14 killed, several injured as under-construction flyover collapses in Kolkata

In Kolkata Fourteen people reportedly got killed after a part of a flyover under construction, which was to connect the city's western part to the central area, collapsed in the busy hours of afternoon. At least 17 others were injured and taken to hospital.

Eyewitnesses said atleast 1,000 people were present in the vicinity when iron beams from the flyover fell over several people and cars parked underneath.

According to ANI, ten people have been reportedly killed in the incident. However, confirmation from the police is still awaited.

The 2.2 km-long flyover, which was being funded under the JNURM scheme was being constructed by IVRCL but got stuck midway as it hit several hurdles in the execution.

The state's chief minister, Mamata Banerjee, however had previously indicated that work will resume to complete the project in limbo.

As the police, fire and other rescue teams are working over to save people trapped inside the debris, the chief minister, who is campaigning in Bankura for the upcoming Kolkata Assembly elections rushed back to the metropolis to take stock of the situation. She announced a compensation of Rs 5 lakh to the families of the dead and Rs 2 lakh each for those critically injured as well as Rs 1 lakh for those who suffered minor injuries.

“Monumental tragedy. Rescue operations (are) on. Many feared dead. Chief Secretary/Home Secretary at the site. Chief Minister headed back to Kolkata immediately," national spokesperson of Trinamool Congress, the state's ruling party, tweeted.

World T20: Dhoni's men face unpredictable West Indies

So often, big matches in big tournaments become restricted to a hyped confrontation between two marquee players.
In the second semi-final of the ICC World T20 in Mumbaithis evening, that contest will invariably be played out between Chris Gayle and Virat Kohli — two run-scoring behemoths who bring with them the ability to astonish and enrapture, and the skill to sway the outcome of a grand occasion such as this in a way only they can.
But at the same time, it would be a wicked injustice to bill this match as a battle between Gayle and Kohli. In the din that accompanies this delectable clash between the two, it is easy to forget the other 20 players on show.
Both India and West Indies would do well to refrain from putting too much emphasis on one man. Such fixations come with the ghastly prospect of being outplayed by an unknown man on a day, which for some players, arrives once in their lifetime.

ICCWT20 :It is also easy for India to think that the West Indies will be a comfortable swim, while they ride the “momentum” wave. Three wins on the spin after the crushing loss to New Zealand in the tournament opener — the assumption that this momentum will help them barge past the West Indies can so easily end in tragedy. The West Indies’ charge to the semi-final was punctuated by a shock loss against Afghanistan in their last group game in Nagpurthis past Sunday.

India’s T20 form is a mere extension of the way they’ve been playing in Tests and ODIs. For the West Indies, the T20 format, in a lot of ways, makes up for the woeful run of results they’ve endured in the other two formats of the game over the last couple of years. Here, the West Indies confront a team that is devoid of any T20 specialists, and yet, is the best in the world. This will be an enormous test of the West Indies T20 pedigree.

For the home side, Mahendra Singh Dhoni must have spent the last few days trying to spur his batsmen on, who, with the exception of Kohli, have done very little to cover themselves in glory. The fact that Kohli has more runs in this tournament than the other four members of India's top five combined is a distressing confirmation.

With Yuvraj Singh getting ruled out due to an ankle injury, common sense would point towards a place for Ajinkya Rahane. But Rahane was originally slated to be a replacement for one of the openers, and Dhoni might be reluctant to slot him into the middle order. Which means that Pawan Negi, the only like-for-like replacement for Yuvraj, might get to play in the biggest match of his career so far.

The absence of Sunil Narine means that West Indies skipper Darren Sammy doesn’t have at a go-to bowler at his disposal. But he must take heart from the way his bowlers have performed throughout the tournament. Andre Russell and Carlos Brathwaite have been steady with the new ball, and the two spinners — Samuel Badree and Suliemann Benn — have been a revelation. On aWankhedepitch that promises big runs, the way the slower bowlers go will be pivotal.

The Indian bowling, so often the team’s cause of misery in tough situations, has been a remarkable success so far. Ashish Nehra has added much-needed experience upfront, and in Jasprit Bumrah, Dhoni has finally found a reliable death bowler. Hardik Pandya, although a tad expensive, has been among the wickets, and the slow bowlers have not allowed any team to get away. Encouraging signs, one would imagine. A rampaging Gayle can change all that. Ravichandran Ashwin has so often been Gayle’s bogey man in the past and one can expect Dhoni to unleash his most potent weapon on the enemy’s most prized asset yet again. Even if Gayle goes early, Johnson Charles and Marlon Samuels are two dangerous batsmen who can give India a tough time.

