The water cycle is the continuous movement of water in and around the Earth. Water never really goes away –it just changes form. The sun drives the entire water cycle and is responsible for its two major components: condensation and evaporation. When the sun heats the surface of water, it evaporates and ends up in the atmosphere as water vapor. It cools and rises, becoming clouds, which eventually condense into water droplets. Depending on the temperature of the atmosphere and other conditions, the water precipitates as rain, sleet, hail or snow.

Some of this precipitation is captured by tree canopies and evaporates again into the atmosphere. The precipitation that hits the ground becomes runoff, which can accumulate and freeze into snow caps or glaciers. It can also infiltrate the ground and accumulate, eventually storing in aquifers. An aquifer is a large deposit of groundwater that can be extracted and used. This runoff also comes from snowmelt, which occurs when the sun and climate changes melt snow and ice. Finally, some of this runoff makes its way back into lakes and oceans, where it is again evaporated.

Water that falls to the ground and stays in the soil ends up evaporating and retiring to the atmosphere. But groundwater, the major source of our drinking water, can accumulate in aquifers over thousands of years. Unconfined aquifers have the water table, or the surface where water pressure equals atmospheric pressure, as their upper boundaries. Confined aquifers often lie below unconfined aquifers and have a layer of rock or other materials as their top.

In the US, the oldest groundwater, known as fossil water, is contained in the Ogallala Aquifer. Lying below about 175,000 square miles of eight states in the Great Plains, the Ogallala Aquifer stores about 2,900 million acre-feet (3,600 million kilometers cubed) of water. The Ogallala Aquifer was formed between 2 and 6 million years ago, when the Rocky Mountain chain was forming. Because the climate of the Great Plains is arid, water in the aquifer is being used faster than it can be recharged. That’s why some scientists refer to using fossil water aquifers as water mining.

Groundwater may also exist on other planets. Images from the Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft show what looked like gullies carved out by rivers of water on the surface of the planet. According to NASA, the water is probably 300 to 1,300 feet (100 to 400 meters) below the surface. Europa, one of Jupiter’s moons, may also have subsurface water. As our need for water outweighs the Earth’s supply, scientists wonder if we may one day mine for water on the other planets and moons in our solar system.

Water has a lot of unique and amazing properties that make it so important to life. They’re why we’re constantly looking for better ways to obtain and conserve it. In the next section, we’ll look at these properties and learn more about water itself.

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By Ayla Jean Yackley and Seda Sezer

Turkey’s Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan arrives for a ceremony in Ankara December 18, 2013. REUTERS/Umit Bektas

ISTANBUL (Reuters) – A war of words escalated on Monday between Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan and a cleric with powerful influence in the police and judiciary, worsening political turmoil unleashed by a corruption scandal.

Turkey has been increasingly polarized since the arrest on graft charges last week of the head of state-run lender Halkbank and the sons of two government ministers.

Erdogan answered the arrests by sacking or reassigning the Istanbul police chief and some 70 other police officers.

The scandal and the government’s response have added to a febrile political atmosphere in the country, which saw unprecedented mass protests against Erdogan’s rule earlier this year.

The public has been riveted by the case, with news channels showing police footage of shoeboxes stuffed with millions of euros in cash allegedly found in homes of corruption suspects.

The lira currency hovered near a record low on Monday, hammered by the domestic political tension as well as the U.S. Federal Reserve’s decision to cut back monetary stimulus.

In the latest rift, the government attracted unprecedented, open condemnation from Fethullah Gulen, whose Hizmet movement claims at least a million followers, including senior police and judges, and runs schools and charities across Turkey and abroad.

Gulen, who lives in Pennsylvania, lashed out against the government on Friday by praying that “God bring fire to their houses”. Erdogan shot back on Sunday with remarks that, while not naming Gulen directly, accused unnamed outsiders of “setting wicked and dark traps in our country, using their local pawns to disrupt Turkey’s unity and integrity.”

“We will go into (their) lairs and … expose those organizations within the state,” Erdogan said.

On Monday Gulen made clear he saw the prime minister’s remarks as an attack on his movement.

“Those who call Muslims ‘gangs’, ‘bandits’, ‘network’ and see them as gorillas, monkeys that have taken shelter in lairs – these are nothing but a reflection of decayed thinking and no wrong can be made right with them,” Gulen said in an audio recording posted on the Internet. “God sees who is in a lair.”

Erdogan has won three elections in a row and has transformed Turkey by curbing the power of the secularist military establishment. Turkey has thrived economically under his leadership, but this year’s protests also revealed dissatisfaction among many Turks with what some see as an authoritarian streak. A decisive break with Gulen, a former ally, adds to the array of figures lined up against him.

Cemal Usak, vice president of the Journalists and Writers Foundation, a group close to Gulen, described the movement’s actions as “a civil initiative that is strongly using its right to oppose some of the measures taken by the political authority, something unseen in Turkey in recent times.”

“I think the hardening of the prime minister’s language is unsound. I find it inappropriate that for the first time in our political history an opinion leader has been targeted,” he said.

After years of taking on top figures in the army, Erdogan’s response to the corruption scandal puts him at odds with the police and the judiciary.

