shameen Ulan Bator, August 25: Russian President Dmitry Medvedev arrived in Mongolia on Tuesday for a two-day visit focused on sealing a series of investment deals including one on a joint venture in uranium mining.
Medvedev’s trip comes just three months after his Prime Minister Vladimir Putin visited the resource-rich former Soviet satellite, which has vast copper, coal and gold deposits, as Russia seeks to revive its influence here.
Rawalpindi, August 25: A UN team probing the murder of former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto visited the hospital where she was rushed after the fatal attack on her life in December 2007 to collect details about her wounds and treatment, the Online agency reported.
The UN officials interacted with the staff of the Benazir Shaheed Hospital for more than two hours, the report said.
The team also visited the operation theater, the treatment room and the site where the doctors formally announced her death.
The team earlier visited the site where she was attacked Dec 27, 2007.
Mumbai, August 25: The Bombay Stock Exchange benchmark Sensex on Tuesday fell by 154 points in opening trade as foreign funds and retail investors preferred to book profits amid weak Asian markets.
The 30-share index, Sensex, which had gained nearly 820 points in the past three session, moved down by 153.92 points, or 0.95 percent to 15,474.83 in opening trade.
Similarly, the Nifty index on the wide-based National Stock Exchange lost 44.85 points to 4,597.95.
Stocks of oil and gas, realty, banking and metal sectors succumbed to profit-taking, dragging the Sensex down.
New Delhi, August 25: Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee on Tuesday said the Indian economy seems to have weathered the global financial storm and mitigating the impact of deficient monsoon is a “top priority” for now.
“Despite the global economic crisis, we grew by 6.7 percent last year…This year, we are getting mixed signal,” Mukherjee said, while noting that indicators are coming good from industrial production data and in terms of business demand and investor confidence.
New Delhi, August 25: The government is considering strict laws for scrutinising foreign direct investments to thwart security risks, officials said on Tuesday, a move experts say could further slow FDI inflows into the country.
The National Security Council (NSC) headed by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh wants to arm the government with powers to cancel or suspend FDIs over fears of terror funds entering India and stop any acquisition or mergers that could be against New Delhi’s strategic interest.
New Delhi, August 25: A panel of ministers will meet on Tuesday to review the impact of patchy monsoon rains and discuss if there is a need to modify some of the steps initiated to manage drought, a media report said.
The paper did not cite sources for the information.
Annual monsoon rains, a key factor in determining the country’s farm and overall economic growth, are 26 percent below normal so far in the season from June, threatening oilseeds and sugarcane crops.
–Agencies
New Delhi, August 25: The economy is expected to grow between 7-8 percent in the 2010-11 fiscal year, a top policy adviser said on Tuesday.
C Rangarajan, chairman of the Prime Minister’s economic advisory council, was speaking at a gathering at a TV channel.
–Agencies
Singapore, August 25: Oil fell below USD 74 a barrel on Tuesday, down for the first time in six days on softer Asian shares as renewed concerns over the economic recovery emerged, after reaching a 10-month high a day earlier.
Investors are looking to oil inventories in the United States for direction, with analysts calling for a draw in crude and gasoline stocks and an increase in distillates.
New York, August 25: General Motors, which for months has been trying to sell Opel, reportedly is now trying to keep the ailing German brand, a move that would drive a stake in Berlin’s favored option: a takeover by Magna.
GM, which emerged from bankruptcy protection last month with the US government owning a majority stake, is trying to develop a USD 4.3 billion financing plan that would allow it to keep control of Opel, The Wall Street Journal reported late Monday.
Washington, August 25: The Securities and Exchange Commission and Bank of America Corp. on Monday defended the fairness of their proposed USD 33 million settlement over executive bonuses paid out by Merrill Lynch, and the bank maintained it didn’t mislead investors in the affair.
In a court filing, Bank of America suggested that shareholders should have already known about the USD 3.6 billion in bonuses given the media attention surrounding its takeover of Merrill after it was first announced last September.
Jackson, August 25: Ben Bernanke began as Federal Reserve chairman by meekly promising to maintain the status quo. He ended up facing the worst downturn since the Great Depression and changing central banking in ways that will reverberate for decades.
Bernanke took office promising to follow in the footsteps of his storied predecessor, Alan Greenspan, and to bring greater transparency to a historically secretive institution.
Melbourne, August 25: Dethroned Ashes champions Australia received more bad news when injured wicketkeeper Brad Haddin was advised to return home before the one-day and Twenty20 series in England.
Haddin had fractured his finger on the left hand prior to the third Ashes Test at Edgbaston and could not play in the match but later returned to the team for the fourth and fifth matches of the series, which they eventually lost 1-2 to hosts England.
New Delhi, August 25: Delhi Ranji skipper Virender Sehwag is learnt to have given his consent to continue with his services to his home-state after a high profile meeting with DDCA president Arun Jaitley. A new selection committee is going to be formed as it was the primary demand of the skipper who had hurled allegations of corruption against the prevailing system.