Given their tremendous depth in batting, it is no secret that the West Indies like to chase. But so do India. The Wankhede track is likely to remain the same throughout the 40 overs. So, expect the captain who wins the toss to put the opposition in.

For a team that had little hope of getting out of its group after being hammered by the Kiwis, India now stand two steps away from a second World T20 title. But in the West Indies, they face an intrepid and unpredictable side; one that amazes and disappoints in equal measure. More than ability, this will be a test of nerve and experience. The warning shots have been fired. An alluring contest is upon us.

EgyptAir hijacker arrested; all hostages free

An Egyptian man who hijacked an EgyptAir flight to Cyprus was arrested on Tuesday after hours of negotiations during which most passengers were freed and the last of the seven on board escaped.

The Cyprus foreign ministry announced the arrest of the hijacker, who had taken charge of the Airbus 320 when it was on its way from Alexandria to Cairosaying he was armed with explosives. The plane was flown to Larnaca in southern Cyprus.

Larnaca airport, on the south coast of Cyprus, and officials opened negotiations with the man, who was identified as Seif El Din Mustafa. The man was mistakenly named earlier as Ibrahim Samaha, a passenger.

Hours after the plane landed in Larnaca, Cyprus President Nicos Anastasiades said the hijacking was not linked to terrorism. Officials said the man appeared to be in love with a woman living in Cyprus.

BBC said Flight 181 carried 56 passengers -- 30 Egyptians and 26 foreigners -- and six crew members. Soon after it reached Cyprus, all but seven passengers and crew were let off.

EgyptAirHijack : They quickly boarded buses to reach the terminal. EgyptAir said a special plane will bring them back to Egypt.

The foreigners on board included eight Americans, four Britons and four Dutch citizens, two Belgians and two Greeks, a French national, an Italian and a Syrian. Three other foreigners could not be identified.

Before the hijack drama ended, President Anastasiades said Cyprus was doing all it could to ensure the safe release of the passengers and crew.

Asked if the hijacker was motivated by love, he laughed and said: "Always there is a woman involved."

An unidentified civil aviation official in Cyprus was quoted by the media as saying that the man handed negotiators an envelope which he asked to be given to a woman in Cyprus.

Earlier, Egypt's civil aviation minister Sherif Fathy said the seven still on board the jet included the pilot, the co-pilot, a female stewardess, a security officer and three passengers whose nationalities were not revealed.

Fathy said negotiations with the hijacker were continuing but it was not clear whether the man indeed had explosives or was lying.

The Egyptian aviation ministry had earlier said the hijacker had threatened to detonate an explosives belt, forcing the captain to divert the flight to Cyprus.

Pathankot diplomacy is a lose-lose situation for PM Modi

If a survey were to be carried out today to see if people believe that anything fruitful will come out of the joint investigation team (JIT) which has been set up between India and Pakistan to investigate the links of the Pathankot Attack air base attack, the answer in India would be a resounding ‘No’. Very few would believe that Pakistan will ever own up to such an act being carried out from its soil, irrespective of the evidence. Likewise, if a similar survey was carried out in Pakistan, few there would believe the authenticity of evidence India produces.
The question then is what Prime Minister Narendra Modi is trying to achieve by allowing investigators from Pakistan on Indian soil.
In every attack on Indian soil, the country has blamed state-sponsored terrorists from Pakistan. On each occasion, India has sent loads of evidence to Pakistan. But precious little has come of it. Even courts in Pakistan have refused to see any merit in the evidence.
Throughout his election campaign, Modi had been caustic on Pakistan’s role in perpetrating violence on Indian soil and had attacked the then UPA government for its inaction and inability in punishing Pakistan.
Now, he seems to have committed political hara-kiri by allowing Pakistan-based investigators, from its intelligence agency ISI, no less, to come to India and check evidence. Political parties are having a field day on this self-goal by Modi. Social media is abuzz with Modi’s role in the JIT. #Modishamesindia is among the top trends with even right wing and hard-core supporters questioning the decision.
Defence minister Manohar Parrikar said in an interaction with media that he had especially denied permission to the foreign investigative team to go anywhere near the airbase, and wondered why then it was visiting Pathankot. He, however, added the Pathankot Terror Attack was being investigated by the National Investigation Agency (NIA), and thus, it was within the purview of theNIA to give permission to the Pakistan JIT to visit the crime scene.
The National Investigation Agency (NIA) has given a detailed presentation to the visiting Pakistani probe team on the evidence collected with regard to Pathankot airbase terror attack case. The NIA will also make available to the JIT several eyewitnesses of the attack that lasted four days. These witnesses will be largely from the defence establishment; however, the JIT will not be allowed to question them.
This raises another question: What is the purpose of JIT’s visit if it is not allowed to inspect the site or speak to the witnesses? They will likely go back and say that the visit was not fruitful.
In their justification for allowing investigators from Pakistan on Indian soil, Modi’s government has said that they are hoping for a reciprocal action from Pakistan in allowing access to the handlers of terrorists based there. But if Indian authorities are not allowing JIT to question witnesses, wouldn’t reciprocity mean that Pakistan will only parade the handlers, if at all, in front of Indian investigators. What purpose, then, is served in such a show of diplomatic bonhomie?
Pakistan in all probability will officially deny that the evidence is up to its satisfaction. What option will Modi have in such a case? It will be a loss of face, with his partymen joining the Opposition in saying ‘We told you so’. For Modi, the timing of the investigation could not have been worse as it comes at a time when Punjab, where Pathankot is based, is getting ready for state elections.
Even if Pakistan buckles under pressure, they can at best arrest some fringe elements, which will not be enough for Modi to claim victory.
While he may get some brownie points from the international community, Modi is unlikely to get any positive response in India for his Pathankot policy.

