Singer MJ Sreekumar and Music director M Jayachandran were had a clash on Asianet channel

Singer MJ Sreekumar and Music director M Jayachandran were had a clash on Asianet channel over Music reality show Idea Star Singer. Then Singer KS Chithra intervened in this issue and solved it for temporarily,

Saudi woman sentenced to 10 lashes for defying driving ban can now vote!

A Saudi court has sentenced a woman to 10 lashes for challenging a ban on women driving in the conservative Muslim kingdom, Amnesty International said Tuesday.

The sentence was reported two days after Saudi King Abdullah granted women the right to vote and run in municipal elections.

He also promised to include them in the next all-appointed consultative Shura Council in 2013.

“Flogging is a cruel punishment in all circumstances but it beggars belief that the authorities in Saudi Arabia have imposed lashes on a woman apparently for merely driving a car,” Philip Luther, an Amnesty regional deputy director, said in an emailed statement.

“Allowing women to vote in council elections is all well and good, but if they are still going to face being flogged for trying to exercise their right to freedom of movement then the king’s much trumpeted ‘reforms’ actually amount to very little,” Luther said.

Two other women are also believed to be facing charges related to driving, the Amnesty statement said.

Under Saudi Arabia’s strict Islamic laws, women require a male guardian’s permission to work, travel abroad or even to undergo some medical surgeries. They are also not allowed to drive.

While there is no written law banning women from driving, Saudi law requires citizens to use locally issued licenses while in the country, which are not issued to women, making it effectively illegal for them to drive.

In May, as pro-democracy demonstrations swept across the region, some women in Saudi Arabia called for their right to drive.

A campaign called Women2Drive issued calls on social media networks to challenge the ban.

Some women posted on Twitter that they drove successfully in the streets of Jeddah, Riyadh and Khobar while others said they were stopped by police who later let them go after signing a pledge not to drive again.

This Car Runs on Wine, Cheese and Chocolate

At a time when fuel prices have become a topic of conversations across all places, several new innovations are being showed that make the necessity of conventional fuel irrelevant. There are several innovators who have developed alternative fuelled cars that can run on a diverse variety of fuels.

At a time when we consider cars running on alternative fuels as just concepts, in reality there are many production ready vehicles that can run on eco friendly materials. One such example is a Lotus Exige 270E Tri-Fuel that is capable of running on not just regular petrol but also wine, chocolate and cheese. Yes that is correct. The engine of the Lotus Exige has been modified to handle a diverse variety of fuels.

This experimental Lotus can run on ethanol derived from unusable wine and whey, a bi-product of cheese and chocolate production. The fuel to be used can be considered a little more expensive than regular fuels but it is a start. This car was displayed in the UK as part of the Price of Wales' environmental initiative.

Several alternative fuel using cars participated in a rally from Oxford to Central London. Here are some of the notable ones. The Lightning GT is an electric car that can run for more than 300 kilometres with an electric charge of just ten minutes. Another car is the Biobug, also called as the Dung Beetle as it can run on methane generated from human sewage.

Among the cars that participated in the rally, the Lotus Exige 270E Tri-Fuel is the car closest to production. Researchers are continuing their work and a production ready car can hit stands soon. Do not be surprised if you have to drive in to a wine store rather that a petrol bunk to refuel.

More than 7,200 Indian Jews to immigrate to Israel

JERUSALEM: The Israeli government is expected to approve the long awaited 'aliyah' (immigration) of more than 7,200 Indian Jews from the north-eastern states of Manipur and Mizoram in the coming weeks, a media report said. 

The decision to allow the last members of the "lost" Bnei Menashe tribe to immigrate to Israel is being greeted with excitement by local Evangelical Christian groups, who view it as fulfillment of Biblical prophecy and who have pledged financial support for the move, 'TheJerusalem Post' daily reported.

