shameen Tehran, August 26: Saeed Hajjarian was a die-hard hero of Iran’s reform movement, campaigning to reduce the power of the Islamic clerics even after being shot in the head in an assassination attempt.
On Tuesday, he was brought into a courtroom propped up by men who put him in the front row of defendants in Iran’s biggest political trial in decades, where he proceeded to renounce his entire career as a reformist.
United Nations, August 26: Israel’s UN envoy said Tuesday that a meeting between US President Barack Obama, his Palestinian counterpart Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu could take place in New York next month.
Prospects for the groundbreaking summit on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in the last week of September have gained traction in recent days with Netanyahu expressing hope that a row over settlements with Israel’s main ally the United States would soon end to allow the renewal of Middle East peace talks.
Mexico City, August 26: Mexico’s swine flu death toll rose to 179 after 15 more deaths were recorded within a week, the health ministry said Tuesday.
The number of cases from A(H1N1) rose to 20,681, in the third worst affected country after the United States and Argentina.
All regions in the country where the outbreak began in April have now been affected, with central and southern regions worst hit.
Washington, August 26: The United States will stop issuing most visas on Wednesday at the U.S. Embassy in Honduras because of the current government is standing by its refusal to sign an accord that would bring back overthrown President Manuel Zelaya.
A statement by State Department spokesman Ian Kelly said the United States considers the San Jose Accord, sponsored by Costa Rican President Oscar Arias, the best solution to the impasse begun with Zelaya’s overthrow and expulsion on June 28.
Paris, August 26: More than half of healthcare workers surveyed in Hong Kong said they would refuse to be vaccinated against swine flu, according to a study released Wednesday.
Fear of side effects and doubts as to efficacy were the two main reasons cited, said the study, published online by the British Medical Journal (BMJ).
The Hong Kong survey echoes a recent sounding of 1,500 nurses in Britain, 30 percent of whom also said they would not allow themselves to be jabbed.
Mexico, August 26: Attackers armed with AK-47s shot dead five youths outside a house in Ciudad Juarez Tuesday afternoon, local police said, adding to 17 more deaths in the border city in the past 24 hours.
Ciudad Juarez, across from El Paso, Texas, is the epicenter of spiralling suspected drug violence which has left almost 10,000 dead since the start of last year, despite a military crackdown on the country’s warring drug gangs.
Seoul, August 26: North Korea has invited the U.S. envoy overseeing ties with the prickly state to visit for nuclear talks next month, South Korean media said on Tuesday, as the United States pushes sanctions against Pyongyang.
Reclusive North Korea, which has made a series of rare conciliatory gestures this month, also agreed to hold talks with South Korea from Wednesday on resuming reunions of families separated by the 1950-1953 Korean War.
Washington, August 26: Former US vice president Dick Cheney has questioned President Barack Obama’s trustworthiness on national security after the US Justice Department announce a probe into alleged CIA prisoner abuse.
In a statement first released late Monday, Cheney took aim at the investigation and at Obama’s decision to create a new team of elite interrogators to grill suspected terrorists under White House supervision.
Rabat, August 26: A massive fire swept through a bazaar in eastern Morocco on Tuesday, destroying some 1,700 stalls and injuring 31 people, local authorities said.
The fire, the cause of which is still unknown, broke out in the afternoon in the Al-Qods souk in the town of Taourirt 450 kilometres (280 miles) east of Rabat, and was only put out by firefighters four hours later.
The covered market of 28,000 square metres (300,000 square feet) had more than 2,000 stalls.
–Agencies
Florida, August 26: NASA called off the launch of space shuttle Discovery on Tuesday, the second day in a row the liftoff was scrubbed, this time because of a bad fuel valve.
Launch officials halted the countdown midway through the fueling process. The seven astronauts had not yet boarded the shuttle for the scheduled early Wednesday morning flight to the international space station.
Kabul, August 26: A cluster of vehicle bombs detonated simultaneously Tuesday near a foreign-owned company that plans to build a road through an insurgent-held area. At least 41 people were killed, all civilians, officials said.
The thundering explosion in the Taliban’s spiritual homeland occurred just after nightfall in a district that includes U.N. facilities and an Afghan intelligence office. The force of the blast shattered windows around the city and sent flames shooting into the sky.
Ingredients:
1/2 kilo Carrot (Gajar)
15 grams Red chili pepper (Lal Mirchi) (1/2 tsp)
30 grams fresh Ginger (Adrak) (2 tsps long strips)
2 cloves Garlic (Lasun)
8 blanched Almonds (Badam), slit into halves
60 grams Raisins (Kishmish) (4 tsps)
4 teaspoons Salt (Namak)
360 grams Sugar (Cheeni) (2 cups)
3/4 teaspoon crushed Cardamoms (Elaichi Moti)
1 1/2 cups Vinegar (Sirka)
1 cup Water
How to make carrot chutney:
Scrape and grate the carrots, chop garlic and slice ginger into long strips.
Ingredients:
6 to 8 large cloves garlic finely chopped
1/4 cup spring onion whites chopped
1 tbsp finely chopped spring onion greens
2 dry red chilies, soaked
1 cup tomatoes, finely chopped
1 tbsp finely chopped coriander
1 tsp oil
Salt To Taste
Preparation:
Drain the soaked chillies and chop them finely.
Heat the oil, add the onions and garlic and sauté over a slow flame for 4 to 5 minutes till they are lightly brown.