At the weekend the government changed regulations for police, requiring officers to report evidence, investigations, arrests and complaints to commanding officers and prosecutors.

Halkbank has drawn criticism from Western governments in the past for enabling Turkish and Indian business with Iran, which is under U.S. and EU sanctions that Erdogan disapproves of.

The bank said on Monday its conduct had been entirely lawful. In the past it had helped facilitate purchases of Iranian natural gas in return for shipments of Turkish gold, but it said it halted that practice in June, before measures that would have barred that trade took effect.

“The source of the funds used in these transactions and the parties to this trade are open, transparent and traceable in the system,” Halkbank said in a stock exchange filing.

The row has weighed on the Turkish assets as investors fret the authorities could loosen fiscal policy to weather the political storm. Shares in Halkbank have lost about 20 percent of their value since news of the scandal broke on December 17.

Erdogan late on Sunday accused “enemies of Turkey” of trying to sabotage Halkbank, the second-biggest government bank.

“Who are you helping to benefit by damaging this bank? The money that Halkbank has lost because of these incidents is money lost by this country,” he said.

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By Sami Aboudi

From L-R: The Gulf Cooperation Council’s (GCC) Assistant Secretary General Abdullah bin Juma al–Shibli, United Arab Emirates’ Oil Minister Suhail Mohamed Al Mazrouei, Qatar’s Minister of Energy and Industry Mohammed Saleh al-Sada, Saudi Oil Minister Ali al-Naimi, Bahrain’s Minister of Finance Sheikh Ahmed Bin Mohammed al-Khalifa, Kuwait’s Minister of Finance Mustafa al-Shamali and Oman’s Oil Minister Mohamed bin Hamad Al Rumhi pose for a group photo during a meeting of Gulf Arab oil ministers in Riyadh September 24, 2013. The oil market has enough supply and prices are at a favourable level, Saudi Arabia’s oil minister said on Tuesday, affirming the willingness of the world’s top crude exporter to meet shortages. Saudi Arabia pumped oil at a record rate of more than 10 million barrels per day (bpd) in August, helping to cushion the market from the virtual shutdown of Libya’s exports and reduced output from other countries including Nigeria and Iraq. REUTERS/Faisal Al Nasser

MUSCAT (Reuters) – Traditionally reticent Oman has become unusually assertive in opposing a Saudi plan for Gulf Arab states to close ranks against Iran, worried that a wider regional confrontation might threaten its own stability.

Oman’s willingness to incur the displeasure of Saudi Arabia, its most powerful neighbor, reflects both the proximity of Iran and vulnerabilities of its domestic political, economic and religious makeup.

The Sultanate sits on the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow waterway between Iran and the Arabian Peninsula through which flows 40 percent of the world’s seaborne crude oil. Muscat has a history of constructive relations with Tehran, and recently agreed to buy Iranian gas for the next quarter century.

“Geography necessitates that we deal with Iran. It is a Muslim neighbor located on the other side of the Gulf and therefore we must seek stability in this region,” said Anwar al-Rawas, a lecturer at Sultan Qaboos University in Muscat.

Oman has watched with alarm as rivalry between Sunni Muslim Saudi Arabia and Shi’ite Iran has spread across the region. Riyadh and some other members of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), of which Oman is a member, believe Tehran is using sectarianism to interfere in Arab countries and build its own sphere of Middle East influence.

Riyadh has backed groups opposing Iranian proxies in unrest or outright war in Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, Bahrain and Yemen, and has tried to marshal the GCC into what a former Omani diplomat described as “a sectarian project to confront Iran”.

Muscat not only dismissed the Saudi idea last month, but also facilitated secret U.S. talks with Tehran, leading to a deal on Iran’s nuclear program that Riyadh sees as dangerous.

“Omani foreign policy is basically at the service of Omani political stability, and Omani political stability needs regional stability,” said Marc Valeri, an Oman expert at Britain’s University of Exeter.

Factors in the new diplomatic assertiveness of a government that used to be discreet even by the standards of the tight-lipped region also include the sultanate’s religious makeup, which is very different from its Arab allies’, and wariness among many Omanis of Saudi influence. “They might be a bit worried about being crushed by the sheer weight of Saudi Arabia,” said a Western diplomat in Muscat.

Omani concerns also stem from uncertainty over its dynastic succession and questions about how long an economic model built on dwindling oil production can last.

Protests in several Omani cities during the Arab Spring in 2011 showed that public patience with the government of Sultan Qaboos, credited with rapidly modernizing a medieval kingdom after he overthrew his father in 1970, has limits.

A COUNTRY APART

Saudi Arabia’s population and economy are larger than those of the other five GCC members put together. Viewed from Oman, Riyadh’s attempts to build a unified Gulf Arab position are overbearing and against its economic and political interests.

Although differences were rarely aired in public, Oman has long stood out among its Gulf allies.

While other GCC countries gave money and political support to Iraqi President Saddam Hussein in his 1980-88 war with Iran, Oman maintained relations with Tehran and helped to mediate a ceasefire that ended the fighting.

Oman also arranged prisoner exchanges between Tehran and the West, and helped to organize oil payments to the Islamic republic as it struggled with international sanctions imposed over its nuclear program.

