Titanic: 40 fascinating facts

On this day in 1985, the Titanic was found in the North Atlantic Ocean. Here are 40 facts about the ship and its demise   

1. The RMS Titanic was the world’s largest passenger ship when it entered service, measuring 269 metres (882 feet) in length, and the largest man-made moving object on Earth. The largest passenger vessel is now the MS Allure of the Seas, at 362 metres.

2. The ship burned around 600 tonnes of coal a day – hand shovelled into its furnaces by a team of 176 men. Almost 100 tonnes of ash were ejected into the sea each day.

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3. The ship's interiors were loosely inspired by those at the Ritz hotel in London. Facilities on board included a gym, pool, Turkish bath, a kennel for first class dogs, and a squash court. It even had its own on board newspaper – the Atlantic Daily Bulletin.

4. There were 20,000 bottles of beer on board, 1,500 bottles of wine and 8,000 cigars – all for the use of first-class passengers.

5. The Grand Staircase on board descended down seven of the ship’s 10 decks and featured oak panelling, bronze cherubs and paintings. Replicas can be found at the Titanic Museum in Branson, Missouri.
6. The staircase at the White Swan Hotel in Alnwick, contains banisters from the Grand Staircase of the Titanic’s sister ship, the Olympic. The staircases are presumed to have been identical.
7. Only 16 wooden lifeboats and four collapsible boats were carried, enough to accommodate 1,178 people, only one-third of Titanic's total capacity, but more than legally required.
8. There were 246 injuries and two deaths recorded during the ship’s 26-month construction in Belfast.
9. Twenty horses were required to carry the main anchor.
10. 100,000 people turned up to see the ship’s launch on May 31, 1911.
11. 22 tons of soap and tallow (rendered beef or mutton fat) were smeared on the slipway to assist its unhindered passage into the River Lagan.
12. The ship made two stops after leaving Southampton – at Cherbourg in northern France, and Cobh (then Queenstown) in Ireland.
13. Of the 885 crew on board, just 23 were female. 699 boarded in Southampton, and four in 10 were natives of the town.

14. The last supper served to first-class passengers consisted of 11 courses.
15. First-class passengers were given a music book containing 352 songs. Musicians on board were required to know them all, in case requests were made.
16. John Jacob Astor IV was the richest passenger on board, with a net worth of around $85m (approximately $2bn today), and went down with the ship. One legend claims that after the ship hit the iceberg he quipped to a waiter: “I asked for ice, but this is ridiculous”.
17. Another notable victim was Benjamin Guggenheim, an American businessman. Realising that the ship was going down, he and his valet, Victor Giglio, reputedly changed into their evening wear while he remarked: “We've dressed up in our best and are prepared to go down like gentlemen." They were last spotted on deck chairs drinking brandy and smoking cigars.
18. Noel Leslie, the Countess of Rothes, was also on board, but survived. She is mentioned in an episode of Downton Abbey. "Isn't this terrible? When you think how excited Lucy Rothes was at the prospect,” remarks the Countess of Grantham when she hears of the disaster.

19. Two of the nine dogs on board were rescued – a Pomeranian and a Pekinese.
20. Numerous people held tickets for the journey, but did not actually sail, including Milton S. Hershey, founder of the chocolate firm, Guglielmo Marconi, and Alfred Gwynne Vanderbilt, who died on the RMS Lusitania three years later.
21. The last remaining survivor of the disaster, Millvina Dean, died on May 31, 2009, aged 97. She was two months old at the time.
22. The iceberg was spotted at 11.40pm on April 14, 1912, by lookout Frederick Fleet, who proclaimed: “Iceberg! Right ahead!” Fleet survived the disaster and was a lookout on the RMS Oceanic during the Twenties, before serving in the Second World War. Pranksters placed a pair of binoculars on his grave in 2012 with a note “sorry they’re 100 years too late”.
23. The iceberg was around 100 feet tall and came from a glacier in Greenland.
24. Just 37 seconds elapsed between the sighting of the iceberg and the collision.
25. First Officer William McMaster Murdoch ordered the ship to turn, but it was too large to do so in time. It has been suggested that the ship would not have sunk if it hit the iceberg head-on. Murdoch went down with the ship; a memorial to him is found in his hometown of Dalbeattie, Kirkcudbrightshire, Scotland.
26. Edward Smith, the ship’s captain, also went down with the vessel. His last words were “"Well boys, you've done your duty and done it well. I ask no more of you. I release you. You know the rule of the sea. It's every man for himself now, and God bless you." A statue of him can be seen in Lichfield, Staffordshire.
27. The ship received six warnings about icebergs during the voyage.
28. A lifeboat drill, scheduled for April 14, was cancelled for unknown reasons.

29. The ship broke in two at around 2.20am on April 15, and sunk, sending all remaining passengers into the ocean. The temperature would have been -2 °C – few would have survived longer than 15 minutes in the water, while around one in five would have died within two minutes from cold shock.
30. Charles Joughin, however, the ship’s baker, reportedly tread water for two hours before being rescued with little ill-effects. He claimed he had not felt the cold due to the amount of whiskey he had drunk.
31. 26 of those on board were honeymooning couples.
32. Musicians played for two hours and five minutes as the ship sank.
33. The SS Californian was criticised for ignoring the Titanic’s distress signals. She was later sunk herself, by a German submarine.
34. The RMS Carpathia arrived at 4am and transported the survivors to New York. 40,000 greeted its arrival at Pier 54.

