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Salim-Sulaiman impress with their music in ‘Luck’

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Mumbai, June 30: Composer siblings Salim and Sulaiman Merchant have once again churned out a potential hit album with “Luck”. The soundtrack of the film, which stars Sanjay Dutt and Imran Khan, is powerful, hip, edgy and very impressive.

The movie is scheduled to hit screens on July 24 and the album has five originals and four remixes.

“Aazma (Luck is the key)” is brilliantly sung by southern superstar Kamal Haasan’s daughter Shruti, who is also making her debut in Bollywood with the film. Clinton Cerejo joins her behind the mike. It is a racy number and packs in a lot of punch.

Women’s Reservation Bill unlikely in the Budget session

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New Delhi, June 30: Despite government declaring it as a “top priority”, the Women’s Reservation Bill is unlikely to come up in the Budget session of Parliament beginning on Thursday.

This has become clear as the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Law and Justice, to which the bill was sent for scrutiny, has not yet been reconstituted.

The Bill will have to be referred to the new Committee for scrutiny and it could take a week to constitute the panel.

Iraq: mission accomplished?

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Baghdad, June 30: More than six years after US forces captured Baghdad, American combat troops will withdraw from all Iraqi cities and towns by tonight, handing over full control to the 600,000-strong Iraqi army and police and marking a crucial step in Iraq’s return to independence.

13 killed as gas train explodes in town inferno

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Rome, June 30: At least 13 people were killed when a freight train derailed and set off an explosion and fire in a small Italian town, officials said today.

More than 50 people were injured, many seriously, in the crash in the Tuscan seaside town of Viareggio shortly before midnight.

The rear of the train crashed into homes beside the railway station and a car filled with liquefied natural gas exploded, causing at least two buildings to collapse and setting fire to a vast area.
–Agencies

Teenaged injured in police firing

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Srinagar, June 30: Security forces today opened fire on a group of youths, who were protesting against the alleged police misbehaviour with a woman, in violation of curfew in Baramulla leaving a teenager critically injured.

About 50 youths took to streets this morning demanding action against the policemen, who allegedly misbehaved with a woman in a local police station on June 28.

Security forces opened fire on the youth staging a demonstration at Cement Bridge in the town in which 11-year-old Bilal Bashir received a bullet on his head, the sources said.

Kashmir tense after Baramulla killings

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Srinagar, June 30: Curfew continued in Jammu and Kashmir’s Baramulla town for the second day and restrictions were extended to other places in the valley today, a day after two protestors were killed in clashes with police following an allegation by a woman that she had been harassed by cops. The row that had triggered widespread protests on Monday led to restrictions also being imposed in Sopore town and parts of the summer capital Srinagar.

Sensex falls 220 points at midsession

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Mumbai, June 30: The Bombay Stock Exchange index Sensex fell by over 220 points at midsession today on profit selling by funds at existing higher levels.

The Sensex, which opened higher by 121 points, fell by 220.40 points to 14,565.34 at 1330 hrs with heavyweight stocks in realty, power and metal segments recording hefty losses.

The wide-based National Stock Exchange index Nifty lost 75.45 points at 4,315.50 points. Nifty had gained 35.80 points in early trading.

Marketmen said selling pressure gathered momentum as funds indulged in booking profits at existing higher levels.

BABRI MASJID REPORT: I am independent today, says Justice Liberhan

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New Delhi, June 30: “I am independent today”. This is what Justice (retired) M S Liberhan said today after submitting the one-man Commission’s report on the 1992 Babri Masjid Demolition to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

Refusing to divulge the contents of the report, he said, “I submitted the report to the Prime Minister. There are various things that I have stated in my report. You can read

“It is up to the media to commend it or condemn it,” he said.

Celebrity deaths: The conspiracy theories around them!

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New York, June 30: Conspiracy theories have often sprung up around the deaths of celebrities, be it pop legend Michael Jackson, actor Marilyn Monroe, singer Elvis Presley or the former Beatle John Lennon.

