SC seeks attorney general's help in deciding plea to amend IT Act

NEW DELHI: Concerned over recent incidents of arrest of people allegedly for posting offensive messages on social networking sites, the Supreme Court on Thursday agreed to hear a plea to amend the Information Technology Act and sought attorney general G E Vahanvati's help in deciding it.

A bench headed by Chief Justice Altamas Kabir, however, refused the petitioner's plea that no coercive action should be taken by the government authorities against people for posting such messages on websites during pendency of the case.

The court posted the matter for further hearing on Friday. While agreeing to hear the case, the bench said it was considering to take suo motu cognisance of recent incidents of arrest of people and wondered why nobody had so far challenged the particular provision of the IT Act.

The court was hearing a public interest litigation petition filed by Delhi student Shreya Singhal, who contended that "the phraseology of Section 66A of the IT Act, 2000 is so wide and vague and incapable of being judged on objective standards, that it is susceptible to wanton abuse and hence falls foul of Article 14, 19 (1)(a) and Article 21 of the Constitution."

She submitted that "unless there is judicial sanction as a prerequisite to the setting into motion the criminal law with respect to freedom of speech and expression, the law as it stands, is highly susceptible to abuse and for muzzling free speech in the country."

The arrests which have been referred to by Shreya in her petition include that of a 21-year-old girl for questioning on Facebook the shutdown in Mumbai after Shiv Sena leader Bal Thackeray's death, which was 'liked' and shared by her friend, who was also arrested.

Meanwhile, the government on Thursday issued guidelines that state approval from an officer of DCP level in rural and urban areas and IG level in metros will have to be sought before registering complaints under section 66A of the IT Act.

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Caterpillar Fungus Has Anti-Inflammatory Properties

In the Tibetan mountains, a fungus attaches itself to a moth larva burrowed in the soil. It infects and slowly consumes its host from within, taking over its brain and making the young caterpillar move to a position from which the fungus can grow and spore again.

Sounds like something out of science fiction, right? But for ailing Chinese consumers and nomadic Tibetan harvesters, the parasite called cordyceps means hope—and big money. Chinese markets sell the "golden worm," or "Tibetan mushroom"—thought to cure ailments from cancer to asthma to erectile dysfunction—for up to $50,000 (U.S.) per pound. Patients, following traditional medicinal practices, brew the fungal-infected caterpillar in tea or chew it raw.

Now the folk medicine is getting scientific backing. A new study published in the journal RNA finds that cordycepin, a chemical derived from the caterpillar fungus, has anti-inflammatory properties.

"Inflammation is normally a beneficial response to a wound or infection, but in diseases like asthma it happens too fast and to too high of an extent," said study co-author Cornelia H. de Moor of the University of Nottingham. "When cordycepin is present, it inhibits that response strongly."

And it does so in a way not previously seen: at the mRNA stage, where it inhibits polyadenylation. That means it stops swelling at the genetic cellular level—a novel anti-inflammatory approach that could lead to new drugs for cancer, asthma, diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis, and cardiovascular-disease patients who don't respond well to current medications.

From Worm to Pill

But such new drugs may be a long way off. The science of parasitic fungi is still in its early stages, and no medicine currently available utilizes cordycepin as an anti-inflammatory. The only way a patient could gain its benefits would by consuming wild-harvested mushrooms.

De Moor cautions against this practice. "I can't recommend taking wild-harvested medications," she says. "Each sample could have a completely different dose, and there are mushrooms where [taking] a single bite will kill you."

Today 96 percent of the world's caterpillar-fungus harvest comes from the high Tibetan Plateau and the Himalayan range. Fungi from this region are of the subspecies Ophiocordyceps sinensis, locally known as yartsa gunbu ("summer grass, winter worm"). While highly valued in Chinese traditional medicine, these fungi have relatively low levels of cordycepin. What's more, they grow only at elevations of 10,000 to 16,500 feet and cannot be farmed. All of which makes yartsa gunbu costly for Chinese consumers: A single fungal-infected caterpillar can fetch $30.