World T20: Australia did not lose to India - but to a man called Virat Kohli

Sometimes even the most sublime superlatives fail to do justice to certain sporting performances. On a balmy Chandigarh evening on Sunday, Virat Kohli played that very innings of his career; an effort that involved immense skill and endurance. So often, Kohli devours run chases for dinner, but this 51-ball 82 will go down a “giant among giants” type of knock; one that helped India storm into the semi-finals of the ICC World T20. 

There was little muscle involved, just touch and finesse. Every boundary was struck with exquisite precision; with the dexterity of a charming ballet dancer. The field was dissected the same way a surgeon would skillfully cut open his patient, and the ball often sped away like this match was being played on a snooker table. By the time this massacre reached its conclusion, Australia were left battered and bruised, and sent tumbling out. Kohli had made an absolute mockery of the 161 the Aussies had set India for victory.

ALSO READ: Is Virat Kohli a better cricketer than Sachin Tendulkar?

Towards the end, watching Kohli was like watching a highlight reel – almost every ball was sent crashing into the fence. Just that he was doing it for real. This was wizardry of an unseen kind, the kind that will linger in the memory for years to come. This was Kohli at his imperious best – an unassisted annihilation of one of the powerhouses of world cricket.

After Sachin Tendulkar had vanquished Australia at Sharjah in 1998, Mark Taylor had famously exclaimed that his team hadn’t lost to India, but to a man called Sachin. At the presentation ceremony on Sunday night, Steven Smith’s visage wore that same forlorn expression. He managed a wry grin but even he could not deny the damning eventuality of this brutal assault. After a point, with India having wickets in hand, a Kohli special seemed imminent.

28 killed in Brussels as terror strikes Europe again

#BrusselsAttacks :Terror struck Europe on Tuesday as two deadly blasts - blamed on a suicide bomber - ripped through the Zaventem airport here killing at least 13 people. A third explosion followed at a Metro station in the heart of the Belgian capital, claiming 15 more victims.
Scores were also injured in the coordinated attacks -- only four days after Belgian Police arrested the suspect in the Paris terror attack which killed 130 people in November.
The injured included two employees of the privately-owned Indian airline Jet. One was an Indian.
"Jet Airways guests and staff on the landside at Brussels airport have been moved away far-off from the terminal. Transit guests who were in the terminal building have been shifted to hangers in coaches," the airline said in a statement.
"Our Brussels staff is co-ordinating with airport authorities and security agencies to arrange immigration formalities as soon as possible to move the transit guests out of the airport." Read More.

On World Water Day, worst water crisis in a decade

Water levels at 91 major reservoirs nationwide are the lowest in a decade–no more than 29%, according to the latest weekly bulletin of the Central Water Commission(CWC).

As World Water Day is marked today, water levels at Indian reservoirs are 71% of last year, or 74% of average storage over the last decade, the CWC data reveal.

The 91 major reservoirs contain 157.8 billion cubic metre (BCM) of water; the capacity of these reservoirs is 250 BCM. Another 400 BCM water is available for irrigation in India through groundwater, according to this answer given by the government in the Lok Sabha (the lower house of Parliament) in July 2015.