The ministerial committee on immigration and absorption, headed by foreign minister Avigdor Lieberman, decided, about three months ago, "in principle" to bring the remaining 7,232 members of the northeastern Indian community to the Jewish state

"I am very optimistic that within the next few weeks we will at last have a historic breakthrough which will allow the lost tribe of Bnei Menashe to return to Zion," Michael Freund, founder and chairman of Shavei Israel, a Jerusalem-based organisation that has been at the forefront of Bnei Menashe immigration to Israel, was quoted as saying.

More than 1,700 members of the north-eastern Indian Jewish community, referred as Bnei Menashe (sons of Menashe), have immigrated to Israel over the last decade, but their aliya was subsequently halted in 2007 over the issue of their "Jewishness", even though the Israeli Chief Rabbinate had earlier recognised the community as "descendants of Israel".

The community claims descent from one of the 10 lost tribes of Israel, who were sent into exile by the Assyrian Empire more than 27 centuries ago. 

2G note row: Pranab explains stand in letter to PM

As the 2G fire rages, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee has written a letter

 to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh setting out in detail the events surrounding the controversial allocation of spectrum.

The letter comes in the midst of a controversy triggered by the surfacing of a note from a Finance Ministry official suggesting that 2G scam could have been avoided by then Finance Minister P Chidambaram if had insisted of auction instead of giving licences on 2001 prices.

As Mukherjee, who had met the Prime Minister in New York on Sunday, wrote the letter, Chidambaram met Singh on his return from the US today.

Mukherjee, who returned to the capital from Kolkata late in the night, told reporters, "The correspondence between the prime minister and ministers, I consider, are confidential."

The letter is understood to have detailed the various meetings held on the subject of allocation of 2G spectrum, the correspondence between various ministries and the events leading to the decision.

Adamant Iyer stands by Women’s Code Bill

Kochi: Former Supreme Court judge V.R. Krishna Iyer Wednesday said that the 'controversial' recommendations in the Kerala Women's Code Bill 2011 will not be withdrawn.

He said that his commission is not the sort that will run for cover when attacked.

A commission headed by Iyer had recommended a two-child norm for the state.

Adoption of family planning and birth control as secular policy is necessary to check unhealthy, uneconomic and abnormal increase in population and
for sustaining harmony and happiness among all communities, the commission, appointed by the government, he said.

The commission has also suggested that if there is a consistent violation by people on the two child norm, then government can make it a penal act and impose a fine of Rs 10,000 or upto three months imprisonment.

Several religious heads have come out against the implementations of the controversial recommendations.

Meanwhile, one of the members of the committee, Serena Nawaz, Wednesday said that the controversial recommendation can be withdrawn

Dayanidhi abused power to get Sun TV a free phone exchang

If you believe that Dayanidhi Maran 

and Sun TV, a company run by his brother Kalanidhi Maran, have no links, here’s the kicker: Dayanidhi gifted the latter a free telephone exchange paid for entirely by the exchequer.

In its 4 June issue, Tehelka magazine published an expose suggesting that Dayanidhi Maran had favoured the Malaysian Maxis Group with telecom licences and spectrum in return for which the Sun TV Group got over Rs 675 crore worth of investments from Maxis in its direct-to-home dish TV venture.

Dayanidhi gifted Kalanidhi a free telephone exchange paid for entirely by the exchequer. Reuters

Maran denied it, saying he was totally impartial, and that he had no stake in his brother’s business. In any case, he was not minister when the Maxis deal took place.

Now, his statement is likely to be challenged. According to an article by S Gurumurthy in The New Indian Express, Dayanidhi, when he was Communications Minister in UPA-1, got a public sector company, Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL), to give his brother’s company 323 telephone lines for free in Chennai.

Gurumurthy, quoting a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) report, says that Dayanidhi got “all the 323 home lines listed not in his name but in the name of the Chief General Manager, BSNL, Chennai. These lines virtually constituted a telephone exchange in the minister’s home. It was exclusively used for his family business by laying a 3.4-km-long secret cable along public roads to connect the lines to the business premises (of Sun TV). This had caused huge loss to BSNL….The CBI (Central Bureau of Investigation), which probed the fraud, wrote to the Secretary, Telecom, on 9 September 2007 recommending action against Maran for the fraud.”

Now why would a Maran, with crores at stake in Sun TV, want to save money on a few phone lines?

