Prime Minister Narendra Modi began his "path-breaking" visit to Israel on Tuesday with his counterpart Benjamin Netanyahu extending an extraordinary welcome and asserting that "even sky is not the limit" in the cooperation between the two countries.

Modi, the first Indian prime minister to visit the Jewish nation, was received at the Ben Gurion airport by Netanyahu who said in Hindi, "aapka swagat hai, mere dost" (welcome, my friend).

Describing Modi as "a great leader of India and a great world leader", Netanyahu said, "we have been waiting for the last 70 years" for a visit by an Indian prime minister.

Embracing each other twice, the two prime ministers, who spoke briefly at the airport, vowed to give a push to the bilateral relationship in all aspects and jointly deal with the common threats like terrorism.

"We love India," said the Israeli prime minister who rolled out a red carpet welcome to Modi and giving him an honour which is only accorded to a US President and the Pope.

Netanyahu's entire cabinet was there to receive Modi, who was wearing a cream colour 'band gala' suit, at the airport where the Indian prime minister was also accorded a Guard of Honour.

"I remember what you told me in our first meeting – when it comes to India and Israel relations, the sky is the limit.

But now, prime minister, let me add even sky is not the limit.

We are also cooperating in space," Netanyahu told Modi.

Talking about the vast possibilities of cooperation between the two countries, he said, "We can do even more, even better together."

The mass extinction event 66 million years ago that wiped out three-fourths of the life on Earth, including dinosaurs, helped pave way for the swift rise of frogs, a study has found.

Researchers found a new tree of life for frogs that helps solve longstanding riddles about relationships and sheds light on the history and pace of frog evolution.

The analyses showed three major lineages of modern frogs – about 88 per cent of living species – appeared simultaneously, evolving on the heels of the extinction event that marked the end of the Cretaceous Period and the beginning of the Paleogene 66 million years ago.

Previous research suggested a more ancient origin of many of these modern frog groups.

“Frogs have been around for well over 200 million years, but this study shows it wasn't until the extinction of the dinosaurs that we had this burst of frog diversity that resulted in the vast majority of frogs we see today,” said David Blackburn, from the Florida Museum of Natural History in the US.

The speed at which frogs diversified after the asteroid or comet impact that triggered a massive die-off of most plant and animal life suggests that the survivors were probably filling up new niches on Earth, Blackburn said.

“We think there were massive alterations of ecosystems at that time, including widespread destruction of forests,” he said.

“But frogs are pretty good at eking out a living in microhabitats, and as forests and tropical ecosystems rebounded, they quickly took advantage of those new ecological opportunities,” he added.

Frogs rose to become one of the most diverse groups of vertebrates, with more than 6,700 described species.
However, sparse genetic data has hindered scientists from reliably tracing their evolutionary history and the links between frog families.

Researchers tackled the mystery of frog evolution with a dataset seven times larger than that used in prior research.
The team sampled a core set of 95 nuclear genes from 156 frog species, combining this with previously published genetic data on an additional 145 species to produce the strongest- supported evolutionary tree, or phylogeny, to date.
The tree represents all 55 known families of frogs and generates a new timeline of frog evolution.

The researchers then used fossil records to translate genetic differences between frog lineages into dates at which they likely diverged from one another.

The analyses pointed to a simultaneous evolution of the three major frog clades – Hyloidea, Microhylidae and Natatanura.The close resemblance of distantly related frog species around the world, a factor of frog evolution and biology that has long confounded scientists, might be illuminated by the simultaneous evolution of major frog clades, Blackburn said.

Extinction event that wiped out dinosaurs helped frogs evolveAfter the extinction event decimated ecosystems and stimulated a reset, modern frogs may have faced similar evolutionary paths.

Scientists have designed a new nanomaterial that can reflect or transmit light on demand and may be applied on spacesuits to protects astronauts from harmful cosmic radiation.

The material is so thin that hundreds of layers can fit on the tip of a needle and can be applied to any surface, researchers said.

“Our invention has a lot of potential applications, such as protecting astronauts or satellites with an ultra-thin film that can be adjusted to reflect various dangerous ultraviolet or infrared radiation in different environments,” said Mohsen Rahmani from Australian National University (ANU).

“Our technology significantly increases the resistance threshold against harmful radiation compared to today's technologies, which rely on absorbing radiation with thick filters,” Rahmani said.