Brave New Worm

Luckily for researchers, and for potential consumers, another rare species of caterpillar fungus, Cordyceps militaris, is capable of being farmed—and even cultivated to yield much higher levels of cordycepin.

De Moor says that's not likely to discourage Tibetan harvesters, many of whom make a year's salary in just weeks by finding and selling yartsa gunbu. Scientific proof of cordycepin's efficacy will only increase demand for the fungus, which could prove dangerous. "With cultivation we have a level of quality control that's missing in the wild," says de Moor.

"There is definitely some truth somewhere in certain herbal medicinal traditions, if you look hard enough," says de Moor. "But ancient healers probably wouldn't notice a 10 percent mortality rate resulting from herbal remedies. In the scientific world, that's completely unacceptable." If you want to be safe, she adds, "wait for the medicine."

Ancient Chinese medical traditions—which also use ground tiger bones as a cure for insomnia, elephant ivory for religious icons, and rhinoceros horns to dispel fevers—are controversial but popular. Such remedies remain in demand regardless of scientific advancement—and endangered animals continue to be killed in order to meet that demand. While pills using cordycepin from farmed fungus might someday replace yartsa gunbu harvesting, tigers, elephants, and rhinos are disappearing much quicker than worms.

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Two Winners in Record Powerball Jackpot

Winning tickets for the record Powerball jackpot worth more than $587 million were purchased in Arizona and Missouri.

Missouri Lottery official Susan Goedde confirmed to ABC News this morning that one of the winning tickets was purchased in the state, but they would not be announcing a town until later this morning.

Arizona lottery officials said they had no information on that state's winner or winners but would announce where it was sold during a news conference later in the day.

The winning numbers for the jackpot were 5, 23, 16, 22 and 29. The Powerball was 6.

The jackpot swelled to $587.5 million, according to Lottery official Sue Dooley. The two winners will split the jackpot each getting $293.75 million.

An additional 8,924,123 players won smaller prizes, according to Powerball's website.

"There were 58 winners of $1 million and there were eight winners of $2 million. So a total of $74 million," said Chuck Strutt, Director of the Multi-State Lottery Association.

In Photos: Biggest Lotto Jackpot Winners

This is the 27th win for Missouri, ranking it second in the nation for lottery winners after Indiana, which has 38 wins. Arizona has had 10 Powerball jackpot wins in its history.

Hopeful players bought tickets at the rate of 131,000 every minute up until an hour before the deadline of 11 p.m. ET, according to lottery officials.

The jackpot had already rolled over 16 consecutive times without a winner. That fact, plus the doubling in price of a Powerball ticket, accounted for the unprecedented richness of the pot.

"Back in January, we moved Powerball from being a $1 game to $2," said Mary Neubauer, a spokeswoman at the game's headquarters in Iowa. "We thought at the time that this would mean bigger and faster-growing jackpots."

That proved true. The total, she said, began taking "huge jumps -- another $100 million since Saturday." It then jumped another $50 million.

The biggest Powerball pot on record until now -- $365 million -- was won in 2006 by eight Lincoln, Neb., co-workers.
As the latest pot swelled, lottery officials said they began getting phone calls from all around the world.

"When it gets this big," said Neubauer, "we get inquiries from Canada and Europe from people wanting to know if they can buy a ticket. They ask if they can FedEx us the money."

The answer she has to give them, she said, is: "Sorry, no. You have to buy a ticket in a member state from a licensed retail location."

About 80 percent of players don't choose their own Powerball number, opting instead for a computer-generated one.
Asked if there's anything a player can do to improve his or her odds of winning, Neubauer said there isn't -- apart from buying a ticket, of course.

Lottery officials put the odds of winning this Powerball pot at one in 175 million, meaning you'd have been 25 times more likely to win an Academy Award.

Skip Garibaldi, a professor of mathematics at Emory University in Atlanta, provided additional perspective: You are three times more likely to die from a falling coconut, he said; seven times more likely to die from fireworks, "and way more likely to die from flesh-eating bacteria" (115 fatalities a year) than you are to win the Powerball lottery.

