News

Now, MNS to clean up Mumbai

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Mumbai, August 09: After politicians got into Mumbai clean up drive in the backdrop of rising Malaria cases, MNS chief Raj Thackeray also asked his party men to take up the responsibility of cleaning the metropolis. Raj today directed his partymen to clean the city with the help of civic officials and local people.

“Wherever you find garbage, clean it to control the diseases,” he said. He made it clear that this was not a publicity stunt. “Many (political leaders) have published their photographs cleaning Mumbai but it was a publicity stunt,” he added.

Golden girl Tejaswini returns home

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Bangalore, August 09: Tejaswini Sawant, who made India proud by winning the 50m rifle prone gold at the World Shooting Championship, returned home to a rousing reception this morning.

Tejaswini became the first Indian woman shooter to win a gold in World Championship. She also equalled the world record, as she shot 99 in her last attempt. Had it been 100, it would be a world record.

After arriving here, the Indian markswoman said the morale-boosting historic triumph sets her up perfectly for the Commonwealth Games this October.

Political players in Bahrain

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Bahrain, August 09: Bahrain said it will hold parliamentary elections on October 23, a poll that is not expected to meet demands by the Shi’ite opposition for more political participation in the Gulf Arab state.

$1 billion loan from India suicidal: Khaleda Zia

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Dhaka, August 09: Bangladesh’s opposition leader Khaleda Zia has termed as “suicidal” the $1 billion deal the government signed with India’s Exim Bank last Saturday.

The Sheikh Hasina government has rejected the charge.

“There was no need to borrow the amount from India now. People will have to shoulder the burden,” Zia was quoted as saying by New Age newspaper on Monday.

Zia, who is the Bangladesh Nationalist Party’s chairperson, called the deal suicidal.

Bihar centre for poor IIT aspirants impresses Obama envoy

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Patna, August 09: Rashad Hussain, son of an Indian migrant couple from Bihar who is US special envoy to the Organization of the Islamic Conference, Sunday visited Bihar’s free coaching centre here for poor students aspiring for an Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) berth.

After visiting Super 30, a free coaching centre that helps economically backward students crack the IIT-Joint Entrance Examination (IIT-JEE), he said that President Barack Obama will also love to see the institute.

Crisis-hit Modi eyes poll power

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Ahmedabad, August 09: Forthcoming elections of six municipal corporations in Gujarat will be a test for Chief minister Narendra Modi whose party has been facing crisis of credibility following arrest of his trusted aide Amit Shah in Sohrabuddin Sheikh fake encounter case by CBI.

The six municipal corporations, which consists of major urban areas of the state like Ahmedabad, Surat, Vadodara, Rajkot, Bhavnagar and Jamnagar are going to polls after October this year.

Afghan war kills 1,325 civilians in 2010

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Kabul, August 09: More than 1,300 civilians have been killed in Afghanistan so far this year, mostly by Taliban insurgents, a leading Afghan rights group said Sunday.

Taliban militants were responsible for about 68 percent of the 1,325 deaths while Afghan and NATO troops were to blame for 23 percent, Afghanistan’s Independent Human Rights Commission said.

Violent but “unknown factors” killed the rest, it said.

TRS to strike TDP while the iron is hot

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Hyderabad, August 09: After demolishing the TDP in the recent byelections, the TRS is busy giving the finishing touches to its strategy to decimate the party in all of Telangana by engineering defections.

The bait is likely to be thrown both to TDP leaders and cadres. The strategy would be fine-tuned in the next few days.

Prophet’s Mosque ready to welcome millions of visitors

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Makkah, August 09: The Presidency for the Affairs of the Two Holy Mosques has charted an intensive plan to receive visitors to the Prophet’s Mosque during Ramadan, which starts next week, Shaikh Saleh Bin Abdul Rahman Al Hussain, chief of the presidency in Makkah, has said.

