News

Bush wanted to attack Iraq as early as 1999

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Washington, June 04: An investigative journalist who authored a controversial book on the Bush dynasty says he approached major US newspapers about publishing a story regarding President George W. Bush’s alleged intent to invade Iraq before the 2004 election but was rebuffed.

The journalist and author, Russ Baker, says he had a taped interview of Bush’s onetime biographer in which he says Bush told him he intended to invade Iraq as early as 1999, during his presidential campaign. The interview with former Bush ghostwriter Mickey Herskowitz took place before the 2004 election.

India thrash Pakistan in T20 warm-up match

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London, June 04: Rohit Sharma tore apart Pakistan’s bowling attack with a 80-run blitzkrieg as India bulldozed their arch-rivals by nine wickets with three overs to spare in their final warm-up match of the ICC World Twenty20 on Wednesday night.

Chasing 159, Rohit and Gautam Gambhir (52 not out) raised 140 runs in just 16 overs for the opening stand to slam the door on Pakistan and India cruised to 159 for one in 17 overs to complete a facile win.

U.S. Releases Secret List of Nuclear Sites Accidentally

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Washington, June 03: The federal government mistakenly made public a 266-page report, its pages marked “highly confidential,” that gives detailed information about hundreds of the nation’s civilian nuclear sites and programs, including maps showing the precise locations of stockpiles of fuel for nuclear weapons.

Egypt bans prayer at mosque over Obama visit

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Cairo, June 03: Muslims may no longer pray at al-Sultan Hassan, one of Egypt’s most historic mosques, after security forces cordoned the mosque, sparking outrage from the opposition Muslim Brotherhood, in preparation for U.S. President Barack Obama’s trip to Cairo.

Muslim Brotherhood members complained to parliament about the Grand Imam, minister of interior and prime minister for banning the faithful from praying.

” Egypt’s security service has cordoned the whole area around the mosque and has told businesses nearby to close on Wednesday and Thursday ”
Muslim Brotherhood

British soap opera tackles Muslim homosexuality

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Dubai, June 03: A popular British soap opera is set to introduce a controversial storyline that will see one of its Muslim characters become gay, which is likely to ruffle some feathers among British Muslims and add fuel to an already heated debate about Islamophobia in the United Kingdom.

EastEnders, a long-running soap opera named “Best Soap” in the 2008 National Television Awards, will introduce the new plotline this summer and will see its Asian character Syed Masood find himself struggling with his Muslim faith and his sexuality.

Iron man Advani out, BJP seeks leader of steel

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Advani is believed to have offered is resignation as Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha but the party persuaded him to stay on. He was the BJP’s prime ministerial candidate in the elections and was projected as a strong and decisive leader.

The BJP lost no occasion to compare Advani, “the iron man”, with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who was accused of being weak and ineffectual. Advani himself accused Singh of taking his cues from Congress president Sonia Gandhi.

7-yr-old burnt alive

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Hyderabad, June 03: In a dastardly act, a seven-year-old girl, Sujatha, was burnt alive by assailants in Venkatagiri Colony, Road Number 10, Jubilee Hills, on Tuesday evening.

Jubilee Hills police said Sujatha came to Hyderabad from Mahbubnagar for her summer vacation, a month ago. She had been staying at her grandmother Lakshmi’s house in Venkatagiri Colony and used to regularly visit her aunt J Padma’s house in the vicinity.

Bristol schoolboy among victims of Air France plane crash

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London, June 2:A schoolboy from Bristol who was returning from half-term holiday is among the 228 people feared dead after an Air France plane disappeared over the Atlantic.

Clifton College prep school confirmed that one of its pupils, Alexander Bjoroy, 11, is one of seven children and five Britons on the passenger list of flight 447 from Rio de Janeiro to Paris.

The school’s headteacher, John Milne, issued a statement saying: ” Alexander joined the school in January, 2009, and was a well liked and respected boarder who will be sorely missed by his fellow pupils and staff.

Australians should be out of IPL till attacks stop: Bal Thackeray

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Mumbai, June 02: Angry over the racial attacks on Indian students, Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray on Tuesday said Australian players in IPL cricket teams should be removed till such incidents continue Down Under.

“Two things should be done immediately. Captains of Australian companies who have invested in India should be summoned and told that the business atmosphere would not be conducive till the attacks stopped,” Thackeray said in an editorial in party mouthpiece ‘Saamna’.

‘Baghdad will burn’ if photos released: Iraqi PM

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Washington, June 02: Presdient Barack Obama’s apparent reversal of his commitment to release photos of Bush-era torture was driven by a bone-chilling assessment of what might happen, delivered by none other than Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al Malik, According to a Monday report.

From McClatchy Newspapers:

Missing Air France Jet Search Continues

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Paris, June 02: The search continued through the night for an Air France plane that disappeared over the Atlantic, but little hope remained that any of 228 people on board would be found alive.

According to reports, the search teams have spotted the burning wreckage of the ill fated Air France jet in the Atlantic.

Air France flight AF 447 disappeared early Monday four hours into its 11-hour flight from Rio de Janeiro to Paris after the Airbus A330 encountered severe turbulence over the Atlantic and reported technical failures.

I will welcome Chand with shoes: Fiza

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Chandigarh, June 02: Fiza, the estranged second wife of former Haryana deputy chief minister Chand Mohammed alias Chander Mohan, on Monday questioned the authenticity of the ‘talaq’ or divorce given to her by Chand over the phone from London and wanted reasons for his “betrayal”.
“Nobody recognises the divorce given over the phone. Even the Muslim religion says that divorce is valid only if it is given in the presence of a Kazi (Muslim priest) and two sureties, who are physically present there,” Fiza aka Anuradha Bali told reporters here on Monday evening.