This was partly in return for Iranian help with putting down a Marxist uprising against Qaboos in the 1970s, even though it was the Shah who sent troops to Oman, rather than leaders of the 1979 revolution that overthrew him.

“Qaboos is forever grateful to Iran for that,” said Abdulkhaleq Abdulla, an analyst in the United Arab Emirates.

Muscat officials remain keen to conciliate. “They consider any role they can play in calming down the situation in the region, in creating a kind of bridge between countries, is indeed in the interest of Oman,” said Valeri.

Oman’s religious makeup also lies behind its unease at the sectarian nature of Gulf politics. Most Omanis including the Sultan adhere to the Ibadi faith, a Muslim branch unique to the country which has much in common with mainstream Sunni Islam.

A big Sunni minority and a smaller Shi’ite community are not at odds with the Ibadi majority, and Muscat is keen to keep it that way. Already some Omanis and foreign diplomats say the influence of Saudi Arabia’s conservative Wahhabi school of Islam sometimes causes friction.

“From time to time, we see Wahhabi sheikhs on Saudi television channels brand Ibadis as heretics and that doesn’t go down very nicely,” said Saif al-Maskery, a former Omani diplomat who held a senior GCC role from 1987-93. Sectarian gestures from Iranian Shi’ites were a problem too, he said.

DOMESTIC WORRIES

All this is happening as Oman faces a long-term fall in oil revenue, public anger about unemployment and corruption, and worries about the political future.

Qaboos, 73, has no children or designated successor. Omanis are not yet confident in the state institutions, such as an elected parliament with few real powers, that he has slowly built.

Since the protests in 2011, Qaboos has accelerated efforts to strengthen political institutions and is pursuing a high-profile anti-corruption campaign, with trials of some senior executives and former officials on bribery charges.

The government has also taken steps to bolster employment at home, ordering a pay increase for Omanis and announcing new curbs on recruiting foreign workers.

In the long term the country recognizes it must diversify away from oil and expand trade outside the GCC, including with Iran. After the Arab Spring, the GCC pledged $10 billion in aid to Oman. However, this will mostly be used on joint projects such as a railway stretching from Oman through the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia to Kuwait.

Trade with Iran is now estimated at a modest $250 million a year, but in August Muscat signed a 25-year deal with Tehran to import gas, worth around $60 billion over its lifetime.

This, together with a $16 billion project to develop Oman’s own gas reserves signed with BP this month, should help to relieve bottlenecks in infrastructure and industrial projects.

It also shows the benefits to Oman of pursuing a conciliatory policy, and its worries that the political considerations of Saudi Arabia may not be in the Sultanate’s long-term interests.

“Oman joined the GCC as part of its concern for regional stability,” Maskery said. “Neither the Omani people nor its leadership will agree to be dissolved in a larger entity.”

(Additional reporting by Fatma al-Arimi in Muscat and Rania El Gamal in Dubai, Editing by Angus McDowall and David Stamp)

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By Karin Friedemann, TMO

The winter holidays, both Christmas and Hanukkah date back to when Christians and Jews were ruled by the Romans, who traditionally celebrated Saturnalia on Solstice. Solstice is the longest night of the year and signifies the first day of winter. The lights and candles are meant to give hope, cheer and comfort from the freezing darkness.

Many Americans suffer from holiday depression and anxiety due to financial and social stress, bittersweet memories of childhood or lost loved ones, or because they feel lonely. On the other hand, the constant stream of festivities leads to greater emotional resilience in most people. Depression and suicide rates actually peak in early spring, long after the party is over and all the guests have gone home and the food pantry stocks have dwindled. Those who spent too much money on holiday gifts, fancy outfits and travel will still be paying off their credit cards months later.

Meanwhile, Muslims are often not quite sure how to get through the holidays. Should they attend the office Christmas party and participate in the Secret Santa? What will they do when their boss proposes a toast? How do we get the children to understand and not cry because we are not going to buy them any presents? Winter clothes, maybe. Toys, no. How do we explain to a kid why we do not have a Christmas tree? My own children got around my non-observance by making their own ornaments out of paper to decorate the ceiling lamps and composing their own Christmas songs based on information they picked up at school about what Christmas is about.

“We will get a mix of a bunch of feelings on this day / No Rudolphs, no horse-drawn sleigh / All we get is a closed Safeway,” goes a parody called “Rockin Around No Christmas Tree” by some South Asian youth on youtube.

Then we have the issue of dealing with non-Muslim friends and family members inviting us over – having to decide if we are going to exchange gifts and socialize with mixed genders of people drinking wine, or risk offending them. Are they going to have to change the prayers for us, since we can’t eat food that was blessed in the name of Jesus (pbuh)? Should we ask them to cook a halal meal? Will they have dogs? Are they going to be offended if we don’t want their dog to lick our hands? Awkward!!!

Some Muslim families deal with these conflicts by taking a rabbinical approach and strictly avoiding all non-Muslim holiday activities while while more liberal Muslims will compromise and join in the seasonal celebration in order to be friendly with the neighbors. In the holy land of Palestine, I have heard, it is common for Muslims to visit their Christian neighbors, bring them some food and wish them a merry Christmas, and on Eid the Christian neighbors will stop by to wish their Muslim neighbors a Happy Eid.

