BJP central panel to decide from which seat Narendra Modi will fight Lok Sabha polls

 BJP's central election committee will decide from which seat its prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi will contest the forthcoming Lok Sabha polls, BJP chief Rajnath Singh said today.

"These things are decided by party's Central Election Committee and any individual cannot say whether he can fight from a place A or B," Singh said at a press conference here.

He was replying to a question on possibility of Modi fighting the next Lok Sabha polls from Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, a state where the party is eyeing electoral gains.

To another question on the Gujarat Chief Minister, he said, "The fact cannot be denied that if there is most popular leader at this time in the country, it is Narendra Modi." When asked that BJP had lost allies after Modi's elevation in the party, he indicated that there will be pre-poll and post-poll alliances.

Singh asserted that senior party leader L K Advani had no problem with Modi's elevation.

"He is our senior most leader, our guardian and our everything. He has every right to point it out to me (referring to Advani's recent letter)...he has no grudge against Modi. You must have seen that after Modi's name was declared, he expressed happiness, during a visit to Chhattisgarh," Singh said.

He sought to downplay the absence of Modi and some other Chief Ministers of BJP-ruled states from the National Integration Council meeting in Delhi today.

"Leader of Opposition, Lok Sabha, Sushma Swaraj was there...whatever our top leaders say, for us that is the party's line," he said.

To another question, he said the party will soon make its vision document public, under which it will spell out how it intends to take the country forward, among other issues.

When asked if Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal would be made the NDA convenor after JDU chief Sharad Yadav's party parted ways with BJP and the post fell vacant, he said Advani, who is NDA chairman, can give answer this question.
SOURCE

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Pope Francis Gays, Abortion Too Much Of Catholic Church's Obsession

Pope Francis faulted the Roman Catholic church for focusing too much on gays, abortion and contraception, saying the church has become "obsessed" with those issues to the detriment of its larger mission to be "home for all," according to an extensive new interview published Thursday.

The church can share its views on homosexuality, abortion and other issues, but should not "interfere spiritually" with the lives of gays and lesbians, the pope added in the interview, which was published in La Civilta Cattolica, a Rome-based Jesuit journal.

“We have to find a new balance, otherwise even the moral edifice of the church is likely to fall like a house of cards, losing the freshness and fragrance of the Gospel," Francis said in the interview.

"The church has sometimes locked itself up in small things, in small-minded rules,' Francis said. "The people of God want pastors, not clergy acting like bureaucrats or government officials."

The 12,000-word interview ranges widely, touching upon the pope's personal faith, the role of women and nuns in the church, Latin Mass and even the pope's favorite artists.

"He's very open honest and candid like we have not seen in a pope before. He critiques people who focus too much on tradition, who want to go to time in the past that does not exist anymore," said Fr. James Martin of America Magazine, which published an English translation of the interview. "He reminds people that thinking with the church, in obedience, does not just mean thinking with the hierarchy, that church is a lot bigger than its hierarchy."

In the interview, Francis does not come out in support of gay marriage, abortion rights or contraception, saying that church positions on those issues are "clear," but he added that the "the proclamation of the saving love of God comes before moral and religious imperatives.”

“A person once asked me, in a provocative manner, if I approved of homosexuality,” he said to Jesuit priest Fr. Antonio Spadaro, who conducted the interview for La Civilta Cattolica. “I replied with another question: ‘Tell me: when God looks at a gay person, does he endorse the existence of this person with love, or reject and condemn this person?’ We must always consider the person.”

The comments on gays and lesbians follow up on remarks Francis made aboard the papal airplane in July when asked about gay priests. "Who am I to judge?" the pope then said, in a quote that made international front-page headlines. In Thursday's interview, Francis clarified that those comments were about all gay people and not only priests.

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Apple iPhone 5S & iPhone 5C India price and features

 Apple launched the iPhone 5S & the iPhone 5C amidst huge hype and brouhaha over its features and pricing, most of which were already leaked out pretty accurately.

So we bring to you all the information you would need to know about the iPhone 5S & iPhone 5C.

Apple iPhone 5S Features & Pricing in India

Display & Body

The display on the iPhone 5S remains the same at 4.0 inches with a pixel density of 326 ppi. As expected, the design is also the same as the iPhone 5.

64 bit A7 chip and M7 motion co-processor

The iPhone 5S comes with the new A7 chip which Apple claims to be the world’s first 64 bit desktop-class architecture in a smartphone. Apparently Huawei Ascend D Quad launched in Feb 2012 last year also boasted of a 64 bit chipset.

M7 motion coprocessor gathers data from the accelerometer, gyroscope and compass to offload work from the A7 for improved power efficiency. Apple has allowed developers’ access to the new CoreMotion APIs that take advantage of M7, thus allowing them to create better fitness and activity apps.

Touch ID – Fingerprint Scanner

Built into the home button, Touch ID uses a laser cut sapphire crystal, together with the capacitive touch sensor, to take a high-resolution image at about 550ppi of your fingerprint. Touch ID will allow you to authenticate Appstore purchases and app updates besides providing security lock to the iPhone 5S.

8MP iSight Camera with True Tone Flash

The iPhone 5S boasts of a new 8MP iSight camera, which features a larger f/2.2 aperture and a new, larger sensor with 1.5μ pixels for better sensitivity and low-light performance. The camera has capability to shoot 10 frames-per-second in burst mode, and 120 frames-per-second slow motion video at 720p.

