Islamabad, July 07: A Pakistani singer has combined the voices of Mahatma Gandhi, Mohammad Ali Jinnah, Benazir Bhutto and US President Barack Obama in a new song that makes an impassioned plea for peace in the region.
Shahvaar Ali Khan’s “No Saazish, No Jung” is a peace anthem that tells “mullahs” and “foreigners” to leave his country alone.
New Delhi, July 07: Amid criticism of his 100-day agenda, HRD Minister Kapil Sibal on Tuesday said the government is contemplating a Bill on allowing foreign universities, but would move carefully and through consensus.
Replying to supplementaries during Question Hour, he said India needs to become a world class educational hub for which “we need to access” global institutions.
“I hope to send it (Foreign University Bill) to the Cabinet”, he said in the Rajya Sabha, adding that the Bill will be brought to Parliament whenever there is consensus.
Geneva, July 07: The United Nations top human rights official said Tuesday she was alarmed by the ongoing ethnic violence in China’s north-west and called on community leaders to act with restraint.
Government officials said the clashes have left at least 156 people dead and over 1,080 injured, in unrest which began late Sunday.
‘This is an extraordinarily high number of people to be killed and injured in less than a day of rioting,’ UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay said, calling the deaths a ‘major tragedy’.
Sydney, July 07: Many people link obesity, smoking, drugs and stress with infertility problems, but lifestyles could also come in the way of conception for many couples.
A University of Adelaide study has advised infertile couples to seek advice about their lifestyle before embarking on in-vitro fertilisation (IVF) treatment or other assisted reproductive technologies.
Islamabad, July 07: Pakistani authorities on Tuesday resubmitted to the Supreme Court two petitions challenging the release from house arrest of JuD chief Hafiz Mohd Saeed, a key accused in the Mumbai attacks, after removing the “technical flaws” due to which the pleas were rejected earlier.
Deputy Attorney General Shah Khawar filed one petition on behalf of the federal government while Advocate General Raza Farooq submitted the second for the Punjab government.
The petitions were resubmitted after removing the technical flaws pointed out by the apex court yesterday.
Mumbai, July 07: Incarcerated 1993 bomb blast accused Riaz Siddiqui has been writing poetry in jail since his arrest three years ago and his latest collection of poems Qaidi Parinde (Jailed Birds) has won him acclaim.
A Delhi publishing house has published a book on poems penned down by Siddiqui and paid him Rs 5,000 as the initial token amount, according to Siddiqui’s lawyer Farhana Shah.
The money has been deposited in the jail account of Siddiqui who is confined in Mumbai’s central prison.
Mumbai, July 07: Sajid Nadiadwala’s Kambakkht Ishq has registered a stupendous opening grossing over Rs 46 crore at the box office in its opening weekend, Eros International, the film’s co-producer and distributor has said.
The film, directed by debutant Sabbir Khan with Akshay Kumar and Kareena Kapoor in the lead roles has grossed over Rs 32 crore in India and Rs 14 crore overseas.
The film, which released worldwide on July 3, has also touched the number eight position in UK in the same period.
Ahmedabad, July 07: Seven persons died and five others were hospitalised in critical condition on Tuesday after they consumed alleged illicit liquor in Majoor Gam area here, police said.
The incident has sparked off protests in the area with women taking to the streets demanding government and police to crack down on all illegal liquor dens in the State.
The incident took place early morning when some people of the Majoor Gam area after consuming spurious liquor started vomiting and complained of stomach ache.
New Delhi, July 07: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh left for Italy Tuesday to participate in the G8-G5 summit to be held in the earthquake-hit mountain town of L’Aquila, 100 km northeast of Rome.
The prime minister will be attending outreach meetings of the G8, the world’s most wealthy and industrialised countries, and G5, the major emerging economies in the world, during his four-day trip.
—IANS–
New Delhi, July 07: Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee today said the government has taken the calculated risk of high fiscal deficit to help stimulate growth, but would strive hard to bring it down to 4 per cent in the next two fiscals.
Noting that a fiscal deficit of 6.8 per cent was on the higher side, the minister said: “The global economic slowdown is likely to continue in the current financial year… (but) we must come back to growth path as fast as possible.”
“No doubt, I have taken a risk… We cannot say we are out of the economic slowdown as yet,” he said.
Beijing, July 07: Chinese police have arrested more than 1,400 suspects in connection with rioting in the capital of Muslim Xinjiang region which left 156 people dead and more than 800 injured, state media said on Tuesday.
The Chinese government has blamed exiled separatists for the unrest in regional capital Urumqi on Sunday — the worst case of ethnic unrest in years.
Who are the Uighurs?
Yemen, July 07: A Yemeni court sentenced three more rebels from a Shi’ite Muslim sect to death on Tuesday after convicting them of causing deaths in clashes with the army in 2008.
The state security court also jailed six other rebels, accused of seeking to install Shi’ite Islamic rule, to jail terms of 5-15 years for taking part in the clashes.
Hundreds of people have died and thousands have fled their homes in battles between government forces and the rebels in the north which have raged on and off since 2004.
