Ali Khan

A majority of political parties have welcomed a proposed electoral reform to hold simultaneous elections to the Lok Sabha and state assemblies, a top official said here today.

Chairman of the Standing Committee on Personnel, Public Grievances, Law and Justice E M Sudarsana Natchiappan said that India as a democracy has become mature enough to hold simultaneous Lok Sabha and assembly elections.

“However, this is possible only after after 15 to 20 years,” Natchiappan said here.

The Madras High Court today asked the government pleader why it should not direct the Tamil Nadu government not to issue admission cards for candidates for MBBS seats even though counselling process can go on.

The court raised the query while adjourning an appeal filed by an aspiring candidate Kabilan, represented by his father, challenging a single judge’s interim order allowing the government to consider even previous year candidates for counselling.

The growth of renewable energy outpaced that of fossil fuels in the electricity sector last year, with a record 135 gigawatts of capacity added from wind, solar, hydropower and other natural sources, a new study shows.

That’s more than the generating capacity of all nuclear reactors in the United States and slightly less than Germany’s installed capacity from all power sources.

Sweden’s anti-corruption authorities said today they had launched an inquiry into the Swedish Maritime Administration’s 2012 purchase of seven rescue helicopters from Italian maker AgustaWestland.

“I can confirm that I have launched a preliminary investigation,” anti-corruption prosecutor Robert Engstedt said, refusing to disclose further details.

Oil prices rose slightly today as traders weigh signs of improved US demand against a backdrop of high global supplies, analysts said.

US benchmark West Texas Intermediate for July delivery grew 21 cents to USD 60.13 a barrel compared with yesterday’s close.

Brent North Sea crude for August won 20 cents to stand at USD 64.07 a barrel in late London deals.

Hugh D. Auchincloss III, stepbrother and lifelong friend of Jacqueline Kennedy, has died. He was 87.

Auchincloss, who was also a stepsibling to the writer Gore Vidal and who was known by the nickname Yusha, died Saturday of B-cell lymphoma at his home at Hammersmith Farm in Rhode Island, according to his children. The property in Newport is where John F. Kennedy spent time during his presidency.

President Barack Obama today praised the pope’s call for action on climate change and said the United States should lead global efforts to cut carbon pollution and bolster clean energy sources.

“I welcome His Holiness Pope Francis’s encyclical and deeply admire the pope’s decision to make the case — clearly, powerfully and with the full moral authority of his position — for action on global climate change,” Obama said in a statement.

A friend of one Boston Marathon bomber who had dinner with the brothers hours after the attack has been sentenced to 2 1/2 years in prison for misleading investigators.

Khairullozhon Matanov was a friend of Tamerlan Tsarnaev and an acquaintance of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev. He pleaded guilty in March to misleading the FBI after the 2013 bombings by deleting his computer files and failing to disclose contact he had with the brothers.

Under a plea agreement with prosecutors, a judge sentenced Matanov today to two and a half years in prison.

Madras High Court today asked the government pleader why it should not direct the government not to issue admission cards for candidates for MBBS seats even though counselling process can go on.

The court raised the query while adjourning an appeal filed by an aspirant, Kabilan, represented by his father, challenging a single judge’s interim order allowing the government to consider even previous year candidates for counselling.

A man accused of shooting at George Zimmerman now faces an attempted murder charge.

A prosecutor today upgraded the charges against Matthew Apperson to attempted second-degree murder. Apperson earlier had been charged with aggravated assault and battery for firing a gun into Zimmerman’s car during a traffic run-in last month. Zimmerman had minor injuries.

State Attorney Phil Archer said in a statement that people ought to be able to travel the streets without fear.

Prosecutors contend Apperson had a fixation on Zimmerman.

Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt’s governing coalition and the center-right opposition were in dead heat today in Denmark’s parliamentary election, according to an exit poll by broadcaster TV2.

The poll results gave the opposition 88 seats, and 87 for parties supporting the center-left government. That would still leave the race open because it doesn’t count the four seats from the semi-autonomous territories of Greenland and the Faeroe Islands.

A woman deemed the world’s oldest person died in Michigan, about a month after her 116th birthday.

Jeralean Talley died last evening at her home in the Detroit suburb of Inkster, according to her daughter, Thelma Holloway. Holloway said today that her mother was recently hospitalized and treated for fluid in her lungs before returning home “just where she wanted to be.”

Over White House objections, the Senate passed a USD 612 billion defense policy bill that calls for arming Ukraine forces, prevents another round of base closures and makes it harder for President Barack Obama to close the prison for terror suspects at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

The Senate voted 71 to 25 to approve the bill, which President Barack Obama has threatened to veto.

