Press Trust of India Libya’s Supreme Court Monday ruled the election of new prime minister Ahmed Maitiq “unconstitutional”, ending the prolonged dilemma over who the country’s head of government is.
The court pointed to several violations recorded during the election and declared that the parliamentary vote violated the constitution, Xinhua quoted a source in the Supreme Court Constitutional Chamber as saying Monday.
Bonhomie pervaded in parliament Monday as Prime Minister Narendra Modi held Rahul Gandhi’s hand in an expression of warmth and Congress president Sonia Gandhi conversed intently with L.K. Advani.
Former prime minister Manmohan Singh was among those present in the packed central hall to listen to President Pranab Mukherjee’s address to the members of the two houses.
The exchange of greetings between Modi and Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi took place while the prime minister was walking in the traditional procession along with Mukherjee.
Haryana’s Hisar town Monday sizzled at 47.1 degrees Celsius while the Sikh holy city of Amritsar in Punjab recorded the season’s high of 47 degrees as heat wave conditions intensified over most parts of the two states.
Met officials said the dry and heat wave conditions would continue in the next 2-3 days. Thundershowers and squalls could hit some places in both states.
In Punjab, Ludhiana had a high of 46.4 degrees Celsius.
Chandigarh recorded a high of 44 degrees Celsius, five degrees above average.
(IANS)
Facing a huge loan burden, West Bengal Monday urged the central government to frame a on regarding debt restructuring and providing a three-year moratorium on payment of installments.
Interacting with media persons after participating in a meeting in Delhi, West Bengal Finance Minister Amit Mitra alleged that a huge amount of money has been taken away from the state treasury on account of repayment of central loans.
Punjab Police Monday claimed to have busted an inter-state and international drugs gang, and recovered 23 kg of heroin in the last four days. Five druglords have been arrested in this connection.
The seized heroin is worth Rs.115 crore in the international market, police said.
Inspector General (Counter Intelligence) Gaurav Yadav said operations carried out in Amritsar, Tarn Taran, Jalandhar and Patiala June 6-9 led to the uncovering of the drug racket.
DMK chief M. Karunanidhi’s wife Dayalu Ammal Monday pleaded before a court here that she is suffering from dementia and cannot defend herself and sought discharge in a 2G-related money laundering case.
The 84-year-old Ammal also sought permanent exemption from personal appearance on medical grounds.
Ammal’s counsel told Special CBI Judge O.P. Saini that she was in an unsound state of mind and was “unable to recognise anybody except close relatives and that too erratically”.
The Congress Monday nominated M.V. Rajeev Gowda, a 50-year-old professor at the Indian Institute of Management-Bangalore, to contest in the Rajya Sabha election from Karnataka.
“The high command preferred to nominate Gowda over former external affairs minister and outgoing lawmaker S.M. Krishna along with the re-nomination of party general secretary B.K. Hariprasad for the upper house elections from the state,” the party’s state unit president G. Parameshwar told reporters here.
The ghastly tragedy in Himachal Pradesh shattered many young dreams and plunged their families into gloom.
The young boys and girls, all students of an engineering college here, had dreams of building a career and lending a helping hand to their parents but the tragedy cut short their lives.
A pall of gloom descended on the house of Rambabu in a hamlet in Mata mandal of Nalgonda district. This son of a security guard was a second-year student of electronics engineering at V.N.R. Vignana Jyothi College of Engineering, Bachupally on the outskirts of Hyderabad.
The Chandigarh district administration Monday declared nearly 20 buildings unsafe in the city’s Sector 17 commercial hub after one building collapsed Sunday night following a massive fire.
The building housed the government-run National Institute of Electronics and Information Technology (NIEIT). As a result of the collapse, two firemen were killed and two others injured.
District Magistrate V.P. Singh Monday issued prohibitory orders on entry of people in the adjoining buildings in the area. The buildings declared unsafe house several government and private offices.
Curfew imposed in Haryana’s Tauru town following Sunday’s communal violence after a road accident was Monday relaxed for three hours, officials said.
The curfew was relaxed from 4 p.m to 7 p.m. but no untoward incident was reported.
Curfew was imposed after violence erupted Sunday morning in Tauru town in Mewat district, some 40 km from Gurgaon, after a truck mowed down two men on a bike, killing one of them on the spot.
The truck driver and his assistant, from the Meo community, were thrashed by a mob after the accident.
The monsoon is expected to be below normal this year at 93 percent of the average rainfall, Earth Sciences Minister Jitendra Singh said Monday.
“Rainfall over the country as a whole for the 2014 southwest monsoon season is likely to be below normal at 93 percent of the average rainfall,” he said at a press conference here.
Jitendra Singh said the region-wise seasonal rainfall too will be affected.
A court here Monday awarded life imprisonment to 17 of the 18 policemen convicted of killing 22-year-old MBA student Ranbir Singh in a staged shootout in Dehradun in 2009. Here is the timeline of the case:
2009, July 2 – Ranbir Singh goes to Dehradun in search of a job.
July 3 – Ranbir stays at Digambar Jain Mandir.
July 3 – Ranbir arrested and kept in Dalanwala police station.
July 3 – Ranbir killed by policemen in a staged shootout.
July 4 – Ranbir’s father gets threats.
July 6 – Ranbir’s father registers FIR.
Two of the three new ministers being inducted by Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal Tuesday have a controversial past and were even convicted by the courts.
The opposition Congress Monday slammed Badal for inducting the controversial leaders into his cabinet.
These two ministers, Tota Singh and Sohan Singh Thandal, will be sworn in by Punjab Governor Shivraj Patil Tuesday. The third minister, Daljeet Singh Cheema, is a doctor by profession.