The dual LED Flash, called the True Tone Flash by Apple adjusts colour and intensity for over 1,000 combinations to give better images under dark light conditions.

Colours

The new iPhone 5S now comes in three new different colours called Gold, Silver and Space Grey. Apple has also introduced new leather covers for the device with 6 colours to choose from i.e. beige, black, blue, brown, yellow and red.

iOS 7

The iPhone 5S comes with iOS 7, Apple’s latest redesigned UI along with the option to download the iWorks apps Suite for free which includes iPhoto, iMovie, Pages, Numbers and Keynote apps that are otherwise paid for apps.

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Apple Event Live How To Follow The Big iPhone Unveil As It Happens

At around 10 a.m. PST (1 p.m. ET), CEO Tim Cook will go on stage at Apple's Cupertino, Calif. headquarters to prove that the tech giant still has the mojo to make killer products. The company is widely expected to show off its new lines of iPhones -- a top-of-the-line "iPhone 5S" and a cheaper "iPhone 5C" -- which should go on sale in the coming weeks.

So where can an overcaffeinated Apple fanboy get up-to-the-millisecond coverage of the new gold-colored casings and fingerprint technology that could do away with passcodes? Your best bet is to watch the Apple event live on the company's website. If Apple decides not to livestream the event, as they have occasionally done in the past, USTREAM is a good place to look for unofficial livestreams from Cupertino.

In the absence of a video stream, The Verge, Engadget and Gizmodo historically have had great liveblogs. We'll also be liveblogging the event ourselves as it happens, which you can check out below. And of course, check out HuffPost Tech for full coverage of the every new product announced.

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Miley Cyrus' 'Wrecking Ball' Video Makes Its Debut

Miley Cyrus debuted the music video to her song "Wrecking Ball" on Monday morning, offering fans a more vulnerable look at the singer.

The "Wrecking Ball" video is directed by the ever-controversial fashion photographer Terry Richardson, best known for boundary pushing editorials in glossy magazines. Cyrus is seen emoting in a cinderblock diorama of sorts, stripping down and riding a not-very-clean looking wrecking ball and even tearing up. When she's wearing clothes, she's dressed in white — a look the singer has stayed true to for most of this album cycle.

The track is the latest single off of Cyrus' upcoming album, "BANGERZ." Due out on Oct. 4, "BANGERZ" is led by Cyrus' hit single, "We Can't Stop."

"We Can't Stop" has offered its fair share of controversy for the 20-year-old singer. Cyrus made waves with the lyrics of the song, as the party track alluded to drug usage, as well as the accompanying visuals, as the music video showed a scantily clad Cyrus doing the twerking dance moves she is now famous for.

Cyrus performed the song at MTV's Video Music Awards last month, teaming up with singer Robin Thicke for her own track as well as his summer hit, "Blurred Lines." The performance caused a stir as Cyrus was shown in a nude-colored barely there ensemble, twerking on Thicke.

After rising to fame with her title role on the Disney Channel show "Hannah Montana," Cyrus entered the music business with early hits like "The Climb" and "Party in the U.S.A." Cyrus' fourth studio album, "BANGERZ," shows a departure from the singer's previously family-friendly image.

"I feel like I can really be myself," Cyrus told Billboard about her album. "I really have more of a connection of who I am, and I feel like I can maybe express that more in my music now."

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Scientists Assess Damage From Yosemite-area Fire

Scientists are assessing the damage from a massive wildfire burning around Yosemite National Park, laying plans to protect habitat and waterways as the fall rainy season approaches.

Members of the federal Burned Area Emergency Response team were hiking the rugged Sierra Nevada terrain Saturday even as thousands of firefighters still were battling the four-week-old blaze, now the third-largest wildfire in modern California history.

Federal officials have amassed a team of 50 scientists, more than twice what is usually deployed to assess wildfire damage. With so many people assigned to the job, they hope to have a preliminary report ready in two weeks so remediation can start before the first storms, Alex Janicki, the Stanislaus National Forest BAER response coordinator, said.

Team members are working to identify areas at the highest risk for erosion into streams, the Tuolumne River and the Hetch Hetchy Reservoir, San Francisco's famously pure water supply.

The wildfire started in the Stanislaus National Forest on Aug. 17 when a hunter's illegal fire swept out of control and has burned 394 square miles of timber, meadows and sensitive wildlife habitat.

It has cost more than $89 million to fight, and officials say it will cost tens of millions of dollars more to repair the environmental damage alone.

About 5 square miles of the burned area is in the watershed of the municipal reservoir serving 2.8 million people - the only one in a national park.

"That's 5 square miles of watershed with very steep slopes," Janicki said "We are going to need some engineering to protect them."

So far the water remains clear despite falling ash, and the city water utility has a six month supply in reservoirs closer to the Bay Area.

The BAER team will be made up of hydrologists, botanists, archeologists, biologists, geologists and soil scientists from the U.S. Forest Service, Yosemite National Park, the Natural Resource Conservation and the U.S. Geological Survey.

The team also will look at potential for erosion and mudslides across the burn area, assess what's in the path and determine what most needs protecting.

"We're looking to evaluate what the potential is for flooding across the burned area," said Alan Gallegos, a team member and geologist with the Sierra National Forest. "We evaluate the potential for hazard and look at what's at risk -- life, property, cultural resources, species habitat. Then we come up with a list of treatments."

In key areas with a high potential for erosion ecologists can dig ditches to divert water, plant native trees and grasses, and spray costly hydro-mulch across steep canyon walls in the most critical places.

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