India Ranks 4th In Black Money Outflows
Washington: India ranks fourth in black money outflows with a whopping USD 51 billion siphoned out of the country per annum between 2004-2013, a US-based think-tank’s report said on Wednesday. Notably India’s defence budget is less than USD 50 billion. China tops the list with USD 139 billion average outflow of illicit finances per annum, followed by Russia (USD 104 billion per annum) and Mexico (USD 52.8 billion per annum), according to the annual report released by Global Financial Integrity (GFI), a Washington-based research and advisory organisation. The illegal capital outflows stem from tax evasion, crime, corruption and other illicit activity, the report said, according to which a record USD 1.1 trillion flowed illicitly out of developing and emerging economies in 2013, the latest year for which data is available. In all, during this decade-long period of 2004-2014, GFI estimates that more than half a trillion (USD 510 billion) went out of India and in the case of China the figure was USD 1.39 trillion and Russia USD 1 trillion.
Titled ‘Illicit Financial Flows from Developing Countries: 2004-2013’, the study shows that illicit financial flows first surpassed USD 1 trillion in 2011 and have grown to USD 1.1 trillion in 2013, marking a dramatic increase from 2004, when illicit outflows totalled just USD 465.3 billion. China also had the largest illicit outflows of any country in 2013, amounting to a staggering USD 258.64 billion in just that one year, the report said. “This study clearly demonstrates that illicit financial flows are the most damaging economic problem faced by the world’s developing and emerging economies,” said GFI President Raymond Baker, a longtime authority on financial crime. “This year at the UN the mantra of ‘trillions not billions’ was continuously used to indicate the amount of funds needed to reach the Sustainable Development Goals.
Significantly curtailing illicit flows is central to that effort,” he said. Noting that Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) calls on countries to significantly reduce illicit financial flows by 2030, the report said the international community has not yet agreed on goal indicators, the technical measurements to provide baselines and track progress made on underlying targets and subsequently the overall SDGs. In its report, GFI recommends that world leaders should focus on curbing opacity in the global financial system, which facilitates these outflows.
The “Dabangg” actress played ‘chenda’
Alappuzha : Bollywood actress Sonakshi Sinha tried her hand at ‘chenda’, Kerala’s traditional percussion instrument, when she arrived here with family to celebrate the 70th birthday of her actor-father and BJP MP Shatrughan Sinha. The “Dabangg” actress played ‘chenda’, a cylindrical wooden drum, along with an all-women percussion group as she excitedly drummed and swayed to the music at a private backwater resort here yesterday.
Besides Shatrughan Sinha, his wife Poonam, sons Luv and Kush and other family members, are here as part of the birthday bash. Sinha cut a cake and cruised on the backwaters and a sumptuous meal with traditional Kerala cuisine was served for the family later.
Sinha later said he and his family were captivated by the beauty of the backwaters of ‘God’s Own Country’ Kerala and would come back again. The family would be here for one more day.
Disturbing Facts of Jiah Khan’s Pregnancy
A day after the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) filed a charge sheet against actor Sooraj Pancholi and charged him with the abetement to suicide of actress Jiah Khan, a latest report in Mumbai Mirror has revealed gruesome and disturbing details about the late actress.
As per the report in Mumbai Mirror, ‘Hero’ actor Sooraj had plucked fetus from 4-month-old pregnant Jiah Khan and disposed the fetus in a toilet. The leading tabloid has quoted a source as saying that Jiah was four months pregnant when she informed Sooraj about it. The two reportedly visited a physician. The Medical Termination of Pregnancy (MTP), however, was not fruitful. After that, Sooraj and Jiah had gone to a gynaecologist who had prescribed stronger medicines.
Reportedly, Jiah suffered a hemorrhage (Excessive discharge of blood) and called Sooraj for help. Then Jiah was in severe pain and needed immediate medical attention, but Pancholi allegedly asked her to wait and called up the gynaecologist for guidance. He was asked to rush Khan to hospital as the fetus had probably aborted but had not come out of Jiah’s body, which is probably what led to the hemorrhaging.
Scared of going to hospital as it’d reveal Jiah’s pregnancy, abortion and thus affect his acting career which might not see the light of the day, instead of taking Jiah to hospital, Sooraj himself plucked the fetus and disposed it off in the toilet.