The material can also be tailored for other light spectrums including visible light, which opened up a whole array of innovations, including architectural and energy saving applications.

“You could have a window that can turn into a mirror in a bathroom on demand, or control the amount of light passing through your house windows in different seasons,” said Andrey Miroshnichenko, associate professor at ANU.

The material is cost effective and confined temperature control such as local heating are also feasible.

“Much like your car has a series of parallel resistive wires on the back windscreen to defog the rear view, a similar arrangement could be used with our invention to confine the temperature control to a precise location,” said Lei Xu from ANU.

The study was published in the journal Advanced Functional Materials.

The BJP on Tuesday alleged that over 2000 Muslims attacked Hindu families in the North 24 Parganas district of West Bengal and its offices at several places were set on fire.

Accusing the state police of failing to control the situation, party general secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya, who is also in charge of the state, urged Home Minister Rajnath Singh to intervene in the matter.

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has said communal violence broke out over an “objectionable” post on Facebook. The Centre too has sent 300 paramilitary personnel to the state.
Vijayvargiya blamed Muslims for the violence in his letter to Singh.

“More than 2000 Muslims attacked Hindu families. Bombs went off at many places and information of Hindu sisters and daughters being raped have also been received. Local workers (of BJP) have said many facilities including five BJP offices were set on fire,” he wrote.

As the troubled spot is adjacent to Bangladesh, there is a possibility that “outsiders” were involved in this violence, he said.

“The local police appears unable to control the situation,” he said.

Banerjee said in Kolkata that clashes between members of two communities broke out in Baduria in the Basirhat sub- division of the district over the post.

Earlier, too, the BJP had accused groups of Muslims affiliated to the ruling TMC of targeting Hindus in the state where it is working overtime to emerge as a potent political force.

It has projected itself as the protector of Hindu interests and accused Banerjee of pandering to Muslims.
The West Bengal chief minister has stoutly refuted BJP's allegations and accused it of “playing religious politics” to polarise votes for political benefits.

Communal violence broke out in North 24 Parganas district of West Bengal over an “objectionable” post on Facebook, prompting the Centre to rush 300 paramilitary personnel on Tuesday.

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said in Kolkata that the clashes between members of two communities have broken out in Baduria in Basirhat sub-division of the district over the “objectionable” post.

Official sources in Delhi said the clashes were triggered last evening over the Facebook post about a holy site.

They said three companies (about 300 personnel) of paramilitary forces were being rushed to the state to assist the local police in containing the situation.

The Kalinga Stadium in Bhubaneswar, recently revamped and inaugurated by Odisha CM Naveen Patnaik, is all set to host the five-day athletics extravaganza – 22nd Asian Athletics Championships starting Wednesday.

More than 800 athletes from 45 countries will vie for medals across 42 disciplines in the athletics event. The event will help athletes qualify for the 2017 IAAF World Championships in London. Winners will get a direct entry into the World Championships. India will be represented by 95 athletes.

Ahead of the championships that will start with the men’s 100m sprint at 8:30a.m. on Thursday, the stadium will host a grand opening ceremony on Wednesday.  

The opening ceremony will have more than 500 artistes showcasing Odisha’s heritage, culture and the evolution of ‘The Temple City’. The cultural evening will include a series of performances on the state’s symbol ‘sun’ and the Kalinga war.

Singer and music composer Shankar Mahadevan is also expected to perform at the event with his band.

The mascot for the Asian Athletics Championships is Olly Turtle, representing the endangered Olive Ridley sea turtles.

The turtles swim to the state’s Rushikulya and Gahirmatha beaches for their annual nesting.

Odisha is the third state after New Delhi (1989) and Pune (2013) to host the Asian Athletics Championships.

A genetic change associated with shorter stature and increased risk of arthritis might have helped our ancestors survive the Ice Age, a study has showed.

The findings showed that mutations in the gene called GDF5 resulted in shorter bones that led to a compact body structure while reducing the risk of bone fracture from falling.

Thus, it also favoured early humans to better withstand frostbite as well as helped them migrate from Africa to colder northern climates between 50,000 and 100,000 years ago.

These advantages in dealing with chilly temperatures and icy surfaces may have outweighed the threat of osteoarthritis, which usually occurs after a prime reproductive age, the researchers said.