With more than three months for the monsoon, which breaks in the first week of July, 2016 is on course to witness the worst water scarcity in a decade.

Source: Weekly bulletins of Central Water Commission, March 2016 and April 2015.

Reports of widespread scarcity are already evident, as is conflict over water use for agriculture, domestic use and manufacturing.

Thousands of villages in Maharashtra’s Marathwada–facing record-breaking drought–depend solely on water from state-supplied tankers, with the city of Latur supplying water to its people once in three weeks. Last week, the Latur district administration, fearing violence over water, imposed restrictions on assembly.

Fodder camps in parched rural Maharashtra shelter not just cattle but hundreds of families. The government is now recommending that towns and cities stop water supply to swimming pools.

Madhya Pradesh (MP) is bracing for drought and the government is preparing to send tankers to villagers. In Bundelkhand–spread across MP and Uttar Pradesh–there hasn’t been water to sow the winter crop, agricultural productivity has halved and people find it hard to buy salt. In Odisha, farmers have broken embankments of public lakes to save crops.

Farmers demanding water recently blockaded Bangalore. And the water crisis in Karnataka is witnessing a fallout in Andhra Pradesh (AP) and Tamil Nadu. AP, Uttarakhand, Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu likely to be India’s most water-scarce states this summer.

#LoveTwitter: The big hits and misses of 10 years of Twitter

Micro-blogging site Twitter turns 10 on Monday.

With the hashtag "#LoveTwitter" trending and inviting people to celebrate Twitter's first decade, Twitter's official handle thanked all its users for "10 incredible years".

The site's official blog kicked off the celebration on Monday afternoon and said: "On March 21, ten years ago, it began with a single Tweet. Since then, every moment of every day, people connect about the things they care about most — all over the world."

The Tweet in question, posted by founder Jack Dorsey, said "just setting up my twttr" on March 21, 2006. 

Of course, since then, Twitter has come a long way. From amassing 300 million users to going public.

User growth:

According to online statistics portal Statista, as of the fourth quarter of 2015, the micro-blogging service averaged at 305 million monthly active users.

In the beginning of 2015, India alone had 22.2 million users on Twitter. According to a 2015 report by the Huffingtonpost, Twitter clocked double digit growth in India  with the site accounting for 17% of the total social network users in one of the world's largest Internet market. The article cited a report by market research firm eMarketer and said that India was only second to Japan (26 million) in terms of the size of its Twitter population.

However, according to a New York Times report, in February this year, after many quarters of slowing user growth, Twitter said its monthly visitors in the fourth quarter totalled 320 million. The figure had not budged from the one the company reported in the previous quarter.

Over the years the social networking site took its simple theory - express yourself in 140 characters or fewer - and took the cyber, and real, world by storm.

Paytm, Snapdeal can wait. Alibaba likely to enter India on its own

Whether the Jack Ma-led Chinese major enters the Indian e-commerce sector as Alibaba or 'Alibaba plus', there will be two definite gainers, consumers and the segment.
Analysts and stakeholders said so to Business Standard after the surprise statement by a company executive on Friday evening. "We are planning to enter the e-commerce business in India in 2016,'' Alibaba group president J Michael Evans told reporters here, after his meeting with communications and information technology minister Ravi Shankar Prasad.
Alibaba, in the headlines for months following a stunning initial public offering in 2014, is yet to reveal its India plans. This has kept the e-commerce world guessing on what its entry would mean to the existing entities and the sector.
Most experts say Alibaba is likely to make a dash into Indian e-commerce on its own, quite like Amazon did almost three years earlier. Its investments in existing players such as Paytm and Snapdeal could run parallel to its standalone India play, they suggest.
A comment on the latest development could not be had from digital wallet and online marketplace Paytm, where Alibaba has a majority shareholding.
Harish H V, partner (India leadership team), Grant Thornton, said Alibaba has substantial cash and is sure to make massive investments here. That will mean two big international players, the other being Amazon, competing in India. How the competition unfolds will depend on whether Alibaba comes alone into e-commerce or along with the companies where it has already invested, such as Paytm and Snapdeal. Reports suggested it considered investing in Flipkart, too, which the latter denied.
"If Alibaba actually enters India in tie-ups with the other e-commerce companies, the sector could well split into two camps-Amazon versus the rest,'' the consultant said, adding this was only one of the scenarios. However, this looks unlikely. Most leading companies have been talking of a long-term play in this space. Also, these companies command steep valuation.

