Month: June 2009

Workers paid to marry

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Seattle, June 24: The owner of a chain of popular Seattle-area Thai restaurants has been indicted on charges alleging she paid workers tens of thousands of dollars to enter into sham marriages with her relatives, allowing them to stay in the US.

Varee Bradford, who operates five Thai Ginger restaurants in Seattle and its suburbs, was arrested at her Issaquah home on Tuesday on one count of immigration fraud conspiracy and three counts of immigration document fraud. She was released on personal recognisance on Tuesday afternoon after pleading not guilty in US District Court.

Shiv Sena protests power hike in Mumbai, 35 injured

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Mumbai, June 24: At least 35 people, including eight women, were injured Wednesday when police baton charged Shiv Sena workers protesting hike in power tariff in this Maharashtra city, police said.

The police detained Shiv Sena leaders Subhash Desai, former MP Suresh Prabhu, and former minister Gajanan Kirtikar who were leading the protestors in different parts of the city.

Police baton charged agitators when they barged into a Reliance Power office in Goregaon, an official said.

Inadequate rains may play havoc with public programmes

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New Delhi, June 24: The government, which is grappling with a ballooning fiscal deficit and looking for ways to kick start the economy, may well have to deal with the dual spectre of soaring food prices and higher cost of running public programmes if the rain gods play truant.

According to the India Meteorological Department (IMD), the country’s rainfall during June 1-17 was 45 per cent below normal due to a lull in the southwest monsoon.

Complaint against Ash for illegal land purchase

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Mumbai, June 24: A police complaint has been registered against Aishwarya Rai Bachchan and several others, including Suzlon [Get Quote] chairman Tulsi Tanti, for the illegal purchase of land to set up a windmill at Nandurbar in north Maharashtra.

The complaint was lodged on Tuesday by Anand Lala Thakare, who alleged that his land was purchased and illegally transferred to Suzlon.

The actress is a shareholder in the company, which is setting up a wind power project at a village called Dhandane in Nandurbar.

New protest planned outside Iran parliament

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Tehran, June 24: Iran’s supreme leader said Wednesday that the government would not give in to pressure over the disputed presidential election, effectively closing the door to compromise with the opposition.

Reformist leader Mir Hossein Mousavi’s official Web site said nonetheless that a protest was planned outside Iran’s parliament Wednesday afternoon. It distanced him at the same time, calling the demonstration independent and saying it had not been organized by Mousavi.

Dinosaur size may have been smaller than estimated: Study

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New Delhi, June 24: Gigantic dinosaurs, as shown in Hollywood movies, may not have been as huge when they actually walked on the earth, scientists have said.

Scientists at the Colorado University in the US claimed to have found that the original statistical model, used to calculate dinosaur mass, was flawed.

26 killed in Jammu road accident

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Mumbai, June 24: At least 26 people were killed and 20 others injured when two buses collided in the Udhampur district of Jammu and Kashmir on Wednesday, police said.

Two buses coming from opposite directions collided head-on at Panthal, about 45 km north of Jammu. Bodies of 26 people have been recovered by the rescue teams and the injured have been hospitalised, a police officer said.

The officer said at least 10 injured have been brought to the Government Medical College Hospital here. The condition of all the injured is said to be critical.

Indian firms created 30,000 jobs overseas in last 2 years

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Washington, June 24: Indian companies made 143 acquisitions across various sectors in the United States over the last two years, bailed out many companies on the brink of closure and created some 30,000 jobs, according to a seminal new study.

In 2007-08 alone, 94 deals between the range of $0.8 million and $1,005 million were concluded with the disclosed value in 55 deals totalling $4,432 million, according to the joint study released by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) and Ernst and Young.

H.R.Bhardwaj appointed new Karnataka governor

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New Delhi, June 24: Former law minister H.R. Bhardwaj was Wednesday appointed governor of Karnataka, replacing incumbent Rameshwar Thakur who has been transferred to Madhya Pradesh, officials said here.

