefazat campaign by the police.

The newly floated Hefazat, allegedly backed by the Jamaat and the main opposition BNP, had enforced their Dhaka siege programme on May 5 sparking deadly violence.

Odhikar is a leading independent rights group and Shuvro, a former deputy attorney general during the past BNP-led right wing government, is widely known for his anti-Awami League stance. Meanwhile, opposition

BNP strongly condemned his arrest calling it "nothing but part of government conspiracies" and demanded his immediate release. — PTI

Manila, August 11
More than 3,000 passengers were stranded on piers in the northeastern Philippines on Sunday, as a strong Pacific typhoon approached and prompted authorities to suspend ferry services and warn people to brace for possible flash floods and landslides.

Government forecasters said Typhoon Utor, which winds of 150 kilometers per hour (93 miles per hour) and gusts up to 185 kph (115 mph), could gather strength over the Philippine Sea before it slams into northeastern Aurora province on Monday.

Utor, the strongest typhoon to threaten to hit the country this year, was about 120 kilometers (75 miles) off northeast Catanduanes province by mid-day on Sunday. It was blowing northwestward at 19 kph (12 mph), state forecaster Jori Loiz said.

At least 31 passengers and cargo ferries were not allowed to venture out in increasingly choppy seas from several northeastern provinces, stranding more than 3,400 passengers. Authorities also stopped fishing boats from sailing and ordered fishermen already at sea to return to shore, Office of Civil Defence regional director Bernardo Alejandro IV said.

Utor is the 12th of about 20 storms and typhoons expected to lash the Philippines this year. — AP

Washington, August 11
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the US regulator, has warned two websites selling 'bidis' and Indian cigarettes of strict penal action for sale of adulterated tobacco products in America.

In a warning letter issued to the two websites, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said their several products had been found to be "adulterated" under relevant regulations and did not carry the required permits for sale in the US.

The FDA said the two websites, desismoke.com and wantsmokes.com, could be affiliated with one another and the cigarette products and/or smokeless tobacco products listed by them were being promoted for sale to customers in the US.

It said the websites were selling products like 'bidi', Indian cigarettes, flavoured cigarettes and flavoured 'bidis'.

It further said several products being sold on the two websites had been found to be adulterated or misbranded and they were being promoted as "modified risk tobacco products" without an FDA order permitting such promotion.

The regulator said 'bidis' also meet the definition of a cigarette under relevant section of the US Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act and therefore come under the FDA jurisdiction.

'Bidis' are small, thin, hand-rolled cigarettes and comprise tobacco wrapped in a tendu or temburni leaf.

As per information available with the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), bidis are imported to the US mostly from India and other South Asian countries and have higher concentrations of nicotine, tar and carbon dioxide than the conventional cigarettes sold in the US.

In its warning letter, dated July 26, the FDA also said the websites contained some smokeless tobacco product advertisements that do not include any warnings that are required as per the law.

Seeking their written response within 15 days of receipt of the letter, the FDA has asked them to immediately correct the violations and take necessary actions to bring their tobacco products into compliance with the US law.

"Failure to ensure full compliance with the FD&C Act may result in the FDA initiating further action without notice, including, but not limited to, civil money penalties, no- tobacco-sale orders, criminal prosecution, seizure, and/or injunction.

"Please note that adulterated and misbranded tobacco products offered for importation into the US are subject to detention and refusal of admission," the FDA said. — PTI

Washington, August 11
The recently discovered Higgs Boson could provide a possible “portal” to physics that may help explain some of the attributes of the enigmatic dark energy, scientists suggest.

One of the biggest mysteries in contemporary particle physics and cosmology is why dark energy, which is observed to dominate energy density of the universe, has a remarkably small (but not zero) value, researchers said.

This value is so small, it is perhaps 120 orders of magnitude less than would be expected based on fundamental physics, they said.

Now, physicists - Lawrence Krauss of Arizona State University and James Dent of the University of Louisiana-Lafayette - explore how a possible small coupling between the Higgs particle, and possible new particles likely to be associated with what is conventionally called the Grand Unified Scale could result in the existence of another background field in nature in addition to the Higgs field.

This would contribute an energy density to empty space of precisely the correct scale to correspond to the observed energy density, researchers said.

Current observations of the universe show it is expanding at an accelerated rate. But this acceleration cannot be accounted for on the basis of matter alone, they said.

Putting energy in empty space produces a repulsive gravitational force opposing the attractive force produced by matter, including the dark matter that is inferred to dominate the mass of essentially all galaxies, but which doesn’t interact directly with light and, therefore, can only be estimated by its gravitational influence.

Because of this phenomenon and what is observed in the universe, it is thought that such ‘dark energy’ contributes up to 70 per cent of the total energy density in the universe, while observable matter contributes only 2 to 5 per cent, with the remaining 25 per cent or so coming from dark matter.

The source of this dark energy and the reason its magnitude matches the inferred magnitude of the energy in empty space is not currently understood, making it one of the leading outstanding problems in particle physics today.

“Now that the Higgs boson has been discovered, it provides a possible ‘portal’ to physics at much higher energy scales through very small possible mixings and couplings to new scalar fields which may operate at these scales,” said Krauss.

“We demonstrate that the simplest small mixing, related to the ratios of the scale at which electroweak physics operates, and a possible Grand Unified Scale, produces a possible contribution to the vacuum energy today of precisely the correct order of magnitude to account for the observed dark energy,” Krauss said.

The study was published in the journal Physical Review Letters. — PTI