Add the chillies and salt and sauté again.
Ingredients:
2 cups Basmati Rice
1 cup Mixed Vgetable (cauliflower, potato, carrot, french beans)
150 gms Green Peas
3 Finely Sliced Onion
2 Finely Sliced Green Chillies
Salt to taste
1 tsp Red Chilli Powder
2 tsp Cinnamon(dalchini), Caraway Seeds(zeera)
4 Cloves (laung)
1/2 tsp Black Pepper Powder
4 Tomato
1/2 cup Yogurt (curd)
4 tbsp Vegetable Oil
1/2 tsp Mustard Seeds
3 tbsp Dry Fruits (cashew nuts, raisin)
How to make vegitable biryani :
New Delhi, August 25: Delhites woke up to showers Tuesday morning, which brought down the mercury in the capital but also led to traffic snarls as roads were promptly waterlogged and traffic signals went on the blink again.
There was road rage everywhere as drivers tried to avoid the waterlogged lanes and — in the absence of working traffic lights — ignored all rules in their efforts to get to work on time.
“The recorded rainfall in the capital in the morning was 7.2 mm,” an official of the Indian Meteorological Department said.
More rains are expected later in the day.
London, August 25: Kamalesh Sharma, Secretary-General of the Commonwealth and India’s former high commissioner to Britain, has been appointed as the new chancellor of the Queen’s University Belfast (QUB).
He succeeds Senator George Mitchell, who stepped down in March.
Sharma retired from the Indian Foreign Service in 2001.
From 2002 to 2004 he was the UN Secretary General’s Special Representative to East Timor. He was appointed India’s High Commissioner in London in 2004 before his election as Secretary-General of the Commonwealth in 2007.
Itanagar, August 25: In a fresh set back to BJP, its national secretary and former Arunachal Pradesh MP, Kiren Rijiju, has resigned from the party to join the Congress ahead of the assembly polls in the state in October.
The jolt to the BJP unit of the north eastern state came at a time when the party was facing dissensions in Rajasthan and the central leadership was grappling with serious problems at the national level.
New Delhi, August 25: The Delhi Police on Tuesday detained a suspected Lashkar-e-Toiba terrorist at New Delhi Railway Station.
According to police sources, 27-year-old Yousuf alias Md. Salim was nabbed at the Ajmeri Gate entrance of the railway station.
The police have recovered explosives, a Pakistani passport, handbag and briefcase from him.
It is not yet clear whether the terrorist was going to board a train from the station or had just arrived in the national capital.
–Agencies
Bhopal, August 25: With the aim of promoting education among Minority communities, the Centre has tripled the scholarship amount for them in Madhya Pradesh and a total of Rs 20 crore would be distributed among the Minority students of pre-matric, post-matric and merit-cum means.
Giving this information, the Madhya Pradesh Commissioner for Backward classes and Minorities welfare, Jabbar Dhakwala said that the students of minority communities will be benefitted with the increased tripled amount to be given for them by the centre.
Washington, August 25: Sliding down the popularity chart, the approval rating of US President Barack Obama has dropped down to a new low of 52 percent, the Gallup Poll said in its latest national opinion poll.
Till early July it was 60 percent, but since then has been gradually sliding down – apparently due to the debate in the health care that has been going on, during which his opponents seems to have an upper hand in convincing the people against his health care reform proposals.
Tehran, August 25: Iran began its fourth mass trial on Tuesday of people accused of fomenting unrest after the disputed June Presidential election, state broadcaster IRIB reported.
The official IRNA news agency said earlier that those to be put on trial in a Tehran Revolutionary Court included former deputy minister Mostafa Tajzadeh, former deputy foreign minister Mohsen Aminzadeh, former government spokesman Abdollah Ramezanzadeh, and Iranian-American scholar Kian Tajbakhsh.
Washington, August 25: Swine flu could infect as much as half of the US population this fall and winter and cause up to 90,000 deaths, President Barack Obama’s science advisors warned on Monday.
Laying out a “plausible scenario” for the epidemic’s impact in the United States, the report painted a grim picture of stress on the US health care system as it struggles to cope with a flood of flu patients.
Athens, August 25: Firefighters claimed victory on Tuesday over a devastating, wind-swept wildfire that ravaged the outskirts of Athens over four days, enabling them to redeploy water-bombers to other blazes in Greece.
“The situation has greatly improved, we currently have no active fronts in greater Athens,” a fire department spokeswoman said. “Firefighting forces remain on location to watch out for possible areas of resurgence.”
Beijing, August 25: At least 11 workers were killed and three were missing in a gas explosion at a coal mine in north China’s Shanxi province, a spokeswoman for the local government said on Tuesday.
The accident took place on Monday at a colliery in Jinzhong city, according to the spokeswoman for the Heshun county government, Li Yuanzhen.
Eleven bodies were recovered, but three remained in the mine, she said. Two workers who were working near the entrance to the mine shaft escaped unharmed.
London, August 25: New military helicopters were mothballed instead of used in the Afghan conflict because of a government decision to save money over software for the aircraft, a report said on Tuesday.
The Ministry of Defence bought eight helicopters in 1995 but officials decided to try to economise by designing its own software instead of spending extra millions of pounds on software from manufacturer Boeing, the Times said.
The ministry later found it could not design the high-tech software needed, and the helicopters were stored in hangars, according to the newspaper.