Fight for net neutrality unites internet

timesofindia.indiatimes.com - NEW DELHI: For once, the constant bickering on the internet and social media has been put aside. People of all beliefs and affiliations have come together to unite on the net neutrality issue, campaigning, persuading, and getting more people involved.

In a span of 24 hours, over 27,000 emails have been sent to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) through the website savetheinternet.in responding to the regulator's call for public consultation. An online petition on change.org has nearly 150,000 supporters petitioning Union minister for communication and information technology, Ravi Shankar Prasad, the department of telecom, and the TRAI to act against the violation of net neutrality by corporate interests.

Obama Meets Raúl Castro, Making History

nytimes.com - PANAMA — President Obama and President Raúl Castro of Cuba met here Saturday in the first face-to-face discussion between the leaders of the two countries in a half-century.

Seated beside Mr. Castro in a small room in the convention center downtown where the Summit of the Americas was being held, Mr. Obama called it a “historic meeting.”

“Our governments will continue to have differences,” he said at a news conference wrapping up the summit meeting. “At the same time, we agreed that we can continue to take steps forward that advance our mutual interests.”

He Missed a Shot? Give That Man a Hand

nytimes.com - N.B.A. players are among the most graceful athletes in the world, and they showcase their skills almost nightly. Their movements are precise, their timing impeccable.

But for all the dazzling dunks and clever passes, some of their most impressive choreography often goes unnoticed: the brief ballet that plays out between free throws, when teammates come together to exchange an assortment of high-fives, pats on the backside and hand gestures.

“I don’t even know why we do it,” Mike Miller of the Cleveland Cavaliers said, “but we have to do it.”

Hillary Clinton Set to Announce 2016 Presidential Bid

nytimes.com - Hillary Rodham Clinton is expected to announce on Sunday that she will seek the presidency for a second time, ending two years of speculation and immediately establishing herself as the likely 2016 Democratic nominee.

The announcement will effectively begin what could be one of the least contested races, without an incumbent, for the Democratic presidential nomination in recent history — a stark contrast to the 2008 primaries, when Mrs. Clinton, the early front-runner, ended up in a long and expensive battle won by Barack Obama.

2 College Students Charged in Sexual Attack on Florida Beach

nytimes.com - PANAMA CITY, Fla. — Two college students have been charged with sexually attacking a woman on a crowded Florida beach filled with spring break revelers who apparently did nothing to stop it, authorities said.

Delonte' Martistee, 22, and Ryan Austin Calhoun, 23, were arrested Friday and charged with sexual battery by multiple perpetrators, according to the Bay County Sheriff's Office. The Panama City News Herald (http://bit.ly/1I3NbsV ) reports both men are students at Troy University in Alabama.

The attack, recorded on a cellphone video, happened sometime March 10-12 in Panama City, Bay County Sheriff Frank McKeithen said at a news conference.

In Performance | Tessa Ferrer

nytimes.com - Ms. Ferrer in a scene from Tracey Scott Wilson’s new play about race and real estate in a gentrifying neighborhood. The show, directed by Anne Kauffman, opens on Wednesday at the Public Theater.

Jordan Spieth Ready for a Roaring Good Time at the Masters

nytimes.com - AUGUSTA, Ga. — As much as he enjoyed his first Masters last year, Jordan Spieth left Augusta National Golf Club with one regret. Not the chunky chip he hit on the eighth hole of the final round, which opened a crack at the top of the leaderboard that the eventual champion, Bubba Watson, blazed through.

Spieth lamented that his runner-up finish in his Masters debut came against a field that did not include the four-time champion Tiger Woods, who missed the tournament after having back surgery.

“I wish that Tiger was there,” Spieth said then, adding, “In order to feel like I can reach a goal one day of becoming No.

How Low Can the Philadelphia 76ers Go?

nytimes.com - There has never been a professional sports team quite like the 2014-15 Philadelphia 76ers, a roster of basketball castoffs and drifters that could be the least capable assemblage of players ever to suit up for an N.B.A. game. The franchise — widely believed by those who follow pro basketball to be deliberately in “tank mode,” in order to lose games and get a top pick in this summer’s N.B.A. draft — has offended sensibilities, provoked curiosity, inspired bizarre mathematical theorems. How low could they go?

States Tighten Conditions for Receiving Food Stamps as the Economy Improves

nytimes.com - BRUNSWICK, Me. — The food pantry here, just off the main drag in this neat college town, gets busiest on Wednesdays, when the parking lot is jammed and clients squeeze into the lobby, flipping through books left on a communal shelf as they wait their turn to select about a week’s worth of food.

The Mid Coast Hunger Prevention Program is intended to be a supplemental food pantry, but a growing number of clients here and at pantries around the state have little else to rely on because of a change in state policy this year.

Modern Love | An Imaginative Love Story

nytimes.com - While battling Alzheimer’s disease, Deenie Hartzog-Mislock’s grandmother invents a wild story and the family learns to love an imaginary man named Nick Stephanopoulos.

