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Hyderabad, January 28: Tension was palpable near the historic Charminar on Friday afternoon, but, for a change, it did not take communal hue.

A row over sounding the bell at the Bhagya Laxmi temple abutting the heritage structure during Juma (Friday) prayers put police on their toes for a couple of hours.

However, the Friday prayers passed off peacefully at the Mecca Masjid. Trouble began at noon when nearly 300 Hindu rightwing activists descended on the Bhagya Laxmi temple and started ringing the bell, breaking an unwritten rule of not sounding it during the Juma prayers.

Taiwan, January 28: A MAN in Taiwan stabbed his wife at least 35 times with a knife and fell asleep next to the blood-stained body, exhausted after his exertions, reported Nanyang Siang Pau.

The incident was only discovered several hours later by one of the couple’s sons, who returned home in the wee hours on Wednesday.

It is learnt that the man, known only as Luo, had flown into a rage before stabbing his sleeping wife.

Police, who were called to the scene, said Luo kept mumbling “cannot sleep, cannot think straight”.

Malacca, January 28: A MALACCA Historical City Council enforcement officer was stabbed in his arm while his four colleagues were beaten up by a group of men during a raid at an illegal cyber cafe at Taman Seri Duyong, here, on Thursday night.

Azizan Abas, 28, sustained severe injuries on his right arm after he was stabbed with a knife by one of the 30 men who attacked the raiding team just before midnight.

The four other enforcement officers were assaulted by the mob who were armed with sticks and metal rods.

The other enforcement officers were also badly bruised.

Davos, January 28: Describing Pakistani Parliament as the “new kid on the block”, Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar said a “little bit of elbowing” was taking place in Pakistan but things would “very soon fall in place”.

“It is not as it may appear to the outside world. It is a new kid on the block called the Parliament in Pakistan. People are still to get used to this fact,” Khar said when asked if the Pakistani judiciary was going a bit too far.

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New Delhi, January 28: He is all of 21 and can boast of over 38 million YouTube hits for his song. But Anirudh Ravichander, composer of the phenomenally popular Tamil-English number “Kolaveri di”, is already trying to move out of its shadow.

” ‘Kolaveri di’ is in the past now; I am trying to move on to new projects,” Ravichander said in an interview.

“Although I’m enjoying the success, I realised it was very important to move out of the ‘Kolaveri di’ shadow to concentrate on future projects. I’m still young and raring to make good music,” he added.

Hyderabad, January 28: The jaali mulaquat between prisoners and their visitors is set to undergo a change. Instead of having to shout at the top of their voices in crammed spaces and through three or four layers of iron mesh and grill partitions, microphone and headphone sets will be provided to them while the grill partitions will remain.

“There will be more space provided so that the conversation takes place more quietly and comfortably,” director-general of prisons (jails) C N Gopinath Reddy told TOI.

New Delhi, January 28: There was much less of a furore when “The Satanic Verses” was banned in 1988. Some major newspapers even approved of it. The probable reason for endorsing what would now be considered a retrogressive step was that the country was in an uncertain frame of mind at the time.

A popular prime minister had been assassinated following the army’s storming of the sacred shrine of a minority group while another minority group was restive over a judicial verdict on an issue of its personal law.

Davos (Switzerland), January 27: Former Pakistani president Pervez Musharraf will definitely be arrested if he returns to the country, Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani said here Friday.

“In fact, there had been murder charges against him, and there had even been some very grave charges against him, and the Supreme Court had already given a verdict against him,” CNN quoted Gilani as saying at the Global Economic Forum in Davos.

“Certainly when he’ll come back, he has to face those charges and certainly be arrested,” the prime minister said.

Hyderabad, January 27: The Telugu Desam Party (TDP) today urged Andhra Pradesh Assembly Speaker Nadendla Manohar to take steps for the installation of a bronze statue of Dalit leader Dr B R Ambedkar on the state Legislature premises.

A delegation of TDP legislators met the Speaker this afternoon and handed over a letter written by their chief N Chandrababu Naidu.

Hyderabad, January 27: A fact-finding team comprising four state ministers and the Deputy Speaker of Assembly will visit Amalapuram in East Godavari district in the wake of incidents of Ambedkar statues being desecrated in the area.

During their tour of the area, ministers Mr Dokka Manikya Vara Prasad, Mr Pinepe Viswaroop, Mr C. Ramachandraiah, Mr Thota Narasimham and Deputy Speaker Mr Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka will interact with locals and report back to Chief Minister Mr N. Kiran Kumar Reddy with their findings.

Yanam/Hyderabad, January27 (NSS): As many as 20 persons were injured, eight of them grieveously, when police resorted to firing to quell the rioting workers of the Regency Ceramics Industry in Yanam adjoining Kakinada of East Godavari district on Friday morning.

Hyderabad, Jan 27 (INN): The CBI special court on Friday remanded Sunil Reddy, an accused in the Emaar case, to CBI custody till January 29.