The veteran Congress leader was dropped from the Manmohan Singh cabinet after the Congress-led new United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government was formed.

Thakur, who is currently the Karnataka governor, has been transferred and appointed the governor of Madhya Pradesh for the remainder of his term, a Rashtrapati Bhavan statement announced.

Migrants boost Jewish settler numbers in West Bank

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Israel, June 24: Israelis moving to the West Bank accounted for more than a third of settler population growth in recent years, undercutting Israel’s argument that it is continuing settlement construction only to accommodate growing families already living there.

The so-called “natural growth” rationale for building on land the Palestinians claim for a future state has vaulted Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu into an unusually vocal and public clash with the Obama administration, which has come out strong against continued settlement expansion.

Sena workers stage protest over power tariff hike

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Mumbai, June 24: Shiv Sainiks today took to the streets in protest of rising electricity tariffs and appealed to Mumbaikars to stop paying their bills in protest.

The Sena workers have been protesting outside Reliance Energy offices in parts of the city since morning.

However, the protests took an ugly turn outside the corporation’s office in Goregaon when police restored to lathi charge after Sena activsits threatened to turn violent. Over 35 people were injured in the incident including women protestors

Delhi meets basic world heritage criteria, says expert

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New Delhi, June 24: Delhi a city dotted with historical monuments and said to have been continuously inhabited since the 6th century, already fulfils two of the basic criteria for Unesco’s World Heritage City status, says a leading conservation expert.

“Unesco requires that a city should be of significance to human civilisation to get World Heritage City status and Delhi fulfils it,” said A.G.K. Menon, convenor of the Delhi chapter of the Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage (Intach).

Pakistan not to hand over 26/11 suspects to India: Minister

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Islamabad, June 24: Pakistan said Wednesday it would not hand over to India its citizens suspected of causing the 26/11 mayhem but would try them under its own laws.

‘No Pakistani would be handed over to any other country including India,’ Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Malik Amad Ahmed Khan said during the debate in the National Assembly, the lower house of parliament, on the budget for fiscal 2009-10, Online news agency reported.

Meiyang Chang in Yash Raj film

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Mumbai, June 24: Indian Idol Meiyang Chang is in the fastest pace of his life. He will be seen soon in Yash Raj’s next untitled film. This film is directorial debut of Parmeet Sethi. Along with Chang there are Shahid Kapoor, Anushka Sharma and Veer Das in the film. Music is by Pritam and its shooting is scheduled to commence in July.

Woman loses eye sight over fight

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Gangtok, June 24: A housewife lost sight in her right eye in a fight with three teenage girls over a loud party in her house in Arithang locality of the Sikkim capital, police said on Wednesday.

The accused teenagers have been arrested on charges of grievous assault on their neighbour.

An argument erupted between the accused and the victim, who reside in the same building in Arithang, when the housewife had some guests over in her apartment Tuesday evening. The teenage trio complained that the party was too loud and disturbing.

Middle age woman gangrape by three

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New Delhi, June 24: In the second incident of gangrape reported in the capital in as many days, a 22-year-old woman has alleged that she was assaulted by three men in her east Delhi home, police said on Wednesday.

According to the woman, three men, including her husband’s friend, raped her when she was alone at her Bholanath Nagar residence in east Delhi on Tuesday evening.

“I was alone when they entered into the house on the pretext of meeting my husband. They raped and threatened of dire consequences if I made a noise,” the woman said in her police complaint.

BSE Sensex rises 0.7 pct on short covering

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Mumbai, June 24: The BSE Sensex erased an early fall and climbed 0.7 percent on Wednesday as investors covered their short positions ahead of the monthly derivatives expiry, but the market undertone was weak due to a delay in monsoon.

Larsen & Toubro, which lost nearly a tenth of its value in the last two weeks, led the gains on speculation the engineering and construction firm would benefit from expected higher spending on infrastructure.

