Murdoch quits as News International director

LONDON, July 22: Media mogul Rupert Murdoch has stepped down as a director of News International, the group that owns The Times, The Sunday Times and The Sun, in a move that has fuelled speculation that he is preparing to sell off his British newspapers.

In an email sent on Saturday, staff at The Times, The Sunday Times and The Sun were told that the 81-year-old Murdoch remained “fully committed” as chairman despite relinquishing his positions on a number of British boards, including News International, The Guardian reported on Sunday.

The move was in line with plans to restructure his News Corporation empire, the message read.

Murdoch has already outlined plans to split the group into two, the daily said.

Under the proposals, US-based Fox TV and 20th Century Fox film studio will be separated from the publishing businesses, including The Wall Street Journal, alongside Murdoch’s British and Australian newspapers and HarperCollins book publishing.

The media mogul plans to remain the chairman. Chase Carey, chief operating officer at News Corp, will be elevated to the No. 2 spot at the entertainment business.

Murdoch has also resigned from the boards of a dozen companies with interests in the US, Australia and India, the daily said.

Staff were said to be concerned that the move was a precursor to putting the British units up for sale, following the shut down of the News of The World after the revelations of widespread phone hacking.

Earlier this year, a parliamentary committee said Murdoch was “not a fit person” to run an international business. (IANS)

UN chief working for peaceful solution in Syria

BRIJUNI (CROATIA), July 22: UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon has said he is working with UN-Arab League joint special envoy Kofi Annan to push for a peaceful solution in Syria while also being in contact with regional and international leaders.

After meeting Croatian President Ivo Josipovic here in Brijuni, the UN chief on Saturday expressed his concerns about the Syrian situation at a joint news conference, Xinhua reported.

The UN chief is sending Herve Ladsous, undersecretary general for peacekeeping operations, to Syria for assessing the prevailing situation.

He described the UN Security Council’s decision to extend an observers’ mission in Syria by 30 days a “constructive sign”.

“Now the council must redouble its efforts to forge the united way forward and exercise collective responsibility under the charter of the United Nations,” said the UN chief and urged all parties in Syria to “stop armed violence without any conditions”. (IANS)

Russian rights activists refuse to comply with NGO law

MOSCOW, July 22: Russia’s two largest rights organizations will not comply with the law that classes them as “foreign agents”, the NGO’s heads said hours after President Vladimir Putin signed the controversial bill.

Putin signed on Saturday a law forcing non-government organizations engaged in political activity with foreign financing to be branded as “foreign agents”.

“It is ridiculous to think that we would reject foreign donations…,” said Oleg Orlov, the head of Russia’s Memorial Rights Activist Centre.

“It is not because it is hard to raise money in Russia, though we try and will try to do it but because we don’t see it as a crime to receive grants from legal foreign organizations.”

The Memorial will not register as a foreign agent, Orlov said, adding that the NGO “will make all the possible steps against this discriminatory practice” since it is “humiliating and stupid to go and register yourself as foreign agent.”

Another prominent Russian human rights activist, Lev Ponomaryov, of the For Human Rights organization, said that the new legislation “violated a number of international agreements that Russia had signed.”

Ponomaryov did not rule out going to the Constitutional Court and to the European Court on Human Rights if he was brought to justice for non-compliance with the law.

Under the new legislation, NGOs would have to publish a biannual report on their activities and carry out an annual financial audit. Failure to comply with the law could result in four-year jail sentences and/or fines of up to 3,00,000 rubles ($9,200). (IANS)

Malaysia to evacuate citizens from Syria

KUALA LUMPUR, July 22: Malaysia is removing its citizens from Syria following the fast deteriorating security situation in that country, according to Malaysian foreign minister Anifah Aman.

In a statement, the minister said, the decision to bring the students back was a precautionary measure to ensure their safety and to avoid any untoward incidents, Xinhua reported.

“The government has also decided, as a precautionary measure to temporarily withdraw its ambassador and four other officials from the Embassy of Malaysia in Syria, after the evacuation exercise is completed,” he said.

There are 138 Malaysians, including 128 students and 10 expatriates, registered with the Embassy of Malaysia in Damascus; all are safe and accounted for, the statement added. The foreign ministry has also urged all Malaysian nationals, still in Syria, to return home or leave the country immediately while those planning to visit Syria have been requested to postpone their journey until the security situation improves. (IANS)

Putin signs WTO accession protocol: Kremlin

MOSCOW, July 22: Russian President Vladimir Putin signed on Saturday a federal law that authorises the protocol for Russia’s accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO), the Kremlin said.

The protocol on Russia’s accession to the Marrakesh Agreement, the foundation document for the WTO, was signed in Geneva on December 16, 2011, following nearly 18 years of negotiations.

The document which has earlier been ratified by both houses of Russian parliament, stipulates that Russia, as a WTO member state, will undertake to comply with the obligations of the Marrakesh Agreement.

The transition period to liberalisation of access to Russia’s markets is two to three years, but this is extended to five to seven years for markets requiring more protection such as the automobile industry and agriculture, agricultural machinery production and light industry.

The Russian opposition has claimed on many occasions that Russia’s accession to the WTO was detrimental to Russia’s national sovereignty and security and could ruin whole sectors of the domestic economy.

The Highest Court, however, ruled legitimate the country’s WTO accession protocol on July 10. (IANS/RIA Novosti)

Google CEO's absence causes concern

LONDON, July 22: Google CEO Larry Page was again absent from a company meeting that raised concerns about his health and how it will affect the internet giant, a media report said.

