W O R L D

Five die in Thai anti-govt clashes
Bangkok, December 1
At least five persons were killed as the week-long anti-government protests in Thailand today entered a dangerous phase when demonstrators launched a "people's coup" on the embattled regime of Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra, forcing her to flee a secure police compound.

Anti-government protesters use self-made barricade against the water cannons and tear gas fired by the riot police in Bangkok on Sunday. AP/PTI

4 dead, 60 hurt as New York train derails
New York, December 1
At least four persons were killed and 60 others injured when a commuter train bound for Grand Central Station derailed in the Bronx area of New York City today.

The derailed Metro-North train in the Bronx neighbourhood of New York on Sunday. AP/PTI

Won’t abandon Arak reactor: Iran Tehran, December 1 Iran's nuclear chief Ali Akbar Salehi has said Tehran will never abandon the Arak heavy water reactor, considering it a "red line" in talks with world powers, the media reported today. "Your actions and words show you don't want us to have the Arak heavy water reactor which means you want to deprive us of our rights," Salehi was quoted as saying by the website of state broadcaster IRIB.

The International Atomic Energy Agency headquarters in Vienna. Reuters

Humans evolved from male pig, female chimp: Scientist
Washington, December 1
Darwin must be turning in his grave! Humans may actually be the hybrid offspring of a male pig and a female chimpanzee, a US geneticist has claimed. The bizarre theory has been proposed by Eugene McCarthy of the University of Georgia.

WW-I ‘sacred soil' ceremony honours Indian soldiers
London, December 1
The sacrifices made by thousands of Indian soldiers fighting for the British Army during the World War I were recognised as part of a ceremony here. "Sacred soil" from 70 WWI battlefields in Belgium, which arrived by warship to the UK, was laid at a memorial garden marking the 100th anniversary of the war in 2014 in memory of soldiers from around the world who laid down their lives during the great war.

Wearing ancient Japanese costumes, participants play “kemari”, a ball-lifting game which came from China in the 7th century, using only their right legs in Tokyo on Sunday. AFP

UK-Indian ‘Chicken King’ faces mounting debts
London, December 1
A British-Indian entrepreneur, known as the "Chicken King" for his vast poultry business, is facing mounting debts as his company is reportedly struggling to modernise. Ranjit Boparan is credited with expanding his 2 Sisters Food Group from a single shop into one of Britain’s biggest poultry supplier.

Indian-origin doc performs heart operation on US actor
Washington, December 1
In a first, an Indian-origin doctor in the US has performed a unique “life-saving” heart procedure — that involves injecting the patient’s own stem cells into the organ — on Hollywood actor Ernie Lively.

Japan PM to discuss China air zone with Biden
Tokyo, December 1
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said today that he would discuss China's expansion of its air defence zone with US Vice-President Joe Biden in Tokyo to coordinate their stance after apparently contradictory responses.

‘Fast & Furious’ star Walker dead
Los Angeles, December 1
Paul Walker, who shot to fame with street-racing franchise 'Fast & Furious', has died in a fiery car crash in Southern California, the police said today. The 40-year-old actor was accompanied by his friend and was coming back from his organisation's charity event last night in a friend's 2005 Porsche Carrera GT.

JuD opposes proposed construction of wall along LoC
Lahore, December 1
JuD chief Hafiz Mohammad Saeed today said the Defia-e-Pakistan Council would intensify its campaign against the proposed construction of a wall along the Line of Control (LoC) in J&K. The Defia-e-Pakistan Council (Defence of Pakistan Council) is a platform of 30 religious and political parties led by the JuD. “PM Nawaz Sharif should protect the borders of both west and east,” Saeed said. — PTI

Five die in Thai anti-govt clashes
* PM flees police complex
* Demonstrators launch ‘people’s coup’
* 2,700 troops to reinforce security

Bangkok, December 1
At least five persons were killed as the week-long anti-government protests in Thailand today entered a dangerous phase when demonstrators launched a "people's coup" on the embattled regime of Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra, forcing her to flee a secure police compound.

The police hurled tear-gas and water canons at about 30,000 protesters trying to breach barricades and cut barbed wire protecting the Government House, office of the Prime Minister, seeking to oust Yingluck who came to power in 2011.

The Prime Minster was not present at the time. The government denied rumours that she had fled the country but her whereabouts were unknown.

Protest leader Suthep Thaugsuban called for a general strike starting from tomorrow. Other leaders urged protesters to seize 10 government offices, six television stations, police headquarters and the Prime Minister's offices in what they are calling a "people's coup".

"Today is an important day. We'll go to anywhere that is important to the government and we'll paralyse it from tomorrow onwards and nobody will be able to work tomorrow," Suthep, opposition Democrat Party leader and former deputy Prime Minister, said.

The protesters hurled stones and petrol bombs at the police near the metropolitan police headquarters. Their unrelenting campaign entered a volatile phase today that paralysed parts of Bangkok and followed a night of gun and knife battles between pro and anti-government protesters in which five persons were killed and over 54 wounded.

