The bench then adjorned the matter asking the Centre to file affidavit within two weeks giving details about what it proposes to do for cleaning the river.

"In this matter you said there is urgency... Now there is no urgency for you. You are shuttling the issue between two ministries," the bench observed.

The bench also said that cleaning project should be done in stretches as it cannot be undertaken at one go. It suggested that initially the government should focus to clean first 100 km of the river and then it should take the task of cleaning another part of the river.

On the last date of hearing on August 5, the case was adjourned as the Centre sought more time to file response.

The issue of cleaning up of river Ganga has been monitored by the apex court and several applications have been filed.

The unchecked pollution of river Ganga has evoked sharp criticism by the apex court which has been hearing the case since 1985.

The 2,500 km stretch of the river passes through 29 major cities, 23 small cities and 48 towns.

Although Albert Einstein praised another as “the most significant creative mathematical genius thus far produced since the higher education of women began” after her death in the ’30s, she couldn’t get a teaching job. When she finally did, the Nazis took it away because she was Jewish.

The struggles of female mathematicians Hypatia (killed in the 5th century), Sophie Germain (1776–1831) and Emmy Noether (1882–1935) are now history. However, not until Tuesday did a woman win the Fields Medal — “the Nobel of math,” as Time magazine put it — first awarded in 1936.

The achievement of Stanford University professor Maryam Mirzakhani is not just unprecedented, but unlikely in a field where women remain underrepresented. As few as 9 percent of tenure-track positions in math are held by women, according to a 2010 study.

“This is a great honor. I will be happy if it encourages young female scientists and mathematicians,” Mirzakhani said in a Stanford University news release. “I am sure there will be many more women winning this kind of award in coming years.”

Mirzakhani was born in Iran, dreaming of becoming a writer. It was a tumultuous time in Iran, she said in an interview with the Clay Mathematics Institute. The country was still embroiled in war with Iraq and “those were hard times,” she said.

But she nonetheless remembers the first time she heard about mathematics. Her brother had a problem — and it would make her abandon her writing aspirations.

“My older brother was the person who got me interested in science in general,” she told the Clay Mathematics Institute. “He used to tell me what he learned in school. My first memory of mathematics is probably the time that he told me about the problem of adding numbers from 1 to 100. I think he had read in a popular science journal how [German mathematician Johann Carl Friedrich] Gauss solved this problem. The solution was quite fascinating for me. That was the first time I enjoyed a beautiful solution.”

There would be many more in her career. The war ended when she finished elementary school, and she and a friend spent time wandering in and out of bookstores in Tehran. “We couldn’t skim through the books like people usually do here in a bookstore,” she said. “So we would end up buying a lot of random books.”

Microsoft Devices on Wednesday announced the launch of "most affordable" Lumia 530 dual SIM smartphone for Rs. 7,349 in India.

Microsoft Devices said Lumia 530 will be available in stores at a best buy price of Rs. 7,349 starting August 14.

The new Lumia 530 will provide a powerful entry to Windows Phone 8.1 with a Quad Core processor delivering faster and smoother user experience, among others, it said in a press release.

This device will expand the reach of Windows Phone as it allows more people to enjoy Lumia innovations and Microsoft services similar to those offered in high-end Lumia smartphones, the release added.

"The affordable smartphone segment is growing exponentially, driven primarily by youth who are constantly looking out for smartphones with power-packed features at affordable prices," Viral Oza, Director-Marketing, Nokia India, a subsidiary of Microsoft Mobiles Oy, said.

Samsung has launched its new Galaxy Alpha with a metal frame, in a bid to boost sales after the plastic design of its smartphones has been blamed for the company’s recent struggles.

The Wednesday launch of the latest Galaxy smartphone comes after a difficult second quarter for Samsung. While overall smartphones sales grew by almost 27 percent, Samsung’s shipments dropped. In May, the company also appointed a new head of its design team.

Samsung has pitched the Galaxy Alpha with its metal frame as a new start, and the design as something “entirely new” compared to the design of its existing products, which have been justifiably criticized for looking cheap irrespective of what they cost.

However, in reality the shape of the home button still makes it look very much like a Samsung smartphone, and the plastic back has inherited the dimpled design of the Galaxy S5. For some, the changes Samsung has made aren’t nearly big enough.

“Overall it’s a good phone but I was disappointed with the design, even with the metal frame it feels too plastic,” said Francisco Jeronimo, research director for European mobile devices at IDC.

Samsung has also decided to make the Galaxy Alpha thin and light: it weighs just 115 grams and is 6.7 millimeters thick.