Segueing, then, from death to life, Garibaldi noted that even the best physicians, equipped with the most up-to-date equipment, can't predict the timing of a child's birth with much accuracy.

"But let's suppose," he said, "that your doctor managed to predict the day, the hour, the minute and the second your baby would be born."

The doctor's uncanny prediction would be "at least 100 times" more likely than your winning.

Even though he knows the odds all too well, Garibaldi said he usually plays the lottery.

When it gets this big, I'll buy a couple of tickets," he said. "It's kind of exciting. You get this feeling of anticipation. You get to think about the fantasy."

So, did he buy two tickets this time?

"I couldn't," he told ABC News. "I'm in California" -- one of eight states that doesn't offer Powerball.

In case you were wondering, this Saturday's Powerball jackpot is starting at $40 million.

ABC News Radio contributed to this report.

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The GOP’s claim that a tax hike on the wealthy would pay for only a week of spending

“If the president just went and changed the tax rates, that pays for eight days. Where do we go from there? The president also says that he wants a balanced approach… we haven’t heard of where his cuts are.”

-- House Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) during an interview on Fox News, Nov. 19, 2012

“We know that you can’t raise taxes enough to solve the problem. In fact, the big argument during the campaign over whether or not we should raise tax rates on people above $250,000 would have produced enough revenue to fund the government for six days. So we know that may be a good political talking point, but it doesn’t really deal with the problem.”

-- Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) speaking to reporters, Nov. 14, 2012

Democrats insist that raising tax rates for wealthy Americans has to be part of any deal to reduce the deficit and avoid the fiscal cliff. Republican leaders oppose that idea but say they’re willing to raise revenue by limiting deductions and closing tax loopholes.

House Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) questioned the effectiveness of raising rates by arguing that a tax increase on families making more than $250,000 per year would pay for only eight days of government spending.

This has become a go-to argument for Republicans, who prefer to reduce the deficit by overhauling the nation’s entitlement programs. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) told reporters roughly a week after the election that the Democrat-supported, rate-hike proposal would pay for just six days of government spending -- even less than what McCarthy claimed.

Let’s take a closer look at the statements from McConnell and McCarthy. Are their numbers accurate?

The Facts

McConnell’s office backed up the senator’s statement with an analysis from the nonpartisan Joint Committee on Taxation that estimated that raising rates on families with income above $250,000 would net $68 billion more for the federal government in 2013.

Divide that amount by the $3.8 trillion in spending projected for the 2013 budget, and you end up with a tax hike that covers 0.18 percent of the budget. Multiply that by 365 days, and you get a little less than seven days. (We should note that the actual White House proposal included some other provisions aimed at upper-income Americans that it estimated would have yielded a total of $85 billion in 2013, or a little more than eight days.)

Given that McConnell said six days and McCarthy said eight days, it seems both are in the ballpark with their days-of-government-spending statements, at least in terms of mathematics.

But it is more complicated than that.

Talking about policies in terms of days’ worth of government spending can make virtually any idea seem inconsequential. It distracts from the real issue in this case, which is how much any given proposal would reduce the deficit.

The more logical way to look at potential revenue from a rate increase is to measure it as a percentage of the revenue shortfall.

Given that under current policies the deficit in 2013 is expected to be about $1 trillion, the tax hike would eliminate 6.5 to 8.5 percent of the deficit--and obviously would have even greater impact in later years. Over 10 years, the rate hikes and other provisions affecting the wealthy would raise $968 billion, or essentially one year of the current deficit.

One can also play the same days-of-government game to negatively assess Republican proposals.

During meetings of the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction — a failed attempt to avert the looming sequestration -- Republicans proposed raising an estimated $50 billion per year by eliminating deductions and closing tax loopholes. That covers only 4.8 days of government spending.

Republican members of the committee also proposed trimming Medicare and Medicaid spending by about $28 billion per year. That would reduce government spending by only 2.7 days if you use the McConnell-McCarthy metric.