"The variant that decreases height is lowering the activity of GDF5 in the growth plates of the bone. Interestingly, the region that harbours this variant is closely linked to other mutations that affect GDF5 activity in the joints, increasing the risk of osteoarthritis in the knee and hip," said Terence Capellini, Associate Professor at the Harvard University.

For the study, published in the journal Nature, the team examined gene GDF5 — first linked to skeletal growth in the early 1990s — to learn more about how the DNA sequences surrounding GDF5 might affect the gene's expression. 

They identified a single nucleotide change that is highly prevalent in Europeans and Asians but rarely occurs in Africans. 

Introducing this nucleotide change into laboratory mice revealed that it decreased the activity of GDF5 in the growth plates of the long bones of foetal mice.

"The potential medical impact of the finding is very interesting because so many people are affected," said David Kingsley, Professor at the Stanford University. 

"This is an incredibly prevalent, and ancient, variant. Many people think of osteoarthritis as a kind of wear-and-tear disease, but there's clearly a genetic component at work here as well. Now we've shown that positive evolutionary selection has given rise to one of the most common height variants and arthritis risk factors known in human populations," Kingsley said.

Opposing the implementation of Goods and Services Tax (GST), West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday said the new indirect tax is a "jailbandi for businessmen" after the "note-bandi" move.

"Notebandi was a mistake and GST is a jailbandi for businessmen," she told reporters at the state Secretariat – Nabanna.

Terming the GST as a mess, Banerjee said her government is with the people.

"We are always with the people. What will impact common people will impact us as well. I have maintained this all along, that GST is a mess."

"People are ridiculing GST. The regime has been rolled out without preparedness and also without being ready for impact. We had told them that before rolling it out, people should be taken into confidence," she said.

Banerjee also said not only the price of LPG cylinders went up but prices of many things also shot up.
 

Veteran Indian-origin radio presenter Ravi Naidoo Govender has been fired by South Africa's public broadcaster for allegedly making derogatory remarks on his Facebook page against President Jacob Zuma.

Lotus FM radio presenter Govender caused a stir after posting comments on the social media platform following Zuma's address at the African National Congress' National Policy Conference here.

"Just heard a Zombie Zuma giving a speech on the news. Massacring the beautiful English language… Uneducated creature. Even the other moron (Zimbabwe President Robert) Mugabe speaks much better," Govender, who is also a columnist and community worker, wrote.

The controversial remarks led to online reactions with some people supporting his freedom of speech while some condemning him.

Following the outrage, Govender tendered his apologies and said the reference to Zuma being a 'zombie' was due to his anger at the "dead" way in which he had delivered his address in English.

However, one of Zuma's sons Edward Zuma, speaking on behalf of the entire Zuma family, refused to accept the apology and threatened to lay charges against Govender.

The South African Broadcasting Corporation, which owns Lotus FM, yesterday distanced itself from the comments and cancelled Govender's on Monday, claiming his comments had brought the organisation into disrepute.

There have already been many calls for listeners of and advertisers on Lotus FM to boycott the station, although Govender only did a weekly show on the station.

While there was support for Govender's right to freedom of speech, there were those with a view that he had crossed the line with his choice of derogatory adjectives to describe both Zuma and Mugabe.

Even though the comments were made on Govender's personal Facebook page, analysts pointed out that there have been many legal cases where people were fired from their jobs because of their behaviour in public or on social media which could cause harm to their employer or dent their image.

"He could have expressed his view in a less derogatory way and I don't think his retrospective apology will hold any water if it goes to court," said a lawyer who works closely with cases at the South African Human Rights Commission, on condition of anonymity.

Mumbai Metro One notched a significant milestone on Tuesday carrying its 300 millionth passenger since its launch 1,123 days ago, an official said.

June 28 also saw the metro train service marking its highest so far weekday ridership of 3.71 lakh passengers after the previous high of 3.68 lakh recorded on September 21, 2016.

Mumbai Metro One took a little over 13 months, or 398 days, to carry its first 100 million passengers on July 10, 2015, followed by 388 days for the second 100 million on August 1, 2016, and only 337 days to ferry the third 100 millionth passenger on Tuesday.

