saleem Hyderabad, July 16: The sleuths of the Central Crime Station (CCS) on Wednesday arrested a fraudster 21-year-old from Himachal Pradesh for cheating people in the city by posing as a travel agent.
He had cheated almost 50 customers in Mumbai, Hyderabad and New Delhi to the tune of Rs 35 lakh.
Amandeep Mehmi alias Deepak Khurana enrolled himself as a private travel agent based in Hyderabad by contacting ‘Just Dial’ services, a year ago.
Jerusalem, July 15: Israeli soldiers in the Gaza war were told to shoot first and worry about the consequences later, and used Palestinian civilians as the testimony of some 30 soldiers — all unnamed — shows that the massive destruction wreaked on the Palestinian territory was “a direct result of IDF (Israel Defence Forces) policy,” the Breaking the Silence group, made up of veteran troops, said in a report.
The troops regularly used civilians as human shields when approaching suspect houses during the December and January conflict, one soldier said.
Lucknow, July 15: The Allahabad High Court, hearing the Ayodhya title suits, on Wednesday directed the CBI to immediately take over the investigation of the
missing files of Ramjanmabhoomi-Babri Masjid land dispute and complete it within two months.
The order was passed by the Lucknow bench of the High Court comprising Justices S Rafat Alam, Sudhir Agarwal and D V Sharma. The next date of hearing was fixed for August 24.
Hydrabad, July 15: A 55-year-old man was beaten to death by his son after he allegedly molested his sister at Nellore town of Andhra Pradesh, police said on Wednesday.
Imran (20) took the drastic step after his father Mohd Sheikh Abdullah, a cook with a catering service, misbehaved and outraged the modesty of his elder daughter last night when she was alone at home, an investigating officer said.
Tehran, July 15: A Tupolev passenger aircraft crashed in northwestern Iran on Wednesday on its way to neighbouring Armenia and all 168 people on board were “On board the plane there were 151 adults, 2 children and 15 crew members,” Caspian Airline’s representative in Yerevan Arlen Davudyan told Reuters at Yerevan Airport.
“15 or 16 minutes after take-off the plane fell near the Iranian city Qazvin about 150 kilometers north of Tehran,” he said, adding it was a Tu-154aircraft and that the cause of the crash was not clear and the black box had not yet been found.
Islamabad, July 14: The government of Pakistan’s Punjab province has decided to dissociate itself from the court case against Hafiz Saeed, the alleged mastermind of Mumbai terror attacks, and filed a plea for withdrawal of the case, a media report said Tuesday.
Punjab Advocate General Punjab Raza Farooq said the Jamaat-ud-Daawa chief was put under house arrest on the directives of the federal government, which failed to provide solid evidence to support the house arrest, according to the News International.
New Delhi, July 14: The Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group has tied up the finances for the Rs.50-billion ($1-billion) Rosa power project in Uttar Pradesh and hopes to start the first phase of operations this year.
Announcing the financial closure with IDBI Bank as the lead institution, the group said the project, coming up in Shahjahanpur district, some 180 km from state capital Lucknow, would supply 900 MW to the state-run Uttar Pradesh Power Corp.
The rest will be fed to the grid, the group said in a statement.
New Delhi, July 14: Former Indian cricket captain Mohammad Azharuddin delivered his first speech in the Parliament on Tuesday. The Moradabad MP hit out against the monopoly prevailing in certain sports federations like in the field of hockey.
Kakinada, July 14: The police have on Monday arrested six persons who have allegedly murdered a couple Kanumuri Krishnam Raju (70) and Sarojini (65) at Tetagunta village in Tuni mandal in October last. All the accused – G. Govinda Raju, T. Deva, Ananta Ramu, P. Lovaraju, S. Suresh and M. Sattibabu belong to Pithapuram. Investigation revealed that the murder of a pastor Suvarna Raju in Pithapuram Agraharam in 2005 was committed by the same gang, led by the prime accused Govinda Raju who is an autorickshaw driver. Tuni rural police recovered stolen property worth Rs. 1.5 lakh.
Port-of-Spain, July 14: The bi-annual Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) summit scheduled here this November will go ahead despite the swine flu scare, and will be attended by Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh among other global leaders.
Manmohan Singh’s contingent to the Nov 27-29 summit will include Minister of Overseas Indian Affairs Vayalar Ravi, according to information available with Trinidad government officials.
Officials assured the meet will take place despite the global outbreak of swine flu.
Agartala, July 14: A trooper of Tripura State Rifles (TSR) strangled his wife and 46-day-old daughter to death and then committed suicide, police said Tuesday.
Ashutosh Debnath, 32, a rifleman, killed his wife Gopa Debnath, 26, and daughter Laxmi late Monday at Amtali in west Tripura, a police spokesman said.
Debnath, who was plagued by family disputes, then killed himself.
In a separate incident Monday, a woman driven by poverty poisoned her three-year-old son to death and then took the poison at Jubarajnagar in northern Tripura.
–Agencies
Madrid, July 14: Valladolid central defender Jose Garcia Calvo has announced his retirement, after three injury-plagued years at the club.
Garcia Calvo, 34, said Monday that he was quitting the game because of the chronic injury to the big toe in his right foot which has plagued him in recent years.
Garcia Calvo started his career at Real Madrid, before joining Valladolid in 1997. He was signed by Atletico Madrid in 2001 but suffered various injuries and returned to Valladolid in 2006.
