wajid In an embarrassment to the Congress during the assembly polls in Uttar Pradesh, the Election Commission Thursday censured Law Minister Salman Khurshid for his nine percent job quota promise to minorities and said that as a minister he had the responsibility of ensuring the model code of conduct in “letter and spirit”.
A 19-year-old youth in a Chinese city has been detained for allegedly raping, robbing and killing a 91-year-old woman.
The elderly lady surnamed Wei lived alone in Guangdong province’s Heyuan city. She was found dead in her house last Thursday. Police confirmed that the woman had been raped before being killed, the Shanghai Daily reported citing the Guangzhou Daily.
After screening potential suspects in the vicinity, police zoomed in on a 19-year-old Zeng. He was later nabbed in a hotel.
A 13-year-old girl in Britain had a contraceptive implant fitted at her school since she felt “like having sex” with her boyfriend.
The girl’s mother said she was “proud” of her young daughter. She, however, accused the school authorities of being “morally wrong” in carrying out the procedure without parental consent, the Daily Express reported.
The Bombay High Court Thursday allowed Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur, the prime accused in the 2008 Malegaon blast in Maharashtra, to travel to Madhya Pradesh by a second class air-conditioned coach for a court hearing there March 13, her lawyer said. She is currently lodged in a Mumbai jail.
The division bench of Justice V.M. Kanade and Justice P.D. Kode granted relief to Thakur after an extensive hearing, said her lawyer Ganesh Sovani.
As part of the cross Line of Control (LoC) initiatives between two parts of Kashmir, a Srinagar-based businessman was Thursday elected to head a business interests body representing both sides.
Mubeen Shah takes over as the president of the Jammu and Kashmir Joint Chamber of Commerce and Industry (JK-JCCI).
The Ram temple was clearly not on the agenda of those who voted in this Hindu pilgrim town in the first phase of the Uttar Pradesh elections.
Ordinary men and women showed much more interest in development issues than the temple, which has ceased to be a talking point even among the saffron-clad sadhus here.
For many, the makeshift temple hurriedly built after the razing of the Babri mosque Dec 6, 1992 is enough — for now.
More than one-and-a-half century after events of 1857 sealed the fate of the Mughal Empire, two Muslim institutions that emerged in Aligarh and Deoband seem to have roles reversed. Both institutions are believed to having a lasting impact on Muslim psyche, imparting political as well as religious guidance.
Three Bharatiya Janata Party ministers in Karnataka Wednesday quit over viewing porn in the assembly and were barred from house proceedings till cleared, but demands mounted across the state for their expulsion from the legislature.
The three — Laxman Savadi, C.C. Patil and J. Krishna Palemar — escaped immediate expulsion from the assembly apparently because the state BJP is a divided house and the central leaders did not want to give a potent weapon in the hands of opponents to hammer it in the crucial Uttar Pradesh assembly elections now under way.
After the Shiv Sena, a son has risen also in Raj Thackeray’s Maharashtra Navnirman Sena.
Raj’s son, 18-year-old Amit, made his maiden foray into an election campaign but preferred to remain a mute participant as he joined his father, mother Sharmila and sister Urvashi in the heat and dust of the MNS’s street campaign Monday in Mumbai’s eastern suburbs for the Feb 16 Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) polls.
The road show became an instant showpiece – many thousands of curious Mumbaikars flocked to catch a glimpse as Amit travelled in an open vehicle the whole day.
The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) appeared to climb down Monday and talked of reconciliation rather than confrontation with its estranged chief sponsor Sahara India.
The board’s devil-may-care tone was missing when its president N.Srinivasan said the BCCI only has “perceptional differences” with Sahara India, the Team India’s sponsor for 11 years, and insisted that all the problems would be sorted out through dialogue.
A source in Sahara told IANS that the corporate is studying the board’s conciliatory tone and weighing its options before reacting officially.
The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) Monday asked the Delhi government to pay Rs.1 lakh to the kin of a Tihar Jail inmate who committed suicide after jail authorities failed to diagnose his prolonged ailment.
The commission dismissed the government’s argument that undertrial Ashok Kumar, 21, who hanged himself Dec 15, 2007, was given appropriate medical treatment by jail doctors.
“It is a clear case of medical negligence, apart from lapse on part of jail officials that enabled the prisoner to commit suicide,” an NHRC statement said.
An Indian public affairs specialist has been charged with revitalising the Muslim Public Service Network (MPSN) that grooms young American Muslims for public service and to take on civic leadership positions.
“I believe that MPSN needs to form strong alliances with organisations in the US, while working to stabilise its flagship Summer Fellowship programme,” said Sabith Khan, the new executive director about his task of revitalising the organisation founded in 1994.
Patna,February 05: In a shining example of communal harmony in India, Muslims have helped build a Hindu temple dedicated to goddess Durga in Bihar’s Gaya district, not just by making donations but also by supervising its construction.
“Muslims have not only donated money for temple construction, they have been involved in it like us,” said Suresh Prasad about the shrine at Loco Colony near the railway station in Gaya town, about 100 km from here.
