Teenage Chinese boy stowed away in an Emirates flight to Dubai - he wanted to become a beggar

This is the true story of a Chinese teenager who wanted to make a living as a beggar in Dubai - he had heard that beggars there can earn up to £49,465 a month. Therefore, he sneaked into the baggage hold of an Emirates Flight EK303 from Shanghai and landed up in Dubai.
This has been reported in dailymail.co.uk dated 31 May 2016.

The boy was under an impression that, it would not matter if he was caught by the police because he was underage. In fact, he had heard that prisoners get good treatment in Dubai. Anyway, as per the lawyers, he is not likely to be prosecuted but there would be an investigation and he would be deported.
Once he goes back to China, he will be blacklisted from Dubai for life. He is, at present, detained by Dubai Airport Police pending further investigation.


Image courtesy wikimediacommons.org

Some more interesting links -

World's smallest porpoise of Mexico is on the verge of extinction

Coca-Cola to stop production of its beverage in Venezuela because of sugar shortage

Melting of Totten Glacier due to global warming could raise sea levels by three meters


Moody’s mind flits from Black Money to White House (satire)

Lord Shiva and Durga on home delivery and drones (satire)

Didi plans new conquests via Rabindrasangeet (satire)


Daniel Craig is through with James Bond - turns down £68 million offer from MGM

Snoop Dogg and Lucy Liu will be seen together in thriller 'Future World'

Kavita Kaushik to play the role of an Army doctor in TV show “Dr. Bhanumati on Duty”


Was the EgyptAir crash an act of terrorism by the ISIS?

Suicide bombings in Baghdad kill 43 - brings total death in 7 days to more than 145

One more Chibok girl rescued - she was kidnapped along with 275 others in April 2014

Gardeners and sweepers of NDMC will go to Singapore or Shanghai for training

New Delhi, the capital of India, wants to get the tag of ‘Smart City’ and, therefore, good days or ‘achhe din’ are ahead for the gardeners and sweepers of New Delhi Municipal Corporation NDMC - they would go abroad to get trained on various aspects of gardening and sweeping. The intention is to give the capital the spruced up look of cities like Singapore or Shanghai.
This has been reported in news18.com dated 19 July 2015.

In a first-of-its kind initiative, the civic body plans to send a team of around 20 gardeners and safai karamcharis abroad to Singapore or Shanghai so that the visit can help them to receive hands-on-training in using latest technology to maintain cleanliness in public places. The visit is expected to be in late August.
The gardeners will be expected to visit open spaces, community parks, nature parks and playgrounds and make note of how differently the greenery is arranged there and how optimally the open space can be used in Lutyen's Delhi. The sweepers or safai karamcharis will be taken around the city to give them an idea about how the sweepers in those cities maintain the areas.
NDMC covers areas that are home to the high and mighty of the country, including Union Ministers and Parliamentarians besides many top industrialists. Parliament House, offices of all the ministries, Supreme Court, High Court and residences of Supreme Court judges, senior bureaucrats and senior military officers are in NDMC areas.
(Image courtesy wikimediacommons.org)

A few more must reads -
Revolution in the skies - Airbus flies electric plane E-Fan across the English Channel

CBSE to check cheating in AIPMT exams – examinees can wear only T-shirt and jeans

Nine-year-old boy of Philippines studies in the light from a McDonald’s restaurant

Drone hovering over TISS campus in Mumbai sets off alarms

Typhoon Chan-hom strikes eastern coast of China with wind speeds of 173-Kmph


Boko Haram going the way of ISIS – releases first beheading video

US drone strike has killed top ISIS leaders in Pakistan and Afghanistan?

Parents of 14-year-old girl arrested for forcing her to live in the woods for eating Pop-Tart


Where are the stamp collectors and pen friends?

Religion on Indian television

Typhoon Chan-hom strikes eastern coast of China with wind speeds of 173-Kmph

A powerful typhoon Chan-hom has made landfall along the coast of China's eastern Zhejiang province resulting in evacuation of nearly one million people from coastal areas. The wind speeds of the typhoon is in the region of 173-Kmph and around 100mm of rain has fallen since Friday. It is now heading north past the city of Shanghai.
This has been reported in bbc.com dated 11 July 2015.

Before striking China, the typhoon had hit Taiwan and Japan earlier in the week and had uprooted many trees. This is possibly the strongest July typhoon to hit Zhejiang since 1949.
Chan-hom first hit Zhejiang province on an island near the city of Ningbo and no deaths or injuries have been reported. One village, Laiao, has received more than 400mm (16in) of rain.
Due to the typhoon more than 400 flights have been cancelled from Shanghai as also a number of public events, and people have been advised to remain indoors. Dozens of flights have also been cancelled in Zhoushan, Hangzhou, Ningbo and Wenzhou and the province of Zhejiang has recalled its entire fishing fleet back to port.
Some train services have also been cancelled.
(Image courtesy wikimediacommons.org)

A few more must reads -
Maggi noodles are banned in India but, the same Maggi is safe in the UK

Top Ramen follows Maggi and goes off the shelves

India’s dreams of a Utopia vanishing, courtesy arrogant and corrupt ministers

Oil giant Shell to drill for oil in the Arctic off the Alaskan coast

Venezuela facing shortage of beer


Boko Haram unleashes another round of terror on Nigeria – kill 150 in Borno state

ISIS child executioners shoot and kill 25 Syrian soldiers in Palmyra ruins in public