Punjab Congress President Partap Singh Bajwa Monday condemned Badal’s decision to induct Tota singh in his cabinet.
There was no respite from the blistering heat in the national capital Monday, as the maximum temperature settled six notches above the season’s average at 45.5 degrees Celsius, making it the hottest June 9 in five years and also the hottest day of the season, officials said.
Tuesday’s maximum temperature is likely to touch 46 degrees Celsius.
Roads and markets wore a deserted look as Delhiites preferred to remain indoors and traffic was scarce during the day.
Scarves and gloves came to the rescue of two-wheeler riders who had no choice but to venture out.
The monsoon is expected to reach Delhi by June 29, an India Meteorological Department (IMD) official said Monday.
“The monsoon is likely to reach Delhi between June 29-30, depending on the progress of the monsoon from southern India to the northern parts,” D. Sivananda Pai, head of the long-range forecasting division of the IMD, said at a conference.
“We will be able to provide a clear picture when the monsoon reaches central India,” he added.
Delhi is reeling under intense heat and the official said that no respite was expected before June 12.
A special flight carrying 24 students who survived the river tragedy in Himachal Pradesh will be landing here Monday night while bodies of four victims are being flown in a defence aircraft.
Civil Aviation Minister Ashok Gajapati Raju said the special flight carrying 24 survivors would land at Hyderabad international airport at 10 p.m.
Bodies of four students are also being flown in a defence aircraft from Chandigarh to Hyderabad. It is likely to land at 10.30 p.m. at Hakimpet Air Force station.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee Monday gave the Left Front a patient hearing, and assured action over the post-poll violence in the state, but the Left Front said it would wait for a few days and hit the streets if its demands are not met.
A 12-member delegation led by Left Front chairman Biman Bose met Banerjee at the state secretariat Nabanna for the first time since the Trinamool Congress came to power in May 2011.
They submitted a memorandum over the political violence which has left four Left activists dead and over a thousand injured since the general elections.
Senior counsel Ranjit Kumar Monday assumed charge as the solicitor general. His appointment to the post was notified Saturday.
Besides Ranjit Kumar, five senior counsels Maninder Singh, L. Nageshwar Rao, P.S. Patwalia, P.S. Narsimha and former additional advocate general of Gujarat Tushar Mehta took charge as additional solicitor generals.
In his first appearance Monday as the solicitor general, Ranjit Kumar appeared for Dakshin Gujarat Vij Company Limited, which had challenged the Gujarat High Court order asking it to give power connection that would have benefited 2,500 plot owners.
Italian Serie A side AC Milan has dismissed its first team manager, Dutchman Clarence Seedorf, and appointed Filipo Inzaghi as his replacement, the club announced Monday.
“Clarence Seedorf has been dismissed. Filippo Inzaghi has been appointed as first team coach, and is under contract until June 30, 2016,” a club statement said, reports EFE.
Seedorf, a former AC Milan player and a club icon, was appointed by the club Jan 16. Under his leadership, the club finished this season’s Serie A in eighth place. As a consequence, Rossoneri will not play in Europe next season.
Mario Mandzukic will leave German football club Bayern Munich this summer because coach Pep Guardiola’s style of play does not suit his abilities.
“I’ve had a fantastic time with Bayern. It’s a great club,” the 28-year-old forward said to Croatian newspaper Sportske Novosti Monday, reports Xinhua.
“But let’s be honest, I cannot play to my strengths under Guardiola’s style, no matter how hard I try.”
Mandzukic said he realised that after the defeat by Real Madrid in the Champions League semifinal.
“If it’s so, then I do not feel well, and it’s best that we part.”
FC Barcelona coach Luis Enrique was rushed to hospital Monday for an emergency operation for appendicitis.
The former Celta coach, who was named as the replacement for Gerardo ‘Tata’ Martino at the end of the season, was taken to the Mutua de Terrassa hospital after suffering serious pains and tests confirmed he was suffering from acute appendicitis, he was taken to the operating theater, reports Xinhua.
A 27-year-old man, working as an agent for a cash collection company, was Monday robbed of Rs.24.5 lakh at gunpoint by two motorcycle-riding masked men, police said.
The incident was reported around 1.35 p.m. from national highway-24 in Ghazipur area of east Delhi.
Nitin Shukla, a resident of Maujpur in east Delhi, was robbed when he reached the highway after collecting the amount from a private company in Ghazipur.
Shukla was riding his motorcycle at the time of the incident. The assailants intercepted his bike and snatched his bag containing the cash, a police official said.
David Villa, former Valencia, Barcelona, and Atletico Madrid player, announced Monday that he will retire from international football after the 2014 World Cup in Brazil.
In an exclusive interview to EFE, Villa said that he wished he could play for the Spanish national team until he is 50, yet one needed to be realistic.
Villa, 32, was selected by national team coach, Vicente del Bosque, in the final squad list which will play in Brazil 2014.
“I spoke with del Bosque and he understands my decision,” added Villa who is the all-time top scorer for Spain with 58 goals.
At least 25 people were killed and 145 others wounded in two suicide bombings in the ethnically mixed Iraqi city of Tuz-Khurmato in Salahudin province Monday, a provincial police source said.
“The latest reports said that 25 people were killed and 145 others wounded by a truck bomb and a car bomb in central city of Tuz-Khurmato,” Xinhua cited the source as saying.
As the national capital reels under sweltering heat with frequent power outages and water crisis, a Congress delegation led by its Delhi unit chief Arvinder Singh Lovely Monday held Chief Secretary S.K. Srivastava and two other officials hostage for two hours at the Delhi Secretariat here.
The top officials were later allowed to go after Srivastava gave a written assurance to improve the situation.