Deputy Police Commissioner-General Veerapong Chiewpreecha said five persons were killed inside Ramkhamhaeng University in clashes that continued till this morning.

Anti-government protesters swarmed many state agencies and took control of Thai PBS television station. Another group of protesters managed to break through barriers to enter the compound of the Interior Ministry.

The protesters declared Sunday "V-Day" as they upped their ante to topple Yingluck and end her family's more than decade-long influence over Thai politics. They accuse Yingluck of acting as a proxy for her fugitive brother and former Premier Thaksin Shinwatra who was ousted in a 2006 coup.

National police spokesman Piya Utayo said troops were being sent to a government complex occupied by protesters since Thursday and the Finance Ministry occupied since Monday. "We have sent forces to these places to take back government property," he said on national television.

More than 2,700 troops are being deployed to reinforce security in Bangkok, the first time a significant number of soldiers have been mobilised to deal with the unrest. — PTI

Protest leader meets PM

4 dead, 60 hurt as New York train derails

New York, December 1
At least four persons were killed and 60 others injured when a commuter train bound for Grand Central Station derailed in the Bronx area of New York City today. Six of the Metro-North train’s eight carriages came off the tracks near Spuyten Duyvil station in the Bronx at 7 in the morning, the New York Fire Department said.

One car was just a foot away from the Harlem river. Police divers were in the water hours after the crash searching for survivors, CNN reported.

At least two of the dead appeared to have been ejected from the train, it quoted a source in New York City police as saying.

About 100 firefighters are responding to the scene.

The train came off the tracks just as it was coming around a sharp curve. The derailment occurred near where a freight train had derailed in July, WCBS reported. No one was injured in that accident.

Spuyten Duyvil is a neighbourhood in the Bronx, one of the five boroughs of New York City. — PTI

Won’t abandon Arak reactor: Iran

Tehran, December 1
Iran's nuclear chief Ali Akbar Salehi has said Tehran will never abandon the Arak heavy water reactor, considering it a "red line" in talks with world powers, the media reported today.

"Your actions and words show you don't want us to have the Arak heavy water reactor which means you want to deprive us of our rights," Salehi was quoted as saying by the website of state broadcaster IRIB.

"But you should know that it is a red line which we will never cross, likewise enrichment" of uranium.

Arak is of concern because, in theory, it could provide the Islamic republic with plutonium -- an alternative to highly enriched uranium used for a nuclear bomb.

Under a landmark deal reached in Geneva with world powers, Iran has agreed that for six months, it will not commission the reactor or transfer fuel or heavy water to the site in exchange for the minor relief from UN and Western sanctions that have hit its economy hard.

Iran also committed for six months "not to make further advances" at its Fordo and Natanz uranium enrichment sites and at Arak.

Abbas Araqchi, a deputy foreign minister and member of the nuclear negotiating team, insisted Arak "should remain as a heavy water power plant", the official IRNA news agency reported.

The West and Israel say Iran could use plutonium produced by the reactor to build nuclear weapons. Tehran says the 40-megawatt reactor is for scientific and medical research only.

Salehi also rejected the charge, saying "Arak's reactor does not produce the type of plutonium suitable for a bomb". — AFP

Humans evolved from male pig, female chimp: Scientist

Washington, December 1
Darwin must be turning in his grave! Humans may actually be the hybrid offspring of a male pig and a female chimpanzee, a US geneticist has claimed. The bizarre theory has been proposed by Eugene McCarthy of the University of Georgia.

In an article on his website macro-evolution.net, McCarthy wrote that humans are the result of multiple generations of back-crossing to the chimpanzee. He said in case of chimp-pig hybridisation, the “direction of the cross” would likely have been a male boar or pig (Sus scrofa) with a female chimp (Pan troglodytes), and the offspring would have been nurtured by a chimp mother among chimpanzees, ‘phys.org’ reported.

One can suppose that humans are back-cross hybrids because humans are highly similar to chimpanzees at the genetic level, closer than they are to any other animal, McCarthy said.

He said, “If humans were descended without any back-crossing, we would be about halfway, genetically speaking, between chimpanzees and whatever organism was the other parent. But we’re not.” “Genetically, we’re close to chimpanzees, and yet we have many physical traits that distinguish us from chimpanzees. This exactly fits the back-cross hypothesis,” McCarthy claimed.

To support his theory, he points out that while humans have many features in common with chimps, we also have a large number of distinguishing characteristics not found in any other primates. “Features found in human beings, but not in other primates, cannot be accounted for by hybridisation of a primate with some other primate,” he said.