35. Only 306 bodies were found. The dead were taken to Halifax, Nova Scotia. Its Maritime Museum has a dedicated section that includes a deckchair recovered from the wreck, mortuary bags, and the shoes of an unknown victim. See maritime.museum.gov.ns.ca.
36. The wreck of the Titanic was discovered in 1985 and lies 370 miles off the coast of Newfoundland, around 12,500 feet below the surface. The marine dive specialists Deep Ocean Expeditions previously offered trips to the wreck using a Mir submersible chartered from the Russian Academy of Sciences - with berths costing $59,000 - but stopped offering them in 2012.
37. The bow penetrated 18 metres into the sea bed.
38. Dozens of films and documentaries have been made about the disaster, the most controversial of which was commissioned by Joseph Goebbels in 1943. Its plot discredited British and American businessmen and features brave German passengers. The epilogue states: "the deaths of 1,500 people remain un-atoned, forever a testament of Britain's endless quest for profit."

39. James Cameron’s 1997 effort is undoubtedly the most successful – it has grossed more than $2bn and won 11 Oscars.
40. The film’s main theme song – My Heart Will Go On by Celine Dion – was the biggest selling single of 1998 and has been covered by Neil Diamond, Sarah Brightman, Kenny G (instrumental), and Miss Piggy from the Muppets.


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The Truth Behind What Happened In The Ramayana

'Ramayana’ is one of the two greatest epics in the Hindu Mythology, the other being the ‘Mahabharata’. It forms an important part of Hindu literature which is considered to be Historical. There are many things about the Ramayana that are absolutely mythological. A demon king with ten heads, talking monkeys, demon that could morph into a deer, a flying chariot, a demi-god who could take the form of a vulture. This epic was not written as one definite piece of text. Valmiki collected data from different sources and combined them with his own knowledge of events, which was largely passed down orally through the years. And then, other writers too contributed to it by adding details.
Ramayana is told differently in different places.  It is the mega-story that contains a multitude of narratives of India. The narrative in Bali, Malaysia is quite likely at variance from what we generally have come to believe. We Hindus know it and accept it. Following is the outline of ‘Ramayana’ from the Jain narratives:
Vimalasuri’s version is one of the most important and influential Jain stories of Rama. Vimalsuri claims that the Ramayana of Valmiki is filled with illogical and false stories. In his version, Kaikeyi is shown to be a generous and affectionate mother who wanted to stop Bharata from becoming a monk. For this, she wanted to give him the responsibility of a king. When Rama knew about it, he willingly went into exile. In Vimalsuri’s Paumchariya, Rama married thrice when he was in exile (which was not mentioned in Hindu epic). Lakshmana, his brother married eleven times.

In Jain Ramayana, Vanaras are not literally monkeys; they are demigods called Vidyadharas, who inhabit the city of Kishkindhi and who are called vanaras because their standard and shields and crowns bear the image of a monkey, an animal that is commonly found in those parts. In the Jain Ramayana, Ravan is presented as a great and noble king, and as someone who is learned and who is a devotee of Jainism.” In fact, he isn’t even a rakshasa as popularly understood; like Hanuman and the other vanaras, he, too, is a Vidyadhar, only he belongs to the rakshasa lineage. The Jain Ramayanas are in fact very sympathetic to Ravan, even presenting him as a doomed and tragic figure that has one fatal flaw: lust.

The ancient Jain authors told Ram’s story very differently. One thing that set them apart from the Hindus was their insistence on eschewing the more “miraculous” elements of the story, such as the name Vanaras as explained in the Paumachariyam. Another example is that no divine payasam was involved in the birth of Ram and his brothers; they were born in the normal way, according to the Jain texts. (According to Hindu Ramayana, Rama, and his brothers were born as the result of Putra-Kameshti Yaga by Dasharatha, which was distributed among his wives. Sumitra was fed twice, so she gave birth to twins). Rama had around eight thousand wives among whom Sita was the principle consort (in the Hindu epic, Rama has only one wife Sita), whereas Lakshmana had around sixteen thousand wives in which Prithvisundari was his principle consort.
Also in Jain Ramayana, Lakshmana kills Ravana in the end (deviating from the Ramayana where the hero Rama slays Ravana). According to traditional Jain history, there were different kinds of Salakapurusas (illustrious persons or worthies), including the Jinas or Tirthankaras, who propagated the Jain faith and Chakravartins or heroic emperors. Baladevas, Vasudevas, and Prativasudevas were other such salakapurusas, with Ram (referred to as Padma), Lakshman and Ravan being Baladeva, Vasudeva, and Prativasudeva, respectively. These heroes are born in every age, with Vasudeva and Prativasudeva destined to fight each other. Thus it is, that in Jain version, it is not Ram who kills Ravan — it is Lakshman who does so.

This detail is important because it is meant to present Ram as the ideal Jain hero, who has forsaken violence and who, at the end of his life, becomes a Jain mendicant and attains enlightenment. He is the evolved soul who has conquered his passions in what is his last birth. Lakshman and Ravan, on the other hand, go to hell. They don’t attain liberation until they have undergone many more births and deaths. These modifications to Valmiki’s story were necessary to illustrate the Jain principle of karma: if you live a pious life like Ram, you will be rewarded with a better existence in your next life and will slowly move towards attaining enlightenment and if you commit sins, you will go to hell and will remain caught in the kalachakra — the cycle of life and death.


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Top 10 Victories for Animals in 2015

This year you had the highest impact for animals EVER!

1. When Ringling announced it was ending the use of elephants in its circus acts.




2. When 45 airlines agreed they would not ship animal trophies following the killing of Cecil the lion
.



3. That time you made it possible for us to save more than 200 animals from cruelty in North Carolina.




4. When USFWS announced it would list all chimpanzees as endangered and NIH announced it would retire all their chimps to sanctuary, closing the door on an era of invasive testing on chimpanzees, funded by taxpayer dollars.




5. When our Animal Rescue Team worked with our Emergency Placement Partners to help transport animals away from the floods in South Carolina caused by Hurricane Joaquin.




