New Delhi, July 30: Will the Manmohan Singh government appoint yet another special envoy on international affairs? As Foreign Secretary Shiv Shankar Menon retires this Friday, there is a strong possibility that he could be accommodated in the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) as a special envoy dealing with India’s troubled neighbourhood.
New Delhi, July 30: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Wednesday praised his predecessor Atal Bihari’s Vajpayee, saying “he took a decision of political courage to visit Lahore in 1999”.
In the course of his reply in the Lok Sabha to the debate on India-Pakistan ties, Singh invoked Vajpayee’s name to make the point that it required statesmanship to make bold decisions that often changed the course of history.
The recent presidential elections in Iran have revealed a major problem for the Islamic Republic: It is, and has always been, politically fractured. To find the initial cracks, just look back to 1979. The revolutionaries and the disciples of the founder of the Islamic Republic, Ayatollah Khomeini, sharply disagreed as to how the state should be constructed and what its objectives should be.
Kolkata, July 30: From 2012, the West Bengal Board of Secondary Education will conduct the Madhyamik examination based only on the Class X syllabus. This will mark a departure from the present practice where students have to prepare the syllabi of both Class IX and X while appearing for the Madhyamik examination.
The state government had issued an order on June 16 to bifurcate the syllabus. It had also asked the Board to follow January-December academic session. The decision will bring relief to over one million students studying in about 10,000 secondary schools.
New Delhi, July 30: The Bharatiya Janata Party on Wednesday launched a frontal assault on the Government for compromising on India’s stated position on Pakistan in the Sharm-el Sheikh joint statement and said the “waters of the seven seas will not be able to wash the shame” brought on the country through this flawed initiative.
Kolkata, July 30: Two Trinamool Congress leaders, Mantu Master and Shaikh Zafarulla, and a CPM supporter Shaikh Qutubuddin were killed and four others injured in a clash at Notungram in Burdwan district on Wednesday.
The area has been witnessing a bloody turf war between the parties especially after the ruling Left’s debacle in Lok Sabha elections.
The incident took place on Wednesday when a group of 40-50 people, allegedly CPM supporters, attacked Mantu — headmaster of a primary school — and Zafarullah, who was going to Mantu’s school.
Kolkata, July 30: The state Congress on Wednesday demanded a CBI inquiry into the CPM leader’s murder in Mangalkot in June following allegations that the killers were sheltered by the local Congress leaders.
Congress Legislative Party (CLP) leader Manas Bhuniya, who along with eight other Congress MLAs, was assaulted by villagers on July 15 while trying to enter Dhanyarukhi village in Burdwan district, dared the chief minister to order a CBI probe. “If the chief minister can hold a CBI inquiry into the murder, the facts will come out.”
Beijing, July 30: Heavy rainstorms have caused flooding and landslides across southern China, killing at least 66 people this summer and forcing tens of thousands to evacuate their homes, the Xinhua news agency said on Thursday.
Heavy summer rains have hit a belt across Sichuan, Guizhou, Guangxi, Hunan and Jiangxi regions since last month, causing an estimated 342 million yuan ($50.07 million) in damages.
–Agencies
Khartoum, July 30: A Sudanese woman arrested for wearing trousers and facing a public flogging as punishment, was applauded by democracy activists yesterday after she took a defiant stand against Sudan’s rulers and the repressive version of Islam she accuses them of enforcing in Africa’s biggest country.
Lubna Hussein, a local employee of the UN’s peacekeeping mission, was offered immunity from prosecution as a judge opened proceedings against her for “offences against the public taste”.
New Delhi, July 30: The Nehru Nagar police on Wednesday arrested two youths from a slum in Kurla for stealing cables worth Rs 72,000 from a construction site. The police have registered a case of robbery against the duo.
“On Tuesday night, the accused Nitin Dhumal (21) and Sohail Kaneriwala (19), both residents of Chembur were passing the site where the construction of a telephone tower was in progress at Vatsalabai Naik Nagar in Kurla.
New Delhi, July 30: A teenage student was found murdered in South Delhi’s Vasant Kunj area on Wednesday morning, a day after he was reported kidnapped for ransom from near his West Delhi house. The police said Ribbu Chawla was killed even though his father paid Rs 20 lakh — a third of their Rs 60-lakh demand — as ransom, as demanded by the abductors, late Tuesday night.
New Delhi, July 30: The feisty princess Ayesha, daughter of the erstwhile maharaja of Cooch Behar, shot her first panther at the age of 13, stunning everyone.
Six years later, the beautiful woman who came to be known as Maharani Gayatri Devi stunned her family again by falling in love with prince Sawai Man Singh of Jaipur.
She called him Jai and insisted on marrying him, knowing that he already had two wives and that her own family was against the match.
Washington, July 30: A combat brigade of 5,000 American troops may be brought home early from Iraq if the trend of reduced violence holds, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Wednesday.
It was the first suggestion that the Obama administration might rethink its decision to keep as many forces in Iraq as possible this year. Obama has settled on a gradual withdrawal plan despite his opposition to the war as a candidate.
White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said later that “conditions on the ground” will dictate any quickening of the withdrawal pace.