Well, it wasn’t just that. Says the Express report: “They were no ordinary telephone lines, but costly ISDN lines, which could carry tons and tons of TV news and programmes faster than satellites to any part of the world. These lines, the CBI says in its report, are ‘normally used by medium to large commercial enterprises to meet special needs such as video conferencing, transmission of huge volume of digital data of audio and video’ — precisely the facility that Sun TV would need for its telecasting operations. For this, the Sun TV would have paid huge cost. But it got it all free, at government’s cost.”

Gurumurthy quotes the CBI as saying that the Maran home exchange was “programmed in such a way that no one other than the authorised BSNL staff were aware of the existence of such an exchange created for his [minister’s] exclusive use”….By linking the minister’s home and Sun TV office by the stealthy cables, “it would appear as if the lines were used in the residence of the former minister, but actually the cables laid facilitated Sun TV network to utilise the services of BSNL provided at his residence”.

This clearly gives the lie to Dayanidhi’s claims on Wednesday that he had no links to his brother’s Sun TV business, which was the focus of the Tehelka investigation. The market certainly believes a nexus exists, for shares of Sun Network and SpiceJet, owned by Kalanidhi, have crashed.

With so much skullduggery going on with the Marans and then Andimuthu Raja, one thing is certain: the top bosses of the UPA, Manmohan Singh and Sonia Gandhi, would certainly have been privy to  CBI’s investigations or heard about it from their officials. But they did pretty little to stop the loot.

‘300 phone lines’ at Dayanidhi’s house: CBI set to go there next

The CBI is all set to register a Preliminary Enquiry into allegations that as Telecom Minister between 2004 and 2007, Dayanidhi Maran had instructed BSNL to install over 300 high-speed telephone lines at his Chennai residence.

The telephones were allegedly used by a television channel owned by Maran’s brother through underground cables laid from the minister’s residence to the Sun TV office. These were ISDN lines capable of carrying television programming.

“Our investigations have reached a stage where we are ready to register a preliminary enquiry. It can be registered any time now,” a CBI source said.

Maran, who had to resign from the UPA government in July this year over his alleged role in the 2G spectrum scam, has denied the allegations and said only one telephone connection was installed at his residence.

The news had first come out in June this year when a CBI internal note became public. The telephone exchange at Maran’s house was said to have been operational for several months in 2007. The CBI had informed the Telecom Ministry in 2007 about the misuse of telephone lines and recommended action against Maran.

TRAI clears confusion on SMS, exempts certain services

New Delhi, Sept 27: Regulator Trai on Tuesday exempted various service providers, including the dealers of telecom operators, e-ticketing agencies and social networking sites, from the new limit of one hundred SMSes per day per SIM, which was imposed to block pesky calls and messages.

On September 5, after much delay, Trai had come out with recommendations to stop pesky calls and text messages from September 27, ordering that no access provider (operators) shall permit the transmission of more than 100 SMSes per day per SIM.

"... Hereby directs all access providers to exclude the following persons from the limit of one hundredSMS per day per SIM -- dealers of the telecom service providers and DTH operators for sending request for electronic recharge on mobile numbers," Trai said in a statement.

The directive from the regulator had come in the wake of concerns raised by telecom lobby COAI on limiting the SMS entitlement per SIM to 100 per day.

It will also exempt e-ticketing agencies for responding to e-ticketing request made by its customers, SMSes from social networking sites Facebook, Twitter, Orkut, LinkedIn and GooglePlus to their members in connection to activities relating to their accounts, based on verifiable options; and agencies providing directory services, such as Justdial, Zatse, Callezee, Getit and Askme, Trai added.

Earlier, COAI had asked Trai to reconsider its recommendation to limit the number of SMSes per sim to 100 per day, saying that such a regulation may pose a potential challenge to the "fundamental rights" of an ordinary user.

There are several instances where SMSes are an important mode of communication. There could be a situation where a customer has exhausted the limit and suddenly some emergency occurs, COAI had said.

Further, this limit will not also be applicable on "blackout days" (festive occasions), when the customer is free to send as many messages he wants.

