faheem Hyderabad, June 13: It was a pink Friday at Satyam Computer Services, as over 10,000 employees of the beleaguered IT firm were preparing for an
unhappy holiday. Over one fourth of Satyam’s workforce was a part of the virtual pool, an exercise implemented by its new owner Tech Mahindra to downsize the excess staff.
Mumbai, June 13: Yet again, hot-headed Salman Khan is angry with one of Katrina’s co-stars! And this time it’s Neil Nitin Mukesh, who’s been warned by Salman to stay away from his woman.
Islamabad, June 13: The funeral prayers of Allama Dr Muhammad Sarfraz Naeemi will be offered today on Saturday at 5pm in Nasir Bagh Lahore. He would be laid to rest in the premises of Jamia Naeemia.
The Tanzimul Madaris Ahle Sunnat (Barelvi) has announced three-day mourn, the Anjuman Tajiran announced strike while the Muttahida Qaumi Movement called to observe the day of mourn across the country over the martyrdom of the religious scholar.
Religious parties’ leaders and workers on Friday took out protest rallies to condemn the suicide attack that killed Dr. Naeemi.
Islamabad, June 13: Pakistan said Saturday India should not doubt its intentions in the probe into the 26/11 Mumbai carnage and called on New Delhi to resume the sub-continental dialogue process with Islamabad. Interior Minister Rehman Malik, during a meeting with Indian High Commissioner Sharad Sabharwal today, said resumption of the Pakistan-India dialogue “is imperative for regional peace” and India should not doubt Pakistan’s sincerity in bringing the perpetrators of the Mumbai attacks to justice.
Islamabad, June 13: Pakistan’s President Asif Ali Zardari today said his country was fighting for its “survival” and promised that the ongoing offensive against the Taliban would continue “until the end”.
“We are fighting a war for our sovereignty,” Zardari said in a late-night television address to the nation. “We will continue this war until the end, and we will win it at any cost.”
Tehran, June 13: A brave people went in their millions yesterday to vote for the next president of Iran.
They went for the right reasons and they went for the wrong reasons but they wanted a say in how their country is governed. In their tens of thousands, they waited in Tehran amid the sword-like heat of summer to insist that they had duties and obligations towards their society. Alas, the clerical blanket which smothers Iran will ensure that mullahs – not people – ultimately get their way. Thank you, Ayatollah Khomeini.
New Delhi, June 13: India has appreciated the steps Australia has taken for the safety of Indian students, some of whom have faced allegedly racist attacks, even as it released a list of do’s and don’ts for Indians studying in that country. “We hope that the Australian government will succeed to stop the attacks. It is a terrible thing that the attacks are continuing,” Foreign Secretary Shivshankar Menon told reporters here on Friday.
He signaled appreciation for the efforts of the Australian government and said that New Delhi and Canberra were in touch during the crisis.
Macau, June 12: Bollywood actress Sonam Kapoor, who turned 24 recently, says she always wanted to be a star and not just another actor.
“For me, stardom is a new and novel experience… it’s lovely. That’s why I became a film actor… I wanted that… I wanted to act and be something. If I only wanted to be an actor, I would have done theatre. But I actually wanted to be a star and I make no bones about that,” Sonam told media in an interview here.
Washington, June 12: The head of a Washington think tank has some unusual advice for President Barack Obama: visit India and see why ‘Jai Ho’ should be the key words of the US’ long- term foreign policy.
David Rothkopf, a visiting scholar at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and president and CEO of Garten Rothkopf, a Washington DC-based international advisory firm, has been so impressed with India despite its dichotomies that he says Obama could profit more by a trip to that country than the headline-grabbing Egypt visit of last week.
Merborne, June 12: In yet another racial attack on Indians in Australia, a 22-year-old student was allegedly assaulted by a teenager in Adelaide after making “rude” comments about his turban.
Police said the student suffered a broken nose in the assault in Adelaide’s busy market area of Rundle Mall yesterday and that they have arrested a 17-year-old youth in this connection.
They said the attacker has been bailed to appear in the Adelaide Youth Court.
New Delhi, June 12: Raising the number of seats in the Lok Sabha and the state assemblies is being seen as a way out to arrive at a consensus on the Women’s Reservation Bill which is being opposed in the present form by some political parties.
Both the government and the Congress have made it clear that there would be no dilution of the proposed 33% reservation for women in Lok Sabha and in state assemblies.
Over a decade after the exercise started, there is no unanimity on how to go about with the task without antagonising various sections.
California, June 11: Google doesn’t believe it needs to change its ways despite three separate US government inquiries into whether some of the internet search leader’s actions are thwarting competition.
“There is no reason to be upset or surprised with the scrutiny,” Dana Wagner, Google’s competition counsel, told reporters on Wednesday. “It comes with the territory.”
Mumbai, June 11: Katrina Kaif, who was paired for the first time with heartthrob Imran Khan in Sanjay Gadhvi’s 7 Days in Paris, was eagerly looking forward to the film.
