Press Trust of India The US job market continued to improve at a solid pace in May, giving some reassurance that the world’s largest economy has recovered from an abrupt contraction in the first quarter.
Non-farm payroll employment increased 217,000 in May, the fourth consecutive month of job gains above 200,000, Xinhua reported.
The unemployment rate stayed unchanged at 6.3 percent, the Labour Department reported Friday.
(IANS)
A Delhi Police assistant sub-inspector foiled a robbery attempt by five people who had entered a house here, despite being attacked by them Friday, police said.
ASI Ramesh, posted in a Delhi Police patrol van, received information that some armed men were seen entering a house situated in the Saket area of south Delhi, said a senior police officer.
Ramesh immediately rushed to the location and found five armed men had entered the house.
When the policeman tried to stop them, they attacked him with knives and sticks.
Nitin Gadkari, minister of road transport and highways and shipping, Friday formally took charge of the rural development ministry, an official statement said.
Gadkari was given the additional charge of the ministries of rural development, panchayati raj and drinking water and sanitation after the sudden death of Gopinath Munde, who was holding these charges, in a road accident Tuesday.
(IANS)
Supporters of deposed Islamist president Mohamed Morsi staged several rallies around Egypt Friday, two days ahead of the expected inauguration of President-elect Abdel Fattah al-Sisi after his landslide victory in the elections held late in May.
The rallies, under the theme “The military think it (Egypt) is their own backyard”, was organised by the National Alliance to Support Legitimacy, which, along with the Muslim Brotherhood, combines forces, mostly with Islamist background, who demand the reinstatement of Morsi.
Russian president Vladimir Putin is holding talks on the Ukrainian crisis with European leaders in France, where they have gathered to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the Normandy landings, one of the turning points of World War II.
The talks that are taking place Friday are specifically targeting the Ukraine crisis.
Putin met at noon with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Russia Today reported. No further details about their meeting were revealed.
Uttar Pradesh Friday got its own project monitoring group (PMG) similar to the one constituted by the union government to expedite stalled big infrastructure projects.
Senior IAS officer and PMG chairman Anil Swarup launched the web portal “Online Projects Management System” for Uttar Pradesh at the CII UP state office here.
e-PMS, the online projects management system, has been developed using open source technology for tracking projects with investment between Rs.100 crore and Rs.1,000 crore, officials said.
Minister of State for Home Kiren Rijiju will go to Assam Saturday following the death of a superintendent of police and his personal security officer in a gun battle with militants in the state’s Karbi Anglong district, an official said.
A home ministry spokesman said that Home Minister Rajnath Singh had asked Rijiju to visit Assam following the incident.
“The minister will be leaving for Assam tomorrow (Saturday) morning,”the spokesperson told IANS.
A man was arrested for killing and burning his daughter’s father-in-law and his friend, as they were allegedly harassing the girl, police said Friday.
The half-naked and burnt bodies were found near the house of accused Somveer (46).
The bodies of Dineshpal and Samarpal who worked with the Uttar Pradesh transport department as bus drivers, were found in a vacant plot in north Delhi’s Burari area early Friday morning.
The duo were in their early 40s.
Police said a day earlier, they had come to meet Somveer, whose daughter had married Samarpal’s son a few years back.
A court Friday framed charges against AAP leader Arvind Kejriwal in a defamation case filed against him by BJP leader Nitin Gadkari.
Gadkari, now a union minister, had filed the criminal defamation complaint against Kejriwal, saying he defamed him by including his name in the Aam Aadmi Party’s list of “India’s most corrupt”.
Metropolitan magistrate Gomati Manocha put Kejriwal on trial while framing charges against him under section 499 and 500 of IPC and posted the matter for Aug 2.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi Friday congratulated Poorna Malavath and Anand Kumar, two teenagers who recently climbed Mount Everest.
“The prime minister congratulated the young achievers, and remarked they had achieved a great feat at a tender age,” said a statement issued by the prime minister’s office.
Malavath, a school student in Nizamabad, Telangana, became the youngest female in the world to reach the world’s highest peak May 25, 2014, at the age of 13 years and 11 months.
Kumar reached the summit the same day. He studies in the Social Welfare School in Khammam, Telangana.
Former prime minister H.D. Deve Gowda called on Prime Minister Narendra Modi Friday, a statement said.
“The former prime minister, Shri H.D. Deve Gowda, called on Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi, today at 7, Race Course Road,” said the statement from the prime minister’s office.
According to an official, it was a “courtesy call”.
Modi later tweeted his picture with Deve Gowda, who was prime minister in 1996-97 at the head of the United Front government.
“Met former Prime Minister Shri H.D. Deve Gowda,” he posted.
(IANS)
A case of molestation was lodged Friday against four senior government doctors in Jammu and Kashmir including the director, health services based on the complaint of a nurse, police said.
The FIR was lodged at the Shaheedgunj police station here under section 354A of the Ranbir Penal Code (RPC) against director, health services, Saleem-ur-Rehman, Anantnag chief medical officer, Nazir Ahmad Shahdad, Anantnag block medical officer, Arshad Tak and medical superintendent Muhammad Ashraf after a nurse complained against them.
Four hardcore Maoists who were carrying rewards on their heads surrendered before Odisha police Friday, an official said.
The rebels — Krishna Praska, Raju Hikaka, Kosai Wateke and Durjan Mandingi — surrendered in Koraput, about 500 km from here, Inspector General of Police (southwestern range) Yashwant Jethwa told IANS.