6. When China's President Xi Jinpeng and President Obama announced a shared commitment to end the global ivory trade.




7. And then Washington State and California passed measures that got us closer to stopping the trade of products from endangered and rare animals.




8. When the EU tightened the ban on imports of seal products, and the killing of seals in Canada for their fur was reduced by 90 percent.




9. When, with your support, we set up a program in Puerto Rico to address the animal crisis on the island.




10. And last but not least, when more than a dozen of the biggest names in food retail announced they'd be going cage-free including McDonald's and Taco Bell, with the quickest timeline yet.

Thank you for being a part of this incredible movement!
Learn more and be a #HeroforAnimals

‘In 1971, Muslims murdered 2.4 million Hindus and raped 200,000 Hindu women’

he article is deeply anti-Western with a common neglect we hear from Indian people to acknowledgement the fact that Britain saved India from its Muslim invaders attempts to turn their nation into an Islamic State. You never hear a single Indian admit this fact which is strange. Instead they are focused purely on anti-Western rhetorics. However, it covers a rather little mention incident where over 2.4 million Hindus were killed by Muslims. Muslim terrorism, attacks, tensions continue to this day. There is no Britain left in India they can blame for it.

nderstanding Islamic violence; how to defend our freedoms

Interview by People of Shambhala.

In the wake of renewed violence against Hindus in Pakistan, and with more than 100 Hindu families seeking asylum in India, Director of the Canadian Hindu Advocacy group spoke to People of Shambhala. Mr. Banerjee talks about the background to the conflict, and why Pakistan was created in 1947. Why the West should include Hinduism, not just the “Judeo-Christian” tradition. And he also discusses Islam and violence against Hindus and the West, and how we can defend our values and freedoms.

PoS: At the moment about 100 Hindu families are seeking asylum in India, from Pakistan, and are claiming discrimination and violence. There were four doctors murdered on the first day of Eid, and, I think, a Sikh was stabbed as well. Can you tell us a little about that situation?

RB: Sure. The situation is very natural. Most people don’t understand what Pakistan is. Pakistan is a country that was formed for the Muslims. India is a multi-ethnic country for everybody. So Pakistan was formed with the very idea that the only people that should be in Pakistan are Muslims. There is nothing strange about what’s going on in Pakistan today. It’s being going on for a long time.

At independence Pakistan’s population was about ten percent Hindu and Sikh. Now it’s less than one percent. So the question is where did that nine percent go? Well, they were either ethnically cleansed, driven away, or slaughtered in large numbers in the 1971 war between India and Pakistan. In East Pakistan an estimated 2.4 million Hindus were slaughtered in just one year, and hundreds of thousands of Hindu women were raped.

There is nothing surprising about any of this because Islam was introduced into the Asian subcontinent with the objective of occupying and exterminating the Hindus. According to the historian William Durant, and other historians, an estimated 80 million Hindus were killed, were slaughtered, and thousands and thousands of Hindu temples were smashed, and mosques were built on top of them. The Muslims of India tried very hard over the period of their 700 years [of occupation] to wipe out the Hindus. But there was resistance from some of the Hindu kingdoms. They never had full control over India so they were unable to achieve that goal. But that’s the eternal goal. According to Islam, Hinduism is the lowest form of life on the planet. Because Hindus, according to them, they’re polytheistic, they believe in multiple gods. They believe we worship idols, and idol worship is a sin in Islam.  

PoS: One thing that has struck me is just the extent of the attacks on Hindus, Buddhists, Yezidis, Zoroastrians, Kalash. Yet we don’t hear anything about this. You mentioned the war of 71; 2.4 million dead, 200,000 Hindu women raped, but we don’t hear anything about that in the West.

RB: No you don’t, because there’s a systematic effort by Muslims and petrodollars to cover it up. The reason you don’t hear about it is because they make tremendous effort to silence it.

PoS: In all fairness, some Middle Eastern newspapers that probably cater mostly to Muslims have covered some of it, but you don’t seem to find it in the West, which is even more incredible. Why do you think Western journalists won’t cover something like that? The West always portrays itself as caring about minorities and being the people that always stand up to stop genocide, and that are always campaigning against violence against minorities. But nothing.

RB: This may offend you a little bit.

PoS: It won’t [laughs].

RB: It probably will [laughs]. But, it’s because the West have been hypocrites.

PoS: Yeah.

RB: If you look at Britain, for example, when they went to India they did not stop genocide or massacres, they expedited them. They actually supported the Muslims against the Hindus, helped them to perpetrate massacres. In terms of the establishment of the state of Pakistan, if you read people like William Dalrymple, a British historian, it becomes quite clear that the British encouraged the creation of Pakistan in order to divide the [anti-colonial] independence movement.

PoS: Do you think there is still a kind of colonial residue in the atmosphere. Do you think there is some kind of patronizing attitude in the media? Is that why we don’t see atrocities reported?

I’ve heard this question before. That it’s a form of racism that they don’t condemn Muslims for their human rights violations is because they are non-Western and [therefore] they are expected to be barbaric. There might be some of that, but these days it’s rather more a culture of fear. I mean, if you publish a cartoon of Mohammed, even if you’re in the West, you get threatened, and you possibly get killed, and you have riots going on. So now it’s more of a culture of fear.

PoS: On that note, Subramanian Swamy, the Hindu professor at Harvard, was fired because he wrote an article on how to wipe out Islamic terror [in India]. I read it. I didn’t find it shocking… I suppose [at the most controversial point] he’s saying that non-Hindus would have to appreciate their Hindu roots or they wouldn’t be allowed to vote. What was your take on his article and on his being fired?

