Gali Nagaraja US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has announced the sale of eight Apache helicopters to Indonesia.
“Today, I’m announcing that the Obama administration has informed Congress of the potential sale of eight AH-64D Apache Longbow helicopters to the Indonesian government,” Clinton told reporters Thursday after meeting her Indonesian counterpart Marty Natalegawa, reported Xinhua.
The Supreme Court Friday issued notice to the central government and Air India on a petition seeking probe into the “unnecessary” purchase of 111 aircraft for the national carrier costing Rs.67,000 crore to the exchequer.
The apex court bench of Justice H.L. Dattu and Justice C.K. Prasad issued notice on a petition by the Centre for Public Interest Litigation (CPIL) seeking Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI)/special investigation team (SIT) probe into the purchase of aircraft and other decisions causing loss to the exchequer.
A Los Angeles judge Thursday refused to order YouTube to take down a controversial film clip, “The Innocence of Muslims”.
Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Luis Lanvin ruled that Cindy Lee Garcia failed to show that she would likely prevail on the merits of her request, despite the actress’s claim that she was tricked into appearing in the inflammatory film, reported Xinhua citing the Courthouse News.
Three members of a family, including two women, were found murdered in their house in the capital early Friday, police said.
Yogendra Pratap Singh (55), wife Rekha (50) and daughter Rozy (22) were killed in their house in sector 17 of Delhi’s Rohini area.
“Singh was attacked on the head with a blunt object, while his wife and daughter were smothered using a pillow,” a police official said.
Police said they were investigating the motive behind the murders.
—IANS
Fearing law and order problem after the Friday prayers over an anti-Islam video made in the US, authorities here closed educational institutions and imposed restrictions in old parts of the city.
Although no separatist group has called for a shutdown, educational institutions, including those in the Valley, have been closed to ensure that street protests against the anti-Islam video do not lead to any law and order problem, a police official said.
Mobile phone services have been suspended in 15 Pakistani cities to prevent any adverse incident Friday when millions are expected to hit the streets to condemn an anti-Islam film, Geo News reported.
Mobile coverage was blocked in Islamabad, Karachi, Lahore, Quetta, Peshawar, Rawalpindi, Faisalabad, Multan, Jhang, Rhimyar Khan, Attock, Murree, Chakwal, Chakri, and Kot Momin.
The services will remain suspended till 6 p.m.
The government Wednesday announced a public holiday to observe Youm-e-Ishq-e-Rasool (Day of Prophet Mohammad’s love) across the country Sep 21.
—IANS
Eminent freedom fighter and a well-known figure in the Telangana movement, Konda Lakshman Bapuji died here Friday. He was 96.
Bapuji, who was not keeping well for the last few months, breathed his last at his home in Ashok Nagar, family members said.
He is survived by two sons and a daughter.
Born on Sep 27, 1915 at Wankidi in Adilabad district, Konda Lakshman earned the nickname Bapuji for his participation in Quit India Movement.
Bapuji, a socialist, took active part in the armed struggle against the Nizam government of then Hyderabad State.
A leading Pakistani daily Friday called for a “purge” of all those military personnel who sympathise with the militants after terrorists targeted a Pakistan Air Force vehicle in Peshawar city.
An editorial in the Dawn said that with the rise of militancy in the country over the last decade, no branch of the armed forces has been spared from militant attacks.
The navy’s Mehran base in Karachi was stormed last year, while militants attacked the army GHQ in Rawalpindi in 2009. Most recently, Pakistan Air Force’s complex at Kamra was targeted last month.
With Trinamool Congress set to exit the UPA, the Congress top brass, including Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and party chief Sonia Gandhi, will meet this evening to decide the future course of action.
A meeting of the Congress Core Group headed by Gandhi is scheduled in the evening amid reports that Trinamool Congress ministers will be sending their resignations during the day.
This is the second meeting of the Congress Core Group which had met only two days back, a day after Mamata Banerjee announced the withdrawal of support.
Controversial spiritual leader Swami Nithyananda is likely to be a part of reality show ‘Bigg Boss’ this season.
Swami Nithyananda was in news after southern actress Ranjitha accused him of raping her more than 40 times. There were allegations of sexual harassment by some of his other disciples also.
There is a buzz that the self-styled godman is all set to participate in ‘Bigg Boss 6′.
The Trinamool Congress Friday called it “unethical” on the part of the minority United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government to notify FDI in retail, and wondered why the government was in a “hurry” on the issue.
Iterating that it would hand over its letter of withdrawal of support to the ruling UPA to President Pranab Mukherjee Friday, Railway Minister Mukul Roy told mediapersons: “It is unethical for…the government which does not have the majority on the floor of the Lok Sabha to push for FDI. We don’t understand what is the hurry.”
Sixteen members of an extended family were killed Thursday in a remote area of the eastern Honduran province of Olancho, a relative of the victims said.
The National Police have yet to confirm that the massacre took place, Security Ministry spokesman Hector Ivan Mejia told EFE.
Leonidas Carrasco told reporters that his daughter, Teodora, and her husband, Anastacio Almendarez, were slain along with a number of children.
One of Carrasco’s grandchildren survived because he was not home at the time of the attack.
Trinamool Congress leader Mukul Roy today said UPA government was in a hurry to introduce FDI in retail bypassing the Parliament.