In the case of post-paid telephone numbers, the access provider shall not permit more than 3,000 SMSes per SIM per month, the Trai recommendations had said.

However, Trai said, "The access provider shall, before excluding the persons, obtain an undertaking from such person that he shall not use the said facility in any manner for sending commercial communications."

Subscribers have the option of choosing to be under the 'Fully Blocked' category, which is akin to the 'Do Not Call Registry'. If a user selects the 'Partially Blocked' category, he/she will receive SMSes in categories chosen

Five of the main Dead Sea scrolls

The Israel Museum welcomes you to the Dead Sea Scrolls Digital Project, allowing users to examine and explore these most ancient manuscripts from Second Temple times at a level of detail never before possible. Developed in partnership with Google, the new website gives users access to searchable, fast-loading, high-resolution images of the scrolls, as well as short explanatory videos and background information on the texts and their history. The Dead Sea Scrolls, which include the oldest known biblical manuscripts in existence, offer critical insight into Jewish society in the Land of Israel during the Second Temple Period, the time of the birth of Christianity and Rabbinic Judaism. Five complete scrolls from the Israel Museum have been digitized for the project at this stage and are now accessible online.

"We are privileged to house in the Israel Museum's Shrine of the Book the best preserved and most complete Dead Sea Scrolls ever discovered," said James S. Snyder, Anne and Jerome Fisher Director of the Israel Museum. "They are of paramount importance among the touchstones of monotheistic world heritage, and they represent unique highlights of our Museum's encyclopedic holdings. Now, through our partnership with Google, we are able to bring these treasures to the broadest possible public."

The five Dead Sea Scrolls that have been digitized thus far include the Great Isaiah Scroll, the Community Rule Scroll, the Commentary on Habakkuk Scroll, the Temple Scroll, and the War Scroll, with search queries on Google.com sending users directly to the online scrolls. All five scrolls can be magnified so that users may examine texts in exacting detail. Details invisible to the naked eye are made visible through ultra-high resolution digital photography by photographer Ardon Bar-Hama– at 1,200 mega pixels each, these images are almost two hundred times higher in resolution than those produced by a standard camera. Each picture utilized UV-protected flash tubes with an exposure of 1/4000th of a second to minimize damage to the fragile manuscripts. In addition, the Great Isaiah Scroll may be searched by column, chapter, and verse, and is accompanied by an English translation tool and by an option for users to submit translations of verses in their own languages.

"The Dead Sea Scrolls Project with the Israel Museum enriches and preserves an important part of world heritage by making it accessible to all on the internet," said Professor Yossi Matias, Managing Director of Google’s R&D Center in Israel. "Having been involved in similar projects in the past, including the Google Art Project, Yad Vashem Holocaust Collection, and the Prado Museum in Madrid, we have seen how people around the world can enhance their knowledge and understanding of key historical events by accessing documents and collections online. We hope one day to make all existing knowledge in historical archives and collections available to all, including putting additional Dead Sea Scroll documents online.

U.S. treasure hunters have found

American treasure hunters announced Monday that they have located a World War II-era shipwreck believed to contain 200 metric tons of silver bullion – a total that would make it the largest haul of precious metal ever discovered at sea.

The treasure is thought to be worth more than $200 million. Under its contract with the British government, the American firm that found it, Odyssey Marine Exploration, will get to keep 80 percent of the find if it is able to bring the valuable cargo to the surface from its current resting place nearly three miles below the surface of the Atlantic Ocean, the BBC reports.

The wreckage of the SS Gairsoppa, a British steamship sunk by a German U-boat in 1941, was found some 300 miles off the coast of Ireland last week by the U.S. underwater salvage firm, CNN reports. To date, the recovery team has explored the site only with the use of remote-controlled submarines. It now will begin planning the arduous task of bringing the valuable cargo to the surface.

The good news for the treasure-hunting team is that the 412-foot ship settled upright on the seabed with its cargo holds open, which means they should be able to use remote-controlled robots to retrieve the bullion. The firm plans to begin the retrieval in the second half of 2012, the BBC reports.