According to him, if hybridisation is to explain such features, the cross will have to be between a chimpanzee and a non-primate - an unusual, distant cross to create an unusual creature. The other parent in this hypothetical cross that produced the first human would be an intelligent animal with a protrusive, cartilaginous nose, a thick layer of subcutaneous fat, short digits, and a naked skin, he suggests. — PTI

The man who gave the bizarre theory

• Eugene McCarthy of the University of Georgia says humans may actually be the hybrid offspring of a male pig and a female chimpanzee
• One can suppose that humans are back-cross hybrids because humans are highly similar to chimpanzees at the genetic level
• Another fact that supports the idea is the frequent use of pigs in surgical treatment of human beings. Why are pigs suited for such purposes? Why not goats, dogs, or bears, he says

WW-I ‘sacred soil' ceremony honours Indian soldiers

London, December 1
The sacrifices made by thousands of Indian soldiers fighting for the British Army during the World War I were recognised as part of a ceremony here. "Sacred soil" from 70 WWI battlefields in Belgium, which arrived by warship to the UK, was laid at a memorial garden marking the 100th anniversary of the war in 2014 in memory of soldiers from around the world who laid down their lives during the great war.

The soil, collected by British and Belgian schoolchildren and put into 70 sandbags, arrived on the Belgian Navy frigate Louisa Marie and went on a ceremonial procession through London yesterday before reaching its last resting place at Wellington Barracks.

The soil was blessed at a ceremony at the Guards' Chapel before eight-year-old schoolboy Patrick Casey was given the honour of pouring a crucible of soil taken from all battlefields into the heart of the garden.

Queen Elizabeth II's husband Prince Philip, 92, was presented with the soil at a ceremony in the Belgian town of Ypres earlier this month, as a mark of remembrance for the tens of thousands of Commonwealth soldiers who died in the 1914-18 war.

Among them were around 1.2 million soldiers from undivided India who fought for the British Empire, of which 74,000 died. — PTI

UK-Indian ‘Chicken King’ faces mounting debts

London, December 1
A British-Indian entrepreneur, known as the "Chicken King" for his vast poultry business, is facing mounting debts as his company is reportedly struggling to modernise. Ranjit Boparan is credited with expanding his 2 Sisters Food Group from a single shop into one of Britain’s biggest poultry supplier.

With an estimated personal fortune of £190 million, Boparan along with his wife Baljinder now runs a £3 billion empire that supplies pork, fish, ready meals, pizzas, frozen vegetables and biscuits along with chicken.

However, Boparan's business may be under threat from mounting debts, up from £534 million last year to £567 million this year, the Sunday Times newspaper reported.

The company has incurred a £33.5 million loss, down from last year’s £42.5 million profit.

"Some experts argue that in his pursuit of sales, Boparan has sacrificed the ability to make profits by buying too many loss-making businesses. The company's ageing factories are suffering too. Several have been earmarked for closure and many need revamping," the report said.

The company, however, rejected suggestions of any financial trouble. — PTI

Indian-origin doc performs heart operation on US actor

Washington, December 1
In a first, an Indian-origin doctor in the US has performed a unique “life-saving” heart procedure — that involves injecting the patient’s own stem cells into the organ — on Hollywood actor Ernie Lively.

Amit Patel from the University of Utah performed the historic procedure on Lively — 'Gossip girl' actress Blake Lively's father — using new technique of retrograde gene therapy on a human heart to repair damaged muscle and arteries.

The 66-year-old actor has credentials that include a long list of TV and film appearances, including Passenger 57 and the Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants.

Lively connected with Patel, director of Clinical Regenerative Medicine and Tissue Engineering and an associate professor in the Division of Cardiothoracic Surgery at the University of Utah School of Medicine.

Lively became a patient of Patel’s in February, when Patel saved Lively’s life after a complication. — PTI

Japan PM to discuss China air zone with Biden

Tokyo, December 1
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said today that he would discuss China's expansion of its air defence zone with US Vice-President Joe Biden in Tokyo to coordinate their stance after apparently contradictory responses.

China raised regional tensions with its declaration last weekend of the zone, which covers islands in the East China Sea at the centre of a dispute between Beijing and Tokyo, and demands that aircraft submit flight plans when traversing the area.

Biden is due to arrive in Tokyo late tomorrow for a 34-hour visit as part of his East Asian tour which will also take him to China and South Korea. — AFP

‘Fast & Furious’ star Walker dead

Los Angeles, December 1
Paul Walker, who shot to fame with street-racing franchise 'Fast & Furious', has died in a fiery car crash in Southern California, the police said today. The 40-year-old actor was accompanied by his friend and was coming back from his organisation's charity event last night in a friend's 2005 Porsche Carrera GT. His friend also lost his life in the car crash, authorities said.

"It is with a truly heavy heart that we must confirm that Paul Walker passed away today in a tragic car accident while attending a charity event for his organisation Reach Out Worldwide," a statement on Walker's Facebook page read.

"He was a passenger in a friend's car, in which both lost their lives. We appreciate your patience as we too are stunned and saddened beyond belief by this news. Thank you for keeping his family and friends in your prayers during this very difficult time. We will do our best to keep you apprised on where to send condolences," the statement added.

When the cops arrived at the spot they found the car engulfed in flames.

"The Los Angeles County Fire Department responded, extinguished the fire and subsequently located two victims inside the vehicle. The victims were pronounced dead at the scene," people magazine quoted the police as saying. — PTI