Speaking to reporters, Al Hussain said 1,970 workmen, including engineers, technicians and workers have been working at the Prophet’s Mosque in Madinah to keep it clean and provide services for visitors.

Authorities close mosque used by 9/11 attackers

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Berlin, August 09: German authorities said they have closed a Hamburg mosque that used to be a meeting place for the 9/11 attackers.

Hamburg officials said in a statement the Taiba mosque and a cultural association connected with it were banned on Monday.

The prayer house, formerly known as Al Quds mosque, used to be a meeting and recruiting point for some of the 9/11 attackers before they moved to the US.

Weekly news magazine Focus reported that the mosque has again become the city’s “main centre of attraction for the Jihad scene”.

Scholarships for bright Muslim students

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Hyderabad, Augsut 09: The 15th Syed Khaleelullah Hussaini Memorial Scholarship awards were presented on Sunday to students of weaker sections, studying in Standard VIII to X at Taher hall in Moghalpura of the Old city.

Speaking on the occasion, MA Rahim Quraishi, president of the All-India Majlis Tameer-e-Millat (AIMTM) said they would encourage students of weaker sections by providing financial assistance.

Muslim women law board decries fatwa against woman qazi

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Lucknow, August 09: In yet another row over fatwa, the All India Muslim Women Personal Law Board (AIMWPLB) on Sunday decried the recent fatwa issued by Darul Uloom, Deoband restricting Muslim women from becoming qazi.

Somalia fighting kills ’15 militants’

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Mogadishu, August 09: Fierce skirmishes between security forces and fighters alleged to have links with al-Shabab group, kill 15 militants in the semi-autonomous northeastern region of Puntland, government forces say.

On Sunday, a group of Somali security forces mounted an attack on fighters, in response to an earlier assault by militants on an army post near the commercial capital, according to Yusuf Ahmed Kheir, a security official in the Puntland region.

Shoaib Akhtar working hard to revive international career

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Karachi, August 09: Pakistan’s discarded fast bowler Shoaib Akhtar is yet to give up hopes of reviving his international career and is eyeing a spot in the country’s squad for next year’s World Cup.

Sources close to the enigmatic pacer told IANS that Shoaib is working hard on his fitness and wants to play in the 2011 World Cup before saying goodbye to the game.

Shoaib was overlooked for the Test series against Australia and England after featuring in two Twenty20 Internationals against Australia in England earlier this summer.

Andhra Maoist arrested in Jharkhand

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Ranchi, August 09: A top Maoist leader from Andhra Pradesh carrying a bounty of Rs.10 lakh was arrested from Jharkhand’s Bokaro district, police said Monday.

According to police, Narasimha Reddy alias Gangana alias Rahulji was arrested from Kudra village of Bokaro district, around 135 km from Ranchi.

Police sources said he was picked up sometime back but police announced his arrest Monday.

Reddy is member of Andhra Pradesh state committee of banned group, Communist Party of India-Maoist (CPI-Maoist).

Crime In Hyderabad (9.8.2010)

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Chronic thief arrested

Hyderabad, August 9 (Siasat News): Kukatpally police has arrested a chronic thief and seized stolen items from his possession worth Rs. 6.5 lakh.

Vamsi Krishna, 29, a student of MBA, was involved in theft cases committed in Hyderabad and Cyberabad limits.

According to the police, he entered the world of crime in 2001 and committed 38 thefts and went to jail many times in the past.

It is also disclosed that Vamsi committed 6 crimes after he got released from the jail recently.

Abbas questions Pak team management over not playing Yousuf

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Lahore, August 09: Former captain Zaheer Abbas came down heavily on the Pakistan team management for not playing Mohammad Yousuf, who has been urgently rushed to England to join the touring side.

”In the first place, I don’t understand what Yousuf is doing in England. If the need was so urgent that they rushed him to England at a short notice then he should have played in whatever condition he was in,” Abbas said.