Suresh Gopi finds hidden agenda in two-child norm

Expressing strong concern against the suggestion to impose punishments including fine on parents with more than two kids, actor Suresh Gopi said the move smacks of a hidden agenda.

The actor who himself is a father of four children asked,"What now remains to be seen is whether our administrators would dare to implement it. If it gets implemented, will our political leaders with more than two kids resign from their posts?"

When asked about the suggestion that was made before the state government on this regard, he told manoramonline that parents alone have the right to decide on how many children they should have.

He added that the number of children are dwindling in the state as a whole. Whereas the birth rate is not brought down in certain sectors. He wondered why such matters of grave concern are not given due importance.

"Children are our wealth. It is the responsibility of parents to impart proper education and moral values on them. Parents who are striving hard to bring up their kids should be backed by the government and other welfare groups", he said.

HC to monitor progress of ice-cream parlour case

Kochi: Kerala High Court Tuesday said it would monitor the progress in the 'ice cream parlour' sex case where Industries Minister P K Kunhalikutty had allegedly tried to influence witnesses, but declined a plea by CPM leader V.S. Achuthanandan to order CBI investigation. 

"Though we do not see any reason at this juncture to opine that the investigation is not progressing, we deem it appropriate that the progress of the case is required to be monitored by this court," a division bench comprising Chief Justice J Chelemeswar and Justice P R Ramachandra Menon said adjourning Achuthanandan's petition to December 22.

The bench pointed out that Advocate General K P Dhandapani had submitted that the case would be completed in the next 90 days and the final report would be filed before the appropriate court. K A Rauf, brother-in-law of Kunhalikutty, who fell from his favour, had alleged that judicial process in case had been tampered. The Special Investigation Team in the case was appointed when Achuthanandan was Chief Minister. 

Of the 85 witnesses examined in the case, 47 were questioned while the petitioner was the chief minister and the rest after he demitted office, the court was pointed out. Similarly, 56 documents were seized in connection with the crime of which 33 were seized during petitioner's incumbency in the office. The AG has also pointed out that none of the SIT officers had been changed after the new government assumed office.

According to Achuthanandan, during the last seven months, no investigation was done in the case registered on the basis of the statements by Rauf. Rauf had told media personnel in Kozhikode few months ago that Kunhalikutty had used money power and him (Rauf) to influence witnesses, prosecutors, social workers and judicial officers to escape from the case.

The sex scandal had rocked Kerala in the late 1990s when it came to light that an ice cream parlour in Kozhikode was being used to lure women into prostitution. There were allegations about Kunhalikutty's involvement in the case, but he did not figure as accused in the case.

Votes for women is big ’small step’ in Saudi

Jeddah: The right to vote in
elections in a country that remains an absolute monarchy, where
they still may not work nor travel without assent from a male
relative nor drive a car, may seem a small step for the women of
Saudi Arabia.
Yet King Abdullah's unexpected move was a momentous turn in

the culture wars that have marked his reign. It may presage more
change, not only for women but in the relationship between royal
house and clergy upon which the state was founded, and among
rivals within a ruling family that faces mounting demands from
subjects who see other Arabs pushing closer to democracy.
The king's announcement on Sunday in the Shura Council that
women would be allowed to join the hitherto all-male -- and
legally toothless -- advisory chamber, and to vote in municipal
elections, was welcomed as significant by women, who under Saudi
law occupy an explicitly subordinate role to men in society.
"These are chances for women, who think they can help in
pushing the wheel of development," said Lama al-Sulaiman, who as
vice president of the Jeddah chamber of commerce is among the
few Saudi women to hold such a prominent office.

Unique in the world, Saudi women may not drive. Concealing
attire is obligatory in public. In court, their testimony counts
for less than that of a man. And they must have a male
"guardian" to endorse major life decisions, from choosing to
marry to taking a job or travelling abroad.

