Sibal says ‘vibrant Gujarat is full of vibrant lies’
Union Law Minister Kapil Sibal on Friday termed BJP prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi a man adept at telling lies and distorting facts.
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Tendulkar spared of T20 influence growing up: Greg Chappell
Former India coach Greg Chappell feels the cricket phenomenon called Sachin Tendulkar the world saw could have turned out a bit different had he grown up in the current scenario influenced by the advent of Twenty20 cricket.
“The big difference I guess from when Sachin was growing up is that back then he would have largely been watching Test cricket, and even one-day cricket as it was played had similarities to Test cricket in a lot of ways,” Chappell has been quoted of saying by cricket.Com.Au.
Pak court reserves ruling on Musharraf’s plea for probe report
A special court in Pakistan today reserved till April 28 its ruling on Pervez Musharraf’s plea seeking a copy of probe report which is the basis of the treason trial against the former military ruler.
The three-judge court, headed by Justice Faisal Arab of the Sindh High Court, heard the case pertaining to high treason charges against the 70-year-old former President.
Musharraf’s lawyer Farogh Nasim said the trial should be fair else it should not take place at all.
Drunk passenger on Virgin plane sparks Bali hijacking alert
A drunk passenger sparked a hijacking alert on a Virgin Australia flight heading for the Indonesian resort island of Bali today when he attempted to break into the cockpit, officials said.
Security forces rushed to the airport when the 737-800 touched down on the popular resort island, as authorities said they had received information the Brisbane to Bali flight had been hijacked.
However, Virgin Australia said the drunken passenger had sparked the alarm when he slammed on the cockpit door. He was later arrested by Indonesian authorities.
Court reserves order on giving Musharraf FIA report
The special court trying Pakistan’s former president Pervez Musharraf for treason Friday resumed hearing in the case and reserved its order on his demand for the Federal Investigation Agency’s (FIA) investigation report.
The three-judge court, headed by Justice Faisal Arab of the Sindh High Court, heard the case Friday, The News International reported.
During the hearing, Musharraf’s lawyer Farogh Nasim said the trial should be fair or else it should not take place at all.
Obama arrives in South Korea to hold summit with Park
US President Barack Obama arrived here Friday to hold a summit meeting with his South Korean counterpart Park Geun-hye.
The presidents of the two countries will discuss issues of North Korea’s nuclear programme and the South Korea-US alliance amid rising tensions in the region.
Obama began his four-nation Asian tour from Japan where he met Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe before arriving in South Korea for a two-day trip, Xinhua reported.
BJP questions political silence on Congress promise to provide quota for OBC Muslims
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Ravi Shankar Prasad on Friday questioned the silence of so-called parties that fight for Dalit and the OBC rights, when there are attempts made by the Congress to snatch this plank away from them.
Mulayam and Akhilesh to hold rallies in Kanpur
Samjawadi Party supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav and chief minister Akhilesh Yadav will hold rallies here in support of party candidate for Kanpur Lok Sabha seat Surendra Mohan Agarwal.
While Mulayam will hold a rally in the city tomorrow, Akhilesh will address a public meeting on Sunday at the parade ground, Agarwal said.
He said TV actress Shweta Tiwari held a roadshow yesterday and appealed to people to vote for the party.
Hamid Mir says had been receiving threats from ‘state and non-state actors’
Senior Pak journalist Hamid Mir, who was critically injured in an armed attack, has said he was receiving threats from the ISI.
The Geo News senior anchorperson said in his first statement after regaining consciousness that his programme ‘Capital Talk’ on Mama Qadeer Baloch’s long march to Islamabad had annoyed the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI).
According o the News, Amir Mir, senior journalist and brother of Hamid, read out the statement before the media from outside the hospital in Pakistan.
Two passenger jets nearly collide while flying over Australia
Air-traffic control investigators are looking into an incident whereby two passenger jets almost collided while flying over Australia.
The Jetstar A320 and Singapore Airlines A330 aircraft came within 305 metres of one another while flying over the Northern Territory.
According to news.com.au, air traffic cleared the Jetstar flight from Darwin to Brisbane to climb through the Singapore’s jet’s altitude en route from Brisbane to Singapore.
The incident, called a ‘loss of separation’, occurred 75km southeast of the RAAF Base Tindal, near Katherine.
Vladimir Putin calls Internet ‘a CIA project’
Russian President Vladimir Putin has reportedly said that Internet was originally a CIA project and it is still developing as such. According to News.au, Russia’s parliament passed a law this week which requires social media websites to keep their servers in Russia and save all information about their users for at least half a year. Putin recently received a complaint that foreign websites and Yandex, a web search engine bigger than Google, is storing information on servers abroad.
Facebook launches FB Newswire for journalists
In a bid to make Facebook a more useful resource for journalists and news publications, the social networking site late Thursday launched FB Newswire that promises to offer scribes a repository of verified, real-time content for use.
“The Facebook page will have hand-selected and journalist-verified news stories from across Facebook’s platform,” Andy Mitchell, director of news and global media partnerships at Facebook, was quoted as saying.