In case of Jackson, who died of a cardiac arrest five days back, it took hours for the first conspiracy theories to start circulating. The most popular is that he faked his death to escape the media glare and impending bankruptcy, despite medical reports blaming an overdose of prescription drugs.

Well, Jackson’s death was not the only one.

Man held for trying to rape 3-year-old girl

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Noida, June 29: A guard employed with a private company in Film City was today arrested for allegedly attempting to rape a three-year-old daughter of his colleague, police told

Ramji Lal, 35, lured the daughter of another guard to an isolated place by offering her chocolate, they said.

The girl raised an alarm when the accused attempted to rape her and was caught by the locals who thrashed him before handing him over to the police.

Both the accused and the victim were later sent to a hospital for medical examination. Police said doctors have not confirmed the rape.

FIIs buy Rs 292 cr shares from Indian stock markets

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Mumbai, June 29: Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) today remained net purchaser for the second day in a row, and made an investment of Rs 292.44 crore in the Indian stock markets, pushing the benchmark indices into positive zone.

FIIs were the gross buyer of shares worth Rs 2,390.09 crore, while they sold equities valued at Rs 2,097.65 crore, resulting in a net buy of Rs 292.44 crore, the provisional data available with the Bombay Stock Exchange shows.

Domestic institutional investors also made a net purchase of Rs 143.844 crore in the local stock markets.

Proposed stir called off; AI to pay salary by Jul 3

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New Delhi/Mumbai June 29: Air India employees today called off their proposed strike tomorrow after the management decided to pay the June salary of lower level staff by July 3.

“There will be no strike tomorrow. The management showed their seriousness over the issue and has decided to pay salaries to about 70 per cent of our workers,” V J Deka, Regional General Secretary of Aviation Industry Employees Guild, told PTI here.

Govt likely to garner USD 15 bn each year from GST

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New Delhi, June 29: The government may mop up about 15 billion dollars (over Rs 72,000 crore) annually with the implementation of Goods and Services Tax (GST)- the new tax regime doing away with the most indirect taxes.

“As I have mentioned elsewhere, it has been estimated that the GST implementation increased Canadian GDP by 1.4 per cent. In India, we can expect a similar kind of positive impact. This means gains of about 15 billion dollars annually,” Thirteenth Finance Commission Chairman Vijay Kelkar said at a seminar on GST organised by Assocham here.

No communication gap between Sonia and Manmohan: Cong

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New Delhi, June 29: Congress today denied suggestions about a “communication gap” between party President Sonia Gandhi and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh when she wrote a letter to him stressing the need for implementing UPA’s poll pledges.

“There is no communication gap between government and the party,” Congress spokesperson Shakeel Ahmed told reporters replying to a query why Gandhi needed to write a letter to the PM to remind him of the committments made by the party in its manifesto.

28 more cities to come under JNNURM

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New Delhi, June 29: Aimint at boosting urban infrastructure, the government has decided to extend the Jawaharlal Nehru Urban Renewal Mission scheme to 28 smaller cities having a population of 5 lakhs and above.

This will mean addition of 28 more cities to the current list of 65 cities under JNNURM, said Urban Development Minister S Jaipal Reddy today while announcing 100-day plan of his ministry.

DNA test confirms rape in Shiney Ahuja case: police

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Mumbai, June 29: The DNA report of Bollywood actor Shiney Ahuja, arrested for alleged rape of his domestic maid, today confirmed that the victim had been raped, police said.

“The DNA report has confirmed rape of the victim,” said Additional Police Commissioner Amitabh Gupta.
–PTI

Azad for debate on gay law, Moily says nothing in hurry (Updated)

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New Delhi, June 29: Government today treaded cautiously on any move to legalise homosexuality with the Union Health Ministry calling for more debate and a “broad consensus” while the Law Ministry said nothing will be done in a hurry to repeal Section 377 of the IPC which criminalises this practice.