"We have redefined Mass Rapid Transit System (MRTS) commuter experience in the country. As a transport utility, we have sought to delight our commuters with value-added services, in addition to comfort and safety that have become synonymous with Mumbai Metro One," said a spokesperson.

The metro train service has also earned commuters' trust resulting in increased ridership via attractive deals from partner merchants for last-mile connectivity from all stations and a bouquet of various offerings.

The service has witnessed increase in ridership between Andheri-DN Nagar, Azad Nagar, Versova, on one side, and between Andheri-Ghatkopar, Western Express Highway, Marol, Chakala and Sakinaka, on the other, that helped it achieve the 300-million mark.

The entire period of 2016-2017 witnessed a 15 per cent growth for the entire 11.40km Versova-Andheri-Ghatkopar corridor, besides high performance levels in punctuality of 99.9 per cent and availability of trains on the 370 daily services on weekdays.

Mumbai Metro One, Maharashtra's first, is ranked as the eighth densest metro corridor in the world, which helped reduce travel time between Ghatkopar-Andheri from 90 minutes to barely a matter of minutes with 12 stations en route.

Mumbai Metro One is a consortium formed by Reliance Infrastructure Ltd, Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority and Veolia Transport SA of France.
 

The unique wing features of owls that make their flight silent could hold the key to making aircraft and wind turbines quieter, suggests new research.

A team of researchers from Japan and China studied the serrations in the leading edge of owls' wings, gaining new insight into how they work to make the birds' flight silent.

The results, published in the journal Bioinspiration and Biomimetics, pointed towards potential mechanisms for noise suppression in wind turbines, aircraft, multi-rotor drones and other machines.

"Owls are known for silent flight, owing to their unique wing features, which are normally characterised by leading-edge serrations, trailing-edge fringes and velvet-like surfaces," said lead author Hao Liu, Professor at Chiba University in Japan. 

"We wanted to understand how these features affect aerodynamic force production and noise reduction, and whether they could be applied elsewhere," Liu added.

The researchers analysed owl-inspired feather wing models with and without leading edge serrations, by combining large-eddy simulations — a mathematical model for turbulence used in computational fluid dynamics to simulate air flows — and Particle-Image Velocimetry, or PIV (an optical method of flow visualisation used in education and research), and force measurements in a low-speed wind tunnel.

They discovered leading-edge serrations can passively control the transition between laminar, or streamline air flow, and turbulent air flow over the upper wing surface, at angles of attack (AoA) between zero and 20 degrees. 

This means they play a crucial role in aerodynamic force and sound production.

"These owl-inspired leading edge serrations, if applied to wind turbine blades, aircraft wings or drone rotors, could provide a useful biomimetic design for flow control and noise reduction," Liu said. 

The Turkish Airlines said on Tuesday that the US will lift the ban on electronics on flights from Istanbul from Wednesday.

"As of tomorrow, we will put another ban, another crisis behind," Ilker Ayci, the airlines' chairman, told reporters in Istanbul.

US security officials would carry out inspections on the security measures at Istanbul's Ataturk Airport prior to the first flight to New York on Wednesday morning, the airlines' press office said. 

Turkey started using US-manufactured tomography machines for luggage scan on a test basis in June end, Xinhua news agency reported.

In March, Washington banned devices larger than a smartphone in cabins on US-bound flights from 10 airports in eight countries, including Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait, Morocco, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Turkey, citing the threat of bombs hidden in the electronics.

The US first lifted the ban on flights from Abu Dhabi on Sunday.

Top shuttlers, including Parupalli Kashyap and HS Prannoy, are waiting for their passports to fly out of the country on Thursday to participate in the upcoming tournaments in Canada and US.

Commonwealth Games champion Kashyap, Prannoy and doubles specialist N Sikki Reddy, who were playing at the Australia Super Series last month, had applied for the New Zealand visa a week back but they are yet to receive their passports.

Kashyap on Tuesday took to twitter to request External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and Sports Minister Vijay Goel to look into the matter so that they don't miss the opportunity to play in Canada next week.

“Dear Madam, me, Prannoy and Sikki Reddy applied for New Zealand visa one week back and requested for urgent processing of visa,” Kashyap wrote in the letter which he posted on his twitter handle.

“As we have to leave for tournaments on 6th of July to Canada and US Opens, we require our passports urgently. Ma'am I request you to help us in this matter so that we can travel on 6th July (Thursday),” he wrote.