New Delhi, August 25: World’s largest companies are 39 years behind in achieving the levels of green house gas reductions as recommended by Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change (IPCC), according to a new study released on Monday.
The analysis showed that going by present rates of reduction targets in their emissions, the companies would reach the IPCC recommended levels of greenhouse gas cuts only by 2089, which is 39 years too late to avoid dangerous climate change on the planet, researchers said.
New Delhi, August 25: Almost a month after clearing the Solar Mission, the Prime Minister’s Council on Climate Change today gave nod to National Mission on Enhanced Energy Efficiency enabling about Rs 75,000 crore worth of energy transactions that are likely to cut down annual energy consumption.
“In doing so, it (the mission) will, by 2015, help (the country) save about five per cent of our annual energy consumption and nearly 100 million tonnes of carbon dio-oxide every year,” Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said while approving the mission.
Jungfraujoch, August 25: Agatha Christie fans may remember Hercule Poirot solving a murder at the highest station of a Swiss funicular railway as heavy snowfall isolated it from the rest of the world. Atop a funicular here, similarly isolated scientists are probing another mystery — why the earth’s climate is changing and they would welcome collaboration with India.
Cape Canaveral, August 25: NASA fuelled space shuttle Discovery for an early morning flight to the International Space Station on Tuesday as a TV comedian whose treadmill is on board gave a “go” for launch and urged, “Let’s light this candle!”
Thunderstorms remained over the launch site late Monday, however, and forecasters lowered the odds of acceptable conditions to a grim 40 percent.
Rome, August 25: Exactly 400 years ago today, on 25 August 1609, the Italian astronomer and philosopher Galilei Galileo showed Venetian merchants his new creation, a telescope – the instrument that was to bring him both scientific immortality and, more immediately, a whole lot of trouble.
Moscow, August 25: Russia has launched 20 carrier rockets since the beginning of the year, which beats last year’s average monthly rate, an analysis of which will be discussed at a meeting today to be chaired by Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.
The meeting will discuss restructuring of the rocket and space industry and focus on creation of an effective mechanism for improving the state of the industry, the government press service has said.
Cape Canaveral, August 25: The launch of the space shuttle
Discovery was delayed for one day Tuesday due to bad weather conditions in the area of the launch site at Cape Canaveral, NASA said.
Discovery had been scheduled to blast off at 1.36 a.m. (0536 GMT) from Kennedy Space Center in Florida to transport new equipment and experiments to the International Space Station.
The safety risk for Discovery’s seven astronauts and the shuttle was too high, NASA said.
The space shuttle is now scheduled to lift off Wednesday at 0510 GMT.
–IANS
Mumbai, August 25: Swine flu is spreading to interior parts of Maharashtra as the pandemic toll reached 40 following one more death in the state today, the government said.
“Altogether, 22 districts have been affected by H1N1 infection so far in the state. Swine flu is now spreading to interior parts of the state as well, though initially the patients were from urban areas,” additional chief secretary, health, Sharwaree Gokhale told reporters here.
Atlanta, August 25: It will likely be Thanksgiving before a significant number of Americans who get the swine flu vaccine are protected, health officials said Monday.
Roughly 50 million doses of vaccine are expected to be available by mid-October. But for those who get initial doses right away, that will only mark the beginning of a vaccination process that will take five or more weeks.
London, August 25: A sexually transmitted virus that causes cervical cancer is also to blame for half of all cases of cancer of the penis, Spanish researchers said on Tuesday.
The finding suggests already available human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccines for cervical cancer are also likely to be effective in the fight against penile cancer, doctors from the Catalan Institute of Oncology in Barcelona said.
Merck & Co’s Gardasil and GlaxoSmithKline’s Cervarix are both used widely to immunize girls against HPV infection, which can lead to cancer of the cervix.
Learn to make the traditional churma laddoos by following this simple recipe.
Ingredients:
250 gms Wheat flour
200 gms Ghee
400 gms powdered sugar
1 tsp cardamom powder
30 gms Pistachos, chopped
30 gms chopped almonds
10 gms Fenugreek
10 gms Watermelon seeds
Garnish-almond halves
Procedure:
Heat ghee in a deep bottomed pan and add flour. Cook on slow fire until brown. Remove from fire and let it cool down a bit. Add sugar powder and mix. Let cool completely. Add dry fruits, cardamom powder, watermelon seeds and mix well. Make laddos and garnish with almonds.
Hyderabad, August 25: Four fresh cases of swine flu were detected in the city today, pushing the total number of swine flu patients to 122 in the State. All the patients with swine flu were already quarantined at their houses and are undergoing treatment.
According to the officials, samples of eight persons with swine flu symptoms were sent for diagnosis where six cases were being treated by the doctors at the Government Chest Hospital and another two were being treated at the King Koti hospital.