ChatDD Blog

KHOST, Afghanistan – The Taliban claimed responsibility Wednesday for a suicide bombing inside a U.S.-Afghan base in eastern Afghanistan that killed two NATO service members.

A Taliban operative wearing an Afghan police uniform infiltrated the base Tuesday night and detonated his explosive vest next to a group of soldiers who were warming their hands beside a fire, Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid told The Associated Press by phone.

U.S. troops command most of the eastern area bordering Pakistan, and local officials said they only knew of U.S. soldiers and Afghan border police on Chergotah base. A NATO statement on the attack confirmed that two of its service members died but did not give their nationalities. A number of others were wounded in the attack, the military alliance said.



TOKYO – Sony Corp. said Tuesday it will start selling 3-D televisions in June, joining a competitive industrywide push to convince consumers to embrace the technology for their living rooms.

The Japanese electronics giant, known for its PlayStation 3 game consoles and Bravia flat-screen TVs, will offer its fully capable 3-D TV model in four sizes this summer.

The 40-inch and 46-inch versions will go on sale on June 10 in Japan, while the 52- and 60-inch TVs will be available starting July 16.

Although the company did not release a global launch date, Sony Senior Vice President Yoshihisa Ishida said the new TVs will hit stores in the U.S. and other countries around the same time.

The 40-inch 3-D will cost about 290,000 yen ($3,200), and the biggest 60-inch will retail at 580,000 yen ($6,400).

Included are two pairs of Sony’s 3-D glasses, as well as a camera sensor on each unit that will adjust sound and picture quality based on viewers’ positions. A remote control button enables the switch from a regular 2-D image to 3-D.

Sony hopes that 10 percent of the 25 million TVs it aims to sell next fiscal year will be 3-D units.

WASHINGTON – The virus that causes AIDS can hide in the bone marrow, avoiding drugs and later awakening to cause illness, according to new research that could point the way toward better treatments for the disease.

Finding that hide-out is a first step, but years of research lie ahead.

Dr. Kathleen Collins of the University of Michigan and her colleagues report in this week’s edition of the journal Nature Medicine that the HIV virus can infect long-lived bone marrow cells that eventually convert into blood cells.

The virus is dormant in the bone marrow cells, she said, but when those progenitor cells develop into blood cells, it can be reactivated and cause renewed infection. The virus kills the new blood cells and then moves on to infect other cells, she said.

“If we’re ever going to be able to find a way to get rid of the cells, the first step is to understand” where a latent infection can continue, Collins said.

In recent years, drugs have reduced AIDS deaths sharply, but patients need to keep taking the medicines for life or the infection comes back, she said. That’s an indication that while the drugs battle the active virus, some of the disease remains hidden away to flare up once the therapy is stopped.

One hide-out was found earlier in blood cells called macrophages. Another pool was discovered in memory T-cells, and research began on attacking those.

But those couldn’t account for all the HIV virus still circulating, Collins said, showing there were more locations to check out and leading her to study the blood cell progenitors.

“I don’t know how many people realize that although the drugs have reduced mortality we still have a long way to go,” Collins said in a telephone interview. “That is mainly because we can’t stop the drugs, people have to take it for a lifetime.”

The research was funded by the National Institutes of Health, Burroughs Wellcome Foundation, University of Michigan, Rackham Predoctoral Fellowship, National Science Foundation and a Bernard Maas Fellowship.

Mary Josephine Ray during her 111th birthday party in Westmoreland.

She died Sunday, March 7, 2010 in Westmorland at age 114.

WESTMORELAND, N.H. – Two of the oldest people in the world have died on the same day.

Mary Josephine Ray, who was certified as the oldest person living in the United States, died Sunday at age 114 years, 294 days. She died at a nursing home in Westmoreland but was active until about two weeks before her death, her granddaughter Katherine Ray said.

“She just enjoyed life. She never thought of dying at all,” Katherine Ray said. “She was planning for her birthday party.”

Ray died just hours before Daisey Bailey, who was 113 years, 342 days, said L. Stephen Coles, a director of the Gerontology Research Group, which tracks and studies old people and certifies those 110 or older, called supercentenarians.

“It’s very rare that two of our supercentenarians die on the same day,” Coles said.

Bailey, who was born March 30, 1896, died in Detroit, he said. She had suffered from dementia, said her family, which claimed she was born in 1895.

Ray was the oldest person in the United States and the second oldest person in the world.

KARACHI, Pakistan – Adam Yahiye Gadahn, a U.S.-born spokesman for al-Qaida, has been captured in Pakistan, government sources said Sunday.

Gadahn was arrested in recent days, two officers who took part in the operation told The Associated Press. A senior government official also confirmed the arrest. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to release the information.

Gadahn was detained in Sohrab Goth, a suburb of Karachi, and was later moved to the capital Islamabad.

aya Bachchan will be honoured with a lifetime achievement award at the 12th London Asian Film Festival beginning Friday and son Abhishek Bachchan and daughter-in-law Aishwarya Rai are set to attend the gala event.

Also known as Tongues on Fire, the festival will commence with a British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) interview with Abhishek, celebrating his cinematic achievements, reports its official website.

The opening will be followed by a gala dinner at the Park Lane Sheraton Hotel to confer Jaya with the Lifetime Achievement Award for her contribution to cinema.

A British premiere of Jaya’s film “Lovesongs” will also take place at the event. Directed by Jayabrato Chatterjee, the movie also stars Om Puri.

The event will also have a BAFTA interview with filmmaker Shyam Benegal exploring his vast career and screen his new movie “Well Done Abba” that stars Boman Irani and Minissha Lamba.

A masterclass in acting and direction will also be helmed by Abhishek and Benegal respectively.

