Press Trust of India North Korea test-fired five short range missiles into the sea Sunday, after it announced a day earlier to have tested an anti-ship missile, media reported.
The five missiles were fired between 4.20 p.m. and 5.10 p.m. from the port city of Wonsan in the eastern part of the country and were estimated to have flown about 200 km, Xinhua reported.
The missiles were believed to belong to a new class of tactical missiles that North Korea was developing.
Ajay Maken, who led the Congress poll campaign for the Delhi assembly election, Sunday said the exit polls cannot be dismissed and if the forecast about the party’s performance comes out correct, it will be a matter of concern.
“We cannot dismiss the exit polls. If these turn out to be true, it will be a matter of concern for us,” Maken told IANS.
Exit polls released after Saturday’s voting for the 70-member assembly said the Congress could slide further from the low it recorded in the 2013 assembly elections when it won only eight seats.
Uttar Pradesh Wizards were defeated 0-1 by Ranchi Rays with host captain Ashley Jackson scoring the lone goal of the Hockey India League (HIL) match here Sunday. Now, both Rays and Wizards sit with 19 points from six matches in the standings.
The visitrs kept the Rays at bay at the start by holding possession. The Rays, on the other hand, restricted the Wizards from doing any damage.
The NITI Aayog should continue the function performed by the Planning Commission, of deciding in consultation with the finance ministry and state governments, the amount of resources available for plan and budget preparation, said Kerala Chief Minister Oommen Chandy.
Speaking at the NITI Aayog’s governing council meeting, called by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi, he also said that there are many technical issues that cannot be discussed in detail at the level of chief ministers.
Sri Lanka became the first host nation and the third South Asian team after India and Pakistan to lift the World Cup trophy in 1996, marked by huge spectator attendance, though security issues, slow-and-low pitches and crowd trouble triggered controversies.
A terror attack was Sunday averted in Assam’s Chirang district, when the army recovered a five-kg explosive device.
A statement issued by the army said its Red Horns Division found an improvised explosive device (IED) weighing over five kg as well as many incriminating documents with details of extortion carried out by the anti-talk faction of the National Democratic Front of Bodoland (NDFB).
Lt. Col Suneet Newton, a defence spokesman based in Guwahati, said details about cadres and linkmen of the outfit were also found during the operation.
Delhi saw a pleasant Sunday with maximum temperature recorded two notches above average for the reason at 24.7 degrees Celsius. The met department has forecast similar Monday after a foggy morning.
“After shallow fog in the morning, skies will be clear Monday,” said an official of India Meteorological Department.
Monday’s maximum and minimum temperatures are likely to hover around 25 and 9 degrees Celsius, respectively.
Minimum temperature Sunday was a notch above season’s average at 9.3 degrees Celsius.
(IANS)
The BJP’s Delhi unit chief Satish Upadhyay Sunday said the party will win by a comfortable majority in the Delhi assembly election under the leadership of Kiran Bedi.
Speaking to reporters after a review meeting on the Bharatiya Janata Party’s performance in Saturday’s election, Upadhyay said the party will form the next government in Delhi.
“We will win by a comfortable majority under the leadership of Kiran Bedi and form the next government in Delhi,” Upadhyay said.
Over 70 monkeys have been found dead in three places in Agra district since Feb 5, and preliminary reports say the animals were poisoned, police said Sunday.
Police said 13 monkeys were found buried Feb 5 at Jheejhan Ki Puliya, while 14 bodies were found on Sarendhi Road and 13 in Khairagarh Feb 6. A total of 31 bodies were found Friday in Mohanpura village in Saiyan.
Many bodies were found by villagers.
The bodies have been sent for autopsy examination, but police said preliminary reports indicate that the monkeys were poisoned and drugged.
Bihar Chief Minister Jitan Ram Manjhi, who is in revolt against his party JD-U and step down from his post, Sunday met Prime Minister Narendra Modi but said no political issues were discussed.
Manjhi, who was here to attend the first meeting of the NITI Aayog which replaces the Planning Commission, had a nearly 40-minute meeting with Modi.
“I did not discuss politics with him,” Manjhi said at a press conference after the meeting.
“Modiji has done some good work for Bihar and we thanked him for that,” he said.
Despite exit polls predicting a victory for the AAP, BJP leaders Sunday expressed hope that the party will win the Delhi assembly election as they had done “positive work” at the grassroots.
A day after Saturday’s polling for the 70-member assembly, the Bharatiya Janata Party held a review meeting to take feedback from party candidates in all the constituencies.
Union minister Nirmala Sitharaman Sunday visited the party’s chief ministerial candidate Kiran Bedi at her residence and told reporters that they were hopeful of winning the assembly polls.
West Indies captain Jason Holder has admitted that the absence of experienced duo Kieron Pollard and Dwayne Bravo is a “huge loss” to the Caribbean team’s ambitions at the World Cup, describing the decision as beyond his control.
“They are two players who have done well in world cricket,” Holder was quoted as saying by espncricinfo.com Sunday.
“But it’s out of our control. Not having them would be a huge loss to any side. But it’s beyond our control and we have to accept it and move on.”