Jammu & Kashmir: 50 injured in clashes over women’s death

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New Delhi,Jun 1: The outrage against the death of two young women after their alleged rape by Indian armed troopers Sunday intensified in this south Kashmir town as hundreds of people took to streets for the second consecutive day to stage protests defying an undeclared curfew.

Police lobbed scores of teargas shells to quell the protests and even assaulted mourners, injuring more than 40 of them.

Protest in Bihar as Mamata stops train halts ordered by Lalu

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Patna, Jun 1: An angry mob in Bihar torched a train and a station Monday to protest a new rail schedule that has trains skipping stops at their station, railway police said. No injuries were reported.

Television footage showed orange flames and black smoke billowing out of the train that was stopped just outside the Khusrupur train station.

Around 200 protesters set the train station on fire and pulled up train tracks, causing delays to dozens of trains, said senior railway police officer Rajender Singh.

Sharad blames BJP, says Atal’s NDA was different

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New Delhi, June 01: In a significant remark, which could embarrass the BJP further after its poor performance in the recent general elections, the leader of its biggest ally on Sunday questioned the manner in which the
NDA had fought the elections.

Janata Dal (United) president Sharad Yadav said here that though the NDA fought the elections as a group, the “grip was missing”.

‘He killed my bosses, let me kill him’

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Mumbai, May 31: Police Constable Arun Jadhav had miraculously survived when Lashkar-e-Toiba gunmen Ajmal Amir Kasab and Abu Ismail attacked the police vehicle he was in and killed six policemen, including top cops Hemant Karkare, Ashok Kamte and Vijay Salaskar, on the night of November 26.

Jadhav, who was in the back of the Toyota Qualis, was injured but played dead as Kasab and Ismail hijacked the vehicle and drove it around the city until its tyres went flat.

Rahul plans rejig in party structure

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New Delhi, May 30: Government formation completed, Congress mandarins have turned their attention to restructuring the party. AICC general secretary Rahul Gandhi, who has set a timeframe of two to three years to revitalise the Congress, plans to rejig its makeup shortly.

Apart from bringing in new faces to bolster the organisation in the wake of as many as five senior partymen taking over as ministers in the Manmohan Singh government, Rahul plans to go in for a massive membership drive and party elections. Sources said he has set a deadline of December 2010 for completing the polls.

Taleban stronghold in Swat cleared by Pak military

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Islamabad, May 30: Pakistani forces cleared a Taleban stronghold in Swat and drove militants out of a town in the northwest valley, the military said yesterday, amid worries over the return of more than two million displaced people.

The army said that it successfully cleared the Taleban’s stronghold at Peochar village as its cordon and search operation continued to wrest back complete control of strategic Peochar Valley.

1/3 EU Muslims suffer discrimination

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Cairo, May 30: Nearly one third of Muslims living in the European Union have been discriminated against last year, with ethnic background, not religion, is the main cause of discrimination, a EU report has found.
“On average 1 in 3 Muslim respondents were discriminated against in the past 12 months, and 11% experienced a racist crime,” the EU Fundamental Rights Agency said in a new report.

The report, which surveyed 23,500 members of ethnic minorities and migrant communities, said Muslims were largely discriminated against in the labor field.

Obama welcomes decision to begin negotiation on FMCT

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Washington, May 30: US president Barack Obama has welcomed the agreement at the Conference on Disarmament to begin negotiations on a Fissile Material Cut-off Treat (FMCT), which will end production of fissile materials for use in atomic bomb.

President Obama wants to watch Slumdog Millionaire
“There is no greater security challenge in the world today than turning the tide on nuclear-proliferation, and pursuing the goal of a nuclear-free world,” Obama said in a statement.

US condemns terrorist attacks inside Iran

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Washington, May 30: The United States has condemned the terrorist attack on a mosque in Zahedan city of Iran, killing 19 people and injuring 125 others.

“No cause justifies terrorism, and the United States condemns it in any form, in any country, against any people,” the White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said on Friday in a statement, condemning the recent terrorist attacks inside Iran.

“The American people send their deepest condolences to the victims and their families,” Gibbs said.

Reliance MF to launch Islamic fund in Malaysia soon

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New Delhi, May 30:Reliance Mutual Fund will shortly launch an Islamic fund in Malaysia, a top company official said.

“We have set up a subsidiary and it is launching an Islamic fund in Malaysia shortly,” Reliance Capital Asset Management CEO, Sundeep Sikka, told reporters on the sidelines of a press meet here.

The company now plans to open its first office in Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia.

Reliance Capital, together with Kuwait’s Global Investment House, were given the nod last November by the Securities Commission (SC) to establish their Islamic fund management operations.

Kidnapped boy found murdered in Patna

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Patna, May 30: A nine-year-old boy, who was kidnapped from near his residence here on Thursday, has been murdered allegedly by his two neighbours, sparking protests by locals on Saturday.

Satyam, a class IV student of Doon Academy in Kankarbagh locality, was last seen playing near his house in the People’s Cooperative colony in the same area on Thursday evening.

India calls for swift action against attacks in Australia

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India calls for swift action against attacks in Australia
30 May 2009, 0908 hrs IST, TNN

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New Delhi,May 30: As incidents of violence against its students in Australia continue unabated, an angry India called upon authorities in that country to take swift measures to stop the atrocity.

Food security act pledge in Prez’s address

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New Delhi,May 30: A national food security act to guarantee 25 kg of rice or wheat a month to BPL families, consolidation of rural employment and Bharat Nirman, a focus on terrorism and India’s neighbourhood, initiatives for urban employment and a promise to battle recessionary trends are likely to be part of President’s address to Parliament.