Gali Nagaraja

The US said that it is not contemplating an extension of Iran nuclear talks beyond the June 30 deadline.

The P5+1 countries — the US, Britain, France, China, Russia, plus Germany — are making efforts to reach a final deal to curb Tehran’s nuclear programme by the deadline, State Department spokesman Jeff Rathke said on Wednesday at a regular briefing, Xinhua reported.

The remark came after a senior Iranian nuclear negotiator, Abbas Araqchi, said the talks are likely to be extended beyond the self-imposed deadline.

Egyptian Court issued death sentence for Dr. Mohammed Morsi, the first elected President of Egypt. An All Party Protest meeting is being arranged today from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. at Indira Park to protest against this death sentence. Leaders of Jamat-e- Islami, SIO, All India Secular Front, Insaf Organisation, Election Watch, Human Rights Forum, Civil Liberties Monitoring Committee and other organizations will address the gathering. Mr.

There are more than 1 lakh wakf properties in and around Hyderabad city. If they are restored, the economic condition of the Muslims of Telangana State could be improved but the ruling party seems to be lacking any seriousness about the restoration and protection of these Wakf properties. Mr. Zahid Ali Khan, Editor of Siasat Urdu Daily told this while addressing a protest meeting held at Mahboob Husain Jigar Hall yesterday organized by Deccan Wakf Protection Society. Mr. Osman bin Mohammed Al Hajri recited the verses of the Quran in the beginning of the meeting.

Wasim Qureshi (35) has been using the ambulance named after Ishrat Jahan since 25th December 2011 but suddenly the name of the ambulance attracted the attention of some people. He has been using this ambulance to transport patients in Mumbra area of Thane District in the vicinity of Mumbai. He received threatening calls from some miscreant that they would kill him if he uses this name as she is a terrorist. It may be noted that the Ambulance has a label “In memory of Shahid Ishrat Jahan” painted in Red and White on the Ambulance.

Australia all-rounder Shane Watson and his wife, Lee, have released some beautiful pictures of their baby girl Matilda Victoria, who was born on Saturday.

Matilda is a younger sister to her two-year-old brother Will. Watson, who links up with the Australian team in the West Indies on Wednesday night but will miss the opening match of the tour against the President’s XI, posted the images on his website and social media channels, reports cricket.com.au on Wednesday.

“Introducing our gorgeous daughter Matilda Victoria Watson,” the Watsons posted with the images.

Congress-led UPA government had three power centres– the then prime minister Manmohan Singh, Congress chief Sonia Gandhi and her son Rahul Gandhi, which created confusion and policy paralysis, BJP president Amit Shah said here today while launching a tirade against the previous regime.

A new research has examined that babies can think before they can speak.

The study conducted at Northwestern University suggested that infants are capable of understanding relations like “same” and “different”.

Lead author Alissa Ferry, who conducted the research at Northwestern, said that this suggested that a skill key to human intelligence was present very early in human development, and that language skills are not necessary for learning abstract relations.

Islamic State terrorists shot dead 20 people in the Roman Theatre of the ancient Syrian city of Palmyra, forcing local people to watch the executions, a monitor said.

IS claimed those executed were Shia and Alawite Muslims from the Syrian armed forces and allied militiamen, said the UK-based Syrian Human Rights Observatory.

Local activists in Palmyra said on Facebook the people executed inside the Roman Theatre were “Asians” and “Iranians” and that local people were allowed to watch.

Neither the Syrian government or IS have confirmed the executions.

Saudi Arabia has added two Hezbollah leaders, Khalil Harb and Muhammad Qabalan, in its terrorist list, Saudi Press Agency reported on Thursday.

They both were accused of supporting Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s government by assisting and sending fighters, making payments to various factions within Yemen and serving as military leaders responsible for terrorist operations in the Middle East.

Harb served as commander of Hezbollah’s central military operations and supervised Hezbollah military operations throughout the Middle East.

Last weekend’s referendum vote in Ireland to approve same-sex marriage was “a defeat for humanity,” the Vatican secretary of state, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, said.

“The Irish referendum is a defeat for humanity. I was deeply saddened by the result,” he said on Wednesday in comments to Italian media, reports Efe.

“The archbishop of Dublin (Diarmuid Martin) has said that church must take account of this reality, but in the sense that it must strengthen its commitment to evangelisation,” Parolin said.

The heat wave sweeping across Andhra Pradesh and Telangana claimed over 200 more lives since Tuesday, taking the toll to 1,360.

Officials on Wednesday night said 157 people succumbed to sunstroke in Andhra Pradesh while 70 died in Telangana since Tuesday.

There was no respite from the blistering heat as both the states recorded temperatures three to seven degrees Celsius higher than the average.

The toll in Andhra Pradesh now stands at 1,024 and in Telangana at 366. Officials in the two states had confirmed 1,133 deaths till Tuesday night.

Minister of State for Home Kiren Rijiju on Wednesday said that the Indian Constitution has given the people of the country certain powers, freedoms and obligations, while clarifying an earlier statement and saying that his family does not eat beef.

“I will not comment on what other people have said. I have just stated on the basis of the very agitated press media and the civil society in Mizoram when they asked me whether they all should go to Pakistan because they eat beef,” Rijiju told ANI.

Terming the MHA’s notification giving absolute power to Lt Governor as “Talibani”, Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia today said the Centre is “afraid” of the Delhi government’s fight against corruption and such a notification is “dishonour” of the Constitution.

