News

New Delhi, August 08: The Lok Sabha will hold a discussion on CWG preparations on Monday over the issue of alleged large-scale corruption in Commonwealth Games projects.

BJP members Virender Kumar and A T Nana Patil will initiate a special discussion on “delay” in the preparation of the mega sporting event to be held in Delhi from October 3-14.

The issue of alleged large-scale corruption in the Games projects had created uproar in Parliament last week with entire Opposition in the Lok Sabha uniting to attack the government, accusing it of allowing “loot” of public money.

New Delhi, August 08: Former Gujarat minister Amit Shah continued to be quizzed by CBI officials here Sunday, a day after he was grilled for nine hours in connection with the 2005 killing of Sohrabuddin Sheikh in a staged shootout.

The former minister of state for home was at the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) office here in the morning for the final day of questioning. His two-day period of CBI remand ends Sunday night.

Mumbai, August 08: On one of the days this Ramzan, 57 year old Prakashc Gidwani will wake well before dawn, in sync with Muslims across the city.

After a light breakfast of fruits and a glass of water, he plans to fast strictly all day, and at sunset, will eat at the local durgah in Versova only after his Muslim friends have finished their namaz.

For this Sindhi social activist, fasting at least once every Ramzan is a tradition he created for himself more than thirty years ago, to express his respect and love for Islam.

Srinagar, August 08: It is commerce by night — the milkman knocks at your door at around 4 AM, the vegetable seller follows; the bakery is open from 2.30 AM till sunrise and petrol pumps from midnight for a few hours.

This is how days and days of curfew and violence on the streets of this city and some other urban areas of the Kashmir Valley has changed the life of its citizens. Night has become day.

Life has come to a standstill; yet life has to go on.

Thus traders as well as citizens have invented ways of survival out of necessity. Call it ingenuity of Kashmiris.

New Delhi, August 08: Afghanistan is too independent to allow Pakistan to erode its sovereignty and the gradual progress the war-ravaged country has made, says Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao.

“Afghanistan is a fiercely independent country. And the take away we have had from meetings with the Afghan leadership in the recent past is that they are zealous about guarding that independence and in ensuring that the progress that they have made in Afghanistan over the last nine years is not eroded in any manner,” Rao told Karan Thapar on CNN-IBN’s Devil’s Advocate programme.

New Delhi, August 08: After a far-reaching judgment on homosexuality last year, India’s publishing world is abuzz with as many as seven magazines on issues of interest and concern to the gay community, with topics ranging from glamour to safe sex.

Some of these magazines may be in the form of e-zines, but their popularity – going by the number of downloads each of them claims – is making their publishers also look at the possibility of print editions in the near future.

New Delhi, August 08: Whether it is a businessman who wants to know if it is safe to visit certain cities in Mexico or a tourist in Tokyo who suspects he has fractured his ankle, help is not far thanks to a service available to the Indian globe trotter.

The London and Singapore-based International SOS says its medical and security service promises corporates and tourists an emergency helpline service like the 911 in the US even in those parts of the globe where such assistance is tardy and hard to comy by.

Security advisories are part of the deal.

New Delhi, August 08: Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit’s promise of completing all Commonwealth Games projects being implemented by her government by the extended deadline of August 31 is appearing to fall flat.

Top officials in Delhi government admitted that key projects like Barapullah Nallah elevated road and renovation of the Yamuna Sports Complex, apart from street-scaping around the Games venues are unlikely to finished by August-end.

Lucknow, August 08: In a bid to improve the standard of education and to provide better educational opportunities to their youth, Muslim organisations in the country have taken an initiative to set up a separate board on the lines of ISC and CBSE.

“It has been decided to set up a Muslim Education Board on the lines of ISC and CBSE boards which will give affiliation to religious and non-religious educational institutions in the country,” member of the All India Muslim Personal Law Board Maulana Khalid Rashid Firangi Mahali told PTI.