With protests growing in the Middle East over an anti-Islam film, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Thursday said the US government had absolutely nothing to do with the video, whose content and message it completely rejects.
As the US grapples to contain the aftermath of the stir, Hillary said she found the film “disgusting and reprehensible” but also condemned the violence that it has provoked.
The Jammu and Kashmir government has asked the central government to block access to an anti-Islam video posted on YouTube, saying that it can potentially cause a law and order problem in the state.
“We have approached the central government asking them to block the ‘Innocence of Muslims’ video on YouTube, as it can cause a law and order problem in the state,” Home Commissioner B.R. Sharma told IANS here Friday.
President Pranab Mukherjee will be on a four-day visit to West Bengal from Friday where he is scheduled to attend various programmes including the culmination of IIT-Kharagpur’s diamond jubilee celebrations.
Incidentally, it will be Mukherjee’s first visit to West Bengal, his home state, after assuming office.
“On September 15, the President will attend the culmination of the diamond jubilee celebrations of Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur where Shiv Nader, Chairman, Board of Governors, IIT-Kharagpur will declare the 58th Annual Convocation open.
Several websites and microblog accounts have been closed in China for being involved in fraud and blackmail, the country’s National Internet Information Office announced Thursday.
According to the National Internet Information Office, China has closed over 130 such websites this year.
Also, over 4,000 microblog accounts have been found to be fraudulent, falsely assuming identities ranging from education institutes to news organisations to celebrities, Xinhua reported.
President Barack Obama called his Afghan counterpart Hamid Karzai and discussed security situation in Afghanistan following the violent mob attacks on its missions in Libya and Egypt which killed American ambassador to Tripoli.
During their telephone call yesterday, the two leaders “discussed the importance of working together to help ensure that the circumstances that led to the violence in Libya and Egypt do not pose a threat to US forces or Afghans,” the White House said.
The two leaders took the opportunity to discuss the tragic events that took place in Benghazi.
Hollywood star and UN goodwill ambassador Angelina Jolie Thursday visited two Syrian refugee camps in Turkey.
Accompanied by UN High Commissioner for Refugees Antonia Guterres, Jolie met some of the 12,000 refugees at Oncupinar camp in Kilis city. She also joined the Syrian children who were singing in Turkish, Xinhua reported.
Jolie also visited Gaziantep province’s Islahiye tent city, sheltering nearly 8,000 Syrians who fled the relentless violence that has engulfed Syria for 18 months.
Jammu and Kashmir Government today asked the Centre to block the anti-Islam video on social networking sites as it could trigger law and order problem in the state.
“We have requested the nodal agency in the Union IT ministry to block the video,” state Home Secretary B R Sharma said.
He said the content of the video was deemed offensive and could trigger law and order problems in the valley.
The state government strongly denounced the controversial film saying such acts are aimed at causing discord among the people of different faiths.
Under attack over alleged inaction on the issue of farmers suicide in poll-bound Gujarat, Chief Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday announced waiver of Rs 300 crore interest on crop loans and a rebate in power for drought-hit farmers.
Focussing on issues concerning the state on the second day of his month-long ‘yatra’, Modi at the same time continued his attack on the Congress on the coalgate row, dubbing All India Congress Committee (AICC) as “All India Coal Congress.”
The Pentagon has said it wants to develop closer military ties with India including sales of arms.
“We hope to strengthen our relationship on the military front with the Indians, to include arms sales. We’ve been very clear about that.
“On the issue of export technology transfers is one that we are working through in particular,” Pentagon Press Secretary George Little told reporters at a news conference yesterday.
Responding to a question on arms sales to India, Little said the US is looking to develop closer ties in this field.
Union Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh on Thursday said it was not possible to cancel all the coal block allocations but asserted that no one, even if a minister or a senior official, would be spared if found involved in the coal scam.
“The government is not protecting anyone,” Ramesh told a press conference.
Charging chief ministers of BJP-ruled states with recommending coal block allocations in large scale, he wondered whether “this was the reason BJP president Nitin Gadkari has preferred to keep silent on the issue.”
Ten men were killed and four more injured when unidentified gunmen opened fire at a group of labourers working on a road in the restive Balochistan province of southwest Pakistan on Thursday, security officials said.
The incident occurred in Dasht area of Mastung district, 25 km south of the provincial capital of Quetta, officials of the Levies militia said.
Ten men were killed instantly when the gunmen fired indiscriminately at the group.
All the dead and injured were Pashtuns, Levies officials said.
The injured were taken to Quetta.
Justice Altamas Kabir, the senior-most judge of the Supreme Court, was on Thursday appointed as the next Chief Justice of India.