Speaking during a Special Assembly Session, Sisodia said the Centre’s notification was a “threat” to the existence of Delhi Assembly and that the situation at present was worse than what it was during the British Rule 125 years ago.

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Wednesday said that his government is answerable to the people of the national capital and thus must be given the right to appoint officials of their preference.

“It is being said that the day the Lieutenant Governor [Najeeb Jung] started acting against Kejriwal, his position became more secure. The LG did not ask me about the situation of electricity in the city even once. However, he is showing an unbelievable amount of interest in the transfers and posting of government officials,” Kejriwal said, while addressing the Delhi Assembly here.

A total of 175 school girls in the national capital have received self-defence training under the aegis of Delhi Police’s “Parivartan Cell”, an officer said on Wednesday.

Self-defence techniques imparted to the girls include punches, knife attack, board breaking, tiles breaking etc, Delhi Police said in a statement.

The girls were from Guru Nanak Public School and Government Girls Sr Secondary School, Azadpur.

The Congress in Telangana has condemned the non-inclusion in school text books of the role of party president Sonia Gandhi in the formation of the new state.

A chapter titled “The movement for the formation of Telangana state” has been included in this year’s social studies text book for Class 10.

However, the 14-page chapter showers praise only on Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao and his Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS), said Uttam Kumar Reddy, president of Congress party’s Telangana unit.

A US federal appeals court on Tuesday refused to allow President Barack Obama’s immigration programme to take effect immediately, putting his immigration policy legacy in jeopardy.

The Obama administration has sought to expand a programme that protects young immigrants from deportation if they were brought to the US illegally as children. Five million undocumented immigrants could benefit from the programme, which was announced by Obama through executive action last November, Xinhua reported.

Indian tennis players Rohan Bopanna, Leander Paes and Sania Mirza advanced into the second round of the men’s and women’s doubles competitions, respectively of the French Open here on Wednesday.

Bopanna partnering with Romanian Florin Mergea defeated Serbian duo Filip Krajinovic and Viktor Troicki 5-7, 6-3, 6-4 in the first round at the Stade Roland Garros.

The first set was a close contest which was finally clinched by Krajinovic and Troicki. But Bopanna-Mergea came back strongly to win the second set 6-3 and followed it up by clinching the third set 6-4.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi met his predecessor Dr Manmohan Singh, as the latter called at his 7, Race Course Road official residence in the national capital.

Prime Minister Modi took to twitter to share the information.

“Very happy to meet Dr. Manmohan Singh ji and welcome him back to 7RCR. We had a great meeting,” he posted.

This meeting takes place mere hours after Dr Singh had shown criticism of the current government and alleged that the BJP keeps on ‘harping’ about corruption simply because it wants to detract the attention of people to other non-issues. (ANI)

Separatist leader Yasin Malik on Wednesday hit out at the Jammu and Kashmir government for denying space to separatists and accused Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed of working in accordance with the RSS.

“Sayeed is dancing to the tunes of Hindu nationalist RSS and its like-minded groups,” the Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) chairman said at a press conference here, in reference to the PDP-BJP coalition government in the state.

The Telugu Desam Party (TDP) on Wednesday amended its constitution, taking the first step towards attaining national party status.

With the party having presence in both Andhra Pradesh and Telangana and looking to expand to other states, it amended the constitution to provide for a national framework.

A resolution to this effect was passed unanimously on the first day of the three-day ‘Mahanadu’ or annual conclave at Gandipet on the outskirts of Hyderabad.

The 34-year-old party dropped the word ‘Telugu Nadu’ and replaced it with India.

Union Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar on Tuesday justified his ‘terrorists have to be neutralised only through terrorist s’ remark and said that it has been misinterpreted for he was speaking in a different context.

“You need to look at the context in which the statement was made. What was asked before it and after that. If you go through the entire footage, you will find that I said nothing wrong. If you run just a part of the footage, people will have their own interpretations,” Parrikar said in an exclusive interview with ANI.

Fascist forces who hate Urdu language are making an attempt to term the steps taken State Govt. to declare Urdu as an optional language in school as equivalent declaring Telangana as an Islamic State. There is a need for the police forces and the Govt. to take stern action against such forces. It amounts to humiliating Urdu speakers. Those who treat Urdu as the language of Muslims, perhaps do not know that a large number of non-Muslim writers, poets, researchers and journalists have promoted Urdu language in the past. They not only love Urdu but consider it above the barriers of religion.

Israeli warplanes early on Wednesday launched missile strikes on military training facilities in the Gaza Strip in response to earlier firing of four rockets into Israel, security officials said.

Witnesses said that F16 fighter jets had intensively hovered over the Hamas-ruled coastal enclave, while several explosions were heard in southern and central Gaza Strip, reports Xinhua.

Security officials confirmed that around four airstrikes were carried out on the facilities in the southern Gaza Strip towns of Rafah and Khan Younis and also on central and northern Gaza Strip.

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader P.P. Chaudhary, a first-time Lok Sabha member from Rajasthan, has been selected for the Sansad Ratna 2015 Awards for his performance in the house till the end of the budget session.

“Chaudhary is among four Lok Sabha members selected for the Sansad Ratna 2015 Awards for outstanding performance in the 16th Lok Sabha till the end of the budget session,” K.Srinivasan, chairman, Prime Point Foundation told IANS on Wednesday.