Stating that TMC ministers would submit their resignations to the Prime Minister later in the day, he told PTI “This is a minority government and the act of bypassing the Parliament is most unethical.”
In the wake of anti-America protests in many parts of the world over an anti-Islam film, the US needs to rethink about its concept of free speech, Pakistan Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar has said.
“It is not good enough to say it’s free speech, it should be allowed. I think if this does provoke action against American citizens or Americans anywhere else in the world, then maybe we do need to rethink how much freedom is OK,” Khar told the CNN in an interview.
Khar was responding to questions on violent anti-US protests in cities across Pakistan against the film made in the US.
Archaeologists have discovered a tomb more than 1,000 years old in the western state of Michoacan, authorities said.
The find of the funeral chamber, in which are buried the remains of an unidentified person along with 19,000 beads of green stone and shell, is one of the most outstanding results of the Michoacan Special Project for archaeological research and preservation, Mexico’s National Institute of Anthropology and History, or INAH, said in a communique.
A Roma gypsy woman has been detained in Russia’s Siberian region on suspicion of hypnotizing a clothes store owner into giving her seven fur coats, RIA Novosti reported.
The incident took place in Omsk city.
“The culprit was looking intently into the eyes of the shop director when she offered to hand the seven coats over to her friend so she could try them on and buy them,” police said.
She then left, saying she would bring the coats back the next day. The mink coats were worth some 400,000 rubles ($12,800).
Students from various schools across Delhi have written postcards to Bollywood actress Kareena Kapoor urging her not to promote smoking in her film Heroine.
As a part of HRIDAY’s (Health Related Information Dissemination Amongst Youth) ongoing campaign against depiction of tobacco use in films, over 150 students from different schools wrote to the 31-year-old actress.
They urged her to refrain from showing tobacco use in all her upcoming films including Heroine, which releases tomorrow.
Five people, including a woman, have been arrested in Italy’s Sicily island for forcing a teenaged girl into prostitution.
The woman accompanied the 16-year-old girl, thought to be her niece, to the homes of the four male “clients”, police said.
The woman is in police custody, while the four men accused of paying for sex with the girl have been put under house arrest in Palermo, Sicily, where the police operation took place.
Investigators said that before the operation, the suspects’ phones were intercepted and they were watched by police.
—–IANS
At least 94 people arrested for their involvement in an attack on the US embassy here in the capital of Tunisia will be tried in a military court, Xinhua reported.
A prosecutor at Tunis’ first instance tribunal decided Thursday to transfer the files of the 94 accused to the military court, according to Shems FM.
The defendants’ lawyers protested the decision, arguing that a military court could not prosecute civilians.
Four people were killed and 48 injured when an angry mob protesting against an anti-Islam film attacked the US embassy compound last week.
—IANS
A self-confessed terrorist belonging to the Al Shabaab outfit has been sentenced to 59 years in prison by a Kenyan court, after the man was found with explosive devices in a Nairobi residential estate.
Abdimajid Yasin Mohamed alias Hussein was jailed after he pleaded guilty to being a member of the militant group blamed for a series of bomb and grenade attacks on Kenyan soil, Xinhua reported.
His co-accused, Omar Abdi Aden alias Salman Abdi, however, denied being a member.
A woman in Russia stabbed her boyfriend to death in a quarrel over a pet rat, officials said.
The 24-year old woman from northern Russia’s Severodvinsk accused the 45-year old man of getting rid of her pet rat, whom she could not find in her apartment, the investigative committee said.
The woman then stabbed him to death with a glass shard. Both of them were drunk.
The woman faces up to 15 years in jail.
—IANS
This one truly carries the Yash Chopra stamp! Picturesque locales, intense poetry, enviable costumes, Shah Rukh Khan’s dimpled cheeks, his passionate lover avatar, teamed with Katrina Kaif’s flawless beauty, and Anushka Sharma’s effervescence — the trailer of “Jab Tak Hai Jaan” regales with all this, and leaves fans guessing what’s in store.
The trailer, released online at 1 p.m. Thursday, was viewed by over 2,30,000 views on YouTube within two hours.
In the backdrop of a road accident last month in Kannur involving an LPG tanker, the Kerala High Court Thursday asked public sector oil companies to look into the viability of transporting their products through the railways.
The division bench of Justice C.N. Ramachandran Nair made this observation after hearing a petition seeking a judicial probe into last month’s LPG tanker-lorry explosion in Kannur in which 17 people were killed.
A day ahead of the planned resignation from the government by Trinamool Congress ministers, the government Thursday reiterated that its stability was not in danger and it was prepared to “acquire new friends”.
Speaking to reporters, Finance Minister P. Chidambaram said the UPA government had enough friends.
“We have enough friends today, we had enough friends yesterday… and so I don’t see any reason why we should doubt our stability… And if we acquire new friends, why should we not do so,” he said.
Telugu filmmaker Ravi Babu says his upcoming film “Avunu” will not fall in the horror genre.
“‘Avunu’ is a thriller, suspense film set within a small family with a good mix of scary and funny moments, but not a horror film,” Ravi Babu told IANS.
The story of the film revolves around a family that begins to feel the presence of an unknown force in their house.
“It is based on a real life incident that happened to actress Yami Gautam. She narrated the incident to me sometime back and I was so intrigued by it that I immediately decided to make it into a film,” he further added.