Though Abdullah, who casts himself as a reformer, appointed
a woman as a deputy minister in 2009 -- for women's education --
no woman has full cabinet rank nor serves as an ambassador.
But Hamida Alireza, a resident of the prosperous commercial
hub of Jeddah, spoke for many Saudi women in saying that the
rate of change had been satisfactory over the decade or so in
which Abdullah has steered policy through an opaque political
process in which other princes and clerics also have a big say.
"I think the pace, as long as we stay at this pace, is very
good," she said. "Three years ago none of this was on the
table."

CLERICAL CONSERVATISM
The warm applause which greeted his five-minute speech in
the Shura Council, and the silence from senior clerics who have
voiced doubts in the past about women's rights, suggest that the
king had paved the way for this latest reform.
"Any opposition on a religious basis does not have any legs
to stand on because it was done according to Islamic teachings,"
said Hossein Shobokshi, a liberal Saudi newspaper columnist.
So far, the only opposition to the move has been in comments
posted on social networking sites by individual conservatives
convinced that Abdullah is corrupting their Islamic society.
"To Allah, to history and to our nation, King Abdullah's
reign has seen the most corruption in the history of al-Saud
with regard to women," Abdulrahman al-Luwaiheq posted on Twitter
a few hours after the announcement.
It is unclear how far such sentiments are shared by more
powerful clerics from the austere Wahhabi tradition, whose
collaboration with the ruling al-Saud family lies at the heart
of the Saudi kingdom, founded in its present form in the 1930s.
Previously stated positions among senior government-funded
sheikhs, reveal profound misgivings about women's rights.
The most senior, the Grand Mufti, in an undated web posting,
has warned that involving women in politics could mean "opening
the door to evil".
Such conservatism is widespread in Saudi society, though
state-sponsored restrictions on women have at times provoked
broad disapproval -- witness the popular outrage in 2002 when
religious police blocked schoolgirls fleeing a fire because they
were not fully dressed in the presence of men. Fifteen died.

CONTRASTING TRENDS
Change -- and reaction -- are not new in Saudi Arabia, where
clerics have conferred an aura of piety upon a dynasty that was
quick to embrace the modern technologies its oil wealth bought,
while accepting a religious model of society more in keeping
with its tribal heritage than the gridlocked cities of 2011.
When King Faisal introduced education for girls in the
1960s, he suffered a conservative backlash. And when militants
seized the Grand Mosque in Mecca in 1979 over perceived moral
decline, some clerics were sympathetic to them.
Though the al-Sauds may seem to many outsiders to run a
state that, as home to Islam's holiest sites, is a model of
piety and traditional morals, their rule -- and alliance with
the United States -- was an original cause of the hostility they
face from al Qaeda and its Saudi-born founder Osama bin Laden.
Even far from the violent extremes, there has been much
resistance to giving women greater freedom. Women's rights
activists faced criticism for campaigning for the right to vote
in this week's municipal elections -- the king's announcement
will give them that right only at the next opportunity.
And when women campaigned for the right to drive this summer
-- some of them taking to wheel in defiance of the law -- some
conservatives set up a social media group encouraging physical
attacks on any woman who dared to follow suit.
King Abdullah has countered resistance in various ways,
employing both carrot and stick.
Last year he decreed that only members of the country's top
religious council had the power to issue fatwas, or religious
edicts, a move that tried to sideline his most vocal critics.
And in 2009 he fired a senior scholar from an important post
after he criticised the first mixed-sex Saudi university and
spoke out against the teaching of evolution as an alien idea.
This year, the king has also encouraged clerical favour by
big spending on building mosques and on the morality police, as
well as by banning media criticism of senior clerics.
In a year when Arab Spring revolts have unseated secular
autocrats, the clergy remain a powerful support to the Saudi
monarchy, even as it seeks popular favour, too. Votes for women
are a significant development for Saudi society, but will not
rapidly diminish clerical influence over its politics.

Cinema ticket charges reduced in Kerala Theaters

From today 27th September, mobile users in India can send only 100 SMS per day. The new regulation is imposed from today by TRAI to help subscribers from unwanted SMS. Telecom Regulatory Authority of India ordered the mobile operators to take strict action on this, but there will be some exemptions during festivals. Postpaid users SMS quota will be limited to 3000 per month.

