Nagpur, June 14: Mired in bitter infighting after the poll debacle and questioned for lack of clarity on Hindutva by its leaders, BJP today came under attack from RSS which accused it of “inconsistency” on the issue and warned that shunning the core ideology will “automatically snap” its “umbilical cord” with the Sangh.
Mohali, June 15: An unsuccessful bid to abduct Haryana Deputy Chief Minister Chander Mohan alias Chand Mohammad from the house of his estranged wife Anuradha Bali alias Fiza was made on Sunday evening, police said.
A group of about 100 people tried to abduct Chand Mohammad from Fiza’s house, where he had returned back after almost five months, Mohali police said.
Upon receiving the information, a police team, led by ASI Sohan Singh, reached the spot but the mob attacked them.
London, June 15: India captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni apologised to the thousands of disappointed fans who watched their side exit the Twenty20 World Cup at Lord’s on Sunday and promised to make amends in the West Indies next year.
The defending champions were eliminated after they lost by three runs to England in their Super Eight clash on Sunday. They also lost to West Indies on Friday.
“We are sorry for what happened but we can say we gave our best,” Dhoni told a news conference. “I think we have the guys who can handle the pressure, it was a day when nothing really worked for us.”
Kathmandu, June 15: Hopes that the political crisis gripping the three-week-old government of Nepal would be resolved Monday with the much-awaited expansion of the fledgling cabinet receded as the opposition Maoist party went on the warpath again, shutting down Kathmandu valley without prior intimation to protest the death of a cadre.
Rajendra Phuyal, an area in-charge of the former rebel group, had been missing for nearly a week and was declared dead Sunday.
Washington, June 15: Almost exactly seven years after arriving at Guantánamo in chains as accused enemy combatants, and four days after their surprise predawn flight to Bermuda, four Uighur Muslim men basked in their new-found freedom here, grateful for the handshakes many residents had offered and marveling at the serene beauty of this tidy, postcard island.
Anchorage, June 15: Divers began removing fuel from a sunken oil field supply ship in Alaska’s Cook Inlet Sunday, but the work was soon halted when the inlet’s notorious tides started rocking a vessel being used as a staging area.
Divers pumped out about 1,000 gallons (3,800 liters) of an estimated 30,000 gallons (114,000 liters) of diesel on board the sunken Monarch, according to a spokesman for the owner of the 166-foot vessel.
Mumbai, June 15: Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) chief Raj Thackeray refused to accept gifts or flowers from the thousands of his partymen who turned up to greet him on his 41st birthday Sunday. Instead, he appealed for cash to be donated to the party coffers.
The appeal was ‘official’ and the monies collected would be ‘fully accounted’ for, according to MNS vice-president Vageesh Saraswat.
London, June 15: Manchester United may be receiving a world-record fee of 80 million pounds (94 million euros, 130 million dollars) for the sale of Cristiano Ronaldo, but the amount is dwarfed by the club’s huge debt.
“It’s no wonder they’re getting this sort of money” from Real Madrid for arguably the world’s best player, said Philip Long, football industry specialist at British accountancy firm PKF, recalling that United’s parent company spent almost 69 million pounds on interest repayments in 2007/08.
Dastratpur, June 15: They pass their days on an old research farm now set behind a tall barbed-wire fence, a place of flimsy wooden buildings, weed-filled roads and laundry strung from the volleyball net.
Or they wander through the dusty two-street town, where there’s little to do but sit on benches in front of ramshackle general stores. Some walk with limps that tell of battlefield injuries, of years spent fighting in the mountains. Many still wear jungle camouflage.
They are bored, frustrated and increasingly angry.
Islamabad, June 15: Pakistan ordered its army to go after the country’s top Taliban commander, a feared al-Qaida-allied militant whose remote stronghold could prove a difficult test for troops but whose demise would remove a major threat to the country’s stability.
Bermuda, June 15: Freed after long miserable years in America’s notorious Guantanamo detention center, four Chinese Muslims are enjoying the taste of freedom in the Atlantic island of Bermuda, though Guantanamo still haunts them.
“Eating together like this, gathered around a table together that’s what freedom is all about for me,” Abdulla Abdulqadir told, sitting in a guesthouse along with his three Guantanamo fellows.
Seated around a table with sweeping views of the Atlantic Ocean, they looked relaxed, happy and most of all relieved to know their seven years of hell were over.
Tehran, June 15: Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Sunday rejected the opposition’s claims of electoral fraud, saying his re-election was “real
and free” and could not be questioned.
In his first press conference since the interior ministry announced he won a landslide victory in Friday’s balloting, the hardline president said: “The election was free (transparent) and there is no document proving these charges.”
Hyderabad, June 15: After a two-month break, the fishing season will resume in the east coast on June 15 midnight. On Sunday, the Vizag harbour was a
beehive of activity with fishermen swarming the area, while boat operators carried out last-minute repairs of their vessels.
Hyderabad, June 15: A B Com III year student committed suicide by hanging at her house in Bolarum on Sunday.