RB: The article was a hundred percent correct. He did not say – as has been claimed – that all non-Hindus should be forced to convert to Hinduism or anything like that. He didn’t even say that non-Hindus should be oppressed or treated badly within India. He just said they should have a respect for Hinduism, and that they should acknowledge the proper history, especially the history of the Muslims in India. There was no such thing as Islam in India before about 1,000 AD. Muslims invaded and forcibly converted millions of Hindus to Islam. That’s just a historical fact. And that they should acknowledge that historical fact.

PoS: Why is it when it comes to Islam, we don’t stick for minorities? We don’t stick up for women’s rights? We don’t stick up for gay rights? All the things that we would stand up for at any other time.

RB: It’s a combination of different things. Political correctness is part of it, but it’s not the whole explanation. It’s more a simple combination of fear and bribery. In many cases it’s just the money and influence pouring in from the Middle East demanding that no negative aspects of Islam be spoken about. It’s the carrot and the stick, the carrot being the money being the money flowing in from petrodollars, and the stick being [the fear of] rioting and beheading over a cartoon or any slight to Islam.

PoS: In 2008, there was the Mumbai attacks. A couple of things about that were striking. One thing was the way the Western media covered it. If memory serves me correctly – and I think it does – it was implied that the attacks in Mumbai were against essentially Western targets, such as the Taj Mahal Hotel. Do you think they were going after Western targets or do you think there was another incentive?

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Don’t ‘stir up trouble’ in South China Sea: China

Deputy Foreign Minister Liu Zhenmin reiterated China's position that its construction of artificial islands in the sea was designed to "provide public service'' to the region.

China on Sunday told other countries not to “deliberately stir up trouble” in the disputed South China Sea, while insisting it has no intention of militarizing the strategically vital area even though it has increased construction activities there. Deputy Foreign Minister Liu Zhenmin reiterated China’s position that its construction of artificial islands in the sea was designed to “provide public service” to the region by helping ships and fishermen and disaster relief efforts. This also includes military facilities to protect the islands and reefs, which are located far from mainland China, he said. 

Since 2013, China has accelerated the creation of new outposts by piling sand atop reefs and atolls, and then adding buildings, ports and airstrips big enough to handle bombers and fighter jets — activities seen as an attempt to change the territorial status quo by changing the geography. “One should never link the military facilities with efforts to militarize the South China Sea,” Liu said. “This is a false argument. It is a consistent Chinese position to firmly oppose the militarization of the South China Sea.” Other countries “should not deliberately stir up trouble but contribute to the peace and stability of the region,” he said. Although Liu’s statement broke no new ground _ China has said this in various ways before _ the setting for his remarks was significant: an Asian summit also attended by President Barack Obama, whose administration has backed the Philippines and other Southeast Asian countries who have long-standing disputes with China in the South China Sea. Liu’s comments also serve to send a notice to China’s rivals in the region that it will not back down from its position on the resource-rich sea, irrespective of pressure from the United States. While it opposes any U.S. military incursion, China sees its own military presence there as justifiable. Liu is at the summit accompanying Chinese Premier Li Keqiang. At a separate news conference, Obama said the issue was a “key topic” at the summit of 18 countries that included China, as well as at a separate summit he had with leaders of 10 Southeast Asian countries. “Many leaders spoke about the need to uphold international principles, including the freedom of navigation, and overflight and the peaceful resolution of disputes,” Obama said. “My fellow leaders from Japan, Australia and the Philippines have reaffirmed that our treaty alliances remained the foundation of regional security. The United States is boosting our support for the Philippines maritime capabilities and those of our regional partners,” Obama said. The other claimants in Southeast Asia are Malaysia, Vietnam and Brunei. The US and others have called on Beijing to halt the construction, saying they are destabilizing an increasingly militarized region. Washington angered China by sending a warship inside a 12-nautical-mile (22-kilometer) territorial limit around Subi Reef in the Spratly Islands archipelago, where China and the Philippines have competing claims. Liu called the USS Larsen’s voyage last month a “political provocation.” “Is this a trend of militarization that calls for our alert?” Liu asked. “We hope regional countries and those outside the region will make positive and constructive contribution to our efforts to maintain peace and stability in the South China Sea. Don’t look for trouble.” He said out of some 1,000 islands, reefs and atolls in the vast sea, China has occupied only seven small islands and reefs in waters under its jurisdiction. Without naming any country, he accused three of them of occupying 42 “illegally.” One of them, he said, controls 29, another one eight and the third country five. With the waterway a crucial trade passage, he said freedom of navigation and peace and security of the area are crucial to China’s economic expansion. Liu denied allegations that China is waiting to complete its construction activities in the sea before agreeing to a binding code of conduct, in a move to tie the hands of its rival claimants.

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Afghan troops push into city of Kunduz, Taliban in retreat

KABUL, Afghanistan  — Afghan government forces pushed overnight into the strategic northern city of Kunduz that was captured by the Taliban earlier this week, forcing the insurgents to retreat amid heavy street battles that were still underway Thursday.

But despite prompt claims from officials that much of the city had been liberated, by midday, residents remaining inside Kunduz and hunkering down at their homes said they could still hear explosions and shootings outside.

The fall of Kunduz to the Taliban on Monday marked a major setback for Afghan government forces, which have struggled to combat insurgents with limited aid from the U.S. and NATO troops. The international forces' role shifted to training and support after all NATO combat forces withdrew from Afghanistan at the end of last year.

The Taliban denied they had lost the city and the group's spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid claimed on Thursday that it was still in their hands, saying "the Taliban flag is still flying" over Kunduz.

The spokesman for the Interior Ministry said the operation to take back Kunduz was launched late Wednesday, with ground forces moving from the airport — where they had massed since the city fell — over roads that had been mined by the insurgents.

