sana Washington, July 14: The first joint meeting of the recently started US-China Strategic and Economic Dialogue will be held in Washington from July 27.
The Dialogue will focus on addressing the challenges and opportunities that both countries face on a wide range of bilateral, regional and global areas of immediate and long- term strategic and economic interests, an official release said.
Tokyo, July 14: Japan lifted a ban on organ donations from children, reversing a restriction that created such a dearth of small organs in the country that young patients were forced to seek transplants abroad.
The law will allow children, defined as those under 15, who are brain dead to donate their organs — a sea change in this country, where organ donation is sensitive because of Buddhist beliefs that consider the body sacred and reject its desecration.
New Delhi, July 14: A separate authority will be constituted soon for expediting development of expressways, Road Transport and Highways Minister Kamal Nath said here on Tuesday.
“I am examining the possibility of setting up an expressway authority,” Mr. Kamal Nath said at a conclave on national highways.
“There is a highway authority. Let there be an expressway authority as well.”
The minister also said that road building meant a lot more to the country than just ensuring connectivity.
Washington, July 14: India-born celebrated fashion designer Anand Jon, convicted for sexually assaulting upcoming models, was on Tuesday permitted by a California court to defend himself and conceded his petition to fire his attorney.
The 35-year-old designer has been convicted by the California court for sexually assaulting upcoming models and now faces a sentence for as many as 162 years of imprisonment. The sentencing hearing is scheduled for August 31.
Washington, July 14: Asserting that the landmark Indo-US civilian nuclear deal has transformed the relationship between the two countries, Indian Ambassador to the US Meera Shankar on Tuesday said the two nations are now in the process to implement it.
“Nothing symbolises the transformation of the relationship more than the India-US civil nuclear agreement, signed in October 2008,” Ms. Shankar said in her address to the prestigious World Affairs Council in San Diego, California.
Kolkata, july 14: Over 24 hours after his engineer son died in the accident at the Metro construction site in Delhi, Shankar Pratihar, a farmer in Bankura, is still waiting for an official response from the government or Gammon India, the company his son worked for.
Pratima, mother of Ansuman Pratihar who spoke to her son hours before the tragedy, finds it hard to believe that his 24-year-old son is no more. Ansuman was among the six who lost their lives in the accident at the Metro extension site in south Delhi, a stretch being built by Gammon India.
Mumbai, July 14: Michael Jackson was getting his face rebuild to look more normal just before his comeback shows at 02 Arena, his dermatologist has revealed.
The ‘King of Pop’, who had reportedly undergone numerous plastic surgeries in his lifetime and had an obsession to look good, was planning to rebuild his face completely, Arnold Klein, his dermatologist for 25 years told CNN’s Larry King in an interview.
Colombo, July 14: When the piercing whistle and sharp thuds of artillery shells grew faint, S Theventhran dashed to safety. After days of cowering in a narrow trench on a strip of beach, he was cheered by the sight of Sri Lankan Army soldiers helping wounded and terrified survivors of the last stand of the Tamil Tiger rebels, who had held nearly 300,000 Tamil civilians hostage.
More than two months later, Theventhran, 56, a Tamil civil servant, finds himself once again a captive, this time of the people who freed him from the Tigers’ grip.
New Delhi, July 14: Ahead of her visit to India, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Tuesday said that she is travelling to New Delhi to start a strategic dialogue with it which will include issues like climate change and clean energy.
Clinton is scheduled to travel to India later this week – her first as the Secretary of State – which she has been saying would be the starting point of a new Indo-US relationship, which she fondly says 3.0.
Khar, July 14: Pro-government tribesmen killed 23 militants in clashes in Pakistan’s volatile northwest in the latest violence between tribal militias and Taliban insurgents, a government official said on Tuesday.
The fighting took place in the village of Ambar in the Mohmand region, part of the lawless tribal belt along Pakistan’s border with Afghanistan where top Taliban and al-Qaida leaders are believed to be hiding.
Mumbai, July 14: The resident doctors strike in Maharashtra entered the seventh day today even as the state government offered a stipend hike of Rs 6000 for every doctor after giving an ultimatum to return to work.
Although the resident doctors demanded for a stipend hike of Rs 7000, the Minister for Higher and Technical Education Rajesh Tope and Minister of State Suresh Shetty after negotiations with them said that the government’s offer was a hike of Rs 6000 and beyond this none of their demands will be entertained, sources said.
Allahabad, July 14: The Allahabad High Court today issued contempt notices to state principal secretary (Home) and a senior police officer for non-compliance of its order on setting up a medical board to verify the physical condition of police recruits, who were sacked on health grounds.
Justice Sabhajeet Yadav directed the principal secretary and senior superintendent of police, Jalaun to comply with court’s January 23 order by August 19, failing which they will have to appear before it in person.
Srinagar, July 14: A Hizbul Mujahideen militant was shot dead in an encounter with security forces in Reasi district Tuesday morning.
On a tip off, Rashtriya Rifles troops launched an operation in Mahore area in the wee hours and in the subsequent encounter shot dead the militant identified as Bashir Ahmed Sheikh alias Jan Baaz alias Ghulam Ullah, defence sources said.
The militant, who had received arms training in Pakistan occupied Kashmir, was active in the area since 1988, they said.
