Tehran, August 11: Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki says the Islamic Republic has not made an official request for talks with the United States.
“We have always reiterated the Islamic Republic’s stance towards the US approaches [in the Middle East] and Washington’s foreign policies, ” IRNA quoted Mottaki as saying at a joint press conference with his Cambodian counterpart, Hor Namhong, in the Iranian capital, Tehran, on Tuesday.
Sydney, August 11: A US lawyer has dropped a child abuse lawsuit against the Catholic Church after failing to push through the case over the past six years.
Three plaintiffs filed a motion on Monday asking a federal judge in Louisville to dismiss their claims, says an AP report in the Sydney Morning Herald.
Their lawyer, William McMurry, said he was seeking to end the case because of the Vatican’s immunity and failure to turn up new plaintiffs who have not yet been involved in a Catholic clergy abuse case.
Washington, August 11: The Pentagon has played down Afghan President Hamid Karzai’s call to shut down foreign private security firms operating in his country.
Pentagon Spokesman Colonel David Lapan said Tuesday that even though Washington acknowledges that there are problems with the firms, the issue must be addressed in a way that also meets US security requirements.
“There are security needs that we have, that our forces have … so we want to make sure that we are addressing the Afghan government’s concerns but meeting our requirements as well,” said Lapan, quoted by AFP.
Ahmedabad, August 11: The CBI on Tuesday told a special court it has no objection to suspended deputy SP N K Amin, an accused in the Sohrabuddin fake encounter case, becoming an approver provided he makes true and full disclosures in the case.
The CBI counsel told this to the special CBI court of additional chief judicial magistrate in response to Amin’s application filed last month for becoming an approver and seeking pardon in the case.
London, August 11: A British surrogate mother who agreed to have Osama Bin Laden’s grandchild is expecting twins, reports The Daily Mail, London. Louise Pollard was given the news during her eightweek scan at a private clinic in Manchester.
She had conceived via IVF using the sperm of Bin Laden’s son Omar and the eggs of his 54- year- old British wife, Zaina, a six- times- married grandmother of five who was previously known as Jane Felix- Browne.
New Delhi, August 11: You’re a Delhi-based wannabe terrorist needing to communicate with your handlers. What do you do? Invisible-ink notes are passe, as are carrier pigeons. You will, of course, use electronic options.
Like e-mail. Walk into a cyber cafe, log into a G-mail or Yahoo account. Don’t use an account in your own name. And don’t send e-mail. Simply read instructions left for you in an unsent mail, saved as a draft in your account. Then, to reply, just edit the unsent e-mail, and save it back as a draft. If e-mail isn’t travelling, it can’t be intercepted.
Hyderabad, August 11: Senior Congress MLA DL Ravindra Reddy on Tuesday demanded a Central Bureau of Investigation into the alleged irregularities in the allotment of industrial lands at Nanakramguda in Hi-tech city and said that the allotments were part of a Rs 10,000 crore scam.
Talking to media person at the CLP, Mr Ravindra Reddy alleged that the Andhra Pradesh Industrial Infrastructure Corporation (APIIC) had allotted lands worth crores or rupees to some influential persons, even though it had not gained any benefits from the allotments.
Hyderabad, August 11: Congress MLC K Yadav Reddy on Tuesday stated that the Ministers from the Rayalaseema and Coastal Andhra Pradesh have misguided the Chief Minister K Rosaiah by providing wrong information to him over their `anti-national’ remarks on the Telangana before the Srikrishna Commission.
Talking to reporters at the CLP Office, Mr Yadav Reddy demanded the Ministers to withdraw their comments immediately and tender an unconditional apology for their remarks.
The MLC demanded that the 16 Ministers resign from their posts immediately.
Hyderabad, August 11: With the Holy Month of Ramzaan around the corner, wholesale dates (khajoor as these are called) merchants in Begum Bazaar are a happy lot.
Their shops are being thronged by retailers who buy from this wholesale market and sell the dates around the city and across the state.
Scores of labourers are seen unloading sacks and cartons full of Omani, Irani, Madni, Arabian and plain dates. These are sold here in quintals to the retailers.
The plain dates are the fastest moving commodity, since they are reasonably priced and fit the common man’s budget.
Hyderabad, August 11: Bowenpally police on Tuesday said that the mystery behind the brutal murder of HAL Employee was solved with the arrest of three persons late on Monday night.
According to police, Adepally Pochaiah, Tonk Karan Singh and Bobbili Kiran were taken in custody on charges of murdering one V Sailoo, the HAL employee. Pochaiah is Sailoo’s brother-in-law.
The police learnt through their investigations that Pochaiah was employee of HMT Machine Tools Limited and took voluntarily retirement. Apart from his service he was involved in money circulation and chits.
Hyderabad, August 11: Home Minister Sabitha Indra Reddy will inaugurate the 3rd Southern States Directors General of Police Conference, at Jubilee Hall on Wednesday.
The DsGP of Southern States, namely Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Kerala and Puducherry will be attending with their teams of CID and Intelligence Officers. The first Conference was held by Tamil Nadu in Aug-2008 and by Kerala in Aug-2009.
The purpose of the conference is to exchange information and extend mutual co-operation among the Southern States.
Hyderabad, August 11: Five people were killed and six injured when firecrackers being manufactured illegally in a house in Andhra Pradesh’s West Godavari district exploded Tuesday, police said. A probe has been ordered.