Yet in the middle of it all is the Muslim convert who could be experiencing multiple stresses – secretly mourning the loss of a holiday that once held spiritual and emotional significance in their hearts, feeling uncomfortable with ones’ own parents and siblings on such an important day, one’s own parents feeling rejected by our rejection of their religion – even if we attend their Christmas party. And then, feeling alienated from a Muslim spouse or in-laws, who do not understand that extra emotional support is needed, who do not understand the intensely spiritual nature of our memories of angels and candles and choirs, or why our eyes might well up with tears when “Oh Little Town of Bethlehem” comes on the radio.

Likewise, Muslims who don’t commemorate the New Year because it’s not the Islamic calendar will come into emotional conflict with Muslim convert spouses and friends, who have happy memories of staying up until midnight and don’t want to be left alone on that once special night, knowing that their old friends and their family are all celebrating.

Regardless of how we choose to deal with seasonal holiday traditions, Christmas can serve as a valuable opportunity for us to remember the importance of the Prophet Jesus (pbuh) to our world. It is a good time to go over the Christ story in the Quran, and maybe even do some comparative scripture reading with the Bible and other literature. 

Muslims celebrate many special days to commemorate prophets and spiritual leaders: Eid ul-Fitr to commemorate the Prophet Mohammed’s (s) revelation of the Quran; Eid ul-Adha to remember Abraham, Ismail and Hajjar; The fasting on the 9th and 10th of Muharram to celebrate the victory of Moses and his people over the Egyptian Pharaoh; Ashura to remember the martyrdom of Hussein at Karbala. But we don’t have any special day to remember Jesus and tell the story of his life to our children.

We can use Christmas as a tool for telling our children about the life of this great prophet, whose birth signified a new era of mankind and a new way of understanding our relationship with God and with each other, from the idea of competing tribal warfare-based gods to the idea of a universal, compassionate, loving God.

We can also use this time to explain the situation in Palestine to our neighbors and co-workers. Many people do not realize that Jesus spoke Aramaic not Hebrew and that he was a Palestinian not a Jew. Many people do not realize that Bethlehem is in Palestine, and that it is surrounded by a terrible wall. Many people do not realize the suffering of Palestinian Christians, the oldest Christ-following community in the world.

Most of all let us not forget those who are homeless and hungry during this time. Not because it is Christmas but because it is cold, and their survival depends on generosity. Let us use these days off school and work wisely.

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Reuters in Islamabad

Nawaz Sharif, Pakistan’s prime minister, declared that he paid $26,000 in income tax last year. Photograph: T Mughal/EPA

Nearly half of Pakistan’s MPs pay no taxes, according to a study that may endanger billions of dollars in IMF and other loans and aid to Pakistan.

Cracking down on rampant tax evasion is a main condition of a $6.7bn (£4.1bn) International Monetary Fund programme aimed at stabilising the country’s economy. Big donors such as Britain, which has committed more than £600m to Pakistani education, are considering slashing aid unless more rich Pakistanis pay tax.

The report, which identifies some ministers among the politicians who pay no tax, was drawn up by the Centre for Investigative Reporting in Pakistan, an independent research group. The group based its report on documents from the election commission, which publishes financial declarations of political candidates and their statements from the tax authority.

Tariq Azeem, a spokesman for the ruling party of the prime minister, Nawaz Sharif, said tax authorities and the election commission used different forms to gather tax data. He said that may explain the discrepancies. Asked why some legislators appeared never to have registered with tax authorities, Azeem said: “I don’t know.”

Spokesmen for other political parties said they had not read the report and could not comment. None of the politicians the report identified as tax evaders was available for comment.

Pakistan has one of the world’s lowest ratios of tax to gross domestic product. Fewer than 1% of citizens file income tax returns.

Legislators have a tiny amount deducted from their official salaries but almost all of them have lucrative second careers. The average net worth of a legislator in 2010 was £490,000, according to a study of their asset declarations by the Pakistan Institute of Legislative Development and Transparency. More recent figures were not available.

Umar Cheema, the author of the report, said: “If politicians don’t pay taxes themselves, they have lost the moral authority to impose taxes on others.”

The finance ministry said tax collection in December was up by about a quarter compared with last year. Cheema said nearly 80% of that was through indirect taxes on items such as fuel. “Whenever there is pressure from the donor agencies, they just increase indirect taxes which shifts the burden on to the poor and lets the rich off again,” Cheema said.

Nearly half of all national and provincial legislators did not declare paying any taxes, Cheema said in his report. More than one in 10 legislators had never registered with tax authorities.

Of those who paid, a third had discrepancies between income and tax declarations and data provided by tax authorities. Many legislators reported paying minuscule amounts of tax. Many paid less than $100, while some paid as little as $17.

There was even a discrepancy in the record of Sharif, according to the report. Sharif, who returned to power in May, declared that he paid $26,000 in income tax last year, although the Federal Board of Revenue said he paid $22,000. The prime minister’s office was not immediately available for comment.