Sediqqi claimed that control of Kunduz "was taken by 3.30 a.m." on Thursday but conceded that an operation "to clear the city is ongoing" and could take some days.

He told The Associated Press the battle is a joint army and police operation and that roadblocks set up by the Taliban to prevent any movement had been removed. He said essential supplies, including food and medicine, would be delivered soon to the residents.

Sediqqi said around 200 Taliban fighters have been killed in the fighting so far but did not provide a figure for government casualties. Kunduz police chief, Sarwar Hussaini, said bodies of dead Taliban fighters lay on some of the city's streets but that the clearance operation was complicated because some Taliban fighters had hidden inside people's homes.

Residents reported street battles and gunfire in various areas of the city.

Zabihullah, who lives close to the main city square and who like many Afghans prefers to use one name, said that "intense fighting is continuing on the streets of city."

"The situation is really critical and getting worse, and I've just heard a huge explosion from a bomb near my house," he said, speaking to the AP over the telephone from his home.

Another resident, Hameedullah said that heavy clashes were underway in the Khuja Mashhad area of the city, about 200 meters (218 yards) north of the square. "Everyone is staying indoors, but there is still sporadic firing," he said. "There are explosions but I can't tell if they are bombs being dropped from the planes I can hear overhead, or rockets."

Fighting was also on in the Bandr-i-Iman Sahib district in the west of Kundiz, where resident Munib Khan said the Taliban were armed with rocket-propelled grenades and were putting up a heavy fight. Khan said the fighting had taken front-stage to the "many problems inside the city," which now has "no water, no electricity."

It was not possible to immediately gauge how much of Kunduz was secured by the Afghan forces. The capture of the city by the Taliban, which began with a coordinated attack Monday, had taken the government, military and intelligence agencies by surprise.

The Taliban spokesman, Mujahid, in remarks posted on his Twitter account, claimed that "life in Kunduz is normal" — an apparent attempt to refute government statements that Afghan forces had pushed the insurgents out from the center to the city's more far-flung neighborhoods.

Earlier in the morning, Mujahid had sent a text message to The Associated Press, saying that "the United States, with their puppets, have been bombing Kunduz city. Government forces have received heavy casualties."

Afghan troops, backed by U.S. airstrikes, had massed on the outskirts of the city and at the Kunduz airport on Wednesday in a buildup of what was expected to be a long and difficult campaign to drive out the Taliban.

Also Wednesday, two U.S. airstrikes were launched around 5 p.m. in support of the Afghan troops at Kunduz airport, said U.S. Army Col. Brian Tribus, spokesman for the U.S.-NATO mission in Afghanistan. He said the U.S. has carried out five airstrikes since Kunduz fell Monday.

President Ashraf Ghani has come under intense criticism for the fall of the city. He went on national television to reassure his people earlier this week that Kunduz would be recaptured.

But the damage to Ghani's one-year-old administration had been done. On Thursday morning, hundreds of people gathered outside the presidential palace in Kabul, calling for his resignation.

"We are not happy with this government, every day there is fighting," said Foruzan Haydari, a 23-year-old student.

In a statement Thursday, the presidential palace said Ghani had spoken with military leaders in Kunduz to get an update on the situation. It also said the president will send a team to Kunduz to investigate how the Taliban had been able to infiltrate the city.

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Associated Press writers Amir Shah and Humayoon Babur in Kabul, Afghanistan, contributed to this report.

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Russia says warplanes hit Islamic State, denying criticism

PARIS (AP) — Russia on Thursday insisted its warplanes in Syria were hitting at the same extremists targeted by the United States and contradicted American criticism that its military failed to coordinate the airstrikes, describing the allegations as a "war of disinformation."

Alexander Orlov, the Russian ambassador to France, said Moscow's intervention came only after a year of airstrikes by the U.S. and its partners failed to dislodge Islamic State extremists, and predicted that Syria could be ready for "free elections" within a year. Russia's military said it carried out 20 airstrikes Wednesday.

The Russian Defense Ministry said its warplanes on Wednesday targeted and destroyed eight positions belonging to extremists from the IS group, also known as ISIL or ISIS, in what President Vladimir Putin called a pre-emptive strike against the militants.

Tthe ministry gave no specific locations, but Orlov said the targets were installations for Islamic State and the Nusra Front, al-Qaida's affiliate in Syria — "two terrorist organizations recognized as such." Orlov told France Info radio the planes were acting as air support for Syrian ground troops.

The U.S. and Russia agree on the need to fight the Islamic State but not about what to do with President Bashar Assad. The Syrian civil war, which grew out of an uprising against Assad, has killed more than 250,000 people since March 2011 and sent millions of refugees fleeing to other countries in the Middle East and Europe.

"We see that this coalition has been operating in Syria for a year, 5,000 airstrikes have been carried out, and Islamic State is still there," Orlov said.

With American and allied airstrikes daily, and now Russian warplanes in the Syrian airspace, the war is taking on a dangerous new dimension. Orlov said Russian officials warned the Americans "via confidential channels" of where they planned to strike. He also noted a coordination center was being set up in Baghdad that would include Syrians, Iraqis, Iranians and Russians — and any other country that wants to participate.

Khaled Khoja, head of the Syrian National Council opposition group, said at the U.N. that Russian airstrikes in four areas, including Talbiseh, killed 36 civilians, with five children among the dead. The claim could not be independently verified.

"There has been a certain war of disinformation for some time and everyone is trying to discredit each other," Orlov said. "We are acting transparently."

In Moscow, Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters that targets had been chose "in coordination" with the Syrian army.

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Pakistan army says it's killed 25 militants near Afghanistan

ISLAMABAD (AP) — Pakistan's military says its air force has carried out "precise" airstrikes targeting the Taliban in a restive tribal area near the Afghan border, killing 25 militants.