Under the hood, the smartphone is based on Android 4.4.4 and powered by an Exynos processor with four ARM Cortex-A15 cores running at 1.8GHz and four Cortex-A7 cores running at 1.3GHz. The screen measures 4.7 inches and has a 1280 by 720 pixel resolution.

The smartphone also has a 12-megapixel camera on the back and a 2.1-megapixel front camera. It has 2GB of RAM and 32GB of integrated storage, but no microSD card slot. The LTE connection supports download speeds up to 300Mbps, as long as there is a network that can handle it as well.

 Pope calls on Ban Ki-moon, UN secretary general, to consider the tears and the heartfelt cries of despair of religious minorities and end the humanitarian tragedy

David Cameron has broken off his holiday to lead the government's response to the Iraq crisis as Europe and the US stepped up their humanitarian support to the persecuted religious minorities stranded in northern Iraq.

Mr Cameron is chairing a meeting of the government's Cobra emergency committee this afternoon after returning earlier than expected from his holiday in Portugal.

 In an interview with Sky News, Iain Duncan Smith, Work and Pensions Secretary, said: "Why bring MPs back? The argument appears to be that when events stir the public conscience and the men in khaki are on high alert, Westminster simply must express itself.

"Even if no one offers anything workable to be done, there are plenty of things to be said."

European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton is ready to call a special foreign ministers' meeting as early as this week and is talking to EU governments about it, a spokesman said.
Meanwhile Justine Greening, International Development Secretary, said there had been "five successful air drops" to the region since Tuesday night.
Thousands more poured across a bridge into Iraq's autonomous Kurdish region on Wednesday after trekking into Syria to escape, most with nothing but the clothes they wore.

Some women carried exhausted children, weeping as they arrived to the relative safety of Iraqi Kurdistan.

But there are still large numbers on the mountain, said 45-year-old Mahmud Bakr.

"Many of them are elderly; they cannot walk this distance," Bakr told AFP.

"My father Khalaf is 70 years old - he cannot make this journey. But up there, there is very little food and no medicine," he said.

UN minority rights expert Rita Izsak has warned they face "a mass atrocity and potential genocide within days or hours".

In a letter to Ban Ki-moon, the Pope issued a heartfelt plea to the UN secretary-general to help the stranded refugees.

Pope Francis said: "I write to you, Mr Secretary-General, and place before you the tears, the suffering and the heartfelt cries of despair of Christians and other religious minorities of the beloved land of Iraq.

As an election campaigner, Narendra Modi promised sweeping market reforms to revive India's economy and put the country to work. As prime minister, he has dismayed admirers, apparently reverting to the script of the hapless government he defeated.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi waves to supporters during a public rally in Kargil. (AFP Photo)

To some of the economists and business leaders who as his campaign cheerleaders dared to dream of a Thatcherite revolution, he seems not to be listening. Three months after his win, it is dawning on them that their views count for little.

"As of now, the momentum is lost. They might still recover it, but we have lost the moment," said Bibek Debroy, a prominent economist who co-wrote a book laying out a reform agenda that the new prime minister himself launched in June.

Debroy told Reuters that so far there had been no signs of the promised change at institutions sapped by graft and over-regulation that many Indians have grown to revile.

Back in the heady days of the election campaign, Modi and his supporters seemed much more in tune, all lambasting the last centre-left government for years of waste and policy paralysis and building expectations of a regime of "minimum government and maximum governance" that would unshackle key sectors of the economy from the state.

But now there is a sense that the 63-year-old Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) strongman, who made his reputation putting his home state Gujarat on a high growth path, has somehow stumbled in New Delhi.

To be fair, the government has a five-year term to achieve Modi's goal of transforming India into an economic and military power able to withstand the rise of China on its doorstep.

On Friday, Modi will make his first Independence Day speech from the ramparts of the Red Fort in Old Delhi, and the expectation within his party is that he may use the occasion to announce bold changes that have so far been absent.

According to economists at HSBC, the government has already moved with "unaccustomed alacrity" on a number of fronts, such as opening up the state railways to foreign investment and providing new guidelines for a more streamlined bureaucracy.

Apparently, having an intact hymen is now a job requirement. Women hoping to become teachers in Brazil are now being asked to undergo gynecological exams in order to verify that they are “healthy.”

Working in the education system is a coveted job in the South American country and the Brazilian government has reportedly required this kind of testing since 2012 for women hoping to enter the field. Prospective female teachers must either have a pap smear and be screened for STDs or, if they’re under the age of 25, must provide a doctor’s note confirming they aren’t sexually active.

