Chandigarh, June 29: Travelling abroad from Punjab and Haryana will not mean travelling to Delhi anymore with Chandigarh airport being upgraded to an international airport. The first flight for Dubai will take off July end.
Sunil Dutt, director of Chandigarh airport, told “We have got confirmation from Fly Dubai. They have got permission from the union civil aviation ministry to fly a daily direct flight to Dubai from Chandigarh.”
Baghdad, June 29: Sheik Maher Sirhan says his interrogators tortured him with electric rods and demanded $50,000 in cash to free him from the Iraqi jail where he is being held on terrorism charges.
But the Sunni Arab paramilitary leader, who has worked closely with U.S. forces, says he is hanging tough.
Babylon & Beyond: Times Mideast blog”I said that I’m not giving you the money,” Sirhan said in a phone conversation from his latest jail cell. “There is a government and coalition forces. Justice will release me, not you.”
New Delhi, June 29: After reaping the benefits of going it alone in Uttar Pradesh in the recent Lok Sabha elections, the Congress is once again mulling over a similar decision. This time, it’s about Maharashtra.
With barely three months left for the Maharashtra Assembly elections, and faced with growing demands from the party to end the alliance with the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), Congress leaders are in a dilemma.
Islamabad, June 29: Nearly two months after Taliban militants expanded from their stronghold in the Swat Valley into neighboring Buner district, touching off an army offensive to remove them, there are early signs here that life is slowly returning to normal.
Bazaars have reopened in the two biggest towns, Daggar and Ambela. Power is back up in several larger communities. Men are mixing cement and rebuilding damaged walls. And families are either trickling back or sending older sons ahead to safeguard valuables and harvest overripe crops.
Mumbai, June 29: Known for their trademark romantic films, Yash Raj Films is all set to enter the small screen with a comedy show titled Rishta.com. Although YRF is trying its best to keep the project a secret, Mumbai Mirror ferreted out that Shah Rukh Khan, Preity Zinta, Ritesh Deshmukh, Tabu, Rani Mukerji, Uday Chopra, Jugal Hansraj and others will have cameo roles in the show. It will also feature several new faces.
Mumbai, June 29: Jackson’s two eldest kids face an uncertain future, after Jackson’s ex-wife said the King of Pop was not their father.
Debbie Rowe, mother of Prince, 12, and Paris, 11, told The News of The World she was artificially inseminated by an anonymous donor and that she does not want custody – leaving the two grieving children without a family, days after Jackson’s death at 50.
Rowe, a receptionist at a Beverly Hills dermatologist’s office where Jackson’s was treated, said it was she who offered to help Jackson have a family.
Andhra Pradesh, Jun 28 : A clash between teacher and headmaster of the same school led to murder of the former in Prem Nagar area of Warangal town today.
According to police, the victim L Venkat Reddy (43) and the accused headmaster Sammireddy had liquor last night till this morning in a shop.
After drinks, Sammireddy suddenly left for his house leaving the teacher in the shop.
Enraged over the behaviour of the headmaster, the teacher went to his house, quarrelled with him and beat him with an iron rod.
Washinton, June 29: Yep, you heard it right. Today’s senior citizens are proving that you can enjoy sex well into your 80s. During a survey, published in The Journal of Sexual Medicine, conducted by the University of Chicago, men and women ranging in the ages of 57 to 85 were asked questions regarding their sexual activity over the past year. Based on the information gathered, it seems some men and women are enjoying their sex lives well into their later years.
Hong Kong, June 29: An increasing number of Hong Kong teenagers are selling sex to earn money for designer clothes, in a trend called “compensated dating”, a survey released on Sunday indicated.
One in 10 students questioned said they believed schoolgirls were involved in the practice and 6.6% said they knew fellow students who had done it.
87% of the 3,000 interviewees said they believed teenagers got involved in the practice to earn money to buy branded products. Police have arrested several men in recent months for allegedly working as pimps for schoolgirls as young as 13.
New Delhi, June 29: It is too early for the gay and lesbian community to celebrate the government’s talk of decriminalising homosexuality. The centre will find it very difficult to build a consensus on the issue, with religious leaders already rejecting the idea of repealing section 377of the Indian Penal Code and opposition parties asking the government to exercise caution.
DNA had reported on Saturdaythe Centre’s plan to review the section, which terms intercourse between same-sex individuals “against the order of nature”, a crime that carries a punishment of up to 10 years in prison.
Manamadurai, June 29 : Government will bring in a bill providing reservation for women in government jobs in the coming parliament session, the Union home minister, Mr P. Chidambaram, said on Sunday.
“At present, there is no reservation for women in government jobs. We will bring forward a bill providing reservation for women in government jobs,” he said addressing a meeting to thank voters in his constituency Sivaganga.
Mr Chidambaram said he was confident that the bill for 33 per cent reservation for women in the Parliament and the Assemblies would be passed.