Nearly 1,300 missing in China landslides

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China, August 09: At least 127 people were killed and 45,000 people were affected after destructive landslides triggered by torrential rains hit northwest China’s Gansu province. Rescuers are searching for nearly 1,300 missing people.

The landslides occurred at around 12 a.m. on Sunday in Zhouqu county in Gannan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture.

The rescue headquarters in Zhouqu estimated that 1,294 people were missing. Earlier the provincial civil affairs department had put the figure of missing people at nearly 2,000.

Uproar in LS over Mamata’s rally

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Mumbai, August 09: There was a chaos in Lok Sabha on Monday over Trinamool Congress Chief Mamata Banerjee’s ‘apolitical’ rally in Lalgarh in West Bengal.

Left party MPs tried to raise the issue at the beginning of question hour, but Trinamool Congress MPs protested vociferously.

Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal and his deputy V. Narayanasamy had a tough time pacifying the members from both sides.

With senior CPI-M MPs away to attend the extended central committee meeting, their colleagues Bansa Gopal Chowdhury and A. Sampath tried to raise the issue.

US slams murders of medics in Afghanistan

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Kabul, August 09: The United States has condemned the “despicable” murders of eight foreign medics mown down in a forest attack claimed by the Taliban, including a British woman who was about to return home to get married.

The bullet-riddled bodies of five US men and three women — an American, a German and a Briton — were found in the northeastern province of Badakhshan on Friday. Two Afghans were also killed and one, the group’s driver, survived.

Bhopal tragedy to be discussed on Tuesday

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Bhopal, August 09: The Bhopal tragedy case would be discussed in Lok Sabha on Tuesday with members of several opposition parties.

The BJP earlier had plans to raise discussion on the issue under rule 184 which entails voting in order to censure the government on the worst industrial disaster in the world in the wake of the recent court judgement.

A Bhopal court recently convicted former Union Carbide India chairman Keshub Mahindra and six others and awarded them a maximum of two years imprisonment and imposed a fine of Rs one lakh each.

‘Inzamam to blame for dearth of batting talent in Pak’

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Karachi, August 09: Pakistan’s former Test captain, Aamir Sohail feels the country’s most capped player Inzamam-ul Haq is responsible for the dearth of quality batsmen in the national team.

Sohail said by the time Inzamam retired he had disturbed the national team and left it facing numerous problems.

“When Imran Khan retired, he left behind a pack of quality bowlers, when Javed Miandad retired he left behind a legacy of good batsmen but when Inzamam retired he left behind nothing,” Sohail told ‘Geo super channel’.

Indonesian hardline Muslim cleric arrested

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Jakarta, August 09: Indonesian police Monday arrested Muslim cleric Abu Bakar Ba’asyir, the alleged spiritual leader of terror group Jemaah Islamiyah, his lawyer and police officials said.

Lawyer Achmad Michdan said the elderly cleric was arrested by the anti-terror unit Monday morning in the West Java district of Ciamis.

Michdan said Ba’asyir, 72, was arrested en route to Solo in central Java, after giving lectures in Tasikmalaya, West Java. He said he was unsure what the charges were.

Obama enjoying birthday celebrations

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Washington, August 09: US President Barack Obama has been enjoying – golfing, playing basketball and grilling out on the White House South Lawn.

The festivities are all part of a belated birthday celebration of sorts for the president, who turned 49 on Wednesday.

With the first lady Michelle and youngest daughter Sasha, 9, on vacation in Spain and 12-year-old Malia attending camp, friends from Hawaii, Chicago, Illinois, and college joined Obama on Saturday at Andrews Air Force Base for a round of golf.

Netanyahu testifies before Israel’s Gaza raid probe

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Jerusalem, August 09: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is set to appear before an Israeli commission of inquiry on Monday to explain a commando raid on a Gaza-bound aid flotilla which killed nine Turkish activists.

He will be the first of three top officials to give sworn testimony about the May 31 incident in which naval commandos stormed six aid ships trying to run the blockade on Gaza, killing the activists and wounding scores of others.