The Malaysian Insider :: Features
The Malaysian Insider :: Features |
| Investigators turn to final vault at Indian treasure temple Posted: 05 Jul 2011 06:50 AM PDT  Officials said treasure worth more than US$20 billion had been unearthed. — Reuters pic Over the last week a seven-member team of investigators has broken into five of the six secret subterranean vaults piled high with jewels that have lain untouched for hundreds of years. Onlookers and devotees thronged the shrine in the bustling centre of Thiruvananthapuram, the capital of India's southern Kerala state, as officials said treasure worth more than US$20 billion (RM60 billion) had been found — more than India's education budget. Sacks filled with diamonds were piled next to tons of gold coins and jewellery, media reported, in the vaults of the 16th century Sree Padmanabhaswamy temple, the royal chapel of the former rulers of Travancore, now part of Kerala state. "The current market value of the articles found so far by the committee members would be roughly 900 billion rupees," one temple official who was not authorised to speak to the media told Reuters. Investigators searched the vaults to draw up an inventory of the riches because of worry about security but they had no idea of the amount of treasure they would find. Estimates of the haul's worth range across billions of dollars, with investigators unwilling to disclose the official amount and the ambiguity involved in valuing the priceless jewels and gold coins by weight. Police set up a dedicated control room close to the temple yesterday, as state Chief Minister Oommen Chandy pledged full state security for the hoard and promised it would remain the property of the temple after an inventory was made. "We are ready to protect the temple wealth. We will chart out measures for the permanent security in consultation with the Travancore Royal family, which administers the temple now, and the chief priest of the temple," Chandy told reporters. Historians supported the estimates of the treasure's value, noting the lucrative trade routes that passed through the region for many centuries. "Traders, who used to come from other parts of the country and abroad for buying spices and other commodities, used to make handsome offerings to the deity for not only his blessings but also to please the then rulers," said P.J. Cherian, director of Kerala Council for Historic Research. As estimates of the treasure's worth rise, a fierce debate is growing regarding what to do with the discovery, in a country where 450 million people live in poverty. Leaders of the Hindu community want the wealth to be invested in the temple, while many intellectuals, including former Supreme Court judge Justice V. R. Krishna Iyer have suggested it should be used for the public good. The government has said it would adhere to the Supreme Court's ruling on ownership of the treasure found in the temple, which is still controlled by the royal family unlike other temples in Kerala which are managed by the government. The vaults were searched after a lawyer petitioned the country's top court to order the government to take over the temple as it did not have adequate security. Several temples in India have billions of dollars worth of wealth as devotees donate gold and other precious objects as gifts to spiritual or religious institutions that run hospitals, schools and colleges. The Tirumala temple in eastern Andhra Pradesh state is reported to have 3,000kg of gold, a third of which it deposited with the State Bank of India last year, while spiritual guru Sai Baba, who died in April, left behind an estimated US$9 billion estate. Yoga guru Baba Ramdev, who staged a fast against corruption last month that lead to protests against the government, has built a US$40 million-a-year global empire through yoga and various spiritual products and services. — Reuters Full Feed Generated by Get Full RSS, sponsored by USA Best Price. |
| Finger, penis length may be linked, says study Posted: 05 Jul 2011 04:45 AM PDT  The study found that men whose index fingers are shorter than their ring fingers may have longer penises. — Reuters file pic Men whose index fingers are shorter than their ring fingers may have longer penises, according to a South Korean study published in the Asian Journal of Andrology. "According to our data ... the shorter index (second) finger than ring (fourth) finger you have, the longer stretched penile length you have," wrote Tae Beom Kim at the urology department of Gachon University Gil Hospital in Incheon, South Korea, in reply to questions from Reuters. Previous studies have shown strong evidence that prenatal testosterone may determine finger development as well as penile length, a relationship that Kim and his colleagues launched a study to focus on. The study involved 144 men suffering from urological problems that did not affect the length of their penis, which was measured under anaesthesia. The measurements were later compared to the difference in length between their second and fourth fingers on the right hand. Previous studies have shown that the right hand may be more sensitive to the influence of testosterone. The so-called "digit ratio" in this study refers to the length of the index finger divided by the length of the ring finger. The lower the ratio, the study suggests, the longer the penis may be. The findings offered "circumstantial evidence that prenatal testosterone is responsible for both traits (penile length and digit formation,)" said Denise McQuade at Skidmore College in New York, who was not involved in the study. "Digit ratio is non-invasive and easy to measure, yet may provide clues about an individual's prenatal history. Thus, combined with other information, digit ratio offers the potential for clinical usefulness," wrote McQuade in an email reply to questions from Reuters. Female index and ring fingers tend to be about the same length, she added. A study last year said that men with long index fingers have a lower risk of prostate cancer. Researchers at Britain's Warwick University and the Institute of Cancer Researcher found that men whose index finger is longer than their ring finger were one-third less likely to develop the disease than men with the opposite pattern of finger length. — Reuters Full Feed Generated by Get Full RSS, sponsored by USA Best Price. |
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