Srinagar, July 07: Two person were killed and four others injured in separate road accidents in Kashmir today, a police spokesman said. 55-year-old and a resident of Batmaloo, Abdul Salam Sheikh, was killed when he was hit by a mini-bus at a market, they said, adding another person Hussain Beigh was killed on the spot after a bus on way from Drass to Kargil hit him near his house at Channi gund in Kargil district.
Kabul, July 07: A hand grenade thrown at a police vehicle in eastern Afghanistan exploded in a crowd Tuesday, killing one civilian and wounding 28 others, officials said, a day after 10 foreign troops died amid escalating violence across the country.
The grenade attack in Khost province targeted policemen passing through the provincial capital, but the victims were mostly civilians, said Tahir Khan Sabari, the provincial deputy governor.
Four police and five children were among those wounded, said Abdul Majid Mangal, the deputy hospital director.
Washington, July 07: India is not a threat to Pakistan, and New Delhi has “better things to do” than end up in a standoff with its neighbour, British foreign secretary David Miliband has said.
“The enemy that Pakistan faces is a domestic terrorist, not a large and successful neighbour like India, which has got far better things to do in the world of commerce and politics than end up in a standoff with Pakistan,” Miliband said in an interview with CNN.
London, July 07: Sleepless people sometimes use the Internet to get through the night. Now a small study shows promising results for insomniacs with nine weeks of Internet-based therapy.
No human therapist is involved. The Internet software gives advice, even specific bedtimes, based on users’ sleep diaries. Patients learn better sleep habits — like avoiding daytime naps — through stories, quizzes and games.
Los Angeles, July 07: Even as fans and musicians world over say their final goodbyes to the King of Pop, the battle over Michael Jackson’s fantasy land continues.
Long before Michael Jackson died, he had culled all emotional ties with the Neverland estate. What was once his priced possession, later became the focal point of several controversies, which continue to haunt Neverland estate even after his death.
Thimphu, July 07: Bhutan King Jigme Khesar Namgyal will visit India this winter, his first state tour after his coronation last November. Addressing the National Assembly, Prime Minister Jigmi Y Thinley said the dates for the visit of the Oxford-educated king are yet to be finalised.
Thinley also informed the house about his recent four-day tour to India and issues of bilateral concern which the two governments discussed. He told the members of the Lower House that the process of small development projects, a component of the Indian government”s assistance, would start immediately.
Tehran, July 07: Iran closed many government offices and state firms and cancelled some flights on Tuesday because of wind-blown dust caused by sandstorms in neighbouring Iraq, official media reported.
State industries will be shut for two days in the central Tehran province and medical authorities advised people with heart or respiratory problems to stay indoors.
“Dust pollution closes down Tehran,” state said on its website.
Tehran, July 07:Iran’s opposition called for an immediate release of all prisoners detained after the June 12 presidential election, the website of losing candidate Mir-Hossein Moussavi said Tuesday.
In a meeting Monday between Moussavi, ex-president Mohammad Khatami and former parliament speaker Mehdi Karroubi, the three main opposition leaders agreed to pressure the government to release the prisoners.
Srinagar, July 07: The families of Shopian rape victims on Tuesday rejected a court order to exhume their bodies for a fresh autopsy.
The Jammu and Kashmir High Court had ordered that bodies of the Shopian rape victims be exhumed for DNA test and a fresh post-mortem examination.
But the victims’ families said it was unacceptable to them. They want that the police officials and doctors who fudged the autopsy report be punished first.
The Shopian coordination committee spearheading the campaign for justice made this announcement in Srinagar on Tuesday.
New Delhi, July 07: Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee hiked this year’s (2009-10) defence budget by a generous 34 per cent, a thumping allocation for the defence establishment.
From the soldier at the borders to retired veterans, from India’s armament laboratories to its war chest for foreign weapons, everything stands to gain.
Overall, defence has been allocated Rs 1,41,703 crore this year – a good 34 per cent increase over last year.
While the defence ministry spent Rs 41,000 crore last year for new equipment purchases, it has been given a generous Rs 54,824 crore this year.
Seoul, July 07:South Korea on Tuesday welcomed the UN Security Council’s condemnation of North Korea’s rocket tests as a threat to regional and international security.
The Security Council’s reaction was a “fast and appropriate measure,” a spokesman for the Foreign Ministry in Seoul said.
The Security Council condemned the rocket tests on Monday, with the 15 members of the body calling on Pyongyang to fulfil its obligations under the UN charter.
North Korea fired seven ballistic missiles over the Sea of Japan on Saturday, according to South Korean sources.
—Agencies
Islamabad, July 07: Suspected U.S. missiles slammed into a training camp ran by Pakistani Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud on Tuesday, killing at least 12 militants in the latest in a flurry of strikes against him and his followers, intelligence officials said.
The attack took place in the Makeen area of South Waziristan close to the Afghan border, four officials told The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to media. The missiles were believed launched by unmanned American planes.
Moscow, July 07: President Barack Obama, working to drastically reshape U.S. relations with a skeptical Russia, said Tuesday the two countries are not “destined to be antagonists.”
“The pursuit of power is no longer a zero-sum game,” Obama said, speaking in the Russian capital to graduates of the New Economic School but also hoping to reach the whole nation. “Progress must be shared.”
Obama used his speech to further define his view of the United States’ place in the world and, specifically, to argue that his country shares compelling interests with Russia.