–Agencies
Washington, June 29: Sleep is one of the most important necessities of life, as is evidenced by the plethora of studies and articles recently published about this daily occurrence. Whether it is the comforts necessary for a good night’s sleep or the fact that many people find that good sleep helps them keep their personal and professional dreams, what I have found is that sleep acts much like a nutrient, vital for keeping you healthy, just like the foods, beverages, and supplements people consume everyday.
Hyderabad, June 29: The Tirupati East Police has busted a racket and arrested 10 people for allegedly selling Srivari Darshan token in the black market here.
Mumbai, June 29: When 12-year-old Paridhi Shah lied to her friends at school, she presented her mum Alpa with a delicate parenting dilemma: should she react as an understanding friend, or as a disciplinarian parent with zero tolerance for duplicity of any kind?
Tokyo, June 29: North Korea has vowed to shoot down any Japanese planes that violate its airspace, accusing Tokyo of spying near one of its missile launch sites.
The military “will not tolerate even a bit the aerial espionage by the warmongers of the Japanese aggression forces but mercilessly shoot down any plane intruding into the territorial air [of the North] even 0.001 mm,” the air force said in a statement on Saturday.
Tehran,June 29: Iran has detained several local British embassy staff, sparking a new row with Britain on Sunday that underscored the hardline leadership’s effort to blame post-election unrest on foreign powers, not popular anger.
British Foreign Secretary David Miliband demanded the release of all the staff still held and said his European Union colleagues had agreed to a “strong, collective response” to any such “harassment and intimidation” against EU missions.
Kolkata, June 29: Security forces on Sunday arrested two Maoist rebels, defused seven landmines and were busy gathering intelligence inputs before launching an assault on the rebels’ remaining stronghold at Kantapahari and its surrounding areas of West Bengal.
The two Left wing extremists were picked up from Sarenga near Kargil junction in neighbouring Bankura district, minutes after two landmines were found from the area by the joint force of the central paramilitary troopers and West Bengal armed police.
The two rebels were being interrogated at the Khatra police station.
Mumbai, June 29: Down with malaria, thespian Dilip Kumar was admitted to Lilavati Hospital in Bandra Reclamation early on Sunday.
The 87-year-old actor, running a high fever on Saturday, tested positive for falciparum or cerebral malaria, said Dr Jalil Parker, who had recently treated Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray.
Banglore, June 29: Was Chennai also supposed to witness serial blasts along with Bangalore in July 2008? If Bangalore blast accused Sarfaraz Nawaz’s statement is to be believed, then ‘Yes’; the city was on the LeT radar.
Sarfaraz’s interrogation has revealed that terrorists had planned to carry out blasts in Bangalore and Chennai simultaneously.
However, the LeT leaders in Pakistan changed the plan at the last minute as carrying out blasts in two places at the time requires lot of planning, logistical support and more number of people.
Manamadurai, June 29: Government will bring in a bill providing reservation for women in government jobs in the coming parliament session, Union Home Minister P Chidambaram said on Sunday.
“At present, there is no reservation for women in government jobs. We will bring forward a bill providing reservation for women in government jobs,” he said addressing a meeting to thank voters in his constituency Sivaganga.
Chidambaram said he was confident that the bill for 33 per cent reservation for women in Parliament and Assemblies would be passed.
–PTI
Toronto, June 29: A 59-year-old Toronto man convicted three times for possessing child pornography, is now facing a fourth such charge.
Blair Evans, a retired nuclear physicist, was arrested at a branch of a public library in Toronto.
In 2005, Evans received a 47-month sentence related to child porn, the toughest-such sentence imposed in Canada at the time.
He served eight months because of credit received for 17 months of pretrial custody and was freed on probation in July 2006.
Washington, June 29: The Obama White House left open the possibility Sunday that the president would break a campaign promise and raise taxes on people earning less than $250,000 to support his health care overhaul agenda.
White House adviser David Axelrod said the administration wouldn’t rule out taxing some employees’ benefits to fund a health care agenda that has yet to take final form. The move would be a compromise with fellow Democrats, who are pushing the proposal as a way to pay for the massive undertaking without ballooning the federal deficit.
Tehran, June 29: Iranian authorities have barred journalists for international news organizations from reporting on the streets and ordered them to stay in their offices. This report is based on the accounts of witnesses reached in Iran and official statements carried on Iranian media.
Several thousand protesters — some chanting “Where is my vote?” — clashed with riot police in Tehran on Sunday as Iran detained local employees of the British Embassy, escalating the regime’s standoff with the West and earning it a stinging rebuke from the European Union.
New Delhi, June 29: Picture yourself doing this. You buy a plasma TV at a high price. The salesman is not only rude, but treats you like dirt. You swallow the humiliation, for you badly want that TV.
Baghdad, June 29: Iraq cancelled leave for all its police and put them on high alert on Sunday ahead of the withdrawal of US combat forces from Iraqi towns
and cities at the end of the month, an official said.
The US pullback from urban centres has been seen as a milestone on the country’s road to sovereignty six years after the US military invaded to topple Saddam Hussein. But a string of bombings in Baghdad and northern Iraq this week, including two of the bloodiest attacks for more than a year, have shaken the confidence of Iraqis in their own forces.