This incident has brought down Jiah completely. This apparently led dmotionally shattered Jiah to kill herself. Now CBI is expected to make case against Sooraj stronger. He’s charged with abetting Jiah Khan’s suicide.
Best Of 2015: Apple Selects ‘S/o Satyamurthy’
Allu Arjun’s “S/o Satyamurthy” is adjudged the Best Of 2015 by none other than Apple iTunes. Directed by Trivikram and featuring a stunning cast alongside Bunny, this film received negative reviews from critics but fared well at theatres. In case if you’re wondering why Apple picked up, then here are the details.
Every year, Apple iTunes releases several music albums on their store and picks the best of them by year ending. This is not connected with sales, but with music quality, impression and awesomeness. For Telugu, Apple Music has picked up Devi Sri Prasad’s “S/o Satyamurthy” as the Best Album of the year. In fact, that’s a great honor not just for Devi Sri Prasad, but also for Allu Arjun and Trivikram, as Apple’s music lists are worldwide appreciated for their genuineness.
On the other hand, Devi Sri Prasad’s current album “Kumari 21 F” is also being admired by many for couple of soul touching songs.
Genelia Pregnant For Second Time?
We all know that, Bollywood’s lovely couple Genelia D’Souza and Riteish Deshmukh is having a baby boy Riaan who turned one this November when his parents threw a grand birthday party for him.
If latest reports are anything to go by, Riaan will soon have a little sister or brother to play with. Buzz says Genelia is pregnant again with her second baby expected to arrive in 2016. However, both Genelia and Riteish are mum over the affair. They neither confirm nor deny the reports.
Genelia, who has resumed work after a long time, will have to go on a break again due to her pregnancy. She has put a stop to the new projects now that she is in the family way again. The bubbly lady was last seen in Rana starrer Naa Istam.
Riteish and Genelia started dating each other in 2003 during the shoot of their first film together Tujhe Meri Kasam. The couple later starred in another film, Tere Naal Love Ho Gaya.
Meanwhile, Ritesih will be seen in a couple of projects including Bank Chor, Great Grand Masti and Housefull 3.
Baahubali In Facebook 2015 World Review
Apparently, Baahubali may not have end of getting appreciations. Movie lovers might just coming out of Baahubali mode, but something is cheering up the film on regular basis. The SS Rajamouli directed film that broke many box office records has added another feather, it (Baahubali) has been featured in Facebook 2015 World Review. The film also got 4th place in- India’s top 10 topics for the year 2015, by the social net.
SS Rajamouli’s magnum opus Bahubali, starring Prabhas and Rana Daggubati, minted over Rs 600 crore gross for full run. The movie stunned the critics and fans with its magnificent Hollywood-like VFX and a powerful star-cast. Rajamouli’s unique promotional strategies also helped the movie becoming one of the biggest hits in Indian cinema history.
Baahubali was screened at various International platforms and won accolades for its visual appealing. Currently, Rajamouli is working on pre production works of second installment- Baahubali: The Conclusion. Production works are expected to start in this month and plans are to release the movie in second half of 2016.
Online embrace of Islamic State
When a lonely Virginia teenager named Ali Amin got curious about the Islamic State last year and went online to learn more, he found a virtual community awaiting. It had its own peculiar language, stirring imagery and just the warm camaraderie, sense of adventure and devotion to a cause that were missing from his dull suburban life. At 17, the precocious son of a Yemeni immigrant family, he quickly developed online relationships with older IS supporters around the globe. There was Zubair in Britain, Uthman in South Africa and Abdullah in Finland, who urged him to start a Twitter account under the name AmreekiWitness, or American witness. Amin drew several thousand followers, sparred online with the State Department, engaged with prominent IS propagandists and developed quite a name among English-speaking fans of the militants — until his arrest in March.
“For the first time, I felt I was not only being taken seriously about very important and weighty topics, but was actually being asked for guidance,” Amin wrote in August to the judge overseeing his case, expressing regret for what he portrayed as a disastrous youthful mistake. “By assimilating into the Internet world instead of the real world, I became absorbed in a ‘virtual’ struggle while disconnecting from what was real: my family, my life and my future.” As the Obama administration takes on the multidimensional challenge posed by the IS after the killings in San Bernardino, California, the online community of sympathisers in the US is a critical focus. They number in the hundreds, experts say, and fit no single profile.
