The UN World Food Programme (WFP) said Friday that it seeks $64 million fund for next six months to assist South Sudan refugees in four east African countries, namely Kenya, Uganda, Ethiopia and Sudan.
WFP said in its latest report for South Sudan, where fighting has been raging between government and opposition forces, that the funds will help refugees who have crossed into Kenya, Uganda, Ethiopia and Sudan, Xinhua reported.
The union cabinet Friday recommended dissolution of Andhra Pradesh assembly and extension of president’s rule in the state, official sources said.
They said the decision to recommend dissolution of the state assembly and extension of president’s rule was taken by the cabinet following the report of state Governor E.S.L Narasimhan over the prevailing situation in the state.
Assembly elections in Andhra Pradesh are being held along with the Lok Sabha polls.
Accusing TRS of indulging in “politics of bitterness”, Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi today said Congress alone can ensure prosperity for Telangana.
Seeking to reach out to Telangana youth, Gandhi said they should dream big in the new state and promised to build ‘brand Telangana’ and to spread ‘brand Hyderabad’ the world over.
Addressing an election campaign meeting in this metropolis, he also sought to reach out to the substantial number of non-Telangana people living in the city and its outskirts by assuring to take care of their safety and security.
After Congress promising reservation to Muslims hailing from Other Backward Classes (OBC), BSP supremo Mayawati today said that along with Muslims her party wanted to extend benefit of quota to poor from upper castes.
“Along with Muslims, our party wants to extend benefit of reservation to poor from the upper castes,” Mayawati said while addressing an election rally.
“We wrote several letters to the Centre to make system to give reservation on economic basis, but Congress government took no action in this direction,” she alleged.
In a move likely to embarrass the Congress, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s half-brother, Daljeet Singh Kohli, Friday joined the BJP in the presence of its prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi.
Kohli, a businessman based here, joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) when Modi came here to address a rally in favour of senior party leader Arun Jaitley, who is contesting from the Amritsar Lok Sabha seat.
At the rally held here, Kohli shared the dais with Modi and other senior BJP and Shiromani Akali Dal leaders.
Andhra Pradesh police said here today that it has received an Interpol red corner notice against Congress Rajya Sabha member K V P Ramachandra Rao who has been indicted by a US Federal Jury on charges of receiving bribes of USD 18.5 million from an American firm which was allowed to mine titanium in the state.
On April 23, the USA had approached India for Ramachandra Rao’s arrest.
“Yes, today we received the red corner notice and the Crime Investigation Department (CID) is examining it,” Andhra Pradesh Director General of Police B Prasada Rao told PTI.
BJP’s prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi on Friday called upon electorate in the country to punish the “Maa-Beta” (mother-son) government in the country by voting it out.
Addressing an election rally in this north Punjab town Friday for BJP candidate and yester-year actor Vinod Khanna, Modi said that the electorate, which has already voted in the first six phases of election, have bid farewell to the UPA government.
Hours after BJP’s prime ministerial hopeful Narendra Modi garlanded Madan Mohan Malviya’s statue during a mega road show in this Uttar Pradesh town, Congress and Samajwadi party workers washed it with holy water and milk, saying it was desecrated by Modi’s touch.
Dozens of workers of the National Students Union of India, Congress’ student wing, and Samajwadi Yuvjan Sabha, the Samajwadi Party’s youth wing, brought pails of Ganga water and poured it on the bronze statue of Madan Mohan Malviya, the founder of the Banaras Hindu University.
BJP President Rajnath Singh today said Sonia Gandhi did not make any sacrifice by relinquishing the post of Prime Minister in 2004 as Sanjay Baru’s book had proved that she was the one actually running the government.
“By not accepting the PM post in 2004, Sonia made no sacrifice. From the book of former advisor of the PM Sanjay Baru, ‘The Accidental Prime Minister’, it has been proved that the Central government was being run from 10 Janpath (Gandhi’s residence),” Rajnath said at an election rally at Aurangabad in the Dhauraha parliamentary constituency.
The Nigerian government Friday pledged to do everything it can to rescue 190 girls abducted from their school last week.
The government decision came following a crisis meet participated by security chiefs, ministers, state governors, and religious leaders to discuss growing insecurity in the country.
The abduction, a governor said, was the “issue of the moment” and the government and army were doing everything they could to rescue them, BBC reported.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s former media adviser Sanjaya Baru Friday maintained that “no one has questioned facts” in his controversial new book that portrays the prime minister’s position as being undermined by Congress president Sonia Gandhi.
Speaking to journalists at the Indian Women’s Press Corps here, Baru, whose book “The Accidental Prime Minister – The Making and Unmaking of Manmohan Singh” has kicked up a political storm with its revelations, declined to comment on the criticism of the book by the prime minister’s daughter, Upinder Singh.
A special CBI court here directed the CBI today to probe a complaint against Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) chief K Chandrasekhar Rao, the party’s Siddipet MLA T Harish Rao and Medak MP M Vijayashanti, alleging that they have amassed wealth through extortion.