Britain wakes from slumber after Tunisia deaths – to debate airstrikes on ISIS targets


Mangoes are forever

Ripe mangoes and mango cakes or amsatta

Go nuts over nuts – reduce chances of death from heart disease

#HeartDisease #peanuts #VanderbiltUniversity #health Researchers in the United States have gone nuts over nuts because, after analyzing thousands of different categories of men and women, a team of the Vanderbilt University in Nashville has concluded that a regular intake of a handful of nuts can reduce chances of death from heart disease. This has been reported in nzherald.co.nz dated 3 March 2015.
The study was carried out to establish whether nuts and peanuts were linked to a reduced risk of death from cardiovascular disease in different ethnic groups and among people with low socio-economic status. If so, it could prove to be a cost effective way to improve cardiovascular health. Incidentally, nuts are rich in nutrients while peanuts, which are legumes, have nutrients similar to tree nuts.
Xiao-Ou Shu and her co-authors carried out analysis of three groups involving 71,764 low-income black and white men and women in the United States and 134,265 Chinese men and women in Shanghai. It seems men both in the US and in China consumed more peanuts than women.
The consumption of peanuts was roughly 50 percent In the US, but in China, the assessment was done only for consumption of peanuts.
The findings were that in the US, there was a reduced risk of total mortality of 21 per cent for those who consumed the most peanuts. In contrast, in China, the risk reduction was 17 per cent.

Prince William’s tour of Japan and China – ban on illegal wildlife trade on his agenda

#PrinceWilliam #wildlifetrade #ivorytrade #China #JapaneseTsunami Prince William is on a tour of Japan and China and, after conclusion of the Japanese leg, he is now in China where he would be attending a few events as representative of the Queen and in others as an ambassador of Britain. This has been reported in news.sky.com dated 1 March 2015.
The visit of Prince William to Beijing would be the first visit to China of a senior British royal in three decades. As per the itinerary, the Duke of Cambridge, would spend three days in visiting Beijing, Shanghai and an elephant sanctuary in Yunnan Province.
The trip after his four-day tour of Japan, would test his diplomatic skills because UK is actively seeking to expand economic and cultural opportunities with China. Therefore, while trade would be one area of focus, Prince William is also expected to take up the issue of China's role in ending the illegal wildlife trade.
In Japan, he had spent the last day of his tour listening to the pathetic stories from the survivors of the 2011 Japanese tsunami. He had toured the coastal town of Ishinomaki which was hit by an estimated 28 foot wave in which 3,275 people died. It seems 430 people are still missing. Moreover, nearly 22,000 residents lost their homes and 53,000 homes were damaged in the Tsunami.
In China, Prince William would meet President Xi Jinping and tour the Beijing's iconic Forbidden City before flying to Shanghai where he would officially declare open the Great Festival of Creativity in Shanghai. This is a British initiative to set the ball rolling for what is billed as a "flagship year of cultural exchange between the two countries".
In the last leg of his tour in China, he would focus on his favorite cause of combating the illegal wildlife trade. As per plans, he will visit China's only elephant sanctuary on the border with Laos and Myanmar. And, on this occasion, he would get the opportunity to call for a ban on illegal wildlife trade in China, especially the ivory trade.

Alibaba to deliver ginger tea in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou using drones

#alibaba #drones #gingertea #jackma Alibaba, the biggest internet retailer of China wants to replace delivery boys with quadcopter drones and has started testing drone-based deliveries to hundreds of customers in the cities of Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou as reported in bbc.com dated 4 February 2015.
The trial will continue for three days and would be restricted to locations that fall within a one-hour flight of its distribution centers. Alibaba would confine its trials to using drones to deliver orders for a specific type of ginger tea, the maximum weight of the packages would be to 340g (12oz).
The experiment was being undertaken by Alibaba's Taobao division which is an eBay-like marketplace that connects third-party sellers and buyers – the exercise would involve 450 shoppers.
Obviously, Alibaba is following in the footsteps of Amazon, Google and parcel service UPS which have begun to conduct trials of such aircraft.
Jack Ma, the founder of Alibaba has ambitions of global expansion and wants to reach out to two billion customers worldwide by 2025.
Of course, using drones instead of delivery boys does have its drawbacks – one factor is that drones can successfully fly above the tree line but, nearer ground level, it would have to encounter moving obstacles like children, vehicles and pets when they come to land below the roof of your house. That would need more study and expertise.

China’s craze for ivory has killed 100,000 African elephants in last three years

China is crazy for ivory and in order to whet its appetite, thousands of elephants are being killed every year. The price for the precious ivory goods have surged in China, as has the number of poached elephants.
As indicated by Iain Douglas-Hamilton, founder of Save the Elephants, nearly 100,000 African elephants have been killed for their ivory in just the past three years and that is a dangerous trend. In his opinion, the African elephants could disappear from the wild within a generation if China does not mend its ways and takes action to put an end the sale of ivory.
This greed for ivory luxury goods have been fueled by the nouveau-riche Chinese consumers who have developed a taste for such exotic items. The wholesale price of raw tusks has tripled in just four years since 2010, whereas the retail prices for finished ivory have increased exponentially.
Incidentally, the retail prices in Beijing have increased more than 13 times since 2002. The teams of researchers had visited 275 retail outlets in Beijing and Shanghai and discovered that the number of illegal shops far outnumbers the number of legal ones. On a rough estimate, at least 78% of the ivory shops in Beijing were illegal, while in Shanghai it was at least 89%.