faheem New Delhi, July 12: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) today condoled the death of the five people killed when an underconstruction bridge of the Delhi Metro collapsed in south Delhi and said the Metro construction was being done in haste to meet the deadline of 2010 Commonwealth Games.
Hyderabad, July 12: Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy, Telugu Desam Chief N Chandrababu Naidu and actor-politician Chiranjeevi were among the several leaders who offered prayers at the Ujjain Maha Kali Temple here during the annual ‘Bonalu’ festival today.
Reddy along with his Cabinet colleagues visited the temple early in the day before leaving for Visakhapatnam on an official visit.
Accompanied by his wife, Chiranjeevi offered prayers at the temple later. The Praja Rajayam Party chief demanded that the AP government declare ‘Bonalu’ as a state festival.
New Delhi, July 12: In a dramatic announcement that came on his birthday, Delhi Metro chief E Sreedharan today said he was quitting from the post owning moral responsibility for an accident at its construction site which claimed five lives.
Sreedharan, who turned 77 today, announced his decision at a crowded press conference here this afternoon, soon after his visit to the site of the collapse of an under-construction bridge of Delhi Metro in Jamrudpur of south Delhi’s Lajpat Nagar.
Dubai, July 12: Air Charter International (ACI), a leading aviation solutions provider in Arabia, Africa, Asia and Asia Pacific
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New Delhi, July 12: Expanding its global network, Kingfisher Airlines yesterday announced the launch of flights on eight international routes before the year end.
It also announced suspension of its services on Bangalore-London and Bangalore-Colombo routes from September 15, while launching two new flights on Mumbai-Singapore and Mumbai-Hong Kong sectors from the next day.
London, July 12: Two senior bishops have warned that the Church of England is under growing pressure to accept gay marriage, an issue likely to split the communion.
Bishop of Guildford Dr Christopher Hill and Bishop of Chichester Dr John Hinds said the Church is not prepared to abandon its traditional teachings in favour of the idea of “gender neutral” marriage.
Geneva, July 12: A Swiss expert has estimated that the first swine flu vaccine will likely be ready for use in October – but only after a first large-scale wave of infection hit various regions, a newspaper reported Saturday.
In an interview with Le Temps, Claire-Anne Siegrist, the head of the Swiss federal government’s commission for vaccinations, also said that while the overwhelming majority of cases were mild and did not require hospitalization, the infection rate was faster than had previously been thought.
Hamburg, July 12: Windows XP sometimes sends out annoying warnings about files still ready for burning on CD.
This frequently occurs because the user has dragged files onto the drive symbol for the burner without actually burning the files.
To eliminate the warning, any files in the “CD Burning” folder need to be deleted. To do so, first activate the option “Show Hidden Files and Folders” in Windows Explorer under the Tools, Folder Options, View. Then enter “userprofile” in the Explorer’s address bar. “CD Burning” can then be found under “Local Settings/Application Data/Microsoft.”
New Delhi, July 12: A Delhi court today sent seven suspected sharp-shooters of Chota Shakeel gang, who were arrested for allegedly plotting to kill a lawyer of BJP MP Varun Gandhi, to 14 days judicial custody.
Six aides of underworld don Chota Shakeel Ram Shankar, Pintu Mandal (both 32), Mirza Mukhtar Hussain (24), Dilshad Hassan, Nafeesul Hassan and Sajid (all 23) were apprehended by the Special Cell of Delhi Police on July three.
One more suspect Baldeesh (42) was arrested a couple of days later–on July five.
On Board Air India One, July 12: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Saturday said the union cabinet will soon discuss the Delhi High Court ruling decriminalising homosexuality. “I will seek views and see if anything needs to be done or said on this (the court verdict),” the prime minister told reporters while returning from the G8-G5 summit in Italy.
Islamabad, July 12: Six months ago, Fahimuddin was a Pakistani businessman and local councillor.
Today he heads a private militia using rocket launchers, guns, grenades and daggers to repel Islamist attacks.
Fed up with kidnappings, bombings and rising fears of militancy around Pakistan’s northwest city of Peshawar, the 40-year-old packed up a prosperous property business and took matters into his own hands.
He formed a lashkar, a traditional militia raised by tribesmen in this part of the world for centuries, armed and mobilised temporarily to settle disputes.
Isfahan(Iran), July 12: Iranian scientists have become the first in the Middle East to clone a cow as part of the country’s stem cell research, the leader of the project said today.
The male cow, named Bonyana, was born today in the city of Isfahan in central Iran, said Mohammed Hossein Nasre Isfahani, head of the Royan Research Institute.
Besides its nuclear activity and nascent space programme, Iran has sought to highlight advances in other technologies such as cloning and medicine. The government set a goal to become a regional leader in advanced sciences and technology by 2025.
Faizabad, July 12: Urdu poets Hamid Bahraichi and Rajiv Raj were today killed when the car in which they were travelling collided with a stationary truck in Gosaiganj police station area here.