West Bengal Assembly Elections 2016

The Narada News sting operation — showing ministers, members of Parliament (MPs) and members of Legislative Assembly (MLAs) from the ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) allegedly taking cash for favours — kept the party and the Opposition busy in West Bengal on Tuesday.

While most of the alleged people in the video footage refrained from making comments on the sting, TMC chief and West Bengal Assembly Elections 2016Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee chose to respond to the allegations at a rally in North Bengal's Kurseong, where she has been campaigning for the past few days. "Let the Opposition hatch as many conspiracies as they want. We are not afraid. We work for the people. We do not believe in fear tactics," Banerjee said without mentioning the sting operation.

"We are ready to give a fitting reply to the Opposition politically. People will bowl them out in elections," she said, apparently keeping her faith in the electorate.

Sources close to the development said the ruling party was in a dilemma. The party's parliamentary committee was believed to have met on Tuesday to discuss its strategy to counter the sting. Some of them said the party should have been proactive in investigating the issue. Some felt the party should move court to obtain a stay on airing the footage till its veracity was proved but others were sceptical of the outcome.

The release of the footage came at a time when the ruling party was worried about an alliance between the Left Front and the Congress. The Left Front and Congress, in fact, held joint rallies on Tuesday to raise issues, including the sting operation against the TMC.

Left Front-affiliated students' organisations, including the Students' Federation of India (SFI) and the Democratic Youth Federation of India (DYFI) held protest marches in Kolkata against the TMC.

West Bengal Elections 2016, The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) also took to the streets. Party workers blocked roads and a delegation marched to Raj Bhavan demanding a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe into the matter and dismissal of the TMC government.

"We met the Governor and said that the TMC government, whose ministers, MPs and other leaders were seen taking bribes, had no right to govern the state. We demand immediate dismissal of the government. Free and fair elections is not possible with the TMC at the helm of affairs in the state," BJP General Secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya said. Assembly polls in the state would be conducted in April-May, over six phases.

In Parliament West Bengal Elections, MPs from the BJP, Left Front and Congress demanded an investigation into the matter.

Meanwhile, the full bench of the Election Commission, which was visiting the state to review poll preparedness, said in response to questions that it had received complaints from the Opposition on the sting and appropriate authorities had been informed.

This is the second time that allegations of corruption have surfaced against the TTMC, the first time being when the Saradha chit fund scam came to light. The CBI had questioned many of the Trinamool leaders in connection with the scam. Then transport minister Madan Mitra was forced to resign and is still in custody.

However, the Saradha scam failed to have any impact on the TMC electorally in the 2014 general elections. The next month will tell whether Narada will be any different.

LeEco's 3D Helmet: Joining the VR bandwagon

Virtual reality (VR) is becoming increasingly popular but choices in India are very limited. Joining the bandwagon is LeEco's 3D Helmet. The Helmet can be paired with any smartphone as long as it has a USB Type-C port which gives it an advantage over the Samsung Gear VR headset, as the latter only supports four phones.

A standalone VR headset, the Helmet has its own 5.5-inch 2K display unlike the Samsung Gear VR and has a 70-degree field of view. The headset has adjustable straps at the top and on the side which provides for a snug fit.There are six buttons on the right side of the headset - a power button, buttons for volume and brightness adjustment, and a Mode button which switches between 2D and 3D.

The headset has an adjustment wheel at the top and two adjustable sliders at the bottom, which can be used for Myopia and IPD adjustment so that the user doesn't need to wear glasses or contacts while using the headset. There is also a 3.55-mm headphone jack at the bottom.

Setting up the 3D Helmet is easy. It has a physical cable with two ends - one to be connected to a power source and other to a smartphone that supports a USB Type-C port. After the headset is powered on, one gets the option to adjust one's vision with the aforementioned sliders and adjustment wheels. Once set up, the headset displays the smartphone's content.

connected the headset to the Le Max SmartPhones and was ready to test it out. I downloaded various games and apps from the Google Play Store such as the one which lets you take a virtual tour of Tokyo. The visuals were great and provided for an enjoyable experience. Next, I wanted to test it out with a 3D movie. I played the 3D version of The Hobbit: Battle of the Five Armies. Again, the headset didn't disappoint.

Both the headset and the phone heat up quite fast and even though it's not advisable to use it beyond two hours, I couldn't continue for more than an hour because of the heating issues.