The temple was opened for prayers and worship last week.
New Delhi,February 05 :The 30-year-old left-hander has been in US since last month being treated for what was earlier claimed to be a tumour in the lungs by his family.
But it has now been diagnosed as malignant and Yuvraj is currently undergoing chemotherapy in the Cancer Research Institute in Boston.
Bangalore,February 05 :The auction of eight franchisees for players in the fifth season of Indian Premier League (IPL) concluded here in Bangalore with the teams spending around $11 million (around Rs 54 crore) for buying 25 players. The eight teams had a total of around $16.6 million to spend with 144 players to be auctioned including eight Indian players.
New Delhi, Febuary 04: President Pratibha Patil and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh Saturday greeted the nation on the eve of Milad-un-Nabi, the birthday of Prophet Muhammad.
“On the joyous occasion of Milad-un-Nabi, the birthday of Prophet Muhammad, I express my greetings and good wishes to all my fellow citizens,” said the president in her message.
“May the message of service to humanity as taught by the Holy Prophet lead all of us to unity and fellowship,” she said.
Varanasi, February 04: Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi Saturday asserted that he was content with his party being out of power in Uttar Pradesh but would not join hands with any undesirable elements.
“We will not align with criminals and thieves at any cost,” he said at an election rally in Pindra, 28 km from this eastern Uttar Pradesh city.
“I do not mind even if you give just two or four seats to the Congress in UP, but let me make it very clear that under no circumstances will we make any compromises.”
New Delhi, Febuary 04:Janata Party chief Subramanian Swamy’s plea to make Home Minister P. Chidambaram a co-accused in the 2G case was Saturday dismissed by a special CBI court in Delhi. The following are the key points of the verdict:
* There is no material on record to show that P. Chidambaram was acting malafide in fixing the price of spectrum at the 2001 level or in permitting dilution of equity by the two companies.
* These two acts are not per se illegal and there is no further material on record to show any other incriminating act on the part of P. Chidambaram.
London, Febuary 04: Indonesian twin sisters were reunited 29 years after they were separated at birth but ended up living just 25 miles apart in Sweden, Daily Mail reported Saturday.
Non-identical twins Emilie Falk and Lin Backman were adopted from an orphanage in Indonesia by different Swedish parents nearly 29 years ago.
In a remarkable turn of events, they both ended up living in south Sweden, less than an hour’s drive away from each other.
Guwahati/New Delhi, Febuary 03: At least three people were killed and 50 injured when a Guwahati-bound train hit a road construction vehicle at an unmanned crossing near here Friday morning, a railway official said. Five coaches went off the tracks while four other coaches overturned under the impact.
The Chilarai Passenger Express was coming from New Bongaigaon station in lower Assam when it hit a JCB vehicle at Gosaikhat area near Mirza, 15 km from here, at around 9.45 a.m., said railway public relations officer S. Hajong.
London, Febuary 03: Temperatures in Britain were expected to plunge to as low as minus 10 degrees celsius this weekend as the Arctic freeze tightens its grip, Daily Mail reported Friday.
Around two inches of snow covered Lincolnshire, Norfolk and Suffolk in white, while in the Pennines, fences and phone masts resembled ice sculptures.
The Met Office said up to four inches of snow could fall over the weekend across much of England and Wales, with southern and central areas likely to see the worst of it.
Kolkata, Febuary 03:Highlighting the poor state of health services in West Bengal, 19 infants have died in two district government hospitals in the past two days, a state official said Friday.
Nine infants died at Malda Medical College and Hospital, while 10 perished at the Bankura Sammilani Medical College since Wednesday.
Kolkata, Febuary 03: Claiming that top Maoist leader Kishenji was killed in a “fake” shootout by the security forces, Magsaysay awardee author-activist Mahasweta Devi Friday said the government must probe and bring out the truth behind his death.
“Not only we, but many outside the country doubt how he was killed. There are enough reasons to doubt. It is the duty of the (West Bengal) government to find out the facts regarding his death and reveal them before the public,” Mahasweta Devi said.
Hyderabad, February 03: Rattled by the arrest of two senior colleagues in Emaar and illegal mining cases, IAS officers in Andhra Pradesh Friday told Chief Minister N. Kiran Reddy that they were being made scapegoats.
Over 30 IAS officers met Reddy and conveyed their “anguish” over the manner in which the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) was probing various cases.
“We don’t know why we are being targeted. The innocents and those who may have complicity are being clubbed together,” said senior IAS officer Prasanta Mahapatra.
Lucknow, February 03: In a move to boost the Congress campaign led by her brother Rahul Gandhi in Uttar Pradesh, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra Friday addressed public meetings in his parliamentary constituency Amethi and asked the people “to vote for change” in the state, ruled by non-Congress parties since 1989.
“People are not getting their due rights … Politics has turned opportunistic,” she said at a meeting in Balbhadrapur.
Noting that the state’s politics has been based on religion and caste for the past 20 years, she called upon people to vote for a change of regime in the state.