Justice Kabir, 64, who will succeed Chief Justice Sarosh Homi Kapadia, will assume his new charge on September 29 as the country’s 39th CJI.
He was appointed Supreme Court Judge on September 9, 2005. He has delivered several landmark judgments including on human rights and election laws. He will have a tenure of nine months till July 18, 2013.
The CPI Thursday termed as “disastrous” the decision to hike diesel prices by Rs five per litre and restrict supply of subsidised cooking gas to six cylinders per household in a year.
“It is a disastrous decision. It will increase the cost of production. The diesel price hike by Rs five per litre is unprecedented while the decision on limiting supply of subsidised cooking gas to six cylinders per household in a year is unacceptable. We shall oppose it tooth and nail,” CPI MP Gurudas Dasgupta said.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has condemned the attack on US diplomats in Libya while urging governments to react strongly and timely to provocations against people’s religious sentiments.
US Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans were killed Tuesday in an attack on the US consulate building in the Libyan city of Benghazi by an armed mob angry over a US-produced film, considered by Muslims to be insulting to Prophet Mohammad.
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has blamed the US and Israel for the production of an anti-Islam movie that insults Prophet Mohammad, Xinhua reported.
In a message issued Thursday, Khamenei said that “behind this evil move lie the antagonistic policies of the Zionists and the US and other heads of the global arrogance”, reported Press TV.
“The prime suspects in this crime are Zionism and the US government, ” said Khamenei.
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has approved a resolution, urging Iran to comply with its obligations on nuclear issue while expressing “serious concern” over Tehran’s disputed nuclear programme.
The UN nuclear watchdog wants Iran to fully comply with all of its obligations under the relevant resolutions of the UN Security Council (UNSC) “without delay”, Xinhua reported.
Key UPA ally and Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee on Thursdayopposed diesel price hike and curb on purchase of subsidised cooking gas cylinders and she is set to lead a street rally here on Saturday demanding their rollback.
“We are unhappy and astonished that inspite of the formation of the UPA coordination committee after a long time, such a decision was taken without consulting us,” the West Bengal chief minister said.
Notwithstanding TRS president K Chandrasekhar Rao’s claims that he had got ‘positive signals’ from the Congress leadership on the formation of Telangana, Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen leader and MP Asaduddin Owaisi said that formation of a separate Telangana state was not possible. Addressing a public meeting at Bodhan town on Wednesday, he clarified that his party was against the formation of a separate Telangana. Stating that only Hindutva forces like the BJP
would benefit from the formation of Telangana, he said Muslims would never accept a separate T-state.
Yemeni President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi apologised to US President Barack Obama Thursday over the US embassy attack in the capital city while the toll in the clashes between protesters and security forces rose to three, Xinhua reported.
The attack in Yemen came as part of the widespread anger across the Islamic world over a US movie insulting Prophet Mohammad.
“I do apologise to US President Barack Obama and the people of the United States for the aggressive attack on the US embassy in Sanaa,” Hadi was quoted by state-run Saba news agency as saying in a statement.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has condemned the attack on US diplomats in Libya while urging governments to react strongly and timely to provocations against people’s religious sentiments.
US Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans were killed Tuesday in an attack on the US consulate building in the Libyan city of Benghazi by an armed mob angry over a US-produced film, considered by Muslims to be insulting to Prophet Mohammad.
“We condemn this crime and offer our condolences to the victims’ families,” Putin told reporters at his residence in the Black Sea resort of Sochi.
In a politically-sensitive move, the government Thursday announced a hike in heavily-subsidised diesel price by Rs.5 a litre to check fiscal deficit and limited availability of cooking gas cylinders per family to six per year. The hikes come into effect midnight Thursday.
The Cabinet Committee on Political Affairs (CCPA), chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, took the decision, which has been decried by a combative opposition and even allies as “anti-people”.
Congress MLC Yadav Reddy on Thursday asked that the Pradesh Congress Committee to organise Rashtra Sadassu only after the party announces its decision on Telangana State.
The Bharatiya Janata Party on Thursday accused the Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen of preventing the development of Muslim community in the Telangana region.
More than two years after a rape case of a married woman was registered and wrongly closed, the Crime Investigation Department unraveled the facts and arrested a police constable and his associate.
A court in the Egyptian capital has sentenced former prime minister Ahmed Nazif to three years in prison for corruption, BBC reported Thursday.
Nazif, who was prime minister from 2004 until last year’s uprising against president Hosni Mubarak, has also been ordered to pay a fine of nine million Egyptian pounds ($1.5 million).
In 2011, Nazif was given a one-year suspended sentence after he was charged for unlawful gains in a business deal.
About a dozen former Egyptian officials have been charged either with conspiring to kill protesters or with various crimes related to corruption.