Anyway, you get the picture.

Of course, when the stakes are really puny, this type of math can be instructive. During the presidential primaries, eventual GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney asserted that the Democrat-proposed “Buffett Rule,” which would have imposed a surcharge on gross income earning more than $1 million, would pay for only 11 hours of government.

The Joint Committee on Taxation estimated that such a policy would bring in just $5.1 billion for 2013. Again, that’s compared to as much as $85 billion under the latest Democratic proposal, or 0.75 percent of the spending gap compared to nearly 10 percent.

Romney’s claim illustrated that Democrats were making a big deal over a relatively small amount of money. Even the president admitted that the Buffett Rule was largely a gimmick.

Romney essentially used one rhetorical device to answer another, and we awarded him a Geppetto for getting his facts right.

The quotes from McConnell and McCarthy are a bit different. They distract from the main issue of how much each proposal would reduce the deficit. They also minimize a much larger amount of money, suggesting that reducing the deficit by nearly 10 percent is no big deal — it’s hardly a gimmick.

A McConnell spokesman vigorously defended the days-of-spending metric, saying it illustrates the Republican belief that only spending cuts — especially in the realm of entitlements — can truly solve the nation’s long-term deficit problems.

Similarly, a McCarthy spokesman said: “We are not disputing that raising taxes would decrease the deficit. We are saying it would not generate nearly enough revenue to reverse the dangerous trajectory our government spending is on.”

These are valid points. But just because a rate hike wouldn’t solve the deficit problem on its own doesn’t mean lawmakers should take the option off the table entirely.

The Pinocchio Test

Democrats and Republicans are posturing for the deficit-reduction negotiations by trashing each other’s proposals as wrongheaded and potentially harmful to the country.

The question is whether rate hikes should accompany the type of spending cuts that the GOP desires. Democrats say the answer is yes, but it’s hard to find a single Republican who openly agrees — they’ve expressed a willingness to budge only on loopholes and deductions.

McConnell and McCarthy used a misleading metric — days of government spending — to make their case against the proposed rate hike. Their argument distracts from the primary issue, which is how much the new revenue — or spending cuts -- would help reduce the deficit.

The two Republican lawmakers made a valid point that growth in government spending is a long-term concern that needs to be addressed. But that does not prove that rate hikes should be dismissed as part of a balanced approach to doing that.

McConnell and McCarthy earn One Pinocchio for their statements.

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Blasts kill 38 near Syria capital, second warplane downed

DAMASCUS: Simultaneous car bombings in a mostly Christian and Druze town near Damascus killed at least 38 people on Wednesday, as rebels downed a military aircraft for the second successive day.

The blasts occurred when explosives-packed cars were detonated at daybreak in a pro-regime neighbourhood of the town of Jaramana, residents, state media and a rights watchdog reported.

They were the fourth bomb attacks since August 28 to rock Jaramana, home to predominantly Christians and Druze, an influential minority whose faith is an offshoot of Shiite Islam.

Sectarian divides are a key factor in Syria's armed rebellion, with many in the Sunni Muslim majority frustrated at more than 40 years of Alawite-dominated rule.

The blast ripped through a central square of Jaramana, said the official SANA news agency.

There was a ball of fire at the end of a narrow lane, and the impact of the explosions brought walls down onto cars, crushing them and scattering debris over the ground. Pools of blood were seen in the middle of the street.

The death toll mounted as the morning wore on, with the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights giving tallies of 20, then 29 and finally at least 38. The interior ministry put the count at 34.

"Activists and residents in the town said most of the victims were killed when a suicide attacker blew up his car, just after an explosive device was used to blow up another car," said the Observatory.

SANA reported that "terrorists" blew up the two car bombs at the same time, as two separate explosive devices were set off without claiming any lives.

The Syrian uprising erupted in March 2011 with peaceful pro-democracy protests, inspired by the Arab Spring. It transformed into an armed insurgency when the government began a bloody crackdown on dissent.