The president of the Liberia Football Association is seeking the FIFA presidency, saying Africa should take the lead rebuilding world soccer’s governing body as it reels from criminal investigations.

Musa Bility is the second candidate to emerge since Sepp Blatter announced on June 2 four days after being re-elected to a fifth term that he would step down amid the corruption scandal rocking FIFA.

Vladimir Putin’s long-time ally suggested today that the Russian president could order an early vote to win a mandate for much-needed economic reforms, comments that sent shock waves through Russia’s business and political elite.

Russia’s economy, hit by Western sanctions and its own dependence on oil prices, has entered a recession, dropping 2.2 percent in the first quarter of the year. Prominent economists have warned that unless Russia makes drastic reforms, it is doomed for stagnation.

Authorities say a man slashed a New York City police officer with a knife before he was shot to death outside a subway station.

Authorities say a bystander saw the man assaulting a woman this afternoon on Coney Island in Brooklyn and went into the station to get the uniformed New York Police Department officer.

Police say the officer tried to break up the argument on the street and was slashed before firing twice. A knife was recovered.

Police say the officer was taken to a hospital with neck and shoulder injuries. He is expected to survive. No other injuries were reported.

Dylann Storm Roof drove around with a Confederate flag on his license plate representing the pro-slavery South that lost the US civil war.

On his Facebook page, he wore a jacket with the flags of the former white-racist regimes of South Africa and Rhodesia.

A picture began to emerge today of the 21-year-old white man arrested in the shooting deaths of nine people during a prayer meeting at a historic black church in Charleston. The last night attack was decried by stunned community leaders and politicians as a hate crime.

The onus of creating an environment for improving Indo-Pak ties and normalising the bilateral relationship is more on Pakistan and depends on the kind of “provocation” that comes from that country, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said today.

The United States is troubled by China’s plans to keep building on artificial islands in the South China Sea, the top US diplomat for East Asia said today.

Assistant Secretary of State Danny Russel told journalists that the prospect of China militarizing those maritime outposts runs counter to the goal of reducing regional tensions.

Yukos shareholders said today that Russian government assets in France including bank accounts and real estate had been frozen in a dispute over compensation for the seizure of the defunct oil giant.

“It’s bank accounts and real estate,” Tim Osborne, executive director of main shareholder GML, told AFP, adding that accounts in around 40 banks had been frozen along with “eight or nine buildings”.

He said the asset freeze occurred two weeks ago but had only been “leaked” by Russia on Thursday. There was no immediate official confirmation from Moscow or Paris.

Congress MLC Mohammed Farooq Husain told that Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao had announced to give awards named after 10 great personalities including founder of Siasat Mr. Abid Ali Khan to the persons extending remarkable services in various fields. But the matter is delayed due to lack of coordination between Deputy Chief Minister Mohammed Mahmood Ali and officials of Minority Welfare Department. He said ‘we met chief minister in his chamber in assembly on November 10 last year and requested him to announce cash awards of Rs.

Humiliated by Bangladesh in the first cricket one-dayer of the three-match series, India captain Mahendra Singh dhoni today said the hosts were the better side on the day as they played “some really good cricket as a unit”.

High-flying India was brought down to earth by a spirited Bangladesh who pulled off an upset 79- run victory in the first ODI dayer to take a 1-0 lead in the three-match series.

Bangladesh

Opponents are scared with the popularity of Telangana Rashtra Samithi are trying to defame TRS by their cheap tactics while the reality is on the contrary. People of Telangana by pronouncing their verdict in 2014 general elections gave a good reply to the opponents. Addressing TRS Party Joining Programme here at a function hall at Aram Ghar X-road, Deputy Chief Minister Mohamed Mahmood Ali told this.

Sharing BJP patriarch L K Advani’s fear that “forces that can crush democracy are stronger”, West Bengal Left Front Chairman Biman Bose today said the promises of “acche din” are fast fading away and efforts are being made to “curb” the democratic rights of the masses.

Siasat news editor Mr. Amer Ali Khan received letters from Banajara Hills Police Station, Moghalpura PS, Habeeb Nagar PS, Chandrayangutta PS, Kachiguda PS, Langar House PS, Saifabad PS, Shah Inayat Gunj PS, Nampally PS, Gachibowli PS, requesting to arrange burial of unclaimed Muslim bodies. Acting upon this Siasat arranged burial of 12 Muslim bodies including a woman at Kukatpally graveyard. Maulana Mohammed Zubair led the funeral prayer. Siasat editor Mr. Zahed Ali Khan thanked president graveyard Eidgah Kukatpally Phase IV.

Siasat news