Paris, July 30: Two French police reports call the use of the burqa a “marginal phenomenon,” saying that fewer than 400 women in the country wear the all-covering Muslim robe, a French newspaper reported.
The burqa is a hot-button issue in France, a secular state where wearing explicitly religious symbols in public places like schools is tightly regulated.
French lawmakers recently revived the long-standing debate about whether Muslim veils are acceptable in public by proposing a ban of the face- and body-covering burqa.
Seoul, July 30: Seoul Thursday demanded the return of one of its fishing boats which was seized by North Korea after it strayed across the inter-Korean sea border, the South Korean unification ministry said.
The vessel, named 800, with four crew on board crossed several kilometres into North Korean waters when returning from a fishing trip in the East Sea off the Korean peninsula, a ministry spokesman said, quoting the military officials. It was seized around 6.30 a.m. (2130 GMT Wednesday).
Islamabad, July 30: In a startling revelation that exposes Pakistan’s ‘commitment’ to bringing the perpetrators of 26/11 to justice, a leading Pak daily has said key Lashker-e-Toiba operatives Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi and Zarar Shah are “believed to have confessed” to their involvement in the Mumbai terror attacks but Pakistani authorities are yet to make it public.
Kochi, July 30: The Mujahid Students’ Movement (AP faction) will conduct a Qur’an Knowledge Exam in Ramazan. The exam is conducted as part of the organisation’s Ramazan campaign ‘Holy Qur’an: Path of Light for the Humanity’.
The primary round of the exam will be held on September 13 and the final on October 18. The exams will be conducted in various centres inside and outside the state.
Hyderabad, July 30: The prospects of holding elections in the immediate future to the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation virtually disappeared on Wednesday when the High Court stayed the issuance of the poll notification on the ground that the basis for determination of backward class voters was “faulty and illegal.”
Mumbai, July 30: Shahrukh ‘Badshah’ Khan and the exquisite beauty, Aishwarya Rai according to reports will now sizzle together on the 70mm screen.
Shahrukh ‘Badshah’ Khan and the exquisite beauty, Aishwarya Rai according to reports will now sizzle together on the 70mm screen.
A popular pairing in Bollywood, the two actors had fallen out and which was subsequently followed by a cold war after the ouster of Ash from Shahrukh home production movie ‘Chalte Chalte’ due to Salman Khan’s unruly behaviour on the sets of the same movie.
Havana, July 30: The Venceremos Brigade, the US organisation showing solidarity with the Cuban Revolution, has called on the US government to abolish its 1962 economic blockade on Cuba.
In a press conference in Havana Tuesday, the group members ratified their support for the Cuban Revolution and demanded the normalisation of diplomatic relations between the countries.
They also rejected the travel restrictions imposed on US citizens. “We will continue defying the travel ban until it and the blockade are lifted,” said social worker Kathe Karlson.
Mumbai, July 30: Salman Khan is one man who loves to be in the good books of everyone. Recently, he was invited to a music launch of the forthcoming film Shadow. The film is a suspense thriller directed by Rohit Nayyar.
On the event, as soon as Salman entered the premises, the media, which were present there in hordes, mobbed him immediately. Poor Sallu was shoved under his nose with every microphone present in the room Of course, all this shoving and pushing irked the temperamental Sallu miya, who got so much irritated that he thought of walking out of the music launch
Washington, July 30: The US will loan up to $37.5 billion to fund renewable energy projects around the country, the Energy Department said Wednesday.
The new loans are part of an effort to stimulate the US economy and reduce emissions of greenhouse gases blamed for global warming.
Part of the money will come from a $787-billion recovery package approved by Congress in February. Nearly $40 billion went to the Energy Department.
New York, July 30: US stocks fell Wednesday amid fresh commodity fears, which overshadowed an optimistic report on the US economy from the Federal Reserve.
Energy and metals manufacturers declined as the price of crude oil dropped 5.8 percent to $63.35 per barrel in New York trading. The price was led lower by a report of a surprising increase in US oil stockpiles.
The US central bank said that economic activity is beginning to stabilize in most regions. Only its regional bank in Minneapolis, Minnesota, said its local economy was still contracting.
Rome, July 30: A list of the world records set at the Foro Italico in Rome by the end of Wednesday’s events. The competition ends Sunday.
Sunday July 26 (6 world records):
Sarah Sjostrom, Sweden, women’s 100m butterfly, 56.44 seconds Paul Biedermann, Germany, men’s 400m freestyle, 3:40.07 Ariana Kukors, US, women’s 200m individual medley, 2:07.03 Federica Pellegrini, Italy, women’s 400m freestyle, 3:59.15
Algiers, July 30: Rebels ambushed a military convoy in northern Algeria Wednesday, killing 14 soldiers and injuring seven, a media report said.
The convoy of troops was carrying munitions from Damous to Beni Mlika in the province of Tipaza when it was ambushed by a group of Salafist rebels with bombs and automatic weapons, according to the El Watan newspaper.
In the ensuing fighting, the rebels set off several bombs and opened fire at the convoy.
Algerian authorities have not confirmed the reports.
—IANS–