A military statement says the strikes took place on Thursday near the Datta Khel village in North Waziristan, where the army has been carrying out a major operation against Pakistani and foreign militants since June 2014.

The military provided no further details and the identities of the killed militants were not immediately clear.

North Waziristan was once considered to be the headquarters of the Pakistani Taliban, who have been fighting to overthrow the government in Islamabad.

The military says it has cleared 90 percent of the region since launching the operation and killed over 3,000 militants there.

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The Latest: Iran supports Russian airstrikes in Syria

MOSCOW (AP) — The latest developments as Russia and other nations counter Islamic State militants in Syria. All times local:

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12:55 p.m.

The Foreign Ministry in Tehran says that Iran fully supports Russian airstrikes against "terrorist groups" in Syria.

According to a statement by the ministry's spokeswoman, Marzieh Afkham, the "Islamic Republic of Iran considers military action by Russia against armed terrorist groups to be a step toward fighting terrorism and toward resolving the current crisis" in Syria.

She says the Russian airstrikes come in response to an "official request by Syria's government from the Russian Federation." The statement was carried by the official IRNA news agency.

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12:20 p.m.

A spokesman for Russian President Vladimir Putin says Russia's airstrikes in Syria are targeting not only Islamic State militants but also other extremist groups.

Russia on Wednesday carried out its first airstrikes in Syria. Moscow insisted that it was targeting IS militants while U.S. officials and other cast doubt on the claim, saying the Russians appeared to be attacking opposition groups fighting Syrian government forces.

Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Thursday that Russia is going after IS militants and other "well-known" groups.

Asked whether Russia is choosing its own targets or following the instructions of Syrian President Bashar Assad, Peskov said the targets were chosen "in coordination" with the Syrian army.

The Russian defense ministry said late Wednesday Russia had carried out 20 airstrikes.
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Greece reopening Olympic venue to cope with asylum-seekers

ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Authorities in Greece have reopened a disused Olympic venue to house migrants and refugees camped out in central Athens.

Police on Thursday escorted buses carrying about 500 people, mostly from Syria and Afghanistan, from Victoria Square in central Athens to the mothballed Galatsi Olympic Hall.

It was used for table tennis and rhythmic gymnastics during the 2004 Athens Games, and is the second major Olympic venue to reopened to accommodate refugees in recent weeks.

Yiannis Mouzalas, a migration affairs minister, promised to try to swiftly improve management of the crisis to avoid "local residents becoming susceptible to extremist, racist, xenophobic views."

Local residents and an anti-racism group held small protests at the square Thursday, urging the government to do more to ease the effects of the crisis.

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Who Believes in Aliens? (Infographic)

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No Boys Allowed: Snake Mom Has 'Virgin Birth'

A female water snake in Missouri can do something that no human woman can (no matter how badly she might want to): She can have babies without any help from a male.

Earlier this month, a yellow-bellied water snake at the Missouri Department of Conservation's (MDC) Cape Girardeau Conservation Nature Center gave birth to a litter of baby snakes even though she hasn't had "relations" with a male snake in at least eight years.

It's the second year in a row that this snake has had a so-called "virgin birth," but the remarkable mama's birthing practices are not as miraculous as they may seem. Yellow-bellied water snakes are one of many species of reptile that can reproduce through a process known as parthenogenesis, 

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Researchers discover 'lost world' of arctic dinosaurs after digging up huge, duck-billed skeleton

Scientists have found new dinosaur remains in a remote part of Alaska that might reveal a "lost world" of many different kinds of arctic dinosaur. 

The skeleton belongs to a newly-discovered species of duck-billed dinosaur, which was 30-feet long and lived through months of winter darkness and probably snow. It is the dinosaur with the most northernmost habitat ever found. 

Scientists say that the new dinosaur, known as Ugrunaaluk kuukpikensis, "challenges everything we thought about a dinosaur's physiology". Florida State University professor of biological science Greg Erickson said: "It creates this natural question. How did they survive up here?"

Though arctic Alaska wasn't as cold as it is now, the find indicates a new world of dinosaurs that could live in snowy conditions and contended with months of darkness. 

"What we're finding is basically this lost world of dinosaurs with many new forms completely new to science," Erickson said in a statement. 

The researchers estimate that there could be at least 13 different dinosaur present in the area — and will now continue to research to find out how they lived in regions that scientists had previously thought to be uninhabitable for reptilian dinosaurs. 

"Alaska is basically the last frontier," said Erickson. "It's virtually unexplored in terms of vertebrate paleontology. So, we think we're going to find a lot of new species."

The new dinosaur is closely related to Edmontosaurus, another duck-billed dinosaur that lived about 70 million years ago, in the modern US. But it has other different features, like a unique skull around the mouth. 

"Because many of the bones from our Alaskan species were from younger individuals, a challenge of this study was figuring out if the differences with other hadrosaurs was just because they were young, or if they were really a different species," Patrick Druckenmiller, Earth sciences curator of the University of Alaska Museum of the North and associate professor of geology at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, said in a statement. "Fortunately, we also had bones from older animals that helped us realize Ugrunaaluk was a totally new animal." 

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Terrorists comfort crying suicide bomber before Syrian attack

Before a young terrorist blew himself up in Syria, he cried as other twisted militants comforted him about the fates of his victims, according to a disturbing propaganda video.

The jihadi, identified by reports as Jafar al-Tayyar of Uzbekistan, hugged militants before climbing into a vehicle strapped with explosives as creepy music played, according to video from Al Qaeda's affiliate in Syria, Nusra Front.

Before closing the top of the car, al-Tayyar looked out and sobbed, his face scrunched in fear, the video obtained by the Mirror shows.

