Month: June 2009

Delhi Police discount rape charges

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New Delhi, June 25: The Delhi Police on Thursday claimed that the Inderpuri rape case involving the SHO and four constables of the police station was fabricated by the alleged victim.

Police sources said that the woman fabricated the case of gang rape to protect her husband, who was wanted because of his alleged involvement in satta dealing.

In some of the clinching evidences establishing the police claim, the SHO was not present at the spot at the time of the reported crime, sources said.

India wholesale prices fall but price pressures mount

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New Delhi, June 25: India’s wholesale prices fell less than expected in mid-June from a year earlier, marking a build-up in price pressures as the economy picks up and the effect of past sharp falls in energy prices wears off.

The wholesale price index fell 1.14 percent in the 12 months to June 13, compared with analysts’ median forecast of a 1.69 percent drop and the previous week’s 1.61 percent decline, government data showed on Thursday.

Saudi ship Al-Jawaz-e-Karam was missing & feared sunk in Okha port

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Ahmedabad, June 25: A Saudi merchant ship named Al-Jawaz-e-Karam was reported missing and feared sunk about 12 nautical miles off the Okha port in the deep waters of the Arabian sea in western Gujarat Thursday morning.

“The upper layer disturbance over the Arabian sea had led to cyclonic conditions off the Okha coast (since Wednesday), in which two merchant ships, both bearing a Saudi flag – Al-Hussani and Al-Jawaaz-e-Karam – were caught in the mid-sea in the early hours (Thursday),” a senior coast guard official told.

Techies held for attempting to rape jobseeker

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Hyderabad, June 25: The Hyderabad Police on Thursday arrested two software engineers for attempting to rape a 25-year-old woman who was looking for a job.

The two techies, identified as 32-year-old Madhu Babu alias Teja and 26-year-old Praveen, took the woman out for drinks to a restaurant and allegedly spiked her soft drink.

Police said the incident took place on June 20, on the victim’s birthday. The accused took her, an MCA graduate, to their flat instead of dropping her off at her hostel and tried to rape her.

Cabinet status for Nandan Nilekani

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New Delhi: The Union Cabinet has appointed the Infosys Chief Nandan Nilekani as the Chairman of National Authority for Unique Identity.

Minister for Information and Broadcasting Ambika Soni said the new authority will function under the planning commission, and Nilekani will be enjoying cabinet status.

Ms Soni said the authority will have the responsibility to lay down plans and policies to implement the Unique Identification Scheme and will operate the unique identification number database for the citizen’s of the country.

Italian PM paid for sex?

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Rome, June 25: Embattled Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has said he has never paid a woman for sex, the subject of an embarrassing investigation under way in southern Italy. “I have never paid a woman,” Berlusconi said in an interview to appear today.

“I have never seen the satisfaction that there could be in it without the pleasure of conquest,” he told the celebrity weekly Chi. The 72-year-old billionaire is embroiled in a host of scandals from his links to an aspiring teen model to a messy divorce.

Its too late to make movies on 9/11

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New Delhi, June 25: Hollywood has highlighted it, so have others. But the Hindi film industry has barely touched upon 9/11 as a theme, with Kabir Khan’s ‘New York’ coming eight years after the tragic incident in the US.

Experts say it is too ‘late’ to make a film on the subject even as the film is set to be released Friday.

‘ ‘New York’ is belated…it has been nearly eight years since the incident happened. The Mumbai film industry is very late in reacting to this kind of a storyline…The topicality of such a theme is lost because of the delay,’ film historian Gautam Kaul told IANS.

Artists write to Chidambaram, more forces in Lalgarh

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Lalgarh, June 25: Eminent artists have written to Home Minister P. Chidambaram complaining about atrocities by security forces, whose presence in this trouble zone was beefed up Thursday by 1,000 paramilitary troopers crossing over from Jharkhand.

‘We have written to union Home Minister P. Chidambaram based on our experiences. We have demanded that the security operations be stopped and a ceasefire declared to facilitate talks between the ultras and the administration,’ said theatre personality Kaushik Sen.

70-yr-old survives due to rarest of rare heart surgery

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Mumbai, June 25: When 70-year-old Mumbai resident Satya Devi Gandhi suffered two successive heart attacks in Ludhiana within 24 hours this month, top doctors there and in other cities of north India washed their hands off.

Not only is she aged, has diabetes, high blood pressure and asthma but she had also suffered a rupture in the ventricular septum due to the cardiac arrest.

Houseowner’s family killed in rent row

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Lucknow, June 25: Four members of a Dalit family were found dead in a village in Uttar Pradesh’s Hardoi district taking the toll in murders there to 24 in the past 24 days. Police Thursday said all the four victims have been strangled to death.

‘The tenant, Vijay Pratap Singh was arrested Wednesday night,’ Superintendent of Police Navneet Rana told IANS on telephone Thursday.

The victims, a widow, her mother-in-law and her two minor children, were found dead Wednesday inside their house in Sandi town of Hardoi, 110 km from the state capital Lucknow.

Celebrating innovation: Tatas in search of next ‘Nano’

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Mumbai: On July 29, Tata Sons Chairman Ratan Tata will be the chief guest of a function in Mumbai that will be seen live by employees of all group companies across the world via video conference. That’s nothing unusual, except for the fact that Tata will be giving away awards to 12 winners of Innovista, the group’s internal competition designed to stimulate and support innovation.

Sonia, Manmohan offer Chadar at Ajmer sharif

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New Delhi, June 25: Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh and Congress President Sonia Gandhi on Thursday sent a “Chadar” (holy cloth) to the shrine of Sufi saint Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti in Ajmer on the occasion of annual ‘Urs’.

Senior party leaders who would carry the Chadar arrived at Gandhi’s residence and touched the holy cloth, symbolising their participation in the offering.

