shameen Dubai, September 11: Ibrahim Hafez Syed Ahmed from India clinched the top place and the Dh250,000 prize money in the 13th Dubai International Holy Quran Award (DIHQA), pushing Sudan’s Ismail Hagai and Nigerian AbdulMalik AbuBakar Ibrahim to second and third spots.
Hagai won Dh200,000 for his efforts in the memorised recitals and Ibrahim bagged Dh150,000.
Dubai, September 11: An under-trial former ski trainer killed a woman, he had allegedly threatened with life and limb, then committed suicide by jumping off a building, days after he was released on bail by a court.
Police said the Moroccan man had spent about a month in police custody, before being bailed out, for allegedly threatening to behead the 46 year-old victim, kill her 12 year-old son and cut her husband’s legs off and burn her house if she did not give him money.
Moscow, September 10: Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez was set on Thursday to discuss major arms and energy agreements with the Kremlin after he kicked off his trip to Moscow with a trademark anti-US tirade.
The flamboyant leader known for his outbursts against Washington started his eighth visit to Russia on Wednesday night with a two-and-a-half hour speech in which he compared the United States to a boa gobbling up smaller nations and calling it “the world’s main terrorist”.
New Delhi, September 10: The Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) has rejected a demand for the formation of a Ministry for Fisheries independent of the agriculture ministry. It says the subject is receiving “adequate attention” by the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government.
“There is no requirement for a separate ministry of fisheries development,” said the PMO.
The demand for a separate ministry was made by K.C. Venugopal, Congress MP from Alappuzha, a coastal constituency in Kerala.
New Delhi, September 10: The government on Thursday announced a five percent increase in the dearness allowance for the central government employees and pensioners, with effect from July this year, entailing an outgo of about Rs 2,904 crore this fiscal.
Announcing the decision taken by the Union Cabinet, Information and Broadcasting Minister Ambika Soni told reporters that the combined impact on the exchequer on account of hike in dearness allowance and relief would be of the order of Rs 4,355.35 crore for a full year.
London, September 10: Smoking is injurious to health, everyone knows. Yet, a new study has claimed that it can help create stronger memories.
Researchers, led by Baylor College of Medicine, have carried out the study and found that remembering what happened the night before might be easier for smokers as compared to non-smokers.
According to them, this is because nicotine, the addictive component in cigarettes, “tricks” the brain into creating links between smoking and a feeling of well-being.
London, September 10: British scientists are on track to develop a new robot which they claim will be controlled by a blob of human brain cells.
According to the ‘New Scientist’, a team at Reading University, which has already used rat brain cells to steer a simple-wheeled robot, is now trying the same thing with human brain cells.
San Francisco, September 10: Google Inc is infusing its paid search ads with video, product images and other features as the Internet company strives to refine its money-making capabilities in a tough advertising environment.
In a Webcast with investors on Wednesday, Google executives walked through a variety of innovations designed to make its search ads more relevant to users and more effective for advertisers.
Washington, September 10: NASA scientists Wednesday unveiled the first images taken by a revamped Hubble telescope, providing even crisper pictures of distant stars and galaxies.
The colourful images provide a taste of the Hubble’s new capability after a servicing mission in May that installed new instruments and repaired broken ones that had hampered the world’s most famous telescope.
Johannesburg, September 10: South Africa will launch the SumbandilaSat satellite into space Sep 15 on a Russian Soyuz rocket from Kazakhstan, BuaNews reported.
Science and Technology Minister Naledi Pandor will travel to Kazakhstan this week to observe the lift-off. SumbandilaSat is designed and built in South Africa.
The 80-kg satellite has a primary payload consisting of a remote sensing camera and a secondary payload consisting of a fixed vibration string experiment.
New Delhi, September 10: India’s maiden moon mission has captured a halo around the site where US spacecraft Apollo-15 had landed on the lunar surface nearly four decades ago.
The Terrain Mapping Camera onboard Chandrayaan-I has detected a halo around the Apollo-15 landing site on the moon which scientists claim was because of the surface disturbance caused by humans.
The halo has been reported earlier by the Japanese Aerospace Agency using the Terrain Mapping Camera (TMC) on its lunar mission Selene.
Southampton, September 10: Australian batsman Cameron White scored a trouble-free century to consign England to a six-wicket defeat in the third one-day international in Southampton on Wednesday.
Chasing England`s 228 for nine, White (105) put on 143 for the third wicket with captain Michael Clarke (52) to take Australia to the brink of victory and the tourists rounded off the win with nine balls to spare.
Australian opener Tim Paine contributed with 29 and Callum Ferguson (20 not out) sealed the result as England`s bowlers struggled to capture wickets under the floodlights.
Mumbai, September 10: Covering yesterday’s losses the Indian rupee appreciated by 10 paise against the US dollar in opening trade on Thursday on expectations of increased capital inflows as the stock markets may open high in line with other firming Asian markets.
The dollar’s weakness against other currencies also supported the Indian rupee.
At the Interbank Foreign Exchange (Forex) market, the domestic unit strengthened by 10 paise to quote at 48.41 a dollar over previous close. Yesterday, the Rupee ended 4 paise lower at 48.51/52.
