A S Kashyap Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi Sunday visited cyclone-hit north coastal Andhra and assured people that his party will pressurise the central government to rebuild this coastal city.
Rahul went around Visakhapatnam Steel Plant damaged by cyclone Hudhud. He spoke to the employees and assured them that Congress MPs will fight to make the central government compensate for the huge losses suffered by the plant.
Spiraling land costs and safety concerns are seeing the 1.3-million strong Indian Army, the fourth largest in the world, fast running out of firing ranges. It is now eyeing simulators for training its soldiers.
This major problem, which may even effect the preparedness of the force, came up at the recently concluded Army Commanders’ Conference and has made top commanders look for other options.
Top Indian Army sources confided that a lot of difficulties is being faced as many states are not ready to renew the leases for the firing range land.
It’s been termed “Paradise Unexplored” but poor internal communication between India’s northeastern states and the lack of connectivity to the region are the major hurdles tour operators face in promoting it as a tourist destination, an expert says.
“Northeast tourism suffers from two fundamental inadequacies: poor internal communication between the states and poor connectivity. Travelling by road is arduous and time-consuming,” Madan Prasad Bezbaruah, honorary permanent representative of the United Nations World Tourism Organization, told IANS.
(Afternoon Lead)
(13:44)
, Oct 19 (IANS) The BJP is all set to form the government in Haryana – for the first time on its own.
Outgoing Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Hooda accepted defeat as the BJP contested the assembly elections on its own in the state, upset past trends, and will now lead a majority government.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) had won 13 out of the 28 assembly seats results for which were declared till 1 p.m. and was leading in 38 other constituencies. Most of its candidates had taken unassailable lead over their nearest rivals in their constituencies.
Senior Shiv Sena leader and former Lok Sabha speaker Manohar Joshi Sunday said there is no ‘Modi wave’.
“There was no Modi wave… No…,” he told TV channels shortly after meeting Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray.
On being asked about government formation in Maharashtra, Joshi said: “It would be decided in our style… Uddhav Thackeray will take the final decision in the matter.”
The trends of the vote count by 1 p.m. indicated the state was headed for a hung assembly for the first time in its history.
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Chaudhary Birender Singh on Saturday avoided commenting on who would head the government in Haryana if his party emerges victorious in the assembly polls.
He said the party high command will take a final call on the person for the coveted post of the Chief Minister.
“These things will be decided by the party, neither am I supporter of someone nor do I want to praise myself. The Chief Minister should be someone who can take along with everyone,” he told ANI here.
Moved by the bitter saga of the sugarcane farmers whose crop has taken a severe beating during the landfall of Hudhud cyclone and help was not forthcoming from the State, Leader of Opposition, YS Jagan Mohan Reddy has said that YSR Congress would take up their cause and mount pressure on the TDP Government to provide the needed relief and will take up the agitation path, if necessary.
The World Health Organization has been accused of ‘failure’ in its response to the Ebola outbreak in West Africa, say reports.
According to an internal document, those involved failed to acknowledge ‘fairly plain writing on the wall’, reported the BBC.
Some sources close to the WHO reported about multiple failures in the Ebola epidemic’s early stages.
The draft reports suggest that experts should have realized that traditional methods of curbing the outbreak would not be helpful in a region with porous borders and poor health systems.
Indian tennis players Vignesh Peranamallur and Nitten Kirrtane advanced to the second round of qualifiers at the $50,000 KPIT-ATP Challenger at the Shiv Chhatrapati Sports Complex here Saturday.
Vignesh defeated Suraj Prabodh 6-3, 4-6, 6-1 while Nitten Kirrtane beat Sahil Gaware 6-2, 6-3 in their first round qualifying matches.
Also advancing to the second round was Tejas Chaukulkar who downed Shaikh Abdullah 6-1, 6-2 and Purav Raja who defeated Akash Wagh 6-4, 6-2.
Stressing the importance of enhancing connectivity in India’s northeastern states, Japanese Ambassador to India Takeshi Yagi Saturday said the “bigger picture” is to eventually link south India with ASEAN countries.
“This is a part of increasing connectivity between India and ASEAN. We already have concrete projects. Another aspect is the Chennai-Bangalore industrial corridor – the bigger picture we have in mind is to enhance connectivity between southern part of India and ASEAN,” Yagi said at a lecture at the Observer Research Foundation here.
Paramilitary troopers returning from poll duty in Maharashtra had a providential escape Saturday when a bogey of the train they were travelling in caught fire near Allahabad, officials said.
Three troopers sustained minor burn injuries. Railway officials said the Election Special train was going to Bihar from Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus in Mumbai and the 12th bogey from the engine caught fire at a link junction near Chimvaki in Allahabad.
Hollywood star Ben Affleck’s Gone Girl, which was slated to release alongside Indian superstar Shah Rukh Khan’s big-ticket entertainer Happy New Year, will now hit the screens Oct 31.
The David Fincher-directorial was to release Oct 24, a day after Diwali, and Happy New Year is releasing on the same day.
“Ben Affleck’s much-awaited and much-acclaimed Gone Girl to release in India Oct 31,” said a statement.
The Hollywood movie, which has received a positive feedback at the US box office, is based on a best-selling novel by Gillian Flynn.