The regime of President Bashar al-Assad, himself an Alawite, insists it is fighting foreign-backed "terrorists".

The failure of international diplomacy has enabled it to press on with its all-out military campaign to crush the rebellion, and the fighting has resulted in more than 40,000 deaths, according to the Observatory.

In the latest violence, an AFP correspondent on the Syria-Turkey border reported that rebel fighters shot down a fighter jet in the embattled northwest.

The warplane came down in a massive explosion, leaving behind a plume of smoke, the journalist said, reporting several kilometres away from where the jet was downed.

The aircraft was hit by a missile and crashed at Daret Ezza, said the Observatory, a Britain-based watchdog that relies on a network of activists and medics on the ground for its information.

It came a day after rebels downed an army helicopter for the first time with a newly acquired ground-to-air missile, in what the Observatory said had the potential to change the balance of military power in the conflict.

The gunship was on a strafing run near the besieged northwestern base of Sheikh Suleiman, the last garrison in government hands between Syria's second city and the Turkish border.

Little more than a week ago, the rebels seized tanks, armoured vehicles, artillery, 120-mm mortars and rocket launchers when they took the government forces' sprawling Base 46, about 12 kilometres west of Aleppo.

The rebels, a mix of military defectors and armed civilians, are vastly outgunned but analysts say they are now stretching thin the capabilities of Assad's war machine and its air supremacy by opening multiple fronts.

This was evident again on Tuesday, as rebels further tightened the noose around the key northern city of Aleppo, and violence across the country killed at least 132 people, 58 of them civilians, said the Observatory.

Elsewhere on Wednesday, regime warplanes carried out five raids in 15 minutes on Maaret al-Numan, a rebel-held town on the strategic Damascus-Aleppo highway.

Fighter jets also bombarded anti-regime town Daraya southwest of Damascus and the besieged, rebel-held neighbourhood of Khaldiyeh in the central city of Homs, dubbed by activists as "the capital of the revolution".

- AFP/fa

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HSBC secret accounts: Income Tax department to begin prosecution

NEW DELHI: The Income Tax department has decided to begin prosecution action against those having "substantial" amounts in their bank accounts in HSBC's Geneva branch.

The department has now written to the finance ministry to suggest a benchmark for funds held on the basis of which the I-T department can initiate legal action for tax evasion and tax theft.

Top sources said a benchmark of about Rs five crore is being mulled for initiating court proceedings against those Indians whose names have figured on the secret list of HSBC Geneva, supplied to India by the French government.

All others below the benchmark amount, the sources said, could be penalised under I-T laws and the amount can be realised from them by way of raising a comprehensive tax demand.

The sources said a number of individuals or entities who have figured in these accounts, also searched and probed by the I-T department, held small balances ranging from few thousands to lakhs of rupees and, hence, a policy has to be made as to how many will be prosecuted and how many penalised under tax theft laws.

"A policy framework will be decided and action would be taken on a case-to-case basis," the sources said.

The I-T department, through the finance ministry, has already approached Swiss revenue authorities for banking data of certain individuals after investigations showed some of them reportedly had other accounts under fictitious names.

The department has already begun a country-wide I-T assessment of those entities whose names have figured in these secret lists.

India had obtained data of over 700 HSBC accounts from French government channels last year.

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Pictures: Falcon Massacre Uncovered in India

Photograph courtesy Conservation India

A young boy can sell bundles of fresh Amur falcons (pictured) for less than five dollars. Still, when multiplied by the thousands of falcons hunters can catch in a day, the practice can be a considerable financial boon to these groups.

Since discovering the extent of Amur hunting in Nagaland this fall, Conservation India has taken the issue to the local Indian authorities.

"They have taken it very well. They've not been defensive," Sreenivasan said.

"You're not dealing with national property, you're dealing with international property, which helped us put pressure on [them]." (Related: "Asia's Wildlife Trade.")

According to Conservation India, the same day the group filed their report with the government, a fresh order banning Amur hunting was issued. Local officials also began meeting with village leaders, seizing traps and confiscating birds. The national government has also requested an end to the hunting.