“We expect everyone to be honest and forthcoming, that goes without saying, but there is no such thing that they have to verify with [party] headquarters. It is an individual’s own business,” said Azeem, the party spokesman. “If we find anyone has knowingly misled income tax authorities, we will take serious action.”

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Wasim Khan received award in recognition of his service to cricket and the community’.

By Web Desk

LONDON: British-born Pakistani Wasim Gulzar Khan, who played county cricket in England in the 90s and later went on to achieve an MBA and become the CEO of the £50 million and 10-year long charitable campaign Chance to Shine, was formally appointed as a Member of Order of the British Empire (MBE) on Tuesday.

The 42 year-old was formally appointed by Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II in an investiture ceremony at Buckingham Palace in central London.

According to the website of Chance to Shine, Khan received the award ‘in recognition of his service to cricket and the community’.

Wasim said  that he was “genuinely shocked” yet “proud” at the appointment. ”I was genuinely shocked when I received the news, but I immediately felt hugely proud to be recognised in this way. It’s a great honour and recognises the effort you’ve put in over a number of years.

“I feel a debt of gratitude to the many people who have helped me over the years and who believed in me. This award reflects the success of the Chance to Shine programme which is benefiting a great number of children.”

Wasim’s family, originally from Kashmir, migrated to England in the 1960s.

With a first-class debut for Warwickshire in 1995, Khan became the first British-born Pakistani to play cricket in England. His county stint ended in the early 2000s, with a batting average of a little over 30.

In 2005, Wasim was recruited by Sir Mervyn King, Governor of the Bank of England, to plan and implement Chance to Shine as Operations Director, before becoming Chief Executive in 2009.

Earlier this year, the charity celebrated the two millionth child to receive cricket opportunities through the Chance to Shine programme.
Wasim has an Executive MBA from Warwick Business School.

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In physics, elasticity is the tendency of solid materials to return to their original shape after being deformed. Solid objects will deform when forces are applied on them. If the material is elastic, the object will return to its initial shape and size when these forces are removed.

The physical reasons for elastic behavior can be quite different for different materials. In metals, the atomic lattice changes size and shape when forces are applied (energy is added to the system). When forces are removed, the lattice goes back to the original lower energy state. For rubbers and other polymers, elasticity is caused by the stretching of polymer chains when forces are applied.

Perfect elasticity is an approximation of the real world and few materials remain purely elastic even after very small deformations. In engineering, the amount of elasticity of a material is determined by two types of material parameter. The first type of material parameter is called a modulus which measures the amount of force per unit area (stress) needed to achieve a given amount of deformation. The units of modulus are pascals (Pa) or pounds of force per square inch (psi, also lbf/in2). A higher modulus typically indicates that the material is harder to deform. The second type of parameter measures the elastic limit. The limit can be a stress beyond which the material is no longer elastic or a deformation beyond which elasticity is lost.

When describing the relative elasticities of two materials, both the modulus and the elastic limit have to be considered. Rubbers typically have a low modulus and tend to stretch a lot (that is, they have a high elastic limit) and so appear more elastic than metals (high modulus and low elastic limit) in everyday experience. Of two rubber materials with the same elastic limit, the one with a lower modulus will appear to be more elastic

When an elastic material is deformed due to an external force, it experiences internal forces that oppose the deformation and restore it to its original state if the external force is no longer applied. There are various elastic moduli, such as Young’s modulus, the shear modulus, and the bulk modulus, all of which are measures of the inherent stiffness of a material as a resistance to deformation under an applied load. The various moduli apply to different kinds of deformation. For instance, Young’s modulus applies to uniform extension, whereas the shear modulus applies to shearing.

For isotropic materials, the presence of fractures affects the Young and the shear modulus perpendicular to the planes of the cracks, which decrease (Young’s modulus faster than the shear modulus) as the fracture density increases,[8] indicating that the presence of cracks makes bodies brittler. Microscopically, the stress-strain relationship of materials is in general governed by the Helmholtz free energy, a thermodynamic quantity. Molecules settle in the configuration which minimizes the free energy, subject to constraints derived from their structure, and, depending on whether the energy or the entropy term dominates the free energy, materials can broadly be classified as energy-elastic and entropy-elastic. As such, microscopic factors affecting the free energy, such as the equilibriumdistance between molecules, can affect the elasticity of materials: for instance, in inorganic materials, as the equilibrium distance between molecules at 0 K increases, the bulk modulus decreases. [9] The effect of temperature on elasticity is difficult to isolate, because there are numerous factors affecting it. For instance, the bulk modulus of a material is dependent on the form of its lattice, its behavior under expansion, as well as the vibrations of the molecules, all of which are dependent on temperature.[

The elasticity of materials is described by a stress-strain curve, which shows the relation between stress (the average restorative internal force per unit area) and strain (the relative deformation).[1] For most metals or crystaline materials, the curve is linear for small deformations, and so the stress-strain relationship can adequately be described by Hooke’s law and higher-order terms can be ignored. However, for larger stresses beyond the elastic limit, the relation is no longer linear. For even higher stresses, materials exhibit plastic behavior, that is, they deform irreversibly and do not return to their original shape after stress is no longer applied.[2] For rubber-like materials such as elastomers, the gradient of the stress-strain curve increases with stress, meaning that rubbers progressively become more difficult to stretch, while for most metals, the gradient decreases at very high stresses, meaning that they progressively become easier to stretch.[3] Elasticity is not exhibited only by solids; non-Newtonian fluids, such as viscoelastic fluids, will also exhibit elasticity in certain conditions. In response to a small, rapidly applied and removed strain, these fluids may deform and then return to their original shape. Under larger strains, or strains applied for longer periods of time, these fluids may start to flow like a viscous liquid.