The accident occurred when the speeding car, which Raj was driving, hit the truck parked on the road, Police inspector, Gosaiganj, Ram Bachan Rao said, adding both of them died on the spot.
The victims were on their way back after attending a ‘mushaira’ (poetic seminary) organized by Congress MLA from Maharashtra Sayyad Ahmad in Ambedkarnagar.
–PTI
Lucknow, July 12: Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati today charged the Centre with not releasing the state’s share of funds for scholarships for backward class students.
In a letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Mayawati said the Centre was not releasing the state’s share for the students who are eligible to get scholarships as per the guidelines of the Union Government.
She said despite Central Government’s delay in providing the funds last year, the state has been giving scholarships to all the deserving students from its own resources.
Lucknow, July 12: Admitting that the results of recently concluded Lok Sabha elections were not as per expectation, the BJP today said it was looking forward to plug the shortcomings.
“I admit that the Lok Sabha election results were not upto expectation, but the party is neither disappointed nor pessimistic. We are working to remove the shortcomings,” BJP’s national spokesman Ravi Shanker Prasad told reporters here.
Prasad, who was here to review party’s performance on 16 seats in Awadh region, said there were several reasons, including internal weakness, behind the defeat.
Tehran, July 12: Iran is preparing a new package of “political, security and international” issues to put to the West, its foreign minister said today.
“The package can be a good basis for talks with the West. The package will contain Iran’s stances on political, security and international issues,” Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki told a news conference.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy said on Wednesday that the Group of Eight major powers would give Iran until September to accept negotiations over its nuclear ambitions or else face tougher sanctions.
London, July 12: Ministers are secretly planning to cut the number of British troops in Afghanistan, at a time when defence chiefs are appealing for thousands more reinforcements to meet the deadly threat from the resurgent Taliban.
Hours after the death toll of UK forces in Afghanistan rose above the number killed in Iraq, The Independent on Sunday established that Gordon Brown wants to bring up to 1,500 service personnel home from the war-torn country after its elections next month, seemingly on grounds of cost.
Ranchi, July 11: Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s wait to become a graduate prolongs after the Indian skipper missed his B.Com Part One examination this year duo to international commitments.
The prestigious St Xavier’s College has denied to give the promotion to Dhoni, who had taken admission to the institution last year and was entitled to flexi-attendance.
“He did not appear in the B.Com Part One examination,” said A K Sinha, Head of Examinations, without revealing any more detail.
Dhoni also missed his first semester examination held in December last year.
Bhopal, July 11: A woman was allegedly burnt alive by a priest after she resisted his advances in a village in Madhya Pradesh’s Damoh district. The woman succumbed to her injuries in a hospital Friday evening, police said.
The woman, Vinita Patel (27), in her dying declaration to the police said, ‘The priest, Devki Prasad Tiwari, entered my house in a bid to outrage my modesty and when I protested, he doused me with kerosene and burnt me.’ The incident took place in village Piprodha Chakkar in Damoh, 280 km from here.
New Delhi, July 11: Notwithstanding the uncertainty surrounding the global economic recovery, India’s Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Saturday said India should be able to sustain a growth rate of 8 to 9 per cent GDP growth.
He said he was confident that India would come out of this crisis stronger but the road ahead was also going to be difficult to traverse.
Lucknow, July 11: Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati Friday made clear that Dalits would remain on top of her list of priorities.
Alarmed by the spate of atrocities against Dalits in different parts of the state, the chief minister got a special government order issued to ensure that such cases are handled by senior policemen, who would be held responsible for any tardiness.
New Delhi, July 11: Credible action is required from Pakistan to deal with terrorists working against India from its territory, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said Saturday ahead of his meeting with his Pakistani counterpart Yousuf Raza Gilani in Egypt next week.
New Delhi, July 11: On board Air India One: Sounding a note of caution that the international environment was not gong to be supportive in the current phase of global economic crisis, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said that he is confident that India will be able to sustain its 8-10 percent growth rate to come out of the crisis.
Kolkata, July 11: Speculation may be rife about Sourav Ganguly’s plunge into cricket administration but the former India skipper is still undecided over contesting Cricket Association of Bengal elections.
The reports had said that Ganguly may contest the elections against his erstwhile ‘mentor’ Dalmiya, but the just retired Indian ace has dismissed all such reports.
“…this is all speculation. I have not decided anything,” Ganguly’s told PTI when asked if he wanted to contest the CAB elections.
Melbourne, July 11: The apex body of Indian students here has slammed the Victorian government’s decision not to allow them to speak during a ‘harmony walk’ to be led by the state premier on Sunday to promote multiculturalism in the wake of a spate of attacks on the community in Australia.
“It is unfortunate that the government is trying to exclude students from any meaningful discussion,” Amit Menghani, President of Federation of Indian Students in Australia (FISA), said.