Nikita Venkatesh

Minister of State for Railways Manoj Sinha said on Friday that no in-depth inquiry is required for the technical snag in an engine of the Shri Shakti Express.

Manoj Sinha said, “An overall inquiry is not required. Officials have told us about one engine failure. We are looking into the matter and will provide a double engine soon.”

The Delhi-Katra Sri Shakti Express suffered another technical glitch near Shambhu, Punjab. It left after an hour when a new engine was attached.

Parineeti Chopra and Aditya Roy Kapur recently launched the title song of their upcoming movie ‘ Daawat-e-Ishq’ at an event in New Delhi.

Both the actors met and greeted their Delhi fans who were there to have a glimpse of their favorite stars.

Speaking on the occasion lead actor Chopra said, they had many feasts during the shoot of the film.

At least eight Pakistan Frontier Corps (PFC) personnel were killed in the Jamrud area of the Khyber Agency early on Friday by heavily armed militants.

The PFC patrol party was attacked at the Gundi area paramilitary check post; the Dawn quoted official sources, as saying.

According to the daily, over a dozen militants attacked the check post, and it was followed up by a grueling gun battle which continued for over two hours.

Three other paramilitaries were injured in the attack and a PFC vehicle was also destroyed.

A major fire Friday broke out in a 22-storey commercial building in a western suburb of Mumbai, officials said.

No injuries or casualties have been reported so far, they said.

The blaze started on the 21st floor of Lotus Business Park on Andheri Link road, and later spread to the 20th floor, according to fire brigade officials.

FIFA has banned Mercedes racer Nico Rosberg from celebrating Germany’s World Cup victory by wearing a picture of the trophy on his helmet.

The German driver wanted to pay tribute to Joachim Low’s squad, who triumphed for the fourth time in the World Cup, at his home Grand Prix at Hockenheim on Sunday.

However, FIFA threatened legal action against Rosberg’s helmet, emblazoned with the German national, the World Cup trophy and a star for each of the country’s four triumphs, and forced the racer into changing the design, The Mirror reported.

Ace shuttler Parupalli Kashyap, who finished with a bronze at the Delhi Commonwealth Games four years ago, says he is targeting a gold medal in the men`s singles and hopes lady luck will be on his side during the Glasgow edition.

“Gold is a realistic target. With (World No. 1 shuttler) Lee Chong Wei withdrawing, it has opened up the tournament. I am the second seed and I know I can win the gold,” Kashyap told PTI ahead of the team`s departure to Glasgow, Scotland.

According to the new observations from NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) spacecraft, there are over 200 lunar pits that could provide shelter to the future astronauts.

The pits range in size from about 5 meters across to more than 900 meters in diameter, and three of them were first identified using images from the Japanese Kaguya spacecraft. Hundreds more were found using a new computer algorithm that automatically scanned thousands of high-resolution images of the lunar surface from LRO’s Narrow Angle Camera (NAC).

The British government has appreciated India’s fast movement towards reduction of poverty with “inclusiveness” and said Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s stress on investment in growth and infrastructure was “encouraging”.

Applauding India’s efforts to alleviate poverty, Baroness Northover, government’s spokesperson on international development, told the House of Lords yesterday that British history showed that poverty alleviation in this country was a slow process but in the past decade the number of Indians living in extreme poverty had come down from 37 percent to 22 percent.

Blackberry’s STOCK dipped by almost 10 percent following announcement of Apple’s collaboration with International Business Machines Corporation (IBM) to offer special iPads and iPhones to customers.

The partnership of Apple and IBM has raised many questions. Some analysts had asked whether Apple and IBM might take over Blackberry’s already loose grip in the tech MARKET.

This deal would result negatively for Blackberry as it tried to influence the business MARKET, reports the Mashable.

A new study has revealed that the overall death rate has been cut to half among the people with AIDS living in the world’s rich countries and receiving care and antiretroviral therapy (ART), compared with a decade ago.

The study involved nearly 50, 000 HIV-positive adults receiving care and antiretroviral therapy (ART) at more than 200 clinics across Europe, USA, and Australia found that overall death rates have almost halved since 1999, while deaths due to AIDS-related causes and cardiovascular disease have declined by around 65 percent and liver-related deaths by more than 50 percent.

Scientists have revealed that images and data captured by the rover Curiosity suggest that Mars would have been warmer and wetter some 3.7 billion years ago.

NASA rovers have shown Martian landscapes littered with loose rocks from impacts or layered by catastrophic floods, rather than the smooth contours of soils that soften landscapes on Earth. However, recent images from Curiosity from the impact Gale Crater.

Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje has launched the country’s first and biggest skills development project aimed at creating employment opportunities for the young people of the state.

The Union Government has proposed Rs. 398 crore for this livelihood skills project. The state government would impart modern skills for employment to one lakh rural youth under this project and then provide them jobs, in collaboration with the Union Ministry for Rural Development.

Food Minister Ram Vilas Paswan has suggested to the Commerce Ministry to first impose a ban on onion exports before allowing imports from other countries to boost domestic supply and check prices.

Pawan has suggested this in a letter written to Commerce Minister Nirmala Sitharaman when the Food Ministry’s views were sought on importing one lakh tonnes of onions, officials in the know said.