Because the elasticity of a material is described in terms of a stress-strain relation, it is essential that the terms stress and strain be defined without ambiguity. Typically, two types of relation are considered. The first type deals with materials that are elastic only for small strains. The second deals with materials that are not limited to small strains. Clearly, the second type of relation is more general.

For small strains, the measure of stress that is used is the Cauchy stress while the measure of strain that is used is the infinitesimal strain tensor. The stress and strain measures are related by a linear relation known as Hooke’s law. Linear elasticity describes the behavior of such materials. Cauchy elastic materials and Hypoelastic materials are models that extend Hooke’s law to allow for the possibility of large rotations.

For more general situations, any of a number of stress measures can be used provided they are work conjugate to an appropriate finite strain measure, i.e., the product of the stress measure and the strain measure should be equal to the internal energy (which does not depend on how the stress or strain are measured). Hyperelasticity is the preferred approach for dealing with finite strains and several material models analogous to Hooke’s law are in use.

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By Angus McDowall , Praveen Menon and Aaron Maasho

A foreign labourer works at the construction site of a building in Riyadh November 27, 2013. Economists say the reforms that prompted Saudi Arabia’s tough new policy on foreign workers are needed to restructure an economy skewed towards cheap imported labour and address a long term challenge of youth unemployment. International migration and rights groups have acknowledged Saudi Arabia’s right to deport visa violators and change its employment rules to favour locals, but are critical of the way the crackdown has been carried out. Picture taken November 27, 2013. To match Feature SAUDI-FOREIGN/WORKERS REUTERS/Faisal Al Nasser

RIYADH/DUBAI/ADDIS ABABA (Reuters) – More than a million people from across the world – managers, maids, accountants and laborers – have left Saudi Arabia since March, after years or even decades working in the Gulf Arab state, which sustains its own citizens with oil revenues.

Around 120,000 Ethiopians have been deported in the past month alone as part of a visa crackdown aimed at pushing more Saudis into employment to ensure future political and economic stability.

“We were kicked out of our homes and our jobs,” said Mohamed Ahmed, 27, waiting with thousands of other Ethiopians at a transit centre behind Addis Ababa’s Bole Airport after disembarking with a few bags from Saudi Arabian Airlines jets.

Like many others, Ahmed, who spent five years in Saudi Arabia after crossing the Red Sea in a fishing boat and trekking through turbulent Yemen, had to leave at short notice.

“We left all our belongings there,” he said.

Saudi Arabia avoided significant unrest during the Arab Spring pro-democracy protest wave in 2011, but its leaders were uncomfortably aware that entrenched unemployment was a big factor behind rebellions in other Arab states.

Cheap labor from 10 million foreigners in the country hampered previous government efforts to persuade the private sector to employ some of the 20 million locals.
Many of those who have left were illegal immigrants like Ahmed, who crossed the kingdom’s porous borders or stayed on after the haj pilgrimage, which attracts around 2 million foreign visitors to Mecca every year.

Many others came to Saudi Arabia legally then fell foul of rigid visa rules, which require all expatriates to work for a single employer in a field specified on their residence permit and are often used to exploit migrants.

EXTORTION

Mohammed Yunus, 27, was brought to Saudi Arabia by an employment agency to work at a hotel after taking loans to travel to the kingdom, but was soon told to leave his job.

His sponsor then demanded 7,000 riyals a year ($1,867) to sign off on his visa papers while he found odd jobs on building sites and in grocery shops to pay his debts. Such tales of extortion are common among low-paid workers in the country.

“I am trying to get back to Saudi. There’s no way I can repay my debts by working in India,” said Yunus, who worked in Saudi Arabia for five years before leaving during an amnesty declared in March to encourage expatriates to head home without paying fines for violating residency rules.

The government said about 4 million people changed their visas to stay in the country, while another million left during the amnesty and can apply for new visas in future.

When it ended in early November, forcible deportations began. Authorities raided shops, offices, marketplaces and streets in low-income areas, checking residence permits.

The Labor Ministry has said it will set up new tribunals to hear expatriates’ complaints about their sponsors, but it has no plans to change the sponsorship system itself, something even a Saudi government-affiliated rights group recommends.

“SMEAR CAMPAIGN”

International migration and rights groups have acknowledged Saudi Arabia’s right to deport visa violators and change its employment rules to favor locals, but are critical of the way the crackdown has been carried out.

Deportees returning to Yemen and Ethiopia have reported ill treatment, including physical abuse and poor conditions at holding centers before they were expelled, the International Organization of Migration, an international agency, said.

When millions rushed to rectify minor visa infringements earlier this summer, government departments appeared unprepared, causing vast numbers of people to queue in temperatures of 40 celsius, some for more than 24 hours.

