shameen

Newspaper by rural Indian women wins UN literacy award

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United Nations, August 04: A newspaper produced entirely by women in rural India is among the four winners of this year’s Literacy Prizes awarded by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).

Khabar Lahariya, the fortnightly newspaper distributed to more than 20,000 readers in Uttar Pradesh, is entirely created and marketed by newly literate “low caste” women who are training as journalists in Chitrakoot and Banda districts.

Give immigrant status to SL Tamils: Sri Sri Ravi Shankar

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New Delhi, August 04: Art of Living exponent Sri Sri Ravi Shankar on Tuesday said that the 1.25 lakh Sri Lankan Tamils living as refugees in the country should be given immigrant status like their counterparts in Europe and America.

“Sri Lankan Tamils living in Europe and America have jobs, businesses, have a home and are well off, while those living in Tamil Nadu since 1983 are still languishing in the camps are refugees. They should be integrated into the country,” he said in a statement.

Muslim organisations demand RS seat

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Jaipur, August 03: Seventeen Muslim organisations under the banner of Rajasthan Muslim Forum organised a protest against the ruling Congress for not nominating
any Muslim for the Rajya Sabha on Sunday.

Speaking to the media persons, convenor of the forum, Kari Moinudin, accused Congress leaders of exploiting Muslims to get MLA seats and to increase Cabinet berths in the parliament.

“When it comes to serving the community by giving them a political leadership or to initiate measures to empower them. The party always put their hands-off,” said Moinudin.

No data on Muslim employees in Central govt jobs: Khurshid

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New Delhi, August 03: In reply to a written question in the Rajya Sabha, Minister of State (Independent charge) of the ministry of Minority Affairs, Salman Khurshid said, “government does not maintain statistics of employment of Muslims in the Central government services”.

Khurshid said the data is not collected minority community wise or service wise by the DOPT but for the five minority communities as a whole.

B’desh forms national committee to coordinate intelligence activities

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Dhaka, August 03: Months after a bloody mutiny in its paramilitary force was blamed on intelligence failure, Bangladesh has formed a high-powered national committee with Premier Sheikh Hasina as its chairperson to coordinate activities of spy agencies.

“This (committee) will fix and coordinate the areas of work of different intelligence agencies and coordinate their activities,” a senior official familiar with the formation process of the high-powered body said.

‘LTTE attempting to reorganise, rescue hardcore cadres’

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Colombo, August 03: The LTTE could be attempting to revive the organisation amid efforts by the defeated terror group to rescue hardcore cadres housed in government-run refugee camps for Tamil civilians in Sri Lanka’s northern Vavuniya district, a top minister has said.

Pak Parliament can order Musharraf’s trial: Khosa

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Islamabad, August 03: Former president Pervez Musharraf could be tried for his unconstitutional act of imposing emergency in 2007 by a simple majority resolution of Parliament, Pakistan’s top law official said on Monday.

Attorney General Latif Khosa said Parliament should debate and decide Musharraf’s fate in the wake of the apex court’s verdict. Parliament is supreme in this matter, he said.

Gill differs with BCCI, favours anti-doping code for cricketers

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New Delhi, August 03: MS Gill has come out in support of the WADA (World Anti-Doping Agency) anti doping code, saying that all sports bodies will have to adopt it.

The controversial whereabouts clause in the WADA anti-doping code has resulted in protests from the Indian cricket players as well as the BCCI (Board of Control for Cricket in India), over the past few days, who have termed it as unjust and infringement on the players’ right to privacy.

Maoists give Nepal govt 72 hours to quit

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Kathmandu, August 03: Nepal’s former guerrilla party, the Unified Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist), on Monday warned that if new Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal did not dissolve his coalition government within 72 hours and make way for a Maoist-led national government, it would start a new protest movement both from the street and Parliament.

“The current government is unconstitutional and illegal,” said Maoist leader and former finance minister Baburam Bhattarai, who along with two more senior party leaders will head the new movement against the current government.

Parliament adjourned over Bundelkhand row

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New Delhi, August 03: The move to set up a development board for Bundelkhand region allegedly without taking Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh governments into confidence paralysed proceedings in Parliament on Monday.

The Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha were adjourned within minutes as BSP and BJP members were on their feet demanding that the Bundelkhand issue be taken up straight away suspending the Question Hour.

‘CBI carrying out political conspiracy against me’

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New Delhi, August 03: Former home minister Buta Singh Monday accused the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) of executing a “political conspiracy” against him by “framing” his son Sarabjot alias Sweety Singh, who was arrested for allegedly accepting a bribe of Rs.1 crore.

“It is a political conspiracy against me and the CBI is responsible for masterminding it. CBI is not playing the role of an investigating agency. I and my son are being victimised,” Buta Singh told reporters here.

Student attacks won’t harm Indo-Oz relations: Tharoor

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Sydney, August 03: India stressed on Monday it would not allow attacks on its students in Australia to sour relations between the countries, but also said there was no clear evidence that the problem had been resolved.

The issue of assaults on students in Australia’s major cities had generated “critical mass” within India, Union Minister of State for External Affairs Shashi Tharoor said in an interview with the Sydney Morning Herald published on Monday.

PDP nervous and worried as it is out of power: Omar

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New Delhi, August 03: Taking a dig at PDP in Jammu and Kashmir, Chief Minister Omar Abdullah today said opposition in the state is nervous and worried as they were finding it difficult to cope up with the fact that they were out of power.

Emerging after half-an-hour long meeting with Congress President Sonia Gandhi in Parliament, Omar said “I honestly am not worried about the opposition giving me a chance. I do not expect them to give a chance.