What It Really Means to Call Hillary Clinton ‘Polarizing’

nytimes.com - Late in George W. Bush’s first term, the conservative commentator Charles Krauthammer coined the term “Bush Derangement Syndrome,” which he defined as “the acute onset of paranoia in otherwise normal people in reaction to the policies, the presidency — nay — the very existence of George W. Bush.” In other words, there were a whole bunch of people, presumably on the left, who not only didn’t like George W. Bush, but also disliked him to an irrational and perhaps unhinged degree. By coining a “syndrome” to describe the state, Krauthammer, a formerly practicing psychiatrist with an M.D.

Tibetan Nun Calling for End to China Rule and Dalai Lama’s Return Sets Self on Fire

nytimes.com - BEIJING — A nun set herself on fire in the past week in a Tibetan area of western China to protest Chinese rule and to call for the return of the Dalai Lama from exile, according to two pro-Tibet advocacy groups.

The nun, Yeshi Khando, is believed to have died because of the intensity of the fire. The death could not be confirmed because the police took her away after dousing the flames with fire extinguishers, said the groups, which had spoken with people in the area where the self-immolation occurred on Wednesday.

Alan Blinder

twitter.com - @alanblinder @nytimes We All Need To STOP , THINK AND MAKE A GOOD CHOICE...THIS IS A TRAGEDY FOR BOTH FAMILIES AND THE WHOLE COUNTRY

To Keep Free of Federal Reins, Wyoming Catholic College Rejects Student Aid

nytimes.com - LANDER, Wyo. — An insurrection is brewing here at Wyoming Catholic College, a tiny redoubt of cowboy-style Catholicism where students learn about horseback riding and Thomas Aquinas, and take grueling mountain hikes conducted entirely in Latin.

Citing concerns about federal rules on birth control and same-sex marriage, the school decided this winter to join a handful of other religious colleges in refusing to participate in the federal student-aid programs that help about two-thirds of students afford college.

Where Are the Teachers of Color?

nytimes.com - GROWING up in the 1970s and ’80s in the Chicago suburb of Blue Island, Ill., Gladys Marquez, the daughter of Mexican immigrants, never once had a Hispanic teacher. Sometimes, when trying to explain to her parents her plans for college — or even why she wanted to play softball or try out for the cheerleading team — she wished she had a mentor who shared her background.

“It would have been nice to have a teacher in the classroom who could help you bridge over and help you become a better version of yourself,” she said in a recent interview.

Why Writers Love to Hate the M.F.A.

nytimes.com - It was peak reading season, and Lan Samantha Chang, director of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, was gamely juggling a call from a reporter, interruptions from her 7-year-old as well as a 10 percent surge in applications to the University of Iowa’s Master of Fine Arts program in creative writing. Ms. Chang was in the thick of decisions about who would fill 50 spots evenly divided between the fall fiction and poetry workshops.

“I’m deluged,” she said, surprised by the number of applications she was sorting through — 1,380 — especially in a year with a stronger economy, a condition that typically causes graduate school applications, never mind those to fine arts programs, to drop.

Iraq Empties Mass Graves in Search for Cadets Killed by ISIS

nytimes.com - BAGHDAD — Among the mass graves being unearthed in Tikrit, soldiers spotted an old man carrying a large trash bag and trying to sneak away.

“Our men asked the old man, ‘What’s in the bag?’ ” said Haider Majeed, an official with the prime minister’s office who was there to help supervise the exhumations. He told the story on the Iraqiya television channel on Tuesday.

“This is my son,” the old man was quoted as saying. Officials took the bag and looked inside, finding a pile of bones and some clothing, but no proof of identity.

Julie Wilson, Sultry Cabaret Legend and Actress, Dies at 90

nytimes.com - Julie Wilson, the revered nightclub performer and actress widely regarded as the queen of cabaret, died on Sunday in Manhattan. She was 90.

She died after having a stroke, her son Holt McCallany, an actor, said.

The rail-thin Ms. Wilson, her hair pulled back, a gardenia tucked behind one ear, cut a striking and elegant figure onstage in clinging custom-made gowns usually augmented by a feather boa. As she wove her spell, performing standards from the American songbook in addition to humorously racy material, she was by turns naughty and intense, digging so deeply into the lyrics she sang that she seemed to be living them.

What to Do in Antigua, Guatemala

nytimes.com - Less than an hour away from the concrete sprawl of Guatemala City, Antigua feels like a portal to another century. The nearly 500-year-old city is cradled by three volcanoes and filled with colonial-era mansions, churches and convents, many with orange and yellow facades. In the evening, residents gather in the jacaranda-lined plazas to listen to musicians tapping mallets on marimbas, or wander between lively night spots. Once the capital of this Central American country (before a series of devastating earthquakes forced the colonial government to move to Guatemala City in the late 1700s), Antigua, population 41,000, is a Unesco World Heritage site.

House That Wouldn’t Budge (or Float Away) Faces a Last Stand

nytimes.com - SEATTLE — Asuman Engin and her family, making their first visit to Seattle recently from their home in San Diego, spotted what may be the most famous tiny house in the world as they were coming over a nearby bridge.

“This is the house! This is the house!” Ms. Engin shouted. And so a few minutes later, here they were: Ms. Engin and her husband, Ege, pinning balloons to the chain-link fence that cordons off the property, and trying to explain to their somewhat bewildered-looking sons, ages 5 and 11, why they were here.