"Jafar, my brother, don't be afraid," a Uzbek-speaking militant said. "When you are scared, remember Allah."

Tayyar replied, "I'm just scared I won't succeed."

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What are Ghosts and How does a Person Become One?

1. What are ghosts?

When a person dies only his gross body (sthūladēha) ceases to exist. His subtle-body (consisting of the subconscious mind, intellect, ego and soul, i.e. minus the physical body) however continues to exist and moves on to the other regions of the universe. Refer to the picture below for more detailed view of what we are comprised of and what we leave behind after death.

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Some of these subtle-bodies become ghosts. Ghosts by definition meet all of the following criteria:

• They are subtle-bodies.
• They belong to the Nether region (Bhuvarlok) or one of the seven regions of Hell (Pātāl) but they are found on Earth region (Bhūlok) too. This is because ghosts from the more subtle-regions of the universe can travel to the more gross ones like Earth at will.
• They do not exist in the positive planes of the universe i.e. Heaven (Swarga) and above.
• They have unfulfilled desires such as cravings for sex, alcohol (things that they can only experience through a gross body), revenge etc.
• They derive pleasure out of exerting control over and tormenting humans and other subtle-bodies. Their general aim is aligned with bringing about unrighteousness in society.
The subtle-body of a person after physical death is defined as a ghost if their characteristics and intentions match the above. There is no special process as such which they go through to become a ghost.

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2. What decides where we go and what we become after death?

When we die, our course in the after-life is decided by a number of factors. These factors include:
• The number and type of impressions that are created in the sub-conscious mind depending on how we have lived our lives. Refer to the article on the impressions in our mind that decides our basic nature and personality.
• Our ego: The word ‘ego’ is used in a spiritual context here. In addition to its everyday usage as self esteem and self conceit, it also includes the attitude of duality with God. Duality means thinking of oneself as having an existence separate from God. Ego is a function of the extent to which we identify with our 5 senses, mind and intellect instead of identifying with the soul or the God within us.
• The type of deeds done during our life-time.
• The extent and the type of spiritual practice we had undertaken during our lifetime.
• Our Destiny
• The type of death – natural and peaceful, violent or accidental.
• The type of funeral.
• The rituals as per Spiritual science done by our descendants after our death to help us in our after life.

3. Who are likely to become ghosts?

People are likely to become ghosts after their death when
• They have many unfulfilled desires.
• Many personality defects, such as anger, fear, greed, etc.
• A lot of negative impressions in the mind.
• A high amount of ego.
• They have harmed others and have the basic nature of harming others.
• They lack spiritual practice consisting of progressive level of surrender of mind body and intellect, done with the intention of God-realisation.

• 4. Who do not become ghosts?

  They are typically people who:
  • Do spiritual practice with the intention of achieving God-realisation (the ultimate in spiritual growth).
  • Have less impressions in the mind, fewer personality defects, etc.
  • Have a low ego.
  • Are above the 50% (samashti) or 60% (vyashti) spiritual level.
  When such persons die they move on to the higher regions, i.e. Heaven and beyond. Ghosts cannot influence or take them into custody due to their spiritual strength and protection from God.

  5. Spiritual level and ghosts

  Throughout the section on ghosts, we refer to higher level ghosts who have a lot of spiritual energy as a result of intense spiritual practice and penance. As a result, they have a high spiritual level and a lot of spiritual power. This may seem contradictory as one may ask, “How can one become a ghost when one has a high spiritual level?” The spiritual power of a Saint at the 70% spiritual level and a superior ghost such as a subtle-sorcerer (māntrik) from the 5th region of Hell may be the same. However, the key differences between them are:
  • The Saint does spiritual practice with the intention of surrendering his body, mind, wealth, ego, etc. to God so as to merge with Him.
  • The superior ghost or a person with high spiritual power (who after death becomes a ghost) does spiritual practice with the intention of gaining supernatural powers so as to play ‘God’ and thus has a lot of ego.
  The Saint would identify more with the God principle or the soul within. The subtle-sorcerer on the other hand is very proud of the fact that he has the spiritual strength and identifies with his ego i.e. the 5 senses, mind and intellect.

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Don’t Believe in Ghosts? After Visiting the Mehandipur Balaji Temple You Will

Do you believe in the power of the unknown? Have you ever experienced a close encounter of the third kind? How many of you would actually travel to see live exorcism?

If the answer to even one of the above is yes, then you’re in the right place. Most of us, after watching a horror movie at 2 am, think we are Igor the Invincible. Well let me puncture your thought right away. I guarantee that nothing can be more horrifying than witnessing a sea of humans (all possessed by evil spirits) under one roof! Where, you’d ask? The legendary Mehandipur Balaji Temple, which is believed to be the only religious place in India where live exorcism takes place. I once challenged my friend to visit this temple, and boy, was she brave to accept the challenge! Now, whether it was out of sheer curiosity to unveil the dark truth or to prove her mettle, I had no clue, but did she regret her visit? We’ll discover soon enough.

The Eerie Journey Begins

One fine morning, Shruti, my friend started her journey to the temple from Delhi. The road leading to Mehandipur Balaji is pretty straightforward but somehow she ended up losing her way, not once but thrice! “Despite following the GPS, I kept getting lost. Don’t know whether it was a warning of sorts…” she explained. Unsure but undeterred, she continued her search. And finally, after five long hours, she made it to the Mehandipur village in the Dausa district in Rajasthan.

She saw a large entrance and followed the directions to the temple. At first glance Mehandipur village didn’t scare her. Like a typical village, there were small shops, children walking to school and people busy in their everyday routine. But the moment she reached the temple premises, the vibe instantly changed. There was a long queue outside the temple accompanied by petty shopkeepers who were trying to sell prasad to her. But Shruti dare not say no, for it is considered unlucky to refuse them. Ironically, the prasad (black-coloured balls) served here are not meant to be eaten but thrown into fire. Isn’t that strange?

