Gali Nagaraja

The dawn-to-dusk ‘Karnataka bandh’ called by Kannada outfits to protest release of Cauvery water to Tamil Nadu today disrupted normal life in the city and river basin districts even as window-panes of some buses were damaged in stone-pelting incidents.

In Bangalore city, some persons pelted stones on some Bangalore metropolitan transport Corporation buses and damaged its window panes, police said. As per initial reports, the bandh has evoked good response with normal life affected in Bangalore, and Cauvery basin districts of Mandya, Mysore, Hassan and Chamarajanagar.

President Barack Obama has said the US is moving forward and the unemployment rate has fallen to its lowest level since he took office four years ago.

His remarks came hours after latest figures revealed that America’s unemployment rate has dropped to 7.8 percent in the month of September, the lowest since 2009.

“Today I believe that as a nation we’re moving forward again,” he said during an election campaign meeting in Ohio.

Noting that terrorism cannot be justified by any cause or grievance, India has asked UN-member states to expand enforcement efforts to destroy safe havens and terrorists’ support networks besides evolving a counter-narrative to combat radicalisation.

Pakistan needs to decide whether “they want to persist with the old horses or opt for young blood”, said a daily after the country failed to reach the finals of the cricket World Twenty20 final.

An editorial in the News International Saturday said that Pakistan did it again – “snatching defeat from the jaws of victory” after Sri Lanka beat them in the semifinals.

“What else can you say about a team that was steered to 91-4 by its captain…only to lose the plot and crash to a 16-run loss while chasing 140 to reach the final.

Leading sitar exponent Imrat Khan of the Etawah gharana, who is one of the few surviving players of surbahar, a variation of veena, says that India should put clamps on “sleazy songs and movies” as Bollywood and mass entertainment was “killing the culture of Hindustan.”

“The whole world looks up to India for art and culture, but we are following Bollywood and Afro-American culture. Russians are censoring their culture and the Chinese culture too has censorship…,” Khan told IANS in a chat.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is expected to sweep 50 percent of all votes and win 133 of the 182 seats in the upcoming elections in Gujarat, a survey of voters released Friday said.

In contrast, the Congress would maintain its 38 percent vote share but get only 43 seats, a drop of 16 from its 2007 tally, the LensOnNews survey said.

The findings follow a survey of 7,294 voters across 52 constituencies across the state.

The BJP’s projected seats would be a gain of one percent in vote share but would give it 16 more seats as compared to 2007, it said.

Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray has said Gujarat Chief Minister would lead his party to a third consecutive victory in the December assembly elections.

“Modi has shown his grip on Gujarat and is going to win the polls for the third time in a row,” Thackeray said in an editorial in party mouthpiece Saamna.

“This is because of the pace of development in Gujarat in last 10 years under Modi’s leadership. It won’t be easy for anyone to stop the victory march of Modi,” he said.

Sachin Tendulkar has for the first time admitted that at 39 he may not have much cricket left in him and will reassess his cricketing future next month.

Tendulkar’s retirement has been a topic of debate for quite some time now and the batting great said though he does not have any immediate plans, the thought of retirement has been on his mind.

—-PTI

“Inception” star Joseph Gordon-Levitt has become a fan of actress Priyanka Chopra after listening to her new single ‘In My City’.

The track is Chopra’s debut as a singer and also features

Black-eyed peas singer Will.I.Am.

“I came across Priyanka’s new track and found the song very upbeat and refreshing. She is beautiful and extremely talented. The song is going on my iPod list!,” Levitt said in a statement.
The song is climbing International music charts all over and Chopra is currently busy shooting for its video in LA.

A pantry car staffer was arrested Friday afternoon on charges of molesting a young girl on board Sealdah-New Delhi Rajdhani Express, police said.

Mohd. Sheikh, 24, attempted to outrage the modesty of the girl late Thursday night near Chandauli.

The girl raised an alarm and fellow passengers came to her rescue. The man was handed over to the Government Railway Police (GRP) at Mughalsarai.

Police said the man was drunk and does not have any past criminal record.

The top Congress leadership, including Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, party president Sonia Gandhi and general secretary Rahul Gandhi, will campaign in Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh for assembly elections, party sources said Friday.

Party sources said the top leadership could address around a dozen public meetings in Gujarat, including around four by Sonia Gandhi, five or six by Rahul and two by the prime minister.

Sonia Gandhi addressed a pre-poll rally in Rajkot in Gujarat Oct 3, setting the tone for the party’s campaign in the BJP-ruled state.

Three people were killed Friday when the New Delhi-Ludhiana Shatabdi Express ran over them while they were crossing the rail tracks in Haryana, police said.

One person was injured seriously in the accident near Bahadurgarh railway station in Rohtak district, about 40 km from New Delhi.

Police said the four were labourers living in a slum close to the tracks. They failed to see the approaching train. The train was briefly halted before it resumed its journey.

—IANS

Civil Aviation Minister Ajit Singh Friday again made it clear that Kingfisher Airlines cannot fly until it satisfies all the mandatory safety norms.

“In order to give them (Kingfisher Airlines) permission to fly again, they have to satisfy the DGCA (Directorate-General of Civil Aviation) on all safety issues,” Singh told reporters as the airline extended its lockout for another week.

