Following complaints from the defence ministry and ISI, Pakistan’s media regulator has slapped Geo News with a notice asking why its operations should not be shut down.
Geo News administration has been asked by the Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (PEMRA) to reply within 14 days as to why it should not be shut down for violating the regulator’s laws, the TV channel reported Thursday.
The inaugural Indian Super League (ISL) is in danger of running into serious problems, the unavailability of top Indian players being the most disturbing for the high-flying organisers IMG-Reliance.
The organisers still have six months to overcome the issues and make sure that the two-month-long tournament does not end up as a dud show.
Some of the leading clubs as usual raised the banner of revolt, saying they can’t release the players and the pro league dates are clashing with FIFA friendlies and also the Asian Games.
Polling for the lone Lok Sabha seat in Puducherry saw a heavy turnout with around 80 percent of the voters exercising their franchise, said the Election Commission.
According to commission, around 80 percent of the 901,357 voters have voted till 6 p.m while there were some in the queue.
The poll percentage now has crossed the turnout level of 79.85 percent recorded in the 2009 polls.
As many as 30 candidates are in the fray in the union territory, which is also a former French colony.
Minor incidents like scuffles, stone pelting and firing blanks were reported from polling booths in Uttar Pradesh as 12 Lok Sabha constituencies went to the polls Thursday.
Scuffles broke out in a booth in Jalalpur area of Kannauj constituency from where Dimple Yadav, wife of Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav, is seeking re-election to the Lok Sabha.
Officials told IANS that two groups from different parties confronted each other and fired in the air. Stone pelting was also reported from the area.
The situation was soon brought under control by the authorities.
The Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGIA) is set to become a zero-diversionary airport by October as the government is set to implement the recommendations set out by an expert committee which was formed to look into the matter.
Chief minister Manohar Parrikar is playing to the whims of Goa’s mining magnates by rejecting a popular demand for a state-run corporation to control the mining industry, a pro-mining workers’ collective said Thursday.
Goa Mining People’s Front (GMPF) leader Christopher Fonseca told a press conference Thursday that the Goa government should follow the apex court’s cue from last week’s landmark judgment and take over operational mining leases from mining magnates, who allegedly oversaw a Rs.35,000-crore illegal mining scam.
With electors coming out in many areas of Anantnag in the afternoon to exercise their franchise, the poll percentage in this Jammu and Kashmir Lok Sabha constituency showed an improvement over voting figures earlier in the day Thursday.
The overall voting percentage for the constituency, that has 13.01 lakh voters, rose to 24 percent by 3 p.m. despite recent terror attacks and boycott calls by separatists. The contest sees Mehboob Beg of the ruling National Conference (NC) seeking re-election against Mehbooba Mufti, president of the main opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
Union Tourism Minister K Chiranjeevi said here today that Andhra Pradesh has not lost anything after granting separate statehood to the Telangana region.
He said the separation would give a chance to develop backward regions of the residual Andhra Pradesh state, for which special packages would be provided by the Congress.
Terror outfit Indian Mujahideen co-founder Yasin Bhatkal was today refused bail by a Delhi court in connection with September 2010 Jama Masjid terror attack case in which an explosion had taken place outside the mosque.
Additional Sessions Judge Daya Prakash dismissed the bail plea of Bhatkal while allowing the application of Delhi Police seeking 15 days time to conclude their ongoing probe against the IM’s Indian chief and his aide Asadullah Akhtar in the case.
BJP’s prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi will address three public rallies in Himachal Pradesh April 29, a party leader said here Thursday.
However, the state’s ruling Congress is yet to announce the dates of rallies of its top leaders, including Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi.
While Modi’s first rally will be held in Palampur town, the remaining two will be held in Mandi and Solan towns, BJP state spokesperson Ganesh Dutt told reporters.
Senior Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad today attacked RSS for spreading “propaganda” that UPA government was a failure and alleged that the outfit in a similar drive in 1977 “misled” Muslims over “forced vasectomy” which led to the party’s defeat.
“The manner in which RSS spread propaganda of forced vasectomy before Lok Sabha polls in 1977, similarly this time a propaganda is being spread by terming UPA government as a failure,” Azad told reporters here.
A Saudi prince is alleged to have poached over 2,100 endangered and internationally protected birds in a 21-day hunting safari in southwest Pakistan’s Balochistan province, bringing the focus back on the practice that has been taking place for long.
Last year in January, the hunting of endangered Houbara Bustards by members of Arab royal families in Pakistan had led to friction along the Indo-Pak frontier, with the BSF complaining about the firing.
A former minister has registered his candidacy for the Syrian presidential election, becoming the second person in the running for the executive position, Parliament Speaker Jihad al-Laham announced Thursday.