Russia today said it had proof the Syrian government was not behind a new spate of alleged chemical attacks in the country, amid fresh international calls for a probe.
“Accusations against government forces continue to be fabricated about alleged cases of them using chemical substances,” said a Russian foreign ministry statement.
“The Russian side has authentic information that such statements are false,” it said.
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav today accused BJP of putting national integrity at risk by using religion in its desperate bid to wrest power.
“BJP wants to gain power even at the cost of the unity of the country and it has nothing to do with the issues related to development and public welfare,” Yadav said while addressing election rallies in Khaga and Bindki towns.
Yadav said that BJP had no development model and termed it as “a very clever party” which made propaganda of Gujarat model. He also claimed that so called “BJP wave” was false as there was no such wave.
Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi Friday promised to further strengthen brand Hyderabad by making it the number one information technology city in the country and also developing it as a hardware hub.
Addressing an election meeting here, he said the Congress would take brand Hyderabad all over the world. He said that the proposed IT Investment Region (ITIR) in Hyderabad will provide jobs to 70 lakh youth.
“Hyderabad is a software centre and we want Telangana and Hyderabad to become centre of hardware,” he said.
Kevin Pietersen failed to fire in his first match for Delhi Daredevils as Sunrisers Hyderabad rode on a brilliant batting show by Aaron Finch and David Warner to notch up a narrow four-run win in an IPL match here today.
Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi today said running the country was not a small task and one needs to “dream big” for that.
“Iss desh ko chalana koi chhoti baat nahi hai. Uske liye bade sapne dekhna hai…badi soch hona hai (running this country is not a small task. You need to have big dreams and big thoughts for that),” he said.
“You need to get things done with love. You need to carry everyone along,” the Congress leader said, addressing an election rally organised by the Telangana Congress Committee at Madikonda here this evening.
Delhi Daredevils skipper Kevin Pietersen put up a brave front after his team’s third defeat stating that they are “not far off” from the first win although he complained about the lethargy in the first six overs.
“I guess the guys were a little bit lethargic in the first six overs but were brilliant from overs six to 20. But the first six overs were important as one needs to get the momentum. I think Finchy (Aaron Finch) played a fantastic knock,” Pietersen, who played his first game of the tournament said at the post-match presentation ceremony.
BJP leader Subramanian Swamy Friday urged President Pranab Mukherjee not to approve the appointment of a new army chief, arguing that its timing will “politicise” the office and “demoralise” the armed forces. “The timing of this proposed announcement will, inter alia, ensure the chief of the army staff (COAS) office is politicised and the armed forces demoralised,” Swamy said in a letter to the president.
Reacting to the CBI court order for inquiry into his assets, the TRS president K Chandrasekhara Rao on Friday made it clear that he would not be afraid to such conspiracies and cases.
Speaking at an election campaign meeting organized at Nagarkurnool in the district, Chandrasekhara Rao said that he would welcome the CBI probe into his wealth. He alleged that it was nothing but the Congress party conspiracy against him. Stating that his life was an open book, he felt that it was not possible for anybody to do anything to him.
Even after Election Panel had made it clear that companies in the information technology sector are not exempted and will have to declare a paid holiday on the day of polling, it is observed that many IT companies have not yet announced a paid Holiday on April 30. As per the provisions of Section 135 B (i) of the Representation of People (RP) Act, every person employed in any business, trade, industrial undertaking or any other establishment and entitled to vote, shall be granted a holiday on April 30, the day of Poll in Telangana.
Former Sri Lanka captain Marvan Atapattu was appointed the head coach of the national cricket team Friday, following the resignation of Paul Farbrace earlier this week.
“Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) wishes to announce that Marvan Atapattu has been appointed as the national team head coach and Ruwan Kalpage as the interim assistant coach with immediate effect,” said a Sri Lanka cricket release.
“These appointments will be for the upcoming Ireland and England tour and the South Africa tour of Sri Lanka.”
The Delhi High Court has issued notice to the central government on a plea of family members of two Indians, who have sought help in securing their return from Iran.
Justice Manmohan issued notice to the external affairs ministry, home ministry, labour ministry and sought their response by May 27.
Senior Congress leader Kapil Sibal Friday accused BJP leader Narendra Modi of making false promises of cleaning the Ganga if he wins the parliamentary election from Varanasi.
The claim was made by Modi in a blog post he wrote Thursday, the day he filed his nomination as a candidate from the holy town.
Sibal joined issue, calling Modi “a man for whom distorting facts is a daily ritual”, and challenged his claim that he would clean the Ganga in Varanasi the same way he cleaned the Sabarmati in Gujarat.
An unbeaten 128-run partnership between Aaron Finch and David Warner led the Sunrisers Hyderabad to their first win in the Indian Premier League when they beat the Delhi Daredevils by four runs at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium here Friday.
Electing to bat, the Sunrisers put up a challenging total of 184/1 and then restricted Daredevils to 180/4. With 20 runs required off Bhuvneshwar Kumar’s last over, the Delhi outfit could only manage 15 in an exciting finish and to end up with their third loss out of four matches this season.