So powerful was the blast in Peddaellamelli village of Unguturu mandal that three houses were damaged. The incident set off panic in the entire area.
Local people told police that fire broke out in the house where firecrackers were being manufactured illegally. It was followed by blasts and the flames engulfed the neighbouring houses.
Washington, August 11: The Obama administration drew fire from conservative lawmakers for sending to the Middle East the imam who backs controversial plans for a mosque next to the site of the September 11 attacks in New York.
“Imam Feisal (Abdul Rauf) will be travelling to Qatar, Bahrain, and the UAE (United Arab Emirates) on a US government-sponsored trip to the Middle East,” State Department spokesman Philip Crowley told reporters.
“He will discuss Muslim life in America and religious tolerance,” Crowley added.
Panaji, August 11: The Shiv Sena’s Goa unit chief and vice chief were booked for trying to extort money from a casino operator Tuesday night, police said.
Officials said that both Shiv Sena Goa president Upendra Gaonkar and his deputy Umesh Salgaonkar had been booked for trying to extort Rs.15 lakh from the management of Hotel Majestic at Porvorim, five kilometres from here.
“Salgaokar has been arrested. We are still looking for Gaonkar,” a police official said, adding that the duo were extorting money to fund their party’s municipal election campaign.
–IANS
Rabat (Morocco), August 11: The Moroccan government will close 1,256 mosques found to be “unsafe” to avoid the repeat of a minaret collapse that killed 41 people in February this year.
Mohammed VI, the king of Morocco, ordered all the country’s mosques to be examined after a centuries-old minaret of a mosque in Meknes fell during Friday prayers.
Meknes, an ancient city, is on the Unesco’s World Heritage list.
Washington, August 11: Amid protests from India, the US House of Representatives has passed a bill to steeply hike US visa fees for skilled workers to raise $600 million in emergency funding to help secure the US-Mexico border.
Senators passed a similar plan last week. But since the House version passed in a voice vote Tuesday is slightly different it will go back to the Senate for final congressional approval before being signed into law by President Barack Obama.
Vatican City, Auguist 10: The Vatican plans to revamp its official website and is considering opening sections in Arabic and Russian, an official said Tuesday.
The need to use language “that is comprehensible to today’s internet users”, is prompting the initiative, Monsignor Lucio Adrian Ruiz who manages the site, told the Vatican newspaper L’Osservatore Romano.
The site: www.vatican.va currently consists of some half-a-million pages with sections in eight languages: Latin, Italian, English, Spanish, French, Portuguese, German and Chinese.
Kolkata, August 10: Railway Minister and Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee Tuesday complained of chest and neck pain and breathlessness after a car in her convoy was hit by a lorry Monday, and has been advised complete bed rest for the next couple of days.
A close aide of the leader alleged that the incident was an attempt on the minister’s life, but a top West Bengal government official called it a “mere accident”.
Lucknow, August 10: Unfazed by criticism against “overspending” on parks and statues, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati once again allocated nearly Rs. 500 crores towards her dream projects in the Rs.5,461 crore supplementary budget tabled before the state assembly Tuesday.
Srinagar, August 10: Jammu and Kashmir’s main opposition PDP tonight dismissed as a “joke with the people of Kashmir” Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s fresh initiative to end the unrest in the Valley.
“The Prime Minister’s statement (at the meeting with an all-party delegation from the state) is a joke with the people of Kashmir”, PDP patron and former chief minister Mufti Mohd Sayeed said.
Sayeed described as a “futile exercise” the meeting the PM had with the delegation alleging “nothing will come out of it”.
Anand(Guj), August 10: People in rural areas are now not merely dependent on agriculture but have alternatives for earning livelihood, Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi today said here
He was speaking in a meeting discussing challenges confronting India’s rural sector, at the Institute of Rural Management, Anand (IRMA) here.
Some people in rural areas live better life than those in the urban areas, he added.
Riyadh, August 10: Local tour operators have raised round-trip Umrah package rates from Riyadh by at least 50 percent, with prices expected to further increase by 150 percent during the last 10 days of Ramadan.
Muhammad, a representative of Ibn Al-Qayyim for Haj and Umrah, told Saudi Gazette that the current rate for a three-day package to the Two Holy Cities is SR150 per person which includes transportation and hotel accommodation.
Gandhinagar, August 10: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) Tuesday came out in favour of conditionally allowing former Gujarat deputy superintendent of police N.K. Amin to become an approver in the Sohrabuddin Sheikh staged gunfight case.
New Delhi, August 10: The Supreme Court on Tuesday issued notice to the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) on its former president A.C. Muthiah’s plea related to award of an Indian Premier League (IPL) franchise to the owner of the Chennai Super Kings T20 cricket team.
Muthiah has sought permission to file additional documents in support of his suit challenging the award of the franchise to India Cements Ltd.
While Muthiah is a former BCCI president, the present BCCI Secretary, N. Srinivasan, is the CEO of India Cements Ltd.
New Delhi, August 10: New Zealand got their tri-series campaign off to a rollicking start by thrashing India by 200 runs in the opening match at Dambulla International Stadium in Dambulla on Tuesday.
Scorecard
Chasing a victory target of 289 runs, India’s weakness against quality fast bowling came to the fore again as they were bundled out for 88 runs in 29.3 overs.
The Indian batting collapse started in the seventh over when Kyle Mills had Virender Sehwag (19) caught down the leg side by wicket-keeper Gareth Hopkins.