Page missed the company’s quarterly earnings conference call on Thursday. He has also not been at any of Google’s public events in the last month and skipped the annual stockholders meeting, the Daily Mail reported.

The company only said he has been advised not to use his voice but insist he continues to run the company.

Sources at the company told the Daily Mail it was not a serious health issue and that due to chronically weak vocal cords, Page has been told not to talk in order to recuperate fully.

Chief Business Officer Nikesh Arora said: “Larry has lost his voice, and we said that means he cannot do any public speaking engagements at the time.”

“But he’s here and continues to run the company and is involved in any strategic decisions we’re making,” he said.

Page was last seen at a press conference at the company’s headquarters in New York on May 21. (IANS)

Soft drinks make it harder to lose weight: Study

LONDON, July 22: Avoid soft drinks, as they could alter the way your body burns fuel and make it harder still to lose weight, says a study.

“This study proves our concerns over sugary drinks have been correct. Not only can regular sugar intake acutely change our body metabolism,” said Hans-Peter Kubis of Britain’s Bangor University, who led the research.

“In fact, it seems that our muscles are able to sense the sugars and make our metabolism more inefficient, not only in the present but in the future as well,” Kubis added.

The researcher warned that soft drinks can compromise long-term health and advised people to substitute it with plain water instead.

His researchers also showed that isolated muscle cells identify and respond to the sugary diet, and switch how they use the fuel.

“Together with our findings about how drinking soft drinks dulls the perception of sweetness, our new results give a stark warning against regularly drinking sugar sweetened drinks,” added Kubis.

The move to an inefficient metabolism was seen in male and female participants who were lightly active, and drinking soft drinks for just four weeks, according to the Daily Mail.

These factors show that regular use of sugar sweetened soft drinks drives alterations in muscles similar to those found in people with obesity problems and type 2 diabetes.

“What is clear is our body adjusts to regular soft drink consumption and prepares itself for the future diet by changing muscle metabolism via altered gene activity - encouraging unhealthy adaptations similar to those seen in people with obesity problems and type 2 diabetes.

“Together with our findings about how drinking soft drinks dulls the perception of sweetness, our new results give a stark warning against regularly drinking sugar sweetened drinks,” Kubis said. (IANS)

Flirting may help women be liked, not trusted

LONDON, July 22: Some women’s habit of flirting at workplace holds the possibility of them being viewed as more likeable among men. But, at the same time, it can make them appear more manipulative and less trustworthy, says a lifestyle study. Set out to discover if flirting could be an asset in business negotiations, the US researchers were surprised to find that it came at the bottom of a list of 10 characteristics including attractiveness, honesty and friendliness, Daily Express reported.

In a follow-up study, videos of negotiators played by actors – male and female – were watched and evaluated. The actors followed two scripts – one straight, one flirtatious.

In the second, in which they were called on to flirt, they were perceived to be less genuine, although the actress was considered more likeable. The same, however, did not apply to men.

The two studies in the Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin were carried out by the University of California, Berkeley.

Laura Kray, of University California-Berkeley, said they began by exploring the lay belief that “women can use flirtation to their advantage in professional contexts and contrast it with trained negotiators’ negative views on flirtation”.

“We discovered both an upside and a downside to flirting at the bargaining table.”

“Although flirtation appears to be positively related to women’s likability, negotiators who flirted were judged to be less authentic than those who refrained from exercising their sexual power,” Kray added. (IANS)

US family finds crab with Osama's face

LONDON, July 22: An American family claims to have found a crab whose belly has a striking resemblance to Jesus Christ as well as slain Al Qaeda founder Osama bin Laden. John Canfield’s family from Washington state went on a trip near Everett, when they captured the crab on video, the Daily Mail reported. According to the mynorthwest.com website, the family was unloading a pot of crabs into their boat. The person filming the movie did not notice the crab and it was thrown back into the ocean because it was a female and illegal to keep. The family finally spotted the image while watching the film after they got home from the holidays, and were “dumbfounded”. Canfield denied the Christ-like crab was a hoax. He said the family was “not that sophisticated” to come up with a fake. (IANS)

30 human skeletons found in Philippines

MANILA, July 22: Security forces in the Philippines on Sunday unearthed 30 skeletal remains of people allegedly slain by rebels in a murderous purge of suspected military spies in the 1980s, Xinhua reported. The remains found in the northern province of Quezon were of people killed by the rebel New People’s Army, military spokesman Maj Harold Cabunoc said. They were discovered by a farmer while ploughing his field in Pagsanjan village in San Francisco region. Cabunoc said at least 47 people went missing in the 1980s when the NPA implemented a purging operation to cleanse the outfit of agents from the military. The now 4,000-strong NPA has been waging a war against the Philippine government since March 1969. (IANS)

Woman finds Statue of Liberty sexually fulfilling

LONDON, July 22: A 27-year-old British woman has flown to New York four times to see the Statue of Liberty as she finds it “sexually fulfilling”. Amanda Whittaker from Leeds says she is in love with the 151-feet statue, The Sun reported. “It was like lightning between us. It was sexually and emotionally fulfilling. Libby satisfies my lovemaking needs,” she said. After her fixation began in 2007, Whittaker turned her Leeds home into a shrine to the statue. She has a six-feet replica, hundreds of smaller models and US flags. The woman - who recently changed her surname to Liberty - said she even thought about marrying it. She sang to the statue, blew it kisses and felt its base. (IANS)