Sumapriya, 20, of Dovten Bazar in Bolarum was a student of Bharat Degree College in Kacheguda.
On Sunday evening, Sumapriya locked herself in a room of her house and hanged herself from the ceiling fan with a stole.
As her family members did not get any response even after calling her for a longtime, they grew suspicious and force opened the door, only to see her hanging from the ceiling fan.
Hyderabad, June 15: An engineering student has gone missing ever since he left his hostel on June 4, with police too unable to find any clues about
his whereabouts.
Srikanth Reddy, 19, of Nalgonda is a first year engineering student of V R K College of Engineering in Bachupally. According to police, for the past one year, Srikanth has been staying at Kavya Sri Boys’ Hostel in Addagutta Society of Kukatpally.
He was reported missing after he left the hostel at 5 am on June 4.
Hyderabd, June 15: Henceforth, heavy vehicles plying between Golconda and Langer Houz junction and Langer Houz police station to Golconda will not be
allowed.
A decision to this effect was taken as a result of frequent traffic jams at the junction.
A flyover was planned to ease vehicular congestion on the narrow stretch, but with the construction getting delayed for more than two years, it has made the situation worse for road-users.
Hyderabd, June 15: As part of the tight rope walk, specially since the chief minister has decided not to levy any new taxes or increase the water or
power tariff, the state government is now trying to find new ways to cut down on its expenses.
As part of this exercise, the chief minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy on Sunday wrote a letter to the Centre, asking it to advise the Planning Commission to provide financial support to Aarogyasri scheme and take it up as a centrally-sponsored scheme, on a 70:30 cost-sharing basis as a special case.
Hyderabad, June 15: Universities in the state can no longer afford to spare the rod in ragging cases. They will now have to put a stop to it in affiliated
colleges with an iron hand or else risk their funds being slashed.
At the recent vice-chancellors’ conference, chief minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy had squarely put the onus of preventing ragging on universities. Now, the chief minister’s recommendation has been taken up by the department of higher education and instructions would be given accordingly to the vice-chancellors.
Mumbai, June 15: A two-member committee that investigated the police response to the 26/11 terror attacks has singled out then Mumbai police commissioner
Hasan Gafoor for his complete failure to provide leadership in the hour of crisis.
Gafoor was replaced on Saturday by D Sivanandan, chief of the state intelligence department. TOI had earlier carried reports on how the committee headed by veteran bureaucrat Ram Pradhan had given the Mumbai police a clean chit, saying their actions during 26/11 had to be viewed in the context of the “war-like situation”.
London, June 15: Defending champions India bowed out of the World Twenty20 after losing to hosts England by three runs in a key Super Eights match at a
England packed Lord’s on Sunday.
India restricted England to 153-7 after electing to field in good batting conditions, but then fumbled their reply to be stopped at 150-5 despite scoring 56 runs in the last five overs.
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Chandigarh, June 14: Politics makes strange bedfellows, indeed! Chand Mohammad went back to Fiza, his second wife whom he divorced three months ago after a two-month-old wedding, and asked for forgiveness. Fiza had filed a criminal complaint against Chand at the Mohali police station and threatened to contest against Chand, a Congress MLA from Kalka.
With Assembly elections in Haryana due in a few months, many believe this might be Chand’s ploy to keep Fiza at bay.
Washington, June 14: US Vice-President Joe Biden isn’t ruling out his own presidential aspirations.
The two-time presidential candidate says the current line-up is the right one, with Biden as President Barack Obama’s No. 2. The Vice-President says he is a close adviser to Obama and is satisfied with his role in the administration.
For instance, Biden says, he reacted to Supreme Court nominees as a veteran Senator. Now, he gets to help pick them.
But he says he still has his eye on the Oval Office.
Biden is 66 years old and would be 73 on Election Day in 2016.
Helsinki, June 14: The daughter of a Finnish industrialist was released this weekend following a two-and-a-half-week kidnapping ordeal after payment of a €10m ransom, police reported on Sunday.
Minna Nurminen, 26, was released in a forest near the city of Turku on Saturday after the ransom’s payment. Police said she was in good health. She had been reported missing May 27.
She is a daughter of Hanna Nurminen, an heir to the Herlin family and owner of elevator manufacturer Kone. The mother is considered to be Finland’s richest woman.
Seoul, June 14: North Korea’s communist regime has warned of a nuclear war on the Korean peninsula while vowing to step up its atomic bomb-making program in defiance of new UN sanctions.
The North’s defiance presents a growing diplomatic headache for President Barack Obama as he prepares for talks Tuesday with his South Korean counterpart on the North’s missile and nuclear programs.
Nagpur, June 14: Criticising the BJP for its “inconsistency” in toeing the ‘Hindutva’ policy,senior RSS ideologue M G alias Baburao Vaidya said the party should give up the policy as it has “failed” to attract commoners.
Narrating the history of the then Jana Sangh which later converted into BJP, Vaidya, in his weekly column in local Marathi daily ‘Tarun Bharat’, said BJP had adopted Gandhian socialism, but could not stop itself from being labelled as a communal party.