While the tests have been in place for years, the Sao Paulo Public Prosecutor’s Office is now investigating why the tests are necessary for women to obtain teaching jobs and whether the invasion of privacy is legal under Brazil’s constitution. The department requires employees undergo other tests such as mammograms for women over 40 years old and prostate exams for men over 40 years old in order to ensure candidates are able to maintain their positions long-term, but the intimate nature of the tests required for females is sparking outrage amongst women’s rights groups.

This isn’t the first time Brazil’s gotten in trouble for its “virginity tests.” The state of Bahia had the same requirement for women hoping to join the state police force, but suspended those tests last year after encountering plenty of public criticism.

Most pageants may judge a woman’s beauty at face value, but not this one.

In Brazil, the “Miss Bumbum” contest is a nationwide annual undertaking to find the best derriere. This year's 27 contestants, who represent the country’s different states, were announced last week.

“Miss Bumbum 2014” will start in São Paulo on August 11. Brazilians have until November to vote online and determine the 15 finalists for the finale. This year the pageant will have a historic first after twins Rafaella and Graziella Fornazieri, representing Alagoas and Ácre respectively, entered the contest.
Dai Macedo, a 25-year-old model with a 42-inch bottom, was crowned “Miss Bumbum 2013.”

"It's a lot of work, a lot of devotion," Macedo told Agence France-Presse by way of an interpreter after winning the title. "I denied myself a lot of things. No nightclubs. No sweets. I went to the gym Saturdays and Sundays."

The winner of the pageant receives 50,000 reais (approx. $22,000) in endorsement deals and instant celebrity in Brazil.

No sportsperson has been named for the prestigious Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna while 15, including cricketer Ravichandran Ashwin, were on Tuesday recommended for the Arjuna Award.

The 12-member selection committee, headed by legendary cricketer Kapil Dev, decided not to name any sportsperson out of the seven candidates for the Khel Ratna at a meeting in New Delhi.

This is the third time no sportsperson has been named for the Khel Ratna since the inception of the country's highest sporting award in 1991.

Besides Ashwin, the other 14 recommended for the Arjuna Award were Akhilesh Varma (archery), Tintu Luka (athletics), H N Girisha (paralympics), V Diju (badminton), Geetu Ann Jose (basketball), Jai Bhagwan (boxing), Anirban Lahiri (golf), Mamta Pujari (kabaddi), Saji Thomas (rowing), Heena Sidhu (shooting), Anaka Alankamony (squash), Tom Joseph (volleyball), Renubala Chanu (weightlifting) and Sunil Rana (wrestling).

"The selection panel examined the seven names placed before them for the consideration of Khel Ratna but none of them were deserving enough to get the nod," a selection panel member told PTI on the condition of anonymity.

"We discussed each and every seven names for the Khel Ratna Award. The longest discussion was in case of on golfer Jeev Milkha Singh after Kapil mentioned his name but ultimately the panel decided against his name," the member said.

It is also learnt that Somdev Devvarman's 2011 Arjuna Award went against him while considering his name for the Khel Ratna as some panel members felt that he has not achieved much success after that year.

The selection panel members for the Khel Ratna and Arjuna Award included the likes of Anju Bobby George and Kunjarani Devi, both  of the highest sporting honour themselves, two mediapersons and three from the government side, including Sports Authority of India Director General Jiji Thomson.
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Former boxing promoter Frank Maloney is undergoing a sex change, according to a newspaper interview published Sunday.

The 61-year-old Maloney, who guided Lennox Lewis to the world heavyweight title in the 1990s, is now living as a woman by the name of Kellie, Britain's Sunday Mirror reported.

The twice-married Maloney ended an illustrious career last October and told the paper about undergoing hormone treatment for two years in preparation for a sex change operation.

"I was born in the wrong body and I have always known I was a woman," Maloney was quoted as saying by the Mirror. "I can't keep living in the shadows. That is why I am doing what I am today. Living with the burden any longer would have killed me.

"What was wrong at birth is now being medically corrected. I have a female brain. I knew I was different from the minute I could compare myself to other children. I wasn't in the right body. I was jealous of girls."

Maloney said a boxing career helped bring in enough money to walk away from the sport and live a new life as a woman.

"It was something that I was determined to suppress and keep wrapped up because I didn't want to be seen different," Maloney said.

"(Boxing) took up all of my time. It gave me a complete focus. It was something I thought I had to be successful in because I thought if I failed in that, where do I go?"