Asked whether the airline’s licence will be cancelled if it failed to meet the safety parameters, Singh said: “We will have to see the legality of the move to suspend or cancel their licence.”

An Indian Institute of Information Technology (IIIT) that is coming up Guwahati is likely to become operational by 2014, Education and Health Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma.

Sarma said Thursday that the government was working towards a 2013 deadline for making the IIIT operational but in the event it failed, then it would become operational by 2014.

“Students who have passed Plus II examination will be eligible for admission to the IIIT,” said Sarma.

Ignoring the reservations of Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, the BJP said Friday that it will invite Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi to Bihar to address a public meeting.

“Yes, we have invited Narendra Modi to address the Hunkar rally March 15 in Patna,” state BJP president C.P. Thakur told the media in Gaya.

A former central minister, Thakur said Modi had been invited in view of his rising political stature in the party and the country.

The decision to raise the cap for FDI in insurance and pension funds will make the Indian financial sector “more vulnerable to speculative finance capital”, the CPI-M said Friday.

“These measures announced by the cabinet will make India’s finance sector more vulnerable to speculative finance capital,” the Communist Party of India-Marxist said in a statement.

The government has decided to raise the cap for foreign direct investment in the insurance sector from the current 26 percent to 49 percent. The cabinet has also decided to allow 49 percent FDI in pension funds.

There is a huge buzz around Amitabh Bachchan’s 70th birthday, which falls Oct 11, but for the megastar, it’s “just another day”.

“A million interviews, a million good wishes and a million desires of continuance… birthdays at 70 seem special to some. Just another day for me,” tweeted the 69-year-old veteran.

These days, he is busy meeting mediapersons for interviews, sharing insights and experiences of his life. Big plans are in store for his birthday, and his wife Jaya Bachchan, has reportedly planned each part of the celebrations including painting and poster exhibitions.

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A Delhi Court Friday awarded death sentence to five members of a family convicted earlier for killing a young couple to death in 2010 in the name of honour.

Additional Sessions Judge Ramesh Kumar Singhal sentenced to death the parents of the girl, Suraj and Maya, uncle Om Prakash, aunt Khusboo and brother Sanjeev.

Asha, 19, was beaten, and then electrocuted along with her 20-year-old boyfriend Yogesh.

The family reportedly did not want the two to marry because the boy was from a lower caste.

—IANS

In a major setback to YSR Congress Party leader Y. S. Jaganmohan Reddy, the Supreme court Friday declined to grant him bail in the disproportionate assets case

While declining to grant bail, the apex court bench headed by Justice Aftab Alam rejected the petition, saying: “You will have to wait.”

The rejection of the bail plea came after Additional Solicitor General Mohan Parasaran told the court that Jaganmohan was involved “in very serious economic offences which were unparalleled”.

Bihar observed Dolphin Day Friday to raise awareness about conservation of the Ganga river dolphin declared as India’s national aquatic animal.

“Dolphin Day is a step towards conserving the Ganga river dolphin and would be observed every year on Oct 5,” Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi said at a workshop here.

“It is a part of the Wildlife Week being observed in Bihar (Oct 2-8),” he added.

The environment ministry has rejected an Indian Navy proposal to test fire missiles at the Tillachang sanctuary in the Andaman and Nicobar islands as a firing range would destroy the habitat of the megapode, an endangered ground bird species.

“The matter came up during the meeting of the National Board for Wildlife last month and many non-official members raised concern about it. I decided yesterday (Thursday) that the range should not come in that area,” Environment Minister Jayanthi Natarajan told reporters here Friday.

As Kingfisher Airlines extended its partial lockout by a week till October 12, Civil Aviation Minister Ajit Singh said on Friday the debt-ridden company will have to satisfy airline regulator DGCA on safety before it gets permission to fly again.

“There are a lot of factors involved in it.

“That includes the salaries of the employees, their disgruntlement issues and others. If the employees are disgruntled there is an issue of safety.

As politics in the cool environs of Himachal Pradesh heat up with the Election Commission sounding the poll bugle, has the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) managed an edge over its seemingly somnolent rival Congress?

That’s what it appeared to be with the Election Commission announcing Wednesday that the state would vote for a new assembly on Nov 4. The BJP is ahead of its arch rival as far as ticket allocation and campaigning at the grassroots level are concerned.

Four people, including a 40-year-old woman, have been arrested for the assassination attempt on Lt Gen (Retd) K.S. Brar, who led the Indian Army operation into the Golden Temple at Amritsar in Punjab in June 1984, police here said.

Brar, who was on the hit-list of Sikh militant groups, was on a private visit to London when he was viciously attacked on the evening of Sep 30. The retired general and his wife Meena returned to India Oct 3.

India Friday tested its nuclear-capable ballistic missile Dhanush from a naval ship in the Bay of Bengal in Odisha, an official said.

The missile was fired from a naval ship somewhere between Puri and Visakhapatnam as part of the training exercise of the Indian Navy.

“The test was successful,” Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) spokesperson Ravi Kumar Gupta told IANS.

Dhanush is a naval version of the nuclear-capable ballistic missile Prithvi. It has a range of 350 km.

—IANS