The government has dismissed allegations of abuse and chaotic policymaking as a foreign “smear campaign”, saying it welcomed expatriates who abide by the rules, and that 250,000 Saudis have gained jobs as a result of its crackdown.

The human impact of making way for them has reverberated across the world. In Yemen, Ethiopia, Pakistan, Indonesia and India, politicians have voiced concern about the fate of their citizens in the kingdom. Egypt, Sri Lanka and the Philippines are all affected too.

“I’m going back with literally nothing. All that I earned here has been spent on raising my children,” said Abdul Kareem Shamshudeen, 53, who returned to the Indian state of Kerala last week after illegally doing odd jobs in shops for 20 years.

The impact has even been felt in other wealthy oil-exporting Gulf nations, which also have large expatriate populations and where many of those leaving Saudi Arabia now want to seek work – including Yunus, if he cannot go back.

“I’m always hopeful there will be another chance,” he said.

Although official unemployment among Saudis is around 12 percent, economists estimate up to two thirds are not in the labor force. Those who do work mostly have government jobs, the absolute monarchy’s way of spreading oil wealth and buying social peace, and tend to support large extended families.

While the world’s top exporter now enjoys large surpluses, economists say a rising population and growing domestic energy consumption mean the burden of creating work must move to the private sector for the economy to continue to thrive.

RIOTS AND DEPORTATION

The cost for many migrant workers has been high. In the poor south Riyadh neighborhood of Manfouha, an Ethiopian man was killed in a confrontation with police during a visa raid. Days later, local anger spilled into clashes between Ethiopian migrants, riot police and some Saudis, leaving three dead.

Ahmed, the returnee to Addis Ababa, said gangs of Saudis attacked Ethiopians and raped Ethiopian women. Saudis said Ethiopians had started the riot, rampaging through Manfouha with knives and sticks.

I gave myself up. I was afraid of getting killed,” he said.

For the millions of expatriates remaining in Saudi Arabia, many of whom are still thought to be in breach of residency laws, the crackdown inspires gallows humor.

A comic song called Ja Jawazat, “Passport department is coming”, has attracted a million views on YouTube. Faez Choudhary, a Pakistani national who wrote the song, was born and raised in Saudi Arabia and works at a Riyadh shopping mall.

“I want to help other expatriates, especially those born here, understand this is our country as well,” he said.

“I myself feel like a Saudi, sometimes.”

(Additional reporting by Stephanie Nebehay in Geneva; editing by Philippa Fletcher)

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By Mike Ghouse

Every child, teen and an adult has someone or the other that he or she looks up to, and wants to-be-like that person and eventually becomes one. A good role model is a key to the success of a civil society. Indeed we have a few good men and women who are great role models for Muslims to look up to. 

His Highness Aga Khan is one Muslim figure that is respected around the world for his work in uplifting fellow beings; the very foundational duty of a Muslim. Quran is inundated with verses that always end emphasizing on taking care of fellow beings over everything else. In simple words, a mother or a father would be happier if their kids get along, and they would be even happier if the one doing well were to lift up the other siblings who were not doing well. Similarly God will be most pleased if we take care our fellow beings;his creation.

Indeed, His Highness Aga Khan has pleased God of the Aalameen (of all people) with his work. His work is not limited to one community, but the whole humanity as God wanted and Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) had reiterated.

He is an inspiration to me, and among the living pluralists today he is one of the few who has actually taken the steps to build an educational system, the  Global Center for Pluralism in Canada to bring about a positive change in the world. Harvard University is another institution that has done extensive research on Pluralism with Diana Eck. And now, God willing, I am looking forward to setting up an Institution to conduct workshops and teach pluralism based on my twenty years of studies of societies,  and I welcome all the help I can.

It is our duty to honor and cherish individuals who have dedicated their lives in building bridges between communities. Their pioneering spirit in facilitating communities to know and to respect each other must be appreciated (Quran 49:13).

Through their speeches, actions and writings, I have identified a few men and women who are inherent pluralists such as HH Aga Khan, Pope Francis, Karen Armstrong, Barack Obama, Javed Ahmad Ghamidi, Dalai Lama, Bishop Tutu, Eboo Patel, Rabbi Michael Lerner, Pope Francis and a few others. Thank God, Pluralism runs in my veins, and I hope to work with these great men and women in the coming years to foster Pluralism; i.e., respecting the otherness of others.

On his 77th Birthday, I urge fellow Muslims to work on writing about these men and women, and how their work can last for centuries to come. Aga Khan’s speeches and writings must become a part of social studies in school text books, Islamic social education at Mosques and private schools.  He is our role model!

The role of Muslims is to contribute towards the well being of humanity, to be  conflict mitigaters and goodwill nurturers. To aim for a secure world for every human. God wants us to live in peace and harmony with his creation; life and matter.

HH Karim Aga Khan is the 49th hereditary Imam of the Shia Imami Ismaili Muslims. He is a direct descendent of Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) through Prophet’s daughter Hazrat Fatima (ra) and Hazrat Ali (ra), who was the first cousin of Prophet Muhammad, and the first Imam in Shia tradition.