The special court granted two-and-half days’ CBI custody to Sunil Reddy and asked the CBI official to produce him before the court on Monday by 2 pm.

Earlier, the investigating agency sought 15 days custody to interrogate Sunil Reddy on various Emaar deals. However, the court granted only two-and-half day custody. The CBI in its petition stated that Sunil Reddy tried to evade arrest by frequently changing his residence.

Hyderabad, Jan 27 (INN): Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy on Friday rejected the demand of textile traders for withdrawal of five percent Value Added Tax (VAT) imposed on textiles.

The Chief Minister stated that the government has imposed the VAT on textile traders having turnovers of over Rs 10 crores. He said the VAT has been imposed to fund the welfare schemes and programmes launched for poor and downtrodden.

Kadapa, Jan 27 (INN): In a ghastly road mishap, three persons were killed on the spot and six others injured at Bakarapeta in Siddampeta mandal in Kadapa district on Friday.

According to police, the accident occurred when a jeep had a head-on collision with a tractor near Bakarapeta in the wee hours of Friday. The bodies have been shifted to the Government Hospital in Kadapa for post-mortem. The identities of the victims are yet to be ascertained. The condition of all the injured is stated to be serious.

Srinagar, January 27: Muslim women separatist group, Dukhtaran-e-Milat (Daughters of Faith) headed by Asiya Andrabi, staged a demonstration in Srinagar Friday, demanding the release of Aafia Siddiqui, a former Pakistan neuro scientist serving a prison term in the US.

Burqa clad activists of Dukhtaran-e-Milat carrying placards and banners torched the US flag in Press Enclave in Residency Road area Friday afternoon and demanded the release of Pakistan neuro scientist Aafia Siddiqui who is at present serving a prison term in the US.

New Delhi, January 27: Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit Friday said the government will lend all possible support to the two-year-old abandoned baby who is being treated for multiple injuries at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) but continues to battle for life.

“The Delhi government will support whatever her (the infant’s) needs are, we will fulfil her needs. We are waiting for the medical report, let it come,” Dikshit told reporters here.

Lucknow, January 27: Promising sops for every section of society in its manifesto for Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls, BJP today opposed 4.5 per cent reservation to minorities from the 27 per cent quota of backward classes even as it said it was committed to the construction of a Ram Temple at Ayodhya.

The manifesto was released by senior leaders, including Uma Bharati, Surya Pratap Shahi, Kalraj Mishra, Mukhtar Abas Naqvi, Narendra Singh Tomar and Suddhendra Kulkarni at the party office here.

Washington, January 26: The UAE’s Minister for Foreign Trade Sheikha Lubna Bint Khalid Al-Qassimi was conferred the Lifetime Achievement Award by the Arab American Chamber of Commerce (AACC) in Washington.

The award has been given in recognition of Al-Qassimi’s initiatives and efforts to promote Arab-American relations and the US-UAE relations in particular.

The award ceremony was attended by AACC president and CEO David Hammoud and 250 business leaders, government officials and ambassadors of Arab countries to the US.

–IANS

Chennai/Thiruvananthapuram, January 26: Kerala Governor M.O.H. Farook Thursday died in a private hospital in Chennai due to multiple myeloma – a cancer of plasma cells – at the age of 75, officials said. A seven-day state mourning has been declared in Kerala.

Farook was recently granted leave to go for medical treatment to Chennai.

“He was admitted for multiple myeloma at Apollo Hospital in Teynampet (cancer speciality hospital). The end came today (Thursday) at 9.20 p.m.,” an Apollo official told IANS.

Bhopal, January 26 (Pervez Bari): The survivors and victims of the 1984 Bhopal Gas Tragedy, the world’s worst industrial catastrophe, led by five NGOs (Non-Government Organizations) here on Thursday felicitated Ms Meredith Alexandar, who resigned as Chairperson of the ethics committee of the London Olympics Committee over sponsorship of the London Olympic Games by Dow Chemical, current owner of Union Carbide.

Davos, January 26: Islam is the “most misunderstood” and “misrepresented” faith in the world, Pakistan Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar said today and acknowledged that illiterate and irresponsible people have been allowed to take the religion in their hands.

New Delhi, January 26: As Team Anna members debated corruption and participatory democracy in New Delhi, a man created a mini stir at the event by asking why Anna Hazare did not speak up against Raj Thackeray in his home state where the politician had targeted north Indians.

At a seminar on ‘Rebuilding the Republic’ organised by Team Anna, the man named Liladhar Bhat demanded to be heard on stage and after being offered the microphone raised the issue.

New Delhi, January 26: Guess who took it upon herself to welcome the Prime Minister on Twitter? Poonam Pandey — not nude but in a bikini this time.

The PM, who joined the microblog on Monday, was in for a more-than-warm welcome from the 19-year-old model who is infamous for her stripping antics.

Pandey tweeted a picture in a white bikini on Tuesday and wrote, “I Heard @PMOIndia is on Twitter, does he Knows that @iPoonampandey is on Twitter too .. so a Welcoming Pic (sic).”