faheem New Delhi, July 09: The government today ruled out disinvestment of Air India (AI) and Airports Authority of India (AAI).
“There is no proposal for disinvestment of AI and AAI,” Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel told the Lok Sabha during Question Hour.
To a question whether the government was considering Initial Public Offer (IPO) for the national carrier, Patel said “Presently, there is no such proposal.”
London, July 09: In a breakthrough that could lead to new treatment for male infertility, scientists in Britain claim to have created human sperm using stem cells in a technique that could revolutionise fertility treatment.
Researchers at the Northeast England Stem Cell Institute, who made the breakthrough using cells from an embryo, said that with some minor changes, the sperm could theoretically fertilise an egg to create a child.
New Delhi, July 09: The Anil Ambani-led Reliance Communications has partnered with Britain-based mobile marketing company 3rd Space Services to launch free video content with embedded advertisements on its mobile platform.
Under the agreement, 3rd Space will supply mobile video content like Bollywood songs, films and TV programmes to the Indian company, it said in a statement.
New Delhi, July 09: The Supreme Court today sought a response from the Centre on an appeal against the Delhi High Court judgement legalising gay sex among consenting adults with the petitioner contending that approving homosexual act would have adverse impact on the institution of marriage.
The Bench did not grant any interim order on the public interest litigation saying it will be passed after knowing the stand of the Centre and others concerned with the issue.
Washington, July 09: Noting that Iran is moving forward with its plan to develop and acquire nuclear weapons, a top US military official has apprehended that such a scenario would be incredibly destabilising in the Middle East.
“They (Iran) continue in my view to move forward on the nuclear- weapons development plan,” Admiral Mike Mullen, US Joint Chiefs of Staff, said at a luncheon meeting at the National Press Club in Washington yesterday.
Karachi, July 09: Former skipper Inzamam-ul-Haq today berated Pakistan Cricket Board for dissolving the national senior and junior selection committees, saying they have made the country a laughing stock in world cricket.
“The way the selection committee issue was handled it made us a laughing stock in world cricket,” Inzamam said in an interview today.
The former batsman, who represented Pakistan in 104 Tests and 378 ODIs, said even though chief selector Abdul Qadir had resigned during the World Cup, the board should have taken steps to restore him.
New Delhi, July 09: The Comptroller and Auditor General of India has pulled up BHEL for awarding contracts worth Rs 26.61 crore to a company banned by the power equipment manufacturer itself from doing businesses with it.
“The company contravened its laid down guidelines and ethical practices by placing contracts worth Rs 26.61 crore on a banned firm…,” CAG said in its report for March 2008.
New Delhi, July 09: Strongly backing India’s bid for a permanent seat in the UN Security Council, France Thursday said this was absolutely necessary if the global body wanted to remain a “legitimate” place for handling peace and security crisis
Noting that the last reforms to the Security Council were made in the sixties, Ambassador of France to India Jerome Bonnafont said “if we want the Security Council to remain a legitimate place for handling peace and security crisis in the world, it is absolutely necessary to have India as well as couple of others as permanent members.
–PTI
New Delhi, July 09: About 26 per cent posts of High Court judges are lying vacant across the country, according to Ministry of Law and Justice.
The highest number of posts of judges are vacant in Allahabad High Court which is functioning with only 55 per cent of its approved strength, Union Minister for Law and Justice M Veerappa Moily said today in a written reply to a question in Lok Sabha.
According to the statement, 234 posts out of approved strength of 886 of High Court judges are vacant across the country.
Hyderabad, July 09: A local court today allowed the CBI to conduct lie-detector and brain mapping tests on Satyam Computer founder B Ramalinga Raju and two others to help unravel the multi-crore accounting scam in the IT firm.
The CBI had filed a petition on March 24 seeking the court’s permission to conduct forensic tests.
Fourteenth Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate K Sudhakar, who is designated to try CBI cases, today allowed the agency to go ahead with the tests on Raju, his brother Rama Raju and Satyam’s former CFO Vadlamani Srinivas anytime within the next eight weeks.
New Delhi, July 09: In a major haul, the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence seized heroin worth Rs 10 crore from the national capital and arrested a youth.
The DRI, based on specific inputs, had intercepted 21-year-old Mohammad Anwar Khan near the Sanjay Gandhi Transport nagar last evening and recovered 10 kg heroin worth about Rs 10 crore in the international market from him.
Khan, who used to work in a factory in Delhi, has been sent to judicial custody after a case under the Narcotic Drugs and Pyschotropic Substances (NDPS) Act was registered.
Chennai, July 09: In a shocking incident, a five-year-old girl was allegedly gangraped by a group of unidentified persons who left her in a suburban locality.
Police said the incident occurred in the wee hours of Sunday in Egathur village on the IT corridor.
The victim’s father, Mohan Rao hailing from Andhra Pradesh, had immediately taken her to a private hospital which refused to admit the child on the plea that she was a minor and it was a police case. The girl was later admitted to the Government Institute of Child Health here, the police said.