Last month, Siki Reddy, Prannoy and Summeth Reddy had sought the intervention of Swaraj in getting their passports and visas from the Canadian High Commission.

The Badminton Association of India (BAI) then stepped in and the shuttlers received their passports just a day before they were scheduled to leave for Jakarta to participate in the Indonesia Super Series Premier.

The Canada Open Grand Prix is scheduled to be held from July 11 to 16, while the US Open Grand Prix Gold will be held from July 19-23.

Sevilla on Tuesday announced that it has reached an agreement with Leicester City for the transfer of midfielder Vicente Iborra to the English side.

The Andalusian club confirmed the transfer of the 29-year-old Spaniard on its Twitter account in a move believed to be worth over $15 million, reports Efe.

Iborra is set to sign the contract with the Foxes after passing a medical.

Once a deal is concluded, the midfielder will be allowed to return to Sevilla to bid a public farewell to fans after four seasons with the team.

Iborra won three UEFA Europa League titles and scored 30 goals in 172 matches with the La Liga side.

To provide purified drinking water enriched with necessary minerals to students studying in government schools in Haryana, the state government on Tuesday has decided to install Reverse Osmosis (RO) systems in all government schools of the state.

Initially, this facility would be made available in urban schools from 2018, and later, it would be extended to schools in the rural areas also.

The decision was taken in a meeting presided over by chief minister (CM) Manohar Lal Khattar on Tuesday to review progress of the Centrally sponsored schemes.

An official spokesperson said that the state government is also mulling over installation solar panels on the roof-top of government schools. Solar energy produced there would be utilised to run computers.

While reviewing the schemes, the CM stressed the need to increase the state’s own revenue rather than raising debts from other sources. He also directed constitution of a committee under the chairmanship of the Chief Secretary comprising officers of the Finance Department as members, to find ways to curtail wasteful expenditure and to bring down revenue expenditure.

Khattar also issued directions that all administrative secretaries would prepare realistic proposals before sending these to the Project Approval Board so that funds could be released by the Centre at the earliest.

He also directed them to submit list of those schemes for which funds had not been received from the Centre for the last two years so that the matter could be taken up with the Ministry concerned. He also directed them that the budget under the centrally sponsored scheme should be fully utilised to ensure that development works did not hamper.

It was also directed that provision should be made for a separate budget for implementation of the ambitious Maha Gram Yojna to provide sewerage facility in 126 villages having a population of more than 10,000. The state government is in process of setting up Smart Gram Authority and the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) would also be linked with it.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday arrived in Israel on a historic visit, the first by an Indian premier to the Jewish state, during which he will have in- depth talks with his counterpart Benjamin Netanyahu on issues of mutual and global concerns like terrorism and security.

In a break from protocol, Netanyahu received Modi at the Ben-Gurion International Airport here.

Modi, who was given a red carpet welcome, hugged Netanyahu after descending from the special aircraft.

"My friend, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, welcome to Israel," Netanyahu wrote on his Facebook account.

The national anthem of both the countries were played by the militray band and the two leaders stood side by side. All senior Israeli ministers were at the airport.

The Israeli prime minister will accompany Modi closely throughout his three-day trip – a gesture customarily reserved for US presidents.

Spanish police have detained a radicalised individual suspected of disseminating extremist propaganda of the Islamic State (IS) terror group.

The suspect, a 31-year-old man of Moroccan origin, was arrested on Tuesday in Collado Mediano, a mountain town located in the Madrid region, some 48 km northwest of the Spanish capital. 

According to reports, the suspect used anonymous browsers to access and gather extremist content on encrypted pages in the so-called deep web, which he then propagated in Spain.

Security agents were conducting searches on the man's property to gather potential evidence of his prolific use of social media through which he was suspected of maintaining contacts within Spain as well as abroad. 

Agents from the European Union's law enforcement agency, Europol, participated in the arrest and were working to establish the exact scope of the suspect's international network of contacts. 

The Interior Ministry in a statement highlighted the importance of tackling terrorist propaganda online, considering that groups such as the IS and Al Qaeda boast a multitude of Internet platforms aimed at spreading their message, recruiting and giving orders to would-be militants.

Spain's terror alert status has been at its second-highest level since June 2015.