Australian plane lands in Bali, not hijacked
The Indonesian government Friday denied that a passenger plane of Australia’s Virgin Blue airline forced to land in Bali was hijacked, adding that the aircraft had landed safely and all passengers on board were secured.
“A man trying to enter the cockpit an hour before the plane landed was drunk,” J.A. Barata, a spokesman of the Indonesia’s transport ministry told Xinhua.
But the incident triggered a hijack alert, he added.
Modi nomination: Mayawati wants EC action
BSP supremo Mayawati said the Election Commission should take suo moto cognisance of the ‘manner’ in which BJP prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi filed his nomination from Varanasi at the time when sixth phase of polling was being held all over the country, including Uttar Pradesh.
Obama nominates 3 Indian-Americans to advisory
US President Barack Obama has announced his intent to appoint three Indian-Americans to his 14-member advisory commission on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (AAPIs).
The Indian-Americans include, US Air Force officer Lt Col Ravi Chaudhary, prominent community leader Shekar Narasimhan and popular film and television actor Maulik Pancholy.
N Nina Ahmad of Bangladeshi-origin has also been nominated to the AAPIs.
Priyanka attacks Modi’s Gujarat of development
Priyanka Gandhi on Friday tore into the Gujarat model of development in which “thousands of acres” of land has been given to “friends” of Chief Minister Narendra Modi at “throwaway prices” and accused him of treating the country as a “classroom”.
Mamata, Jayalalithaa keen to block Modi as PM
Since the assassination of Indira Gandhi on Oct 31, 1984, women politicians have steered clear of having a go at the high office of prime minister.
For one, they are mostly regional satraps and not strictly in the national arena. Importantly, garnering 272 plus on their own out of the 543 elected seats in the Lok Sabha to stake claim in forming the government, even in good times, is a difficult ask.
Stop lecturing, Priyanka tells Modi
Congress chief Sonia Gandhi’s daughter Priyanka Gandhi Vadra Friday launched a shrill attack at BJP’s prime ministerial hopeful Narendra Modi, asking him to “stop his vicious” campaign and instead focus on development issues.
Making public her displeasure of Modi’s campaign, she told a gathering that people of the country were not schoolchildren and hence Modi should not hurl “RSVP” and “ABC” jibes at the Congress and her family members.
Tension along India-Bangladesh border
Tension prevailed Friday along the India-Bangladesh border in this northeastern state in the wake of some Bangladeshi nationals kidnapping two Indians from southern Tripura, officials here said.
“Seven Indians were working in their rubber gardens outside the border fencing at Rajnagar area in southern Tripura (190 km south of the state capital) on Thursday when Bangladeshi nationals took away two Indians just before evening. Five Indians managed to escape and reported the matter to the BSF (Border Security Force),” a Tripura police spokesman told reporters.
Why local party feels so intimidated by me? Feroz Khan
TDP candidate for Nampally assembly constituency Mr. Feroz Khan said that local party’s sympathy towards Muslims is just a sham. Today every political party is accepting the political importance of Muslims but only this is the party which is black mailing all the political parties. It is forcing all the political parties not to give ticket to any Muslim either for assembly seat or for parliamentary seat.
India’s young need jobs: Andhra leader
Bureaucrat-turned-politician Jayaprakash Narayan, whose Lok Satta Party is contesting 100 assembly seats in Andhra Pradesh, is worried that manufacturing is “at a standstill” and sought creation of more jobs for the young.
“We are adding 15 million young people in the job market every year, but we are creating 10 percent jobs for them. Manufacturing is really at a standstill and the greatest challenge is to make that happen whatever it takes,” Narayan told IANS.
Syria almost completes surrendering chemical weapons stockpile: OPCW
Syria has nearly completely surrendered its chemical weapons stockpile, a joint task force in charge of the operation has said.
The comments from Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) came as the UN Security Council members called for a fresh probe into alleged gas attacks .
The OPCW said nearly 92.5 percent of Syria’s chemical material have been removed and destroyed.
According to news24, the weapons are due to be destroyed by 30 June.
Obama found Mt. Fuji-shaped ice cream delicious
US President Barack Obama, who is currently on his Asian tour, was served a Mt. Fuji-shaped ice cream for dessert at the state dinner and he found it delicious.
Obama explained that the dessert had the green tea at the bottom that he has spoken about having since he was 6, ABC News reported.
Obama said that he was very pleased with the ice cream and passed the compliment to the emperor and empress in person. (ANI)
Kadapa LS seat: YSRCP faces strong challenge from BJP-ally TDP
A battle for prestige is on the cards in this YSR family stronghold, which was represented four times by the late Chief Minister and twice by his son Jaganmohan, as traditional Congress supporters are looking at TDP as an alternative after the junior Reddy parted ways with the national party.
Oz media slams ‘ridiculous’ Indian book saying Sachin better than Bradman
The Australian media has slammed a new Indian book titled ‘Greater Than Bradman’ which argues that Indian batting icon Sachin Tendulkar is better than late Australian legend Sir Don Bradman, saying that the author of the book is ‘dreaming’.
News.com.au dismissed the theory in India that when Tendulkar was playing, the jury was out on the greatest batsman of all time, and stated that there was never, and never will be, anyone better than Bradman.