Hassan al-Nouri, 54, declared his candidacy for the June 3 elections, a day after lawmaker Maher Hajjar announced his bid for the top post, Xinhua reported.
The Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) has decided to suspend its contacts with NATO over the confrontation between the two blocs over Ukraine, the CSTO’s secretary general said Thursday.
“We are stopping common efforts to jointly cooperate with NATO, taking into account the position NATO has taken during the Ukrainian crisis,” Nikolai Bordyuzha told reporters.
The official explained that the decision has been made as a result of NATO’s “blackmailing” of Moscow and its allies, Xinhua reported.
The district administration today disallowed Ramdev to hold a press conference at Zila Parishad complex here on the ground that the premises belonged to Punjab government, leaving the yoga guru fuming.
The district administration granted him permission to hold yoga camp but strictly warned its local organisers not to use the place for election campaign of BJP-SAD candidate Vijay Sampla.
Around 180 Palestinian detainees in Israeli jails began a hunger strike Thursday, protesting their indefinite administrative detention.
“The prisoners have insisted they would go on with their hunger strike until they are released,” Palestine’s Deputy Minister of Prisoners’ Affairs Ziad Abu Ain told Xinhua.
According to data from the Palestine’s prisoners’ affairs ministry, Israel has recently extended the detention orders of 60 percent of Palestinian inmates under administrative detention.
Facebook has now reached the 1.01 billion mark for monthly active users on phones and tablets. According to Tech Crunch, Facebook’s daily active users on mobile are at 609 million for the quarter. However, mobile users doubled over the last year and now stand at 341 million. The above figures are without Instagram users or those on Facebook Messenger, which themselves stand at over 200 million monthly users. (ANI)
Maintaining that a nuclear North Korea is unacceptable, US President Barack Obama has asked Pyongyang to take concrete steps to abide by its international commitments and obligations.
“We’re going to stand firm in our insistence that a nuclear North Korea is unacceptable,” Obama said.
His comments came amid reports that North Korea may be preparing a fourth nuclear test.
The cricket fraternity today took to twitter to convey their wishes to the legendary Sachin Tendulkar, who started his 41st birthday by casting his vote in the general elections here.
“I have voted, have you? A wonderful start to my birthday, as a responsible citizen of our great nation,” Tendulkar wrote on his twitter page.
Tendulkar had returned from the UAE, where IPL-7 is going on, according to sources close to him, and is celebrating his birthday with family and friends in the city.
Congress President Sonia Gandhi today took on Narendra Modi on his home turf of Gujarat, saying the state was nowhere near “swarg” (heaven) as claimed by him, and accused the BJP’s Prime Ministerial hopeful of being concerned only about his chair.
Addressing her first election rally in Gujarat, which goes to polls on April 30, she tore into Modi’s much-touted Gujarat “development model” and appealed to the people to reject the “divisive” the ideology of RSS-BJP as it was “bad” for the country.
Congress star campaigner Priyanka Gandhi will tour the Lok Sabha constituency of her brother Rahul for two days from April 26.
During her visit, she will hold roadshows and address meetings at several places, Chandrakant Dubey, representative of the Congress Vice-President said today.
–PTI
Narendra Modi today filed his nomination for the high-profile electoral battle here after a mega road show, saying “Mother Ganga” has called him and vowed to make this temple town on the banks of Ganges the world’s spiritual capital.
At least five pro-Russian protestors were killed Thursday afternoon during an “anti-terror” operation in Ukraine’s eastern city of Slavyansk, the country’s interior ministry said.
During “counter-terror” actions at three checkpoints set up by a pro-Russia militia outside the city, five protestors were killed, Xinhua reported citing the ministry’s press service.
One Ukrainian officer was also injured, it said.
The Election Commission Thursday issued notices to BJP leader Vinay Katiyar and union minister Beni Prasad Verma for violating the Model Code of Conduct.
While Verma was issued the notice for making “derogratory” remarks against Bharatiya Janata Party prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi, Katiyar got the notice for his comments against Samajwadi Party leader Azam Khan.
Both have been asked to give their explanations by April 26, failing which the commission said it will take action without further referring the matter to them.
The Election Commission Thursday removed presiding officers of three booths in West Bengal’s Murshidabad district for allowing “illegal entry” to Trinamool Congress candidate from Jangipur Haji Nurul Islam, an official said.
“The presiding officers of the three booths where Islam had entered have been removed,” EC appointed special observer for the state Sudhir Kumar Rakesh told media persons here.
The Congress had filed a complaint with the EC alleging Islam illegally entered three polling booths in Sagardighi in the district, along with several of his party workers.