It is a romance set in Paris. But her excitement fizzled out when the final script turned out to be different from the one narrated to her. Changes were made in the script according to Imran Khan’s demands.
Mumbai,June 11:When one has a great storyteller like Salim Khan at home, one needn’t look far for inspiration and guidance. Ask Sohail Khan, who intends to take papa Salim’s help for his next love story, which will star bade bhaiya Salman Khan. Sohail had earlier directed Salman in Pyaar Kiya To Darna Kya, Auzaar and Hello Brother.
Bhuvneshwar, June 11: A month after a Dalit woman in Orissa was allegedly gang raped by four men, including a former leader of the ruling Biju Janata Dal (BJD), the police have arrested only one of the accused. Opposition parties claim that a minister is shielding them and are demanding a probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).
A 24-year-old woman has accused politician Mahesh Agarwal and three other men of having raped her at Paikmal in Bargarh district, about 350 km from here, May 10.
Patna, June 11: Jamaat-ud-Dawa chief Hafiz Saeed’s close confidant and Lashkar-e-Toiba commander Md Umer Madni – who was nabbed from Delhi last week – was on Thursday taken to Patna by a special team of Delhi Police for further interrogation.
According to reports, Delhi Police is trying to verify the vital information revealed by the Madni about his organisation’s network in Bihar and adjoining states during interrogation.
Tehran, June 11: She has become one of the most high-profile figures in one of the most exciting Iranian election campaigns – and she is not even running for office. It would be easy to downplay the importance of Zahra Rahnavard as a creation of the Western media seeking an exotic angle. Married to opposition candidate Mirhossein Mousavi, she has even been dubbed Iran’s Michelle Obama.
Georgia, June 11: A federal judge found former Georgia Tech student Syed Haris Ahmed guilty Wednesday of conspiring to provide material support to terrorism in the United States and abroad.
Ahmed, 24, could face 15 years in prison. Sentencing has been deferred until after the August 3 trial of Ahmed’s alleged co-conspirator, Ehsanul Islam Sadequee, who is expected to face the same charges.
U.S. District Judge William Duffey announced his verdict in federal court in Atlanta. The judge scheduled a hearing Thursday to reveal his findings.
New Delhi, June 11: Veteran Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Jaswant Singh has called for making it a ‘current party’ and admitted that it had failed to effectively convey its message to the masses, leading to its election debacle.
‘There is a need for ideological distillation of thought. The BJP has to be a current party. It can’t be a party of yesterday. I think there’s lack of clarity on what Hindutva means,’ the former central minister told the NDTV news channel in an interview Wednesday.
New Delhi, June 11: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Wednesday launched a “countrywide campaign to curb corruption”, conducted searches across the country and registered 67 cases, an official said. The premier investigating agency registered 67 cases against officials of government departments, including the Income Tax Department, the Delhi Development Authority (DDA), Doordarshan and the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF).
Washington, June 10: Susan Lucci’s memorable “All My Children” character is about to become TV’s Ultimate Cougar.
The conniving Erica Kane, with 10 husbands down already, will fall into the arms of a much younger man on ABC’s soap opera this summer. To make life a little more complicated, it’s her daughter’s ex-husband and ex-fiance’s stepson.
Got that straight?
New Delhi, June 10: She came, she chatted up journalists, spread her charm, had a spartan lunch topped with seasonal fruits, said her goodbyes and left with the media relishing each word she uttered.
It was a happy day for Congress president Sonia Gandhi as she hosted a ‘thanksgiving lunch’ for the media after her party posted a stunning electoral win last month.
In a rare gesture that warmed the hearts of over 200 journalists at the conference hall of Ashoka Hotel, a beaming Gandhi, in a maroon sari, went around each table and spent a couple of minutes conversing with them.
New Delhi, June 10: Minister of State for Minority Affairs Salman Khurshid says his ministry is “not only about Muslims” but will have all of India’s minority communities covered by it.
The implementation of the Sachar Committee recommendations for the development of Muslims would also be a priority for his ministry, Khurshid said.
“This ministry is not only about Muslims but has all minority communities under its ambit. It needs a proper direction, minority affairs has a lot of potential.”
Lucknow, June 10: Four policemen in Uttar Pradesh’s Basti district were suspended Wednesday for allegedly running a sex racket from their official quarters, an official said Wednesday.
‘An enquiry has also been initiated against the four constables, who were caught with two call girls Tuesday night at the police residential quarters,’ a district police spokesperson told IANS by phone.
Investigations revealed that Manoj Patel, one of the suspended constables, used to run a prostitution ring with the other three police men, who would solicit clients. Basti is 275 km from here.
Islamabad, June 10: The UN is set to begin its probe into the 2007 assassination of former Pakistani prime minister Benazir Bhutto with the appointment of a former Irish policeman as the third member of a commission that has been set up to conduct the enquiry.
Peter Fitzgerald, a former deputy commissioner of the Irish National Police Force, Garda Siochana, was a member of the UN commission that probed the assassination of former Lebanese prime minister Rafik Harriri, Dawn reported Wednesday.