Neda Soltan – the woman who became a freedom icon in death

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London, June 24: Anguish and angst… a young Iranian woman who bled to death on a Tehran pavement after being shot at has become the symbol of a new Iran for hundreds of netizens who have flooded networking sites with their postings.
Neda Soltan, 26, was shot in the chest Saturday during an anti-government demonstration against the presidential election that voted Mahmoud Ahmedinejad back to power. As she fell to the ground on the crowded Tehran street, her last moments were captured on a mobile phone.

50 killed in suspected US missile fire

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Wana, June 24 : At least 50 people, including an Afghan militant commander, was killed in a series of US missile firing, reported Geo TV Wednesday.

‘The drones fired missiles when Sangeen, an Afghan commander of Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan, was holding a meeting soon after the funeral of an associate of Baitullah Mehsud in Lataka area Tuesday,’ a senior security official said Wednesday.

Apparently the drones remained in the air after the first strike as it also targeted some vehicles in which the militants were fleeing.

Girl alleged rape in Surat, two arrested

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Surat, June 24: Two persons have been arrested for alleged abduction and rape of a minor girl in Surat, police said on Wednesday.

The duo identified as Vishnu Chauhan and Kanti Chauhan had allegedly abducted and raped the 14-year-old victim on June 18 after drugging her, according to the complaint filed by the maternal uncle of the girl on Tuesday evening.

The girl, hailing from Anand district, apparently had a relationship with Vishnu, police said.

When her parents came to know about them, they sent the girl to her uncle’s place in Surat, they said.

Farhan Akhtar’s wish comes true

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Mumbai, June 25: Recently Farhan Akhtar was in for a surprise when top Hollywood director Ang Lee paid a visit on the film sets.

Farhan-Deepika mobbed

The actor who’s currently shooting for KARTHIK CALLING KARTHIK was surprised when the director of BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN perched himself next to Farhan, who was thrilled by his visit.

Ang Lee was seen discussing the working of Bollywood films with the director -turned actor and spent quite some time on the sets.

Farhan, who is an admirer of Ang Lee’s cinema couldn’t have asked for a more exciting time on the sets.

—Agencies

Historic Makkah TV building gutted in huge fire

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Makkah, June 24: A huge fire tore through the 46-year-old historic Makkah TV building in old Zaher District Tuesday, leaving behind a pile of debris, but the transmission from Makkah will remain in full swing, authorities said.

The fire started at 3:00 P.M. due to a short circuit of the air-conditioner in the photocopying unit, according to preliminary investigations, said Lt. Gen. Adel Zamzami, Chief of the Makkah Civil Defense Department.

KAMBAKKHT ISHQ to be real ‘comeback film’ for Bollywood?

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Mumbai, June 25: When producers carried on their two months long strike, there was quite some hullabaloo around audiences being deprived of films for weeks at stretch. Newspaper, social networking sites, Bollywood websites – all forums had a common discussion going that audiences were longing for films to arrive in theaters again. It was akin to a staple diet being missing from everyone’s routine.

BJP to stick to Hindutva ideology

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Jammu, June 24: Reaffirming his party’s commitment to Hindutva, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president Rajnath Singh Tuesday said the electoral “victory or defeat is not a referendum on the ideologies and commitment of the party”.

Sharing the dais with Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS) chief Mohanrao Bhagwat at a function in the Jammu and Kashmir winter capital, the BJP leader said his party was committed to Hindutva and “would not give up that ideology simply because it lost elections”.

Twenty20 will be future of cricket, believes Gilchrist

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London, June 24: Asserting that Twenty20 will be the future of cricket, former Australian wicket-keeper Adam Gilchrist reckons that the game must face up to the reality that some of the world’s best players may put the shortest version before their commitment to Test cricket.

”We’ve very much got to be prepared for that,” Gilchrist said. ”I don’t think it should be a shock when it does happen or if it does happen. In an administrative sense we’ve got to get the planning and scheduling right. The players are crying out to say they want a window for the IPL.