School Van accident at Trivandrum 3 children feared dead

Thiruvananthapuram: At least three children were missing and most others rescued after a van carrying about 30 primary school students plunged into a canal near here on Monday, police said.

While most of the children were rescued by local people who instantly gathered at the spot, the condition of three of them rushed to hospital was stated to be critical, they said.

The mishap occurred at Channakankara, about 25 km from here, off a national highway when the van was carrying the private school children back home through a narrow road along the banks of a branch canal of Parvathy Puthanar river.

Search and rescue operations by police and fire force personnel are continuing.

The children belong to Jyothinilayam school in Kazhakoottam on the city outskirts.

3 school students feared dead in a tragic accident which happened near Trivandrum today, when a school van has lost control and fell in to Parvathi Puthanar river. The children were from BPM UP School Vettuthura (Jyothi Nilayalam School), Kazhakkoottam & all of them aged between 6 and 12. Local fishermen rescued 21 students from the school bus and some of them were seriously injured so the death toll can be increased. According to the reports Aromal,  Aswin & Kaniha Santhosh are the name of the children who died in the accident.

11 student swere admitted to SAT hospital, they are Krishna (5), Devika (10), Blessan (10), Abhijith (10), Ancy (10), Akhil (10), Suryagayathri (12), Seethal (10) , Gulina Stephan (12), Sandra and Jubina.

One more dies of rat fever in Kerala

 A 65-year-old man has died of recent outbreak of rat fever in Kerala on Tuesday. The deceased has been identified as Raman hailing from Kasargod, sources said.

He was undergoing treatment at the Pariyaram Medical college hospital. The health authorities have urged the people to boil water before drinking, to consume food when it is hot, to keep their houses and surroundings clean and to dispose of garbage properly.

As any fever can be dengue fever and leptospirosis, those with fever have been asked to consult doctors immediately. The people have been asked to avoid outdoor food to curb the outbreak of Jaundice.

Dengue has the symptoms of sudden high fever and severe headache, pain behind the eyes and nausea. The Health Services director has warned against washing and bathing in murky waters and has instructed the use of gloves and socks for animal caretakers and agricultural workers to prevent the spread of rat fever.

They have also been directed to take a weekly preventive medicine, which is available at the primary health centres, free of cost. The symptoms of rat fever are high fever, headache, body ache, red eyes and muscle cramps.

The preventive measures aimed at mosquito control include destruction of mosquito breeding spots such as broken vessels, bottles, coconut shells, tyre, garden pots, sheaths of plants, hollows of trees and even the coconut shells used for collecting rubber latex, which will collect water in them.

To prevent the spread of epidemics, patients are advised to use handkerchiefs while coughing and sneezing.

CPI-M led LDF opposition on Tuesday staged a walkout in the Kerala assembly protesting against government’s “failure” to check spread of various types of viral fever, including leptospirosis that had claimed 179 lives so far.

Lack of medicines and shortage of doctors in government hospitals have led to this serious situation, former Kerala Finance Minister Thomas Issac said while seeking leave for an adjournment motion on the matter.

Issac said more than 300 persons have died of various viral infections in the state in the last few months and about 10,000 people were suffering from fever in the state.

The worst affected districts were Kasargod, Kannur, Kozhikode, Malappuram, Ernakulam and Kottayam, he said. Intervening in the matter, Chief Minister Oommen Chandy said the government viewed the situation very seriously and steps had been taken to fill vacancies of doctors in hospitals.

Steps have been taken to ensure required quantity of medicines in hospitals, he added.

Replying to the motion, Health Minister Adoor Prakash said 179 persons have died of fever in the state till date since January. Cases of dengue, hepatitis and gastroenteritis were also reported, he said.

Admitting that the situation had not been completely under control, Prakash said the government was able to check the spread of the disease due to the steps initiated by it.

Speaker G Karthikeyan refused leave for the motion after the reply of health minister and chief minister.

Before walking out, opposition leader V S Achuthanandan said it was the inept handling of the situation by the health department that had led to the present serious problem.