Mumbai, September 10: Shares of Bharti Airtel on Thursday jumped nearly four percent in morning trade on the Bombay Stock Exchange amid reports that its planned merger deal with South Africa’s MTN is moving forward.
Shares of Bharti Airtel advanced 3.55 percent to a high of Rs 424.40 on the BSE.
Media reports suggest that both the companies have reached a preliminary agreement on their planned strategic alliance, ahead of the September 30 deadline for their exclusive merger talks.
New Delhi, September 10: Riding on high food prices, the annual rate of inflation for the week ended August 29 rose slightly but stayed in the negative zone for 13th week in row.
Official data released on Thursday showed that inflation, calculated on point to point basis, stood at -0.12 percent for the week ended August 29. It was minus 0.21 percent for the previous week and 12.38 percent during the corresponding week last year.
Primary articles, with a weightage of 22.02%, rose by 0.3 percent.
New Delhi, September 10: India’s exports slid for the 11th straight month in August by 19.7 percent to USD 14.3 billion owing to the continuing slump in global demand.
In August 2008, the exports were USD 17.8 billion.
In April-August this fiscal, the overseas shipment contracted by 31.3 percent to USD 63.9 billion from USD 93.1 billion in the same period last year.
For the first five month of 2009-10, three sectors — rice, tobacco and fruits and vegetables — have shown positive growth, Commerce Secretary Rahul Khullar said.
New Delhi, September 10: The latest estimates of the government on Thursday revealed that there is a shortfall of about Rs 5,00,000 crore for financing power projects in the country.
“The power sector as a whole requires a huge investment and there is gap of around Rs 5,00,000 crore in financing the power generation capacity addition projects”, Minister of State for Power Bharatsinh Solanki said today while addressing India Electricity- 2009 organised by FICCI.
San Francisco, September 10: Apple chief executive Steve Jobs made his first public appearance on Wednesday since returning to work in June from a nearly six-month medical leave of absence.
The 54-year-old Jobs received a standing ovation from a packed auditorium as he appeared on stage at the start of a 15-minute appearance at an Apple media event here.
“I’m very happy to be here today with you all,” said Jobs, who was wearing his trademark long-sleeved black shirt, jeans and sneakers and did not appear noticeably thinner than during his last public appearance in October 2008.
Beijing, September 10: China on Thursday condemned a US decision to slap tariffs on steel pipes from the Asian giant, saying it “strongly opposed” the move.
“China is highly concerned over this matter. We strongly oppose such trade protectionist moves,” a commerce ministry spokeswoman told reporters.
The spokeswoman declined to comment on what action China would take, if any, in response to the US move, saying the ministry could make an additional statement later in the day.
Washington, September 10: A top Obama administration official on Thursday said that occasionally terrorists try to make use of the Maldivian territory, and thus there is need for the US to help Maldives to monitor its territories.
“Maldives faces a number of challenges. First of all there are terrorists that come through the Maldives, transit through the Maldives,” Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia Robert Blake said a day after US President Barack Obama issued a presidential determination to furnish defence articles and services to island nation.
Islamabad, September 10: Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari has said that al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden is dead, but has sought more international aid to expand military operations against Taliban, in areas where Americans believe he may be hiding.
Asserting that his government was fighting the militants with determination, Zardari said these efforts were hampered by what he called lack of resources.
Dhaka, September 10: The former BNP-led government of Khaleda Zia sent 74 officers of the nation’s armed forces on “forced retirement” on “political grounds”, a Bangladesh Cabinet minister has said, adding efforts are on to reinstate them.
The government is considering reinstating them in the services, in the light of recommendations of the review committee, Planning Minister Air Vice Marshal (retd) AK Khandker said.
Berlin, September 10: The German officer who ordered the deadly bombing of fuel trucks in Afghanistan violated procedures, a preliminary NATO probe has found, the Sueddeutsche Zeitung daily reported on Thursday.
Colonel Georg Klein overstepped his authority and poorly evaluated the situation, says the NATO report conducted following the air strike last Friday in the northern province of Kunduz, which killed dozens.
It is “completely clear” that Klein did not respect decision-making procedures, a high-ranking German officer in NATO told the daily.
Tehran, September 10: A senior Iranian Revolutionary Guards commander said 36 people were killed in post-election violence including three who died in the notorious Kahrizak prison, a newspaper reported on Thursday.
“The riots had a total of 36 victims, three killed in Kahrizak and about 10 whose place of death is known but it is unclear where the rest were shot and by whom,” Abdollah Araghi was quoted as saying by reformist Etemad daily.
Iranian officials had previously said about 30 were killed in the protests triggered by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s re-election.
Cairo, September 10: Cairo University will telecast lectures directly on two satellite channels if swine flu situation worsens in Egypt so that students do not miss classes.
Under the university’s contingency plan for the worst case scenario, students can take their lectures by tuning to the Cairo University Channel 1 and Channel 2 on NileSat, varsity president Hossam Kamel, said today.
The university will also rent an additional channel on NileSat that will be used to telecast lectures to students of literature, law and commerce, he said.