An AK 56 rifle, 80 AK rounds and three AK magazines were recovered from him.
Lucknow, July 14: Uttar Pradesh’s Amethi town, the parliamentary constituency of Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi, remained tense Tuesday following violent protests by people against erratic power supply, officials said.
Protests against poor power supply turned violent Monday night, when a group of angry residents threw stones at the police, injuring 10 policemen. They also barged inside the Kotwali police station and tried to set it on fire. Following pitched battles with the police, the security personnel responded with tear gas and batons to disperse the mob.
Washington, July 14: The federal deficit has topped USD 1 trillion for the first time ever and could grow to nearly USD 2 trillion by this fall, intensifying fears about higher interest rates, inflation and the strength of the dollar.
The deficit has been widened by the huge sum the government has spent to ease the recession, combined with a sharp decline in tax revenues. The cost of wars in Iraq and Afghanistan also is a major factor.
Washington, july 14: Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr showed to the world that truth or perseverance can be more lasting and effective than power flowing through the barrel of a gun, Indian Ambassador to the United States Meera Shankar said Tuesday.
Delivering the 26th Mahatma Gandhi Memorial Lecture in San Diego, California, Shankar said India’s Father of the Nation was influenced by the developments in the United States at that time.
Washington, July 14: Talking cars aren’t science fiction anymore — thanks to scientists who have developed a set of algorithms that will allow robotic cars of the future to communicate with each other to help avoid collisions.
An international team, led by Indian-origin scientists Dr Bhibhya Sharma and Dr Utesh Chand of the University of the South Pacific, has developed the mathematical equations which would also instruct robotic cars how to change lanes safely.
New Delhi, July 14: Government has ordered a probe into the recent death of 75 blackbucks in a Rajasthan sanctuary due to heavy rainfall, Environment and Forests Minister Jairam Ramesh informed Rajya Sabha today.
“I did not know about this incident. I accept that I should have been careful. I have asked for a detailed report from Wildlife Institute of India (WII) as to why Tal Chhaper sanctuary authorities failed to cope with the situation,” he said during Question Hour.
Shimla,july 14: Call it a feather in the cap of the Himachal Pradesh forest department, which has once again managed to breed Western Tragopan – a critically endangered bird – in captivity.
“This time we have succeeded again in breeding the highly endangered Western Tragopan in captivity. This has occurred for the third consecutive year,” divisional forest officer (DFO) K Thrimul said. He is in charge of Sarahan Pheasantry, 160 km from Shimla.
Geneva, July 14: flu pandemic has grown “unstoppable” and all nations will need access to vaccines, a WHO official has said, as 12 new deaths were reported and a study raised fresh concerns.
Britain, Brazil, Colombia, Mexico, the Philippines and Thailand all reported deaths yesterday, while Saudi Arabia shut an international school after 20 students were diagnosed with the A(H1N1) virus.
As the death toll increased, the World Health Organisation official said a swine flu vaccine should be available as early as September and all countries would need to be able to protect themselves.
Washington, July 14: Moving forcefully on his top domestic priority, President Barack Obama told a powerful Senate chairman on Monday that he wants health care legislation ready in the Finance Committee by week’s end, according to numerous Democratic officials.
These officials said Obama made his wishes known directly to Sen Max Baucus, D-Mont., at a White House meeting attended by administration officials and senior Democratic lawmakers.
Islamabad, July 14: The provincial Punjab government in Pakistan on Tuesday withdrew its plea against the release of Jammat-ud-Dawah chief Hafiz Saeed citing lack of evidence.
The move would now figure highly during the talks between Indian Foreign Secretary Shiv Shankar Menon and his Pakistani counterpart Salman Bashir today in Egypt ahead of the Nam summit.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will also be meeting Pak PM Yusuf Raza Gilani on Thursday and is now expected to take up the matter of Islamabad’s apparent soft stance towards terror suspects.
New Delhi, july 14: Nineteen new swine flu cases, including a two-year-old boy, were reported Monday, taking India’s tally of influenza A (H1N1) infected people to 212 so far, the health ministry said. Seven of the fresh cases are “secondary infections” – due to contact with infected people who arrived from abroad.
“Nineteen new laboratory confirmed cases have been reported today – Delhi (6), Hyderabad (8), Ahmedabad (2), Thiruvananthapuram (1), Mumbai (1) and Pune (1),” a ministry statement said. In Hyderabad, six of the eight cases are secondary infections.
Mumbai, July 14: A railway employee today identified Ajmal Kasab in a special court and said how the Pakistani gunman and his associate Abu Ismael took him hostage at the Cama hospital on November 26 last year.
Pointing towards Kasab, Dinesh Chinnekar, told judge M L Tahaliyani, “This person and another gunman had asked three of us to raise our hands and face the wall of a ward in the hospital. My brother-in-law Thomas was also with me.
Cairo, July 14: Ahead of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s meeting with his Pakistani counterpart Yousuf Raza Gilani, Foreign Secretaries of the two countries will meet in Sharm-el Sheikh on Tuesday to review the progress made by Islamabad to bring to book perpetrators of Mumbai attacks.
Foreign Secretary Shivshankar Menon will discuss with his Pakistani counterpart Salman Bashir the primary issue of terrorism and what Islamabad has done to end terrorism directed against India.