The state government had announced a reward of Rs.1 lakh on each of them, he said.
They were armed cadres of the Communist Party of India-Maoist and were operating under the Srikakulam-Koraput divisional committee of the outlawed outfit, he said.
Goa Facebooker Devu Chodankar, the first Facebook user to be booked for posting allegedly controversial updates on the social network after the 2014 Lok Sabha election, has condemned Pune techie Mohsin Shaikh’s murder.
A mob killed the techie June 2 after morphed controversial photos of Shivaji Maharaj and deceased Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray went viral on Facebook.
“Words are not enough to condemn the murder of the techie in Pune. This is the same mentality which they wanted to see me in jail,” shipbuilding professional Devu Chodankar, 32, said in his Facebook update.
US Department of Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker Friday reaffirmed the US’s commitment to closer economic and commercial ties with Myanmar.
During the two-day Myanmar visit, Pritzker met the country’s top political leaders, including President U Thein Sein and Vice President Nyan Tun and discussed the US’s commitment to economic engagement in the Asia-Pacific region, deepening responsible US investment in Myanmar, and supporting continued reform, Xinhua reported.
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley met representatives of industry and trade unions Friday for discussions ahead of the upcoming national budget and said he would accord top priority to skill development to afford better employment opportunities for people.
The finance minister, who kicked off his pre-budget meetings Thursday, has already met representatives of the agriculture sector and civil society for their views and suggestions on various policy formulations.
A Ghaziabad institute Friday debarred 11 Kashmiri and non-Kashmiri students from its hostel after they were found to be indulging in violence, ragging and hooliganism Wednesday.
Chairman of HRIT Group of Institutions Anil Agrawal told this correspondent that following the incident, a 12-member committee consisting of two Kashmiris, two non-Kashmiri students and eight faculty members proposed to debar 11 students from the hostel.
The 11 students include three Kashmiris and eight non-Kashmiris.
As the temperatures continue to soar in the plains, the salubrious weather in the Kashmir Valley has been attracting tourists in large numbers.
Hundreds of tourists are thronging the hill stations of Sonamarg, Pahalgam and Gulmarg as they are finding the weather there soothing and pleasant.
While Jammu recorded the season’s maximum temperature at 44.2 degrees Celsius Thursday, Srinagar recorded 29.7 degrees as the day’s maximum temperature Friday.
“The minimum temperature in Srinagar was 14.7 today.
An uneasy calm prevailed at the Golden Temple complex here on the 30th anniversary of Operation Bluestar Friday following a clash between radical Sikh activists and SGPC task force volunteers in which 10 people were injured.
Swords and sticks were freely used as scores of men from both sides chased one another outside the Akal Takht building within the complex, home to the holiest of Sikh shrines – Harmandir Sahib.
People with bleeding injuries and ground stained with blood could be seen later at the site of the clash.
Maharashtra-born BJP leader Sumitra Mahajan has become the fourth from the state to occupy the prestigious post of Lok Sabha speaker.
Born Sumitra Sathe in the picturesque Chiplun, in coastal Ratnagiri, she has created a record of getting elected for eight consecutive terms to Lok Sabha from Indore in Madhya Pradesh.
Mahajan moved and settled in Indore after her marriage with Jayant Mahajan (now deceased). The couple had two sons.
Congress leader K.V. Thomas Friday said Priyanka Gandhi should work with party vice-president Rahul Gandhi to revive the party.
The former food minister in the Congress-led UPA government told a news channel here: “We see former prime minister Indira Gandhi in Priyanka. She should work with Rahul to lift the Congress party.”
Thomas said Priyanka does not need to “replace” Rahul, who is being blamed for the party’s defeat in the 2014 Lok Sabha election.
“We feel if Priyanka comes in not as a replacement but to help him (Rahul), it will be good for the party,” Thomas said.
Delhi was like a blast furnace Friday with the mercury soaring to 45 degrees Celsius, five notches above the season’s average, and making it the hottest June 6 in the last five years. The weekend might be worse as the temperature is forecast to touch 46 degrees.
The heat wave coupled with the scorching sun made people’s lives miserable and many chose to remain indoors, leaving the roads deserted during the day.
Even though admissions to the four-year undergraduate programme in Delhi University were going on, protests demanding the programme’s roll-back gathered momentum Friday with the NSUI joining the bandwagon.
The National Student’s Union of India (NSUI), student wing of the Congress party which until last year was neutral about the four-year undergraduate programme (FYUP), Friday started a hunger strike at the north campus, demanding roll-back of the programme.
India, with 41 million obese people, ranks third after the US and China in having the highest number of overweight people in the world, says a study.
Together, India and China represent 15 percent of the world’s obese population.
The “Global, regional, and national prevalence of overweight and obesity in children and adults during 1980-2013: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2013” report highlights nearly one-third of the world’s population is obese or overweight.
The study, that was released May 29, spanned 33 years and 188 countries.
Heat wave conditions intensified across north India Friday with the mercury hovering between 46 and 48.4 degrees Celsius at several places. No respite was in sight in the coming days though the monsoon hit Kerala, a day behind schedule.
Extreme heat wave conditions continued in most parts of Uttar Pradesh, the country’s most populated state, with the mercury climbing steadily. Met officials said Mahoba, with a maximum temperature of 48.4 degrees Celsius, was the hottest.