Chicago siblings Among those whose flirtations took a serious turn and led to criminal charges are a trio of teenage siblings from Chicago, a former Air Force mechanic in his late 40s from New Jersey, and a mother of two from Philadelphia. In fact, they have little in common except one thing: the weeks or months spent marinating in the rhetoric and symbolism of the IS, courtesy of Twitter and other Internet platforms. It is in this electronic hothouse of mutual support, a sort of round-the-clock pep rally for a cause most Muslims shun, that Americans join other English speakers to try out defiant screen names, throw around Arabic words they have often just learned, and seek to outdo one another in pious zeal. Some merely express anger at U.S. foreign policy or at what they see as mistreatment of Muslims overseas. Others go further, trying to reach IS territory or plotting violence at home. Like most heady American romances with the IS, Amin’s came to a crashing halt. In late August, he was sentenced to 11 years in prison after pleading guilty to material support for a terrorist group. Americans who managed to reach Syria have suffered a still grimmer fate, dying on distant battlefields. And last week, in California, two admirers of the extremist group were shot dead by the police after attacking an office holiday gathering and killing 14 people. The full story of the radicalisation of the attackers, Syed Rizwan Farook and Tashfeen Malik, is still emerging as the FBI retrieves records from deleted computer drives and smashed cellphones.
“It’s a closed community — almost a clique,” said Seamus Hughes, co-author of a report, “ISIS in America,” released last week by George Washington University’s Program on Extremism. The University report underscored the diversity of the 71 people in the U.S. charged with crimes related to the IS since March 2014: 40 per cent were converts to Islam. They were young, with an average age of 26; overwhelmingly U.S. citizens or legal residents; and 14 per cent were women. But all, or nearly all, had spent hours on the Internet trumpeting their feelings about the IS. In fact, nearly all were arrested after their online posts drew the attention of the FBI. — New York Times News Service
Trump stands by comment on Muslims
Congressmen, rival candidates, world leaders and even the creators of Harry Potter and The Shining all agree — Donald Trump’s call to block Muslims from entering the U.S. goes too far. The Republican presidential front-runner’s statement on Monday, advocating a “total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the U.S.”, was blasted as bigoted, unconstitutional and potentially dangerous for American interests abroad. U.N. spokesman Farhan Haq said Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon denounced “any kind of rhetoric that relies on Islamophobia, xenophobia, any other appeal to hate any groups”. “This is not conservatism,” Republican House Speaker Paul Ryan told reporters after a closed-door Republican caucus meeting. “What was proposed yesterday is not what this party stands for, and more importantly it’s not what this country stands for.”
Mr. Trump, who appears to revel in the attention, didn’t back down from his proposal on Tuesday, saying that banning Muslims “until our country’s representatives can figure out what the hell is going on” is warranted after last month’s attacks by Muslim extremists in Paris and last week’s shootings in San Bernardino, California. “Somebody in this country has to say what’s right,” Mr. Trump said in an interview with ABC on Tuesday. “It’s short-term. Let our country get its act together.”
Selective exemptions Mr. Trump’s proposed ban would apply to immigrants and visitors alike, a sweeping prohibition affecting adherents of a religion practiced by more than a billion people worldwide. Mr. Trump clarified in a round of television interviews on Tuesday that his proposed ban would not apply to American citizens travelling abroad and would allow exemptions for certain people, including the leaders of West Asian countries and athletes for certain sporting events. Among those not specified in his list of exemptions are Pakistani activist Malala Yousafzai and the four civil society groups that led Tunisia’s transition to democracy all Muslim Nobel Peace Prize winners.
Salman Acquitted In 2002 Hit-And-Run Case
Mumbai: The Bombay High Court on Thursday acquitted Bollywood actor Salman Khan of all charges in the 2002 hit-and-run case. Justice A.R. Joshi, who was making his observations as the open-court dictation of his verdict entered the last lap, said the “prosecution failed to establish the charges (against Salman) on all counts”.
Justice Joshi’s much-awaited verdict in Salman’s appeal challenging his conviction and five-year sentence by the Sessions Court on May 6, is expected to be delivered on Thursday afternoon in the presence of the actor.
Earlier on Wednesday, the court had ruled that there was no evidence to prove that Salman was drunk or driving the ill-fated Toyota Land Cruiser on September 28, 2002 when it met with an accident and mowed down one pavement dweller and injured four others.