Software engineers arrested for attempting to rape

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Hyderabad, June 25: The Hyderabad Police on Thursday arrested two software engineers for attempting to rape a 25-year-old woman who was looking for a job.

The two techies, identified as 32-year-old Madhu Babu alias Teja and 26-year-old Praveen, took the woman out for drinks to a restaurant and allegedly spiked her soft drink.

Police said the incident took place on June 20, on the victim’s birthday. The accused took her, an MCA graduate, to their flat instead of dropping her off at her hostel and tried to rape her.

Pak players ask IPL for a hike in pay

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Karachi, June 25: Pakistani cricketers are planning to encash their Twenty20 World Cup triumph and ask for a hike in the existing contracts with their respective Indian Premier League franchisees next season.

After IPL organisers announced that Pakistani players would be welcome to play next season subject to clearance from both governments, sources in the sports management company representing players like Misbah-ul-Haq, Sohail Tanvir, Umar Gul or Kamran Akmal said they are unlikely to play on their old contractual terms of USD 100,000 each.

New ferry route between Russia, Japan, S Korea opens July 6

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Vladivostok, June 25: A new ferry route connecting Russia, Japan and South Korea will open from July 6, official sources said.

The route will link Russia’s Vladivostok with Japan’s Sakaiminato in the northern Tottori Prefecture and South Korea’s port of Donghai.

The Eastern Dream ferryboat that will service the route has the capacity to seat 500 passengers and can carry 70 cars and containers and enter Vladivostok once a week, on Tuesdays.

Reasons behind Iran absence in G8 meeting

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Tehran, June 25: Foreign Ministry Spokesman Hassan Qashqavi has explained why Iran will not take part in a meeting of the eight industrialized nations (G8) on Afghanistan.

According to Qashqavi, based on earlier preliminary agreements between Iran and host Italy, certain preparations had to be made including expert talks between delegates from both sides to ensure the optimum level of achievement in the conference. The groundwork, however, was not laid forth, Qashqavi explained.

Obama asked to appoint a high-profile aide for India

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Washington, June 25: Noting that the Indo-US ties has lost the momentum seen in the early era of the Bush regime, a Task Force report on Thursday suggested President Barack Obama to include India as a G-8 member, open a new Consulate in Bangalore and appoint a high-profile aide for New Delhi.

“President Barack Obama should assign ownership of the bilateral dialogue to a high-profile aide and this person should promptly meet with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s newly-formed government to define a mutual vision for economic interaction in the years ahead,” the report said today.

Nilekani to head national ID card project

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New Delhi, June 25: The government on Thursday appointed Infosys co-chairman Nandan Nilekani as the chairperson of Unique Identification Authority, formed to issue IDs to every citizen in the country.

The move to set up the UID Authority of India (UIDAI), under the aegis of the Planning Commission, is aimed at providing a unique identity to the targeted population of the flagship schemes to ensure that the benefits reach them, Information and Broadcasting Minister Ambika Soni told reporters here after the Cabinet meeting.

My Name is Khan almost robbed

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Mumbai, June 25: This year, the date 14th June seemed to be jinxed for Bollywood. On one hand, while Shiney Ahuja got accused of raping his maid, there was yet another crime that took place, but didn’t quite make it to the newspapers’ headlines.

This was about a robbery that took place at the ultra-tech studios of the musical trio Shankar, Ehsaan and Loy.

Reliance offers call to US, Canada at Rs 1.99/minute in AP

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Hyderabad, June 24: Reliance Communications has launched a unique international calling card for the US and Canada ‘ICC 799’ which brings down calling rates to these countries to as low as Rs 1.99 per minute.

The card is available for both CDMA and GSM subscribers. On an e-recharge of Rs 799, the card offers a talk time of more than 350 minutes for calls to the US and Canada with a validity of 30 days.

This card adds an exciting variety to the wide bouquet of offerings in the International Calling Card portfolio, a press release here today said.

—–Agencies

Tutor force a 14-year-old girl to have sex, faces jail

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Hong Kong, June 25: A Hong Kong language tutor was Thursday facing jail after being convicted of using threats to force a 14-year-old girl pupil into having sex with him.

Gary Siu Cheuk-ming, 27, lured the girl who attended his private Japanese lessons to a meeting in a hostel after claiming he could get modelling work for her and filmed her naked.

He then had sex with her at least 10 times over a three-month period after threatening to distribute the video if she did not sleep with him, the South China Morning Post reported.

Formula One is the winner as Mosley agrees to quit

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Hamburg, June 25: Formula One racing was the winner when Max Mosley caved in to a group of rebel teams to ensure the future of the sport, insiders and the international media said on Thursday.

A deal struck on Wednesday between eight teams organized in the umbrella body FOTA and the world governing body FIA run by Mosley ended a bitter two-month standoff in which the teams had threatened to form a breakaway deal.

Does Saturn moon hide watery caverns – and life?

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Germany, June 25: Saturn’s icy moon Enceladus could contain watery underground caverns, forming a potential home for alien life, say scientists.

German researchers have found salt – a signature chemical for seawater – in ice grains from vapour jets streaming out of surface cracks, providing the strongest evidence yet of a liquid water reservoir beneath the moon’s frozen crust.

Bhakra Dam cuts water supply to North India by 6,000 cusecs

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New Delhi, June 25: With the possibility of a ‘below normal’ monsoon looming large, the Bhakra Beas Management Board (BBMB) on Thursday decided to cut the supply of water for irrigation to Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh and Rajasthan by 6000 cusecs till July 10.

BBMB will now supply only 22,000 cusecs against the current supply of 28,000 cusecs, a move that would raise the water level in Bhakra reservoir which has been fast depleting due to lack of rains in its catchment area.