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New Zealand deports climate change asylum seeker to Kiribati

New Zealand has deported a Kiribati man who lost a legal battle to be the first person granted refugee status on the grounds of climate change alone.

Ioane Teitiota, 39, has argued that rising sea levels in his homeland meant his family would not be safe there.

His lawyer, Michael Kidd, told the BBC: "He's very disappointed obviously, he wants to be back in New Zealand."

Kiribati is among several low-lying Pacific nations threatened by climate change-linked problems.

These include storm surges, flooding and water contamination.

Mr Teitiota's wife and their three New Zealand-born children also face deportation and are likely to leave next week, reported local media.

"They said we are overstayers but we are not. We are trying to find a better life for the kids," his wife Angua Erika told Radio New Zealand.

Mr Teitiota's children are not entitled to New Zealand citizenship.

'Passive persecution'

Mr Teitiota had been in New Zealand since 2007 but overstayed his visa and was caught in 2011.

His deportation on Wednesday night follows a failed appeal against a New Zealand high court decision that he could not be a refugee as he was not being persecuted. The United Nations describes a refugee as someone who faces persecution at home.

Mr Teitiota's appeal was dismissed in July. He was taken into police custody last week ahead of his deportation.

Mr Kidd said that Mr Teitiota was planning to appeal for help from the United Nations's refugee agency.

His lawyers have argued in court that he and his family would suffer harm if forced to return to Kiribati because of the combined pressures of over-population and rising sea levels, and that he would be "persecuted passively" by the circumstances there.

Prime Minister John Key said this week that Mr Teitiota had overstayed and that his argument lacked credibility.

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Migrant crisis: EU to boost aid to agencies

European Union leaders have pledged another €1bn (£700m, $1.1bn) to help UN agencies support Syrian refugees in the Middle East, as part of renewed efforts to tackle the EU's migrant crisis.

More help will be extended to Syria's neighbours, where millions have fled since the country's conflict began.

The leaders also agreed on strengthening EU external borders.

European Council President Donald Tusk warned that "greatest tide of refugees and migrants is yet to come".

"We need to correct the policy of open doors and windows," he said.

About half a million migrants have arrived in Europe this year, exposing deep divisions within the EU.

The emergency summit in Brussels got under way amid a bitter row over the relocation of 120,000 migrants.

Several countries oppose the scheme, which imposes mandatory quotas on EU members, with Slovakia launching a legal challenge.

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Yemen suicide bombing in Sanaa mosque 'kills 15'

A suicide bomb attack on a mosque in Yemen's capital, Sanaa, has killed at least 15 people, sources say.

The blast took place at the al-Balili mosque during prayers for the Eid al-Adha holiday.

It comes two days after Yemen's President Abdrabbuh Mansour Hadi returned to the southern city of Aden from exile in Saudi Arabia.

He had fled in March following gains by Houthi rebels, who have since been targeted by a Saudi-led coalition.

The coalition, along with loyalist forces, have pushed back the Houthis from some areas, including Aden.

However the Houthis - Shia Muslim rebels from the north of the country - still control the capital.

The Balili mosque is close to a police academy in Sanaa. Some reports have put the death toll higher, and many people have been injured in the explosion.

Sanaa has been hit by a series of bomb attacks, many of them claimed by the so-called Islamic State militant group, which follows its own extreme version of Sunni Islam.

No-one has yet said they carried out the latest attack.

Eid al-Adha - the festival of sacrifice - is celebrated by Muslims worldwide.

It honours the willingness of Abraham to sacrifice his son as an act of submission to God's will.

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Why is there fighting in Yemen?

• Northern Shia Muslim rebels known as Houthis, backed by forces loyal to Yemen's ex-president, took over parts of Yemen, including the capital, Sanaa, and forced the government into exile in March
• The rebels accused the government of corruption and of planning to marginalise their heartland within a proposed federal system
• Sunni neighbour Saudi Arabia, fearing a Shia takeover of Yemen, is leading a coalition in a military campaign to repel the rebels and restore the exiled government

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Study suggests London Underground may be 'too fast'

A mathematical study of transport in London and New York suggests the British capital should be wary of its trains travelling too quickly.

If Tube journeys are too fast, relative to going by road, then the model predicts an increase in the overall level of congestion.

This is because key locations outside the city centre, where people switch transport modes, become bottlenecks.

By contrast, New York's layout is such that faster trains will always help.

Reporting their findings in the journal Royal Society Interface, the researchers calculate that London's system would function best with underground trains travelling about 1.2 times faster than the average speed on the roads. This makes the optimum Tube speed approximately 13mph (21km/h); the current average is 21mph (33km/h).

But Dr Marc Barthelemy, the paper's senior author, said it was a theoretical study and more data would be required to make specific recommendations.

"Giving exact numbers is a tricky thing," he told the BBC. "But the fact is that these networks are coupled to each other. Optimising something on one network can bring bad things on another network."

'Multimodal' movement

Dr Barthelemy, a statistical physicist at the CEA research centre in Saclay, France, is fascinated by the interplay between coupled networks. And transport networks, such as the roads and train lines in his study, are becoming increasingly interconnected.

In a report on urban mobility published on Tuesday, the LSE Cities group at the London School of Economics describes a trend towards "multimodal" journeys, where travellers switch - for example - from train to bus or car.

This is partly driven by smartphones and apps which search for the fastest route, even if it involves a change or two. But in big, expansive cities like London, multimodal trips are inevitable, Dr Barthelemy said.

"In London there's a clear increase in the number of modes with distance," he explained. "It's a very clear effect."

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