New Delhi, July 14: Pradeep Kumar, presently secretary of defence production, was Tuesday named the new secretary in the defence ministry to succeed Vijay Singh.
According to an official statement, Kumar will have a tenure of two years from the date he takes charge. He is presently the secretary (defence production) in the ministry. Vijay Singh retires July 31.
A 1972 Haryana cadre Indian Administrative Service officer, Kumar is an electrical engineer from the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi, and a Masters in economic and social studies from the University of Wales.
London, July 14: Sunderland made their second signing of the summer when they swooped for Paraguay defender Paulo da Silva for an undisclosed fee.
The 29-year old, who is captain of his country, agreed a three-year deal and joins from Mexican side Toluca.
“I’m delighted to have signed a player of Paulo’s experience,” said manager Steve Bruce Monday.
“He is captain of his country and has played at the highest level in South America, so will bring leadership qualities to our side.”
–Agencies
United Nations, July 14: United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has asked the Myanmar leadership to release all political prisoners, including Aung San Suu Kyi, resume a dialogue between the government and opposition, and create conditions for credible and legitimate elections to be held next year.
“I made specific proposals with a particular focus on three outstanding concerns, which if left unaddressed could undermine any confidence in Myanmar’s political process,” he told the Security Council in a briefing following a two-day visit to the country July 3-4.
New Delhi, July 14: Soot from the wood-based cooking fires used by 70 percent of Indians is forming a cloud of pollutants that is impeding the monsoon winds, according to a senior scientist.
The Asian Brown Cloud, as the blanket of pollutants over South Asia and the Tibetan plateau is called, is not only weakening the monsoon but is responsible for half the warming observed in the Himalayas, Syed Iqbal Hasnain, senior fellow at The Energy and Resources Institute, said here Monday evening.
Hyderabad, July 14: Alarmed over the rising number of road accidents before sunrise due to “sleepy drivers”, Andhra Pradesh is planning to ban movement of buses and other heavy vehicles between 3 a.m. and 5 a.m.
The transport authority plans to issue orders to keep these vehicles off the highways in the early hours to bring down the number of accidents,
Transport Minister S. Vijayarama Raju said.
In another move, the authorities have made it compulsory for private bus operators to provide two drivers for each bus for the night hours.
Lucknow, July 14: The monsoon arrived nearly 15 days late in Uttar Pradesh and slowly petered out much to the dismay of people battling the sweltering heat. But there’s good news – the monsoon has revived and the state can expect more rain, the weatherman said Tuesday.
The combined effects of low pressure over the Bay of Bengal and upper air cyclonic circulations over the central part of Uttar Pradesh have contributed to the revival of the monsoon in the state, said state Met Director J.P. Gupta.
London, July 12: Bollywood actor Shah Rukh Khan said that he was very sad and cried a lot when he heard about the tragic death of “King of Pop” Michael Jackson.
Describing himself as an ardent fan of Jackson, Khan said: “I felt very sad. I had met him. He was a wonderful creation of God.”
“The only music I knew or heard during the last three four years is that of Michael Jackson. I don’t have any understanding of other forms of western music,” Khan said.
“I felt I lost my youth when I heard Michael Jackson had passed away,” he added
–Agencies
Bangalore, July 12: As part of its efforts to instill confidence among Indian students in the wake of attacks on them, Australian officials on Saturday said their government is looking at a slew of initiatives, including subsidised travel and affordable accommodation for them.
The initiatives were aimed at helping Indian students who find accommodation expensive and were forced to opt for far flung areas, a visiting Australian delegation told reporters.
Hderabad, July 12: Kommaragiri Ravi Chandra, a 38-year-old social engineer, was arrested for cheating nearly 300 women. Chandra, the police said, used to establish online friendships with the women and later emotionally blackmail them to extract money. This money was used to fund his lavish lifestyle.
Chandra, has cheated scores of women by pretending to be a doctor, a relative of a senior official and an HR manager of an MNC on different occasions.
Hyderabad, July 12: The sleuths of Dabeerpura Police Station nabbed a Murder Offender Mohd. Feroz, while he was trying to escape from the murder scene in a fraction of minutes and seized one hunting Sickle from his possession which was used in the commission of offence,.
Hyderabad, July 11: The West Godavari District Police have informed the AP State Human Rights Commission that there was prima facie evidence against TDP MLA of Kovvuru T V Rama Rao, that he was “guilty” of outraging the modesty of girl students at the nursing college run by him at Nidadavolu.
The Commission Chairman B Subhashan Reddy had sought a response from West Godavari police following a complaint lodged by five girl students from Kerala last week.
London, July 11: Fans of pop star Britney Spears are worried about her health again after she collapsed during a recent rehearsal on the European leg of her Circus world tour.
The “Toxic” hitmaker was practising a dance routine for a new song when she keeled over, suffering a bruise to her chest, reported IANS-WENN.
“She collapsed when the dancers went to put her back on her feet. She fell to the floor and landed on one of the dancers’ legs,” said a source.
New Delhi, July 11: Despite a ban by the Maharashtra government, Information and Boradcasting Minister Ambika Soni says she has no problems with child artists featuring in TV serials as long as their studies are not affected.
“There is no problem with child stars featuring in serials, because after all, parents are the best judge of their children,” Soni told CNN-IBN in an interview.
“If parents are okay with it and the children are continuing their studies alongside, what is the problem with them performing in serials?” she asked.