New Delhi, July 09: India’s armed forces have received the Delhi High Court’s judgement decriminalising homosexuality with a resounding “no”, with armed forces acts saying such behaviour is deemed unnatural and can be a punishable offence.
Gay rights remain a largely metropolitan phenomenon and homosexuality is strict taboo for a majority of India’s 1.1 million soldiers, the Indian military stresses. Citing global trends, it contends that legalising homosexuality in the services is not feasible.
London, July 09: In an odd intersection of showbiz and securities fraud, proving a claim that Paris Hilton was a lousy pitchwoman would benefit investors jilted by a Ponzi scheme she had no part in.
A federal lawsuit set to go to trial Thursday against Hilton contends she didn’t do enough to promote the 2006 sorority hijinks movie “Pledge This!” and seeks about $8 million in damages from Hilton and her company, Paris Hilton Entertainment Inc.
London, July 09: Former republican and loyalist paramilitary members in Northern Ireland could be appointed to a new Victims and Survivors Forum to be set up next month.
Unionists have voiced anger that so-called “perpetrators” could be invited alongside injured and bereaved victims to serve on the long-awaited body.
The Victims Commission is to appoint 25 members to the forum — due to begin its work in September — along with eight ‘associate’ expert advisers.
England, July 09: Kevin Pietersen last night talked down concerns about his fitness and talked up England’s chances of being able to build a winning position in the summer’s first Ashes Test.
England ended a day of fluctuating fortunes on 336 for 7. Six of the home side’s top seven reached 30 but not one of them managed to threaten three figures with Pietersen’s 69 the top score. It all added up to fascinating six hours or so of cricket – and a terrific Test baptism for the Swalec Stadium.
Srinagar, July 09: Life in this Jammu and Kashmir summer capital ground to a halt today with public transport off the roads, and banks, shops as well as educational institutions closed following tension the day before when the death of a youth triggered widespread violence.
Stray incidents of violence continued with stone pelting protesters clashing with police in the old city area as authorities imposed strict restrictions in uptown Maisuma, where trouble had erupted and then spread after the body of Asrar Ahmad Dar was recovered in Rainawari locality.
Jerusalem, July 09: Israel’s internal security service has been given a de facto veto over the appointment of judges in an unprecedented decision that has the country’s embattled liberals up in arms.
Los Angeles, July 09: Michael Jackson’s long-time dermatologist said Wednesday that he tried to limit his patient’s drug intake and never gave him the powerful hospital sedative that has been linked to the pop icon’s death. “I was not one of the doctors who participated in giving him overdoses of drugs or too much of anything,” Dr Arnold Klein said in an interview on ABC’s Good Morning America. “In fact, I was the one who limited everything, who stopped everything.”
Kabul, July 09: Twenty-one civilians and four police officers were killed Thursday in a car bombing in the central Afghan province of Logar, police said. “Twenty-one local civilians, including school students, and four of our police officers were killed in the blast,” said General Mustafa Andarabi, the provincial police chief.
The explosives, which were remotely detonated, were placed in a truck that had apparently been overturned purposely on a road in the village of Sheikhak in Mohammad Agha district.
Moscow, July 09: Russia has refused to back a target of an 80 per cent cut in greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 proposed by the Group of Eight (G8) countries, a Kremlin aide said on Wednesday after the first day of the G8 summit in Italy.
At a news conference earlier in the day, European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said the world’s richest nations should cut their emissions by 80 per cent by the middle of the century.
New Delhi, July 09: A suspected Indian Mujahideen (IM) terrorist held for his involvement in the Sep 13 Delhi serial blasts on Wednesday sought bail from the Delhi High Court to appear in his final semester MBA exam.
Saquib Nisar, in custody since Sep 20, stated his examinations were scheduled to start on July 18.
The court had earlier refused to grant him interim bail when he was to appear in the fifth semester exam and had allowed him to write his paper from jail.
New Delhi, July 09: Terming the nearly Rs 10,000 crore scam in Satyam Computers as an aberration, the government today said the proposed new Companies Bill provides more stringent provisions to avoid such frauds in the future.
“Government proposes to introduce the Companies Bill, 2008 as the Companies Bill, 2009, which seeks to have more stringent provisions in case of frauds by companies, their directors and auditors,” Minister of Corporate Affairs Salman Khurshid said in Lok Sabha during the Question Hour.
Hyderabad, July 09: In a bid to check dog menace in areas under its jurisdiction, the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) has framed by-laws on Animal Birth Control on the directions of Andhra Pradesh High Court.
The Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation Animal Birth (Control)-Dogs by-laws 2009 calls for mandatory registration of pet dogs and and dog breeders.
Islamabad, July 09: Baitullah Mehsud, Pakistani Taliban chief and the country’s most wanted terrorist, is trying to obtain a ‘fatwa’ from two clerics declaring that suicide attacks against government installations, mosques and madrassas “are authorised by Islam”.
Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan commander Mehsud, against whom army has planned a massive offensive in the country’s troubled northwest, was making efforts to obtain such a ‘fatwa’, the military said.