“I can simply say that there should be more debate– public debate, Parliament debate. There has to be consensus.

Pakistani father marries off 8yr-old daughter

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Islamabad, June 29: On the case of eight-year-old Zahida in Karachi, Pakistan, whose father Abdul Rasool exchanged her in marriage for another woman. Rasool wanted to marry Haseena and thus gave his daughter to her brother Dilshad.

When reporter asked the cleric who married them, he said that he did whatever he was told and the girl’s father was present and said she was 15 years old. Zahida’s mother Parveen told SAMAA that the marriage was contracted on June 25, following which she went to the local union council nazim and registered a case with the police.

Gay law still under govt consideration: Congress

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New Delhi, June 29: A day after members of the gay community held parades in several cities in anticipation of legalising homosexuality, Congress today refused to take a stand on the issue saying it was still under consideration of the government.

“This is under consideration by the government. It is a normal government process. The party does not have any opinion on it,” party spokesman Shakeel Ahmed told reporters here.

Ahmed was responding to queries about the stand of the ruling party on the controversial Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code which criminalises homosexuality.

Pak diverted over USD 5 bn aid into nuke programme

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Washington, June 29: Pakistan diverted a whopping sum of over USD five billion provided as aid by the US to fight Taliban militants into its nuclear programme, a report has said.

The report by security expert Andrew Cockburn also says that the US ignored disgraced nuclear scientist A Q Khan’s proliferation activities in the 1990s.

“Most of the aid we’ve sent them over the past few years has been diverted into their nuclear programme,” the report published in ‘Counter Punch’ quoted a senior national security official in the Obama administration as saying.

BJP MLA arrested, granted bail

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Davanagere, June 29: A BJP MLA in Karnataka was today arrested for allegedly making a hate speech during the recent Lok Sabha election campaign.

M P Renukacharya representing Honnali constituency was arrested and produced before the Judicial Magistrate First Class-II Annu Gowda Patil, who granted him bail on furnishing a bond for Rs 15,000 and a surety of as much amount.

Honnali Police had filed a chargesheet against the MLA for his alleged remarks against a particular community, in an apparent bid to counter alleged provocative comments by senior Congress leader Kagodu Thimmappa.

Need for debate on gay law: Azad

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New Delhi, June 29: Amid a raging debate over amendment to section 377, which criminalises homosexuality, the Union Health Ministry today said there was a need for “Parliamentary debate” and a “broad consensus” on the issue.

“I can simply say that there should be more debate– public debate, Parliament debate. There has to be consensus.

The negative and positive has to be evaluated and then a conclusion should be evolved,” Union Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad said at a press conference here.

Mr Nice Guy Kaka to start new life at Real Madrid ( Feature )

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Johannesburg, June 29: Brazilian superstar Kaka was set to arrive in Madrid Tuesday, and his luggage was a bit heavier than usual: he has just won the Confederations Cup title with Brazil, and he was voted the best player in the tournament that ended Sunday in South Africa. “I already started winning as a Real Madrid player. I hope I can now continue the same way in this new phase in my life,” said the former Milan player.

Jackson was bruised and had pills in his stomach: report

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London, June 29: The leaked autopsy details of Michael Jackson show that the pop icon was a virtual skeleton as he was barely eating and only had pills in his stomach when he died, according to a new report.

According to the detailed autopsy reported by The Sun Jackson was bald, bruised and had broken ribs. Singer’s hips, thighs and shoulders were riddled with needle wounds which are said to be result of injections of narcotic painkillers, given three times a day for years.

Govt issues directives for use of Punjabi language

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Chandigarh, June 29: To boost the use of local language, the Punjab government has directed all departments, boards, corporations, subordinate courts and educational institutes to designate nodal officers for proper supervision and implementation of Punjabi for official use.

Issuing the directions, Anjali Bhawra, Secretary Higher Education and Languages said the government would act tough by taking legal/departmental action against those who fail to comply with the directives of the recently amended Punjab State Languages Act (PSLA) 2008.