Much remains to be done, but because the hunt is so regional, Sreenivasan hopes it can eventually be contained and stamped out. Authorities there, he said, are planning a more thorough investigation next year, with officials observing, patrolling, and enforcing the law.

"This is part of India where there is some amount of acceptance on traditional bush hunting," he added. "But at some point, you draw the line."

(Related: "Bush-Meat Ban Would Devastate Africa's Animals, Poor?")

Published November 27, 2012

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Study Finds Most Pork Contaminated

Nov 27, 2012 6:24pm

A sample of raw pork products from supermarkets around the United States found that yersinia enterocolitica, a lesser-known food-borne pathogen, was present in 69 percent of the products tested, according to a study released today by Consumer Reports.

The  bacteria  infects more than 100,000 Americans a year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, but  for every case that is confirmed with a laboratory test, about 120 more cases escape diagnosis. Symptoms can include fever, cramps and bloody diarrhea.

For its sample, Consumer Reports included the same pork products millions of Americans buy every day at their supermarkets. The study included 148 pork chops and 50 ground pork samples from around the United States.

In the samples tested, 69 percent tested positive for yersinia and 11 percent for enterococcus, which can indicate fecal contamination that can lead to urinary-tract infections. Salmonella and listeria, the more well-known bacterium, registered at 4 percent and 3 percent, respectively.

“The results were concerning,”  Urvashi Rangan, one of the authors of the report, told ABCNews.com. “It’s hard to say that there was no problem.  It shows that there needs to be better hygiene at animal plants. Yersinia wasn’t even being monitored for.”

In a written statement, the Pork Producer’s Council questioned the methods used by Consumer Reports, saying the number of samples tested, 198, did  ”not provide a nationally informative estimate of the true prevalence of the cited bacteria on meat.”

Despite the findings, Rangan said  it’s good to know that the bacteria can be killed by cooking the pork properly and by being vigilant about cross-contamination.

Pork cuts should be cooked to 145 degrees, while ground pork needs to reach a temperature of 160 degrees to kill the bacteria.

“Anything that touches raw meat should go into the dishwasher before touching anything else,” Rangan said. ”Juices from raw meat that touch the counter should be washed with hot soapy water.”

The U.S. Department of Agriculture  said the findings “affirm that companies are meeting the established guidelines for protecting the public’s health.

“USDA will remain vigilant against emerging and evolving threats to the safety of America’s supply of meat, poultry and processed egg products, and we will continue to work with the industry to ensure companies are following food safety procedures in addition to looking for new ways to strengthen the protection of public health,” the department said in a statement.

ABC News’ Dr. Anita Chu contributed reporting. 

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Keeping the financial regulators on their toes

When members of Congress need factual information and insights into the effectiveness of the financial laws put in place after the 2008 economic crisis, they regularly turn to the Government Accountability Office (GAO) and Orice Williams Brown.

Initially as director and now as managing director of the GAO’s financial markets and community investment section, Brown and her staff have issued dozens of reports examining the flaws and offering recommendations to improve the $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) bailout fund, the Wall Street regulatory reform law and the initiatives to prevent housing foreclosures.

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Singapore stocks close mixed

SINGAPORE : Stocks in Singapore closed mixed on Tuesday after the eurozone and International Monetary Fund agreed to unlock 43.7 billion euros (US$56 billion) in loans to Greece.

The Straits Times Index rose 7.41 points or 0.25 per cent to end at 3,011.91.

Volume was 2.85 billion shares.

In the broader market, losers led gainers 201 to 180.

Among banks, UOB rose 1.16 per cent to S$18.26, DBS climbed 1.36 per cent to S$14.17, while OCBC added 0.66 per cent to end at S$9.21.

As for other stocks, Global Logistic Properties was up 3.1 per cent at S$2.63, while Olam International fell 6.0 per cent to S$1.56 after research firm Muddy Waters released a 133-page report stating that the commodities firm faces a "significant risk" of default.

- CNA/ms

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