Gas row: Deora says govt not partisan, acting in public interest

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New Delhi, August 03: Accused of adopting a biased stand in the Ambani brothers’ gas dispute, Union Petroleum Minister Murli Deora on Monday clarified the government’s stand on the issue in the Lok Sabha.

Responding to the charges made by Anil Ambani of favouring Mukesh Ambani-led RIL, Deora said that the government is not partisan and added oil and gas is a national asset.

Judges’ assets bill in Parliament today

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New Delhi, August 03: Union Law Minister M Veerappa Moily will on Monday introduce in Parliament a bill making it mandatory for high court and Supreme Court judges to disclose their assets to the President every year.

Named ‘The Judges (Declaration of Assets and Liabilities) Act, 2009’, the bill would however keep the judges’ disclosures confidential under normal circumstances and would be out of the ambit of the RTI Act. They can be accessed and made public only in special circumstances, like in case of any probe into judicial misconduct or impropriety against a judge.

Parl adjourns after row over Bundelkhand issue

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New Delhi, August 03: The move to set up a development board for Bundelkhand region allegedly without taking Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh governments into confidence paralysed proceedings in Parliament on Monday.

The Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha were adjourned within minutes as BSP and BJP members were on their feet demanding that the Bundelkhand issue be taken up straight away suspending the Question Hour.

35 Iranian dissidents sent to Baghdad for questioning

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Baquba, August 03: Thirty-five Iranian dissidents arrested by Iraqi security forces during a takeover of their base were on Sunday transferred to Baghdad for questioning, a senior Iraqi official said.

“Today, 35 of the people arrested at Camp Ashraf were moved to Baghdad for questioning,” said the official in Diyala province’s security operations centre.

Black scholar says he’s able to joke about arrest

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Chilmark, August 03: Black Harvard scholar Henry Louis Gates Jr has joked about his arrest by a white police officer, but also described receiving death threats and dreaming about being arrested at the White House.

In his first public appearance since having a beer at the White House on Thursday with the officer and President Barack Obama, Gates said yesterday the national debate over racial profiling sparked by his arrest shows that issues of class and race still run “profoundly deep” in the United States.

Forest fires rage in Spain, Greece; thousands flee

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La Palma, August 03: Spain’s Prime Minister broke off his holiday to inspect the devastation caused by forest fires raging on an island in the Canaries which have forced thousands to flee their homes.

In Greece, meanwhile, firefighters supported by water-dropping planes were battling forest fires in the southern Peloponnese peninsula and the northeast region of Kavala.

The two countries have been among the worst hit by wildfires that have swept across southern Europe in the past two weeks amid sizzling temperatures and fierce winds.

Ahmadinejad to be endorsed as Iran’s Presidential poll winner

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Tehran, August 03: President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad will be sworn in for a second term on Wednesday, strongly backed by Iran’s supreme leader but fiercely opposed by angry reformists who claim his re-election was rigged.

The ceremony to be held in Parliament comes as Iran grapples with its worst turbulence since the 1979 Islamic revolution, with deadly street protests, a raft of political trials and an escalating feud between rival factions.

Ahmadinejad, 52, is himself under fire from his own hardline camp, which questions his loyalty to supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Supporters of ousted leader plan Honduras marches

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Tegucigalpa, August 03: Supporters of ousted Honduran president Manuel Zelaya plan to begin a five-day march on the country’s two main cities starting on Wednesday, organisers said.

“There will be two marches with people from all over the country. One will go to San Pedro Sula and another to Tegucigalpa,” Juan Barahona of a group called the National Resistance Against the Honduran Coup said.

The plan comes amid continued high tensions in the Central American nation, more than a month after Zelaya was bundled out of the country in a military-backed coup.

China detains 319 more in Urumqi riot probe

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Urumqi, August 03: Police in China’s northwestern Xinjiang province have detained 319 more people in connection with the July 5 riots in this provincial capital.

The arrests were made after the police said to have detained 1,572 people in connection with the clashes in which 197 people were killed and hundreds were injured.

The statement from the Urumqi Public Security Bureau said late Sunday the 319 people had been detained after information was received from the public or obtained through the police investigation.

‘US, Osama shared intimate ties till 9/11’

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Washington, August 03: In a candid claim, former FBI translator Sibel Edmonds on Friday said that the terms shared by US with al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden and Taliban were ‘intimate’.

“With those groups (al Qaeda and Taliban), we had operations in Central Asia, and that relationship – using them as we did during the Afghan and Soviet conflict – we used them all the way until September 11”, former Turkish language translator said on the radio program, Mike Malloy Show.

Bomb kills 12, wounds 26 in west Afghanistan

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Herat, August 03: A roadside bomb killed at least 12 people and wounded 26 in the western Afghan province of Herat on Monday, a security official said.

A woman and child were among those killed in the blast and the district police chief was seriously wounded, security commander for Herat, General Esmatullah Alizai, said.

The Taliban, who have vowed to disrupt this month’s Presidential Election in Afghanistan, were behind the attack, a spokesman, Qari Mohammad Yousuf, said. The district police chief, Khoja Issa, was the target, he added.

Pak SC adjourns case against Hafiz Saeed indefinitely

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Islamabad, August 03: In a fresh blow to India’s efforts to bring perpetrators of 26/11 to justice, Pakistan’s Supreme Court on Monday adjourned the hearing into the cases against Jamaat-ud-Dawah (JuD) chief Hafiz Mohammad Saeed indefinitely.