A news reader of a Telugu news channel and his son were killed and three others injured in a road accident in Andhra Pradesh’s West Godavari district Sunday, police said.
K. Veerabhadra Rao, popular as Bhadri, died on the spot and his wife, two sons and another family member were injured when the car in which they were travelling hit a tree near Lakshminagar in Dwarka Tirumala mandal.
Bhadri’s youngest son Sati Satwik (8) succumbed while undergoing treatment at a hospital.
Police said the injured were first shifted to a hospital at Eluru and later to Vijayawada.
The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) will hold its Annual General Meeting (AGM) March 2, it announced Sunday after arriving at a consensus in a working committee meeting here.
The Supreme Court Jan 22 barred sidelined BCCI president N. Srinivasan from contesting election to the presidency as long as he was involved in a “conflict of interest” situation as an owner of Indian Premier League (IPL) franchise Chennai Super Kings (CSK). It gave the board six weeks to hold its elections.
A government school for girls was blown up by militants in Pakistan Sunday, media reported.
Militants blew up the middle school using explosives in Bezoot area of Lower Orakzai Agency in Federally Administered Tribal area, Pakistan Today reported.
No loss of life was reported as the school was closed.
Last year Dec 16, militants stormed an army-run public school and showered bullets, killing over 140 students and teachers.
(IANS)
The Communist Party of India-Marxist(CPI-M) Sunday slammed the central government for not releasing adequate funds for Himachal Pradesh under Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS).
The people, employed under MGNREG Act 2005 (MNREGA), have not been paid wages for six months as the central government has slashed its grants to the state by over 50 percent, CPI-M Member state secretariat Tikender Singh Panwar said in a statement.
At least 10,000 security personnel, including from the paramilitary forces, have been deployed to guard 20,000 electronic voting machines (EVM) in which the votes cast in Saturday’s Delhi assembly poll remain locked.
The workers of various political party will be allowed in the counting halls Tuesday when results for the 70-member Delhi assembly will be announced, said officials.
“It is a three-tier security for the EVMs. The machines have been kept inside the strong rooms made in nine districts,” said an official of the Election Commission.
Qatar is set to sign a contract to host a Formula 1 race within the next two years.
International Automobile Federation (FIA) vice-president Nasser bin Khalifa al-Attiyah, who is also the president of Qatar’s motorsport federation, said Sunday that the race will be held in 2016 or 2017, reports Xinhua.
“We are about to sign contracts to organise a Formula 1 race. We have completed all the steps and there are only a few details before the official signature,” he said.
Atletico Madrid may be without key midfielder Koke for over a month after he suffered a torn hamstring in his side’s 4-0 thrashing of Real Madrid Saturday.
“The player suffered a torn hamstring in the back part of his left leg,” the defending La Liga champions said in a statement, reports Xinhua.
The 23-year-old Koke is set to miss the Champions League last-16 first-leg against Bayer Leverkusen this month and possibly the league clashes against Sevilla and Valencia.
Opposition parties in West Bengal Sunday slammed Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee for “undermining” and “jeopardising” the welfare of the state by skipping the first meeting of NITI Aayog chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The Congress, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) all have criticised Banerjee’s “narrow minded” politics.
Sri Lanka captain Angelo Mathews Sunday dismissed the notion that Sri Lanka were a one-man bowling attack, relying on pacer Lasith Malinga to carry his team’s bowling hopes.
Sri Lanka have depended heavily on Malinga in their recent major-tournament fortunes. But Mathews suggested they have other match winners in their attack too.
“You can’t write off the rest of the bowlers that we have,” Mathews was quoted as saying by espncricinfo. com.
“We’ve got fairly experienced bowlers, but Lasith is the X-factor. It’s just that in a one-off game, the others can also come into the party.
The last time the World Cup was held in Australia and New Zealand, a certain Imran Khan-led Pakistan side clinched its maiden quadrennial cricket title.
However, it is 2015 and not 1992 but the highly talented and dangerous team would want to repeat the same result as they did 23 years ago.
Pakistan this time around are not the favourites. They don’t have many stars in their line-up. To add to their troubles, a couple of their top players have been ruled out of the tournament.
The Congress Sunday rapped the Odisha government over tardy progress in the preparation of Nabakalebar festival.
The festival of Lord Jagannath is scheduled to be held in July in Puri where the government expects a congregation of about 50 lakh devotees.
The crisis in Bihar’s ruling JD-U deepened further Sunday with Chief Minister Jitan Ram Manjhi meeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his rival camp led by Nitish Kumar deciding to parade legislators at the Raj Bhavan Monday to stake claim to power.
Manjhi, hand-picked by Nitish Kumar as his replacement last year after the Lok Sabha polls, has refused to quit. On Saturday he left for New Delhi to attend the NITI Ayog meeting Sunday. He then called on Modi.
Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh Sunday advocated the need for setting up a permanent regional council for the hill states and creation of a separate hill division.
Speaking at the National Institution for Transforming India (NITI) Aayog meeting here, he also suggested that the proposed hill division in the NITI Aayog could act as a permanent secretariat for this regional council.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi chaired the meeting.