The event will close with the British premiere of Sharmila Tagore and Soha Ali Khan starrer “Life Moves On”. Sangeeta Datta’s directorial debut also features Girish Karnard and Om Puri.

Sharmila and Soha are also expected to attend the festival.

Some of the Bollywood’s biggest hits including “Dostana”, “Guru” and “Chak De! India” will be screened during the 10-day event.

Bollywood star Ajay Devgn might not have featured in any full-fledged action film off late, but the actor says he still loves his action hero image he was known for.

“I’m doing every kind of film and there has not been any effort for an image change. In fact, I still love my action hero image. But at the same time, I’m lucky that I got the opportunity to do films of different genres and people liked me in them, ” Ajay told reporters here.

Ajay has been part of action flicks like “Phool Aur Kante”, “Vijaypath”, “Haqeeqat” and “Diljale” among others.

The actor was in the capital for the promotion of his upcoming venture “Atithi Tum Kab Jaoge?”, slated to release Friday.

The comedy revolves around the story of Puneet (Ajay Devgn) and Munmun (Konkona Sen Sharma), a happily married couple living in Mumbai. Their life takes a turn when a distant relative Chachaji (Paresh Rawal) turns up unannounced at their doorstep from a far-off village.

Mallika Sarabhai, a danseuse and social activist, wrote the following letter to Amitabh Bachchan to question his support for Narendra Modi’s Gujarat.

“My dear Bachchanji, Greetings from a Gujarati You are indeed a fine actor. You are an intelligent man and a shrewd businessman.

But should I believe in your endorsements? Let’s take a brief look at what you proclaim you believe in (albeit for huge sums of money). BPL, ICICI, Parker and Luxor pens, Maruti Versa, Cadbury’s chocolates, Nerolac paints, Dabur, Emami, Eveready, Sahara City Homes, D’damas, Binani Cement and Reliance. And now Gujarat.

I wonder how you decide what to endorse. Is your house built with Binani Cement? Do you really like Cadbury’s chocolates or do you have to resort to Dabur’s hajmola (whose efficacy you have earlier checked) after eating them? And having endorsed two pens, one very upmarket and one rather down, which one do you use?

Have you, except perhaps for the shooting of the ad, ever driven or been driven in a Versa? Do you know whether the Nerolac paint in your home (you do use it don’t you?) has lead in it that can poison you slowly as it does so many people? Or are the decisions entirely monetary?

It has been reported that no direct fee will be paid to you for being my Brand Ambassador.

So, with no monetary decision to guide you, how did you decide to say yes? Did you check on the state of the State? I doubt it, for the decision and the announcement came from one single meeting. And I somehow doubt that you have been following the news on Gujarat closely.

So, as a Gujarati, permit me to introduce my State to you.

Everyone knows of our vibrancy, of the billions and trillions pouring into our State through the two yearly jamborees called Vibrant Gujarat. But did you know that by the government’s own admission no more than 23 per cent of these have actually moved beyond the MOU stage?

That while huge subsidies are being granted to our richest business houses, over 75,000 small and medium businesses have shut down rendering one million more people jobless.

You know of Gujarat’s fastpaced growth and the FDI pouring in, you have no doubt seen pictures of the czars of the business world lining up to pour money to develop us. To develop whom?

Did you know that our poor are getting poorer? That while the all-India reduction in poverty between 1993 and 2005 is 8.5 per cent, in Gujarat it is a mere 2.8 per cent?

That we have entire farmer families committing suicide, not just the male head of the household?

You have heard of how some mealy mouthed NGO types have been blocking the progress of the Narmada project, how the government has prevailed, and water is pouring down every thirsty mouth and every bit of thirsty land.

But did you know that in the 49 years since it was started, and in spite of the Rs29,000 crore spent on it, only 29 per cent of the work is complete?

That the construction is so poor (lots of sand added to the you know which cement) that over the last nine years there have been 308 breaches, ruining lakhs of farmers whose fields were flooded, ruining the poorest salt farmers whose salt was washed away?

That whereas in 1999, 4,743 of Gujarat’s villages were without drinking water, within two years that figure had gone up to 11,390 villages? (I cannot even begin to project those figures for today — but do know that the figure has gone up dramatically rather than down).

With our CM, hailed as the CEO of Gujarat, we have once again achieved number one status — in indebtedness.

In 2001, the state debt was Rs14,000 crore. This was before the State became a multinational company.

Today it stands at Rs1,05,000 crore. And to service this debt we pay a whopping Rs7,000 crore a year, 25 per cent of our annual budget.

Meanwhile, our spending on education is down, no new public hospitals for the poor are being built, fishermen are going a begging as the seas turn turgid with effluents, more mothers die at birth per thousand than in the rest of India, and our general performance on the Human Development Index is nearly the first — from the bottom.

One rape a day, 17 cases of violence against women, and, over the last 10 years, 8,802 suicides and 18,152 “ accidental” deaths of women have been officially reported. You can imagine the real figures. You have said that you are our ambassador because we have Somnath and Gandhi.

Somnath was built for the people. Gandhiji was a man of the people. Do the people of this State matter to you? If they do, perhaps your decision will be different. I hope you will read this letter and decide. In warmth and friendship, Mallika”

Big B has recently become brand ambassador of Modi’s state — Gujarat. “There are lots of good things in Gujarat which should be promoted. I am ready to give my voice and face for the promotion of Gujarat tourism.” Bachchan had said to media during special screening of ‘Paa’ with Chief minister of Gujarat Narendra Modi.

While Shahrukh Khan, Bollywood’s other superstar never went quite so far, he did say in an interview that he had nothing against Narendra Modi because Modi had never harmed him personally.