WEEK-OLD BABY UNDERGOES SEX CHANGE OPERATION IN RAJKOT

RAJKOT: Seven days after a boy was born to a city-based family, doctors have medically proved that the baby is a girl. The baby went through an operation on Wednesday for a sex change.
After a sonography, city-based doctor Dr Atul Hirani confirmed that it was a baby girl. The baby had male genital organs but female sexual organs inside the body.
The family realized that something was amiss and took the baby to a paediatrician and after various tests. After consultation and discussion with doctors, they were convinced to take a practical decision for the better future of the baby. Had the family chosen to keep the baby as it is, it could have led to psychological and social problems for the baby. The family belongs to middle class strata.
A team of doctors lead by Dr Rohit Thakkar and five others, including plastic surgeon Dr Girish Amlani, urologist Dr Sanjay Popat, general surgeon Dr Yogesh Raichura, paediatrician Dr Nayan Kalavadiya and Dr Sukhdev Chandarana, operated upon the seven-day-old baby for genital reconstruction in a three-hour operation. The baby will be able to live a normal life as a female child.

WORLD'S OLDEST PERSON GERTRUDE BAINES DIES AT 115

LOS ANGELES: Gertrude Baines, the world's oldest known person who once quipped she had won the genetic lottery, died Friday at a nursing home. She
was 115.
Baines likely suffered a heart attack, but an autopsy will be conducted to confirm the cause of death, said her longtime physician, Dr. Charles Witt.
"I saw her two days ago, and she was just doing fine," Witt said. "She was in excellent shape. She was mentally alert. She smiled frequently."
Born in 1894 in Shellman, Georgia, Baines claimed the title of the world's oldest living person when a 115-year-old woman, Maria de Jesus, died in Portugal in January.
The oldest person in the world is now Kama Chinen, 114, who lives in Japan, according to Dr. L. Stephen Coles of the Gerontology Research Group, which tracks claims of extreme old age. Chinen was born May 10, 1895, Coles said.
The oldest person who has ever lived is Jeanne-Louise Calment, according to Coles. She was 122 when she died Aug. 4, 1997, in Arles, France.
Baines outlived her entire family, including her only daughter, who died of typhoid.
Baines worked as a maid in Ohio State University dormitories until her retirement and has lived at the Western Convalescent Hospital in Los Angeles for more than 10 years.
After turning 115 in April, she said, "Living that long is like winning the genetic lottery."
Nurses at Western Convalescent Hospital described Baines as a modest woman who liked to watch the "Jerry Springer Show" and eat fried chicken, bacon and ice cream. She refused to use dentures.
"I don't know how she does it. She only has her gums, no teeth," said Susie Exconde, the nursing director. Exconde who found Baines dead in her bed at about 7:25 a.m. (1125 GMT)
Witt, her physician, said that when he visited Baines earlier this week, she only complained that her bacon was soggy and arthritis was causing pain in her right knee.
Baines celebrated her birthday at the nursing home April 6 with music, two cakes and a letter from President Barack Obama, whom she voted for in November.
Featured on local television newscasts when she cast her ballot, Baines, who is black, said she backed him "because he's for the colored." She said she never thought she would live to see a black man become president.
"We were hoping to have her until the next election," Exconde said. "We'll miss her."

WORLD'S FIRST MUSLIM SEARCH ENGINE ' IMHALAL.COM ' A SEARCH ENGINE ONLY FOR MUSLIMS

NEW DELHI: A Dutch company has launched a new search engine that aims to protect Muslims from accidentally bumping into explicit material while su rfing the Web. Called ImHalal.com, or "I am Halal," is the world's first Muslim search engine.
Reza Sardeha, founder of AZS Media Group, which runs the search engine, told The Daily Star that the idea grew after his friends complained of bumping into sexually explicit content when using search engines such as Yahoo or Google.
According to The Daily Star, the site's filter examines the user's search terms and the websites that are returned, trawling for a 'non-halal list' of words that may indicate forbidden fruit. On the site, sex-related terms such as 'gay,' 'lesbian' or simply 'sexy' merit a haram level of three; the highest score on the list.
But 'beer' and 'pork' only merit a score of one, while 'drugs' comes up as a level two. There are, however, no restrictions on more general concepts that are forbidden in Islam such as 'suicide' or 'magic.'
Sardeha told the publication that the company is now in talks with Imams to determine what else might be considered Haram so that it can be blocked on the site. They also have plans to keep adding to the search engine with what Sardeha calls 'Islamic widgets.'
The site, launched earlier this month, claims to have received more than 400,000 unique visitors so far.

MINISTER IN SPOTLIGHT AFTER OBAMA DEATH PRAYERS IN ARIZONA

A controversial Arizona minister who prays for the death of President Obama has attracted attention from the Secret Service to a small group of protesters who hold regular demonstrations outside his church.
The Rev. Steven Anderson quoted passages from the Old Testament to the congregation of his Faithful Word Baptist Church about the kinds of people God hates in Tempe Aug. 16. Anderson then told worshippers he interprets those passages to include Mr. Obama and that he prays for the president's death.
While Anderson didn't say he wanted his parishioners to attack the president, he did say the country would benefit from Mr. Obama dying.
"If you want to know how I'd like to see Obama die, I'd like him to die of natural causes," Anderson told KNXV-TV. "I don't want him to be a martyr. We don't need another holiday. I'd like to see him die, like Ted Kennedy, of brain cancer."
Anderson told the station the Secret Service contacted him after his comments became public and that his attorney advised him to deny giving the agency an interview.
Anderson's sermon inspired the creation of a group called People Against Clergy Who Preach Hate to protest against the pastor.
"I'm just disgusted with this man who claims to be a minister of the Lord preaching hate toward the president," protester Larry Crane told KNXV-TV.
"It's hard to believe we could have someone of a religious nature wishing our president was dead," protester William Crumb told the station.
Some parishioners — whether they didn't provide their names or the station just didn't report them is unclear — supported their minister.
"I hate people that hate God," one Faithful Word parishioner said.
"As far as I know we live in America, we have freedom of religion, freedom to assemble and the freedom of speech," another parishioner said.
Protesters will continue to demonstrate outside Anderson's church until he stops preaching what they consider hate speech.
"I just think it's sad," Crane told the station. "We can have discourse without preaching hate. That's what this minister is doing."

OM SENDS OUT 250 FULL TIME MISSIONARIES

They include 35 Christians from the UK and one lady from Trinidad who even sold her own business so that she could work alongside OM in Cambodia.
"Each had heard and answered God’s call to join the Great Commission," said a spokesman for OM.
At the end of August, the missionaries came together in De Kroeze in the Netherlands to learn about cross-cultural communication and God's heart for mission.
They also prepared themselves for some of the challenges they would face while proclaiming Christ overseas by taking part in daily Bible studies, discussion seminars and setting an entire day aside for prayer.
Destinations include France and countries in East Europe, Central Asia and the Near East. Several of the new missionaries from the UK were inspired to join OM after the ministry's new ship Logos Hope stopped at UK ports earlier in the year. They flew out after the conference to join the ship in the Caribbean.
One Christian joining the OM team in the UK said of her visit to Logos Hope: "It was amazing to be with the people of God from so many nations! I loved the focus on knowing God and loving people."
There are presently 5,400 Christians serving with OM in 110 countries and onboard two ministry ships.