Abhishek Bachchan, who has donned a ‘tapori’ look for his role as Nandu Bhide in “Happy New Year”, says the character had to be created from scratch as he bears no resemblance to the actor’s real self.
Talking about his character in the film, he said: “I play Nandu Bhide from Sangam Chawl in Mumbai. He enjoys his drink a bit too much and that makes him very entertaining and very outrageous, but a lot of fun.
Bollywood actress Neha Dhupia launched the country’s first audio and Braille food menu for the visually-challenged people at a suburban restaurant in Mumbai.
This would help the visually-impaired people as they will not have to wait for the waiter to read out the menu to them.
The fate of 1,351 contesting candidates will be decided Sunday as the counting of votes for the 90-member Haryana assembly takes place.
“All arrangements have been made for counting of votes tomorrow. Counting of votes would be carried out at 90 counting centres in 57 places in the state,” Haryana chief electoral officer Shrikant Walgad said here Saturday.
Majority of the results are expected to be out by Sunday afternoon.
Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYM) president Anurag Thakur said here on Saturday that the assembly elections in Maharashtra and Haryana have proved that a ‘Modi wave’ is still prevalent across the nation.
He also added that BJYM will work hard for the upcoming elections in Jharkhand and Jammu and Kashmir to help the BJP attain full majority.
“It is clear from the Maharashtra and the Haryana elections that the ‘ Modi wave’ is prevalent in the nation. BJP is going to form government in Haryana and Maharashtra,” said Thakur.
A tiger that entered China after being set free by Russian President Vladimir Putin may spend the winter in the country.
The tiger “Kuzya” tagged with a tracking device, is moving southward, further away from Russia, Eugene Simonov, coordinator of Rivers without Boundaries Coalition, a multinational, non-governmental organisation said Saturday.
“We have to prepare ourselves that Kuzya will spend winter in China. The Russian experts have called for local Chinese not to feed the tiger with any poultry which is vital to keep its wild survival ability,” Simonov said.
Jyoti Randhawa, in tied sixth, was the best placed Indian golfer after the third round of the $1.3 million Hong Kong Open here Saturday.
Randhawa battled to a 68 while overnight leader Ernie Els of South Africa registered a disappointing 71 in a rollercoaster round to slip to tied sixth place alongside four other players, including the Indian.
S.S.P Chowrasia dropped a few places and was the next best Indian with a third round 70 to be tied for 13th place with Lucas Bjerregaard of Denmark.
Shiv Kapur also had a poor third round with a 70 score to occupy tied 24th place.
The Odisha government Saturday decided to recruit 50,000 new employees for its various departments in the current financial year, an official statement said.
It was decided at a high level meeting chaired by Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik at the state secretariat here.
At present, a total of 60,937 posts are lying vacant in various state government departments.
The state government has already recruited 10,000 employees and decided to complete the recruitment of 50,000 by the end of the financial year (2014-15), the Chief Minister’s Office said in a statement.
At least five civilians were killed Saturday during airstrikes carried out by US forces against the Islamic State (IS) in Syria, Xinhua reported.
Three people, including a teenager were killed in a village outside the city of Shadadi in Hasaka province, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) said.
In the province of Deir al-Zour, two men were killed and three injured near the village of Khusham, the Observatory said.
Meanwhile, clashes continue between the IS and the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) in the city of Kobane.
At least three people were killed and five injured Saturday in a suicide car bombing in Afghanistan’s Helmand province.
The bomb had targeted a military convoy outside the provincial capital of Lashkar Gah city, an official told Xinhua.
The victims comprised the suicide bomber and two military personnel.
A probe has been launched into the incident.
IANS
Prime Minister Narendra Modi Saturday said Afghanistan had achieved “huge” progress under its former president Hamid Karzai and congratulated him for the formation of the new national unity government in that country.
Modi, who spoke with Karzai over phone, congratulated the former Afghan president for his leadership in ensuring a historic and peaceful political transition and formation of a national unity government in Afghanistan.
“This would not have been possible without the wisdom, courage and foresight of Karzai,” he said.
The Supreme Court has said a public prosecutor plays an important role in the prosecution of criminal cases and was not expected to adopt a causal approach in acceding to a plea for concessions sought by an accused.
An apex court bench of justices Ranjana Prakash Desai and N.V. Ramana said this while expressing “extreme displeasure” at the manner in which a public prosecutor consented to a plea by an accused convicted of kidnapping and rape for direction to the Rajasthan government to commute his sentence.
Four electronic public toilets installed in Visakhapatnam were unaffected by cyclone “Hudhud”, which hit the city last week.
Kerala-based company Eram Scientific Solutions, which developed the automated public toilet units, said it received photographs of the eToilets Saturday which showed the country’s first electronic public toilets were “standing unaffected”.
Actor Aaron Paul got extremely emotional when he ran into the famous recreational vehicle from popular TV series “Breaking Bad”, the final season of which has ended.
The Emmy Award-winning actor had someone take a photograph of him hugging the car when he bumped into it on a film set, reports eonline.com.
“So, I saw this beauty yesterday while I was walking around the Sony lot. My good god I have missed her. Such good times we had together. The door was locked and I felt really sad that I didn’t have the key,” posted the actor on Instagram.