Indeed, Hazrat Ali was the first male to become a Muslim when the Prophet (s) shared his message of oneness of God, accountability of one’s actions and creating cohesive societies through justice.

Karim Aga Khan was born on December 13, 1936. At the age of 20, he succeeded his grandfather, Sir Sultan Muhammad Shah Aga Khan and became the 49th hereditary Imam of the community.  He is the living interpreter of Qur’an and provides authoritative guidance on matters of faith to the Ismaili Muslims.

Khushali is a weeklong birthday celebration of HH Aga Khan. The entire Ismaili Muslim community meets in the Jamaat Khana (community center) for the whole week, extolling his work and his service to their community and humanity. 

He is one of the rare gems of Islamic scholarship and a Harvard Graduate. He has understood the essence of Islam and articulates it very well. Islam to him is serving and caring for people around you, regardless of their affiliation. A vision put forth by the Prophet, when he said a good deed is like planting a seed, knowing full well, that you may not be the beneficiary of the fruit and shade of the eventual tree in years to come, the Prophet (s) said, that is a good deed, it is leaving a good legacy for the next generation, as we have bequeathed from the previous one.

One of the unique qualities of Aga Khan is his ability to seamlessly blend the spiritual and the material worlds. Prophet Muhammad (s) and Hazrat Ali, both preached moderation, and creating a balance between ascetic living and living for material comforts. 

I drop things to read and listen to his speeches, it’s all about pluralism.  I urge fellow humans to consider listening to him. His talks encompass the idea embedded in God being the God of the universes, not for the 47% but for the full 100% of his creation.  Prophet Muhammad (s) is the mercy to mankind, not just Muslims but the entire 100% of humanity, what he preached was to create cohesive societies, where no human had to live in fear of the other. The only fear he advocated was fear of God for doing wrong to fellow beings.

Aga Khan lives by example to his 15 Million plus followers around the world. The best way to learn about him is his work, the development work to uplift the ones in the ditches, his institution teaches them how to catch the fish and be self supporting. Visit www.akdn.org/

May he live a long life and serve his community, the Muslim community and every one of the 7 billion of humans.

I am pleased to include Dr. Peerwani’s comment:

Thank you Mike for posting this on His Highness the Aga Khan, a truly remarkable man. The Ismailies, as you are aware, follow the “batini” path and differ in some of the practices. It is truly sad that they are maligned and rejected by the orthodoxy. As the Arab Spring now moves into its second phase, acceptance of diversity will be the litmus test. Without this, there is no democracy. Let me quote something from the speech of PM Harper of Canada:

“Your Highness, there are no superlatives to adequately describe the admiration Canadians have for the work that you and your organizations do in the service of pluralism, peace and development around the world. You truly inspire our own hopes for a better world. We Canadians are rightly proud of the fact that we have built one of the most ethnically and culturally diverse and harmonious societies on earth. This achievement is rooted in our founding values: freedom, democracy, human rights and the rule of law.

But it’s also rooted in our unique history and the heroic agreements our founding peoples made to acknowledge and accommodate their diversity. As you yourself have said, you’re Highness, and I quote, “We cannot make the world safe for democracy unless we also make the world safe for diversity.” If I may say so, sir, you sound like a Canadian. And in fact, you are. On June 19, 2009, our House of Commons voted unanimously to bestow Honorary Canadian Citizenship on His Highness the Aga Khan. This is, if I may say, a richly deserved honor.”

(Abstract from the Speech by Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper at the Foundation Ceremony of the Ismaili Centre, Toronto, May 10, 2010)

Mike Ghouse is a speaker, thinker and a writer on Pluralism, Interfaith, Islam and building cohesive societies and offers pluralistic solutions on issues of the day. His work is all linked up at www.MikeGhouse.net and published in major news papers and magazine including his blog – www.TheGhouseDiary.com

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By Parvez Fatteh, Founder of http://sportingummah.com, sports@muslimobserver.com

Australian Muslim boxer Anthony Mundine scored a sixth-round technical knockout over Shane Mosley in their World Boxing Association (WBA) international super welterweight title fight Wednesday, the first knockout of any kind for the American Mosley. That is a feat of which the likes of Manny Pacquiao, Floyd Mayweather Jr, and Oscar de la Hoya cannot boast.

The 42-year-old Mosley decided to quit before the seventh round, citing back spasms. He said he would decide after he returned to the U.S. whether he would retire. “What’s done is done,” Mosley said when asked whether he would fight again.

Mundine, a 38-year-old former rugby player, improved to 45-5 with 26 knockouts at Homebush in western Sydney. Mundine was leading 58-56 on two cards and 60-55 on the third. “I was in killer mode, but my heart goes out to Shane, I know he’s a winner,” Mundine told the press. “He’s not one to pull out for nothing. He’s one of the greatest fighters to have ever lived.”

An indigenous Australian, Mundine converted to Islam in 1999. He has been outspoken in his political views, having been called at one time “…the most polarizing athlete in Australian sports history.” And having been such an accomplished rugby player, Mundine was also once called “…arguably the greatest crossover athlete in boxing history.” The fight with Mosley was delayed for five weeks over financial issues, including a last-minute cancellation on October 23rd of this year.

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