Sparing residents from further water cuts, the Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai (MCGM) has raised the water cut OF HOTELS and commercial set ups in the city to 50 per cent from Thursday.

“To provide relief to small consumers, we have decided to contain the water cuts of the residents at 20 per cent, but all the bulk consumers will now have to face a water cut of 50 per cent starting today,” Deputy Municipal Commissioner Ramesh Bambale said.

“ALL HOTELS and restaurants across Mumbai will now be supplied only 50 per cent water than what they originally received,” he said.

Real Madrid has topped Forbes’ annual list of the world’s most valuable sports teams.

Forbes said that the Spanish football club is worth an estimated 3.44 billion dollars.

According to The BBC, Real Madrid, who won the Champions League in May, is followed by Barcelona in second place at 3.2 billion dollars and Manchester United at the third, with 2.81 billion dollars.

Forbes calculated the value of the teams based on equity, debt and stadium deals with football clubs occupying the top three slots.

A 14-year-old girl was allegedly gang-raped by two youths in Jagatpura area here, police said Thursday.

The accused identified as Dev Gujjar and Ajay Meena befriended the girl and took her to a rented room in Jagatpura area here on Tuesday where they raped her, investigating officer Prem Dan said adding the victim was then abandoned near a park.

“Following a complaint by the victim’s father, Dev was arrested yesterday while Ajay is still on the run and a search for him is on,” he said.

Health Minister Harsh Vardhan Thursday batted for “human rights” of gays and said it was the government’s job to protect their rights.

“Everybody, including gays, has human rights. It is the job of the government to protect their rights,” he said on the sidelines of an event.

He, however, declined to make further comments when asked to explain his position as his party, BJP, had supported the Supreme Court judgment which had upheld the validity of Section 377 of IPC, criminalising sex among homosexuals.

A 29-year-old notorious rowdy P Lakshmanan was found dead with his throat slit near the Muruga temple here early Thursday, police said.

Police detained four persons in connection with the murder and were interrogating.

Lakshmanan was allegedly involved in more than 20 cases of robbery and dacoity, police said.

……….PTI

The CPI-M Thursday accused the government of taking a pro-Israeli stand by refusing to discuss the Israeli air raids on Gaza in Parliament.

Instead of condemning the Israeli attacks that have left 220 Palestinians dead, “the government has adopted a dubious stand which condones the unjustified Israeli aggression”, the CPI-M said.

The Communist Party of India-Marxist said the External Affairs Ministry first equated both sides as responsible for the violence. It also refused to condemn the “Israeli violence in Gaza”.

Jammu and Kashmir government has condemned the killing of innocent people in Gaza in Israeli firing and expressed sympathies with the bereaved families.

“The state cabinet which met here yesterday under the chairmanship of Chief Minister Omar Abdullah condemned the wanton killings of men, women and children in Gaza strip over the last few days,” an official spokesman said.

He said the cabinet expressed sympathies with the bereaved families.

………PTI

Normal life was disrupted in Kashmir Valley Thursday due to a strike called by hardline Hurriyat Conference led by Syed Ali Shah Geelani to protest killings in Gaza and to mourn the death of seven persons in an accident involving an army vehicle.

Shops, business establishments and petrol pumps here were closed, while government offices and banks received thin attendance, police said.

They said public transport was off the roads while private cars, cabs and auto rickshaws were seen plying.

Similar reports were received from all major towns across the valley, they said.

Opposition DMK, DMDK, Puthiya Thamizhagam and Left parties Thursday staged a walkout from the Tamil Nadu Assembly after the Speaker denied them permission to raise various issues.

Soon after the Question Hour, DMK members led by Floor Leader M K Stalin, members of DMDK, Left parties and Puthiya Thamizhagam stood up to raise various issues with the government.

However, Speaker P Dhanapal denied permission and said their words would not be taken into the Assembly records.

Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh on Thursday rejected the Aam Aadmi Party’s (AAP’s) claim that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has been indulging in acts of horse-trading, and said that it has no intention of ever doing so.

“BJP never indulged in horse trading, nor will we ever indulge in it,” Singh told media here.

The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has alleged that the saffron party is engaging in horse-trading in a bid to form the government in Delhi.

Earlier today, AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal’s tweets against BJP fueled criticism from the party as they accused them of buying MLAs.

Gunmen, using rockets and automatic weapons, have attacked Kabul International Airport in Afghanistan, Afghan Police said on Thursday.

The Taliban has claimed that they had launched the attack.

Eyewitnesses said the militants had taken over a building near the airport.

All flights had been diverted to other Afghan cities, said sources.

According to the BBC, there were no causalities reported.

Afghan Special Forces and police have surrounded the militants and are currently present around the building.

An Afghani official said that no rockets had landed inside the airport.

Amid reports that BJP is trying to form government in Delhi, the Aam Aadmi Party has called a meeting of its MLAs Thursday to discuss future course of action.

The Arvind Kejriwal-led party is expected to discuss its future plan if BJP forms the government in the national capital.

At present, AAP has 27 MLAs in the 70-member Delhi Legislative Assembly. It had earlier expelled its Laxmi Nagar MLA Vinod Kumar Binny for indulging in anti-party activities.