Month: July 2009

Eleven people killed as wall collapses

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Noida, July 28: With one more person succumbing to injuries, the toll in the wall collapse due to heavy rains in this satellite township of the national capital on TUesday climbed to 11.

Ten persons were killed and ten others injured when the wall of a house collapsed in sector 58 of Noida late last night, a senior police official said.

One of the injured succumbed to injuries later.

“The wall collapsed due to heavy rains,” the official said, adding rescue work continued throughout the night to pull out the trapped people.

Omar Abdullah offers to resign

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Srinagar, July 28: Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah on Tuesday offered to resign from the post after a senior PDP leader made a serious allegation that he was involved in the 2006 sex scandal.

“I know it is a false allegation. But I want to resign till I am cleared of this false allegation. I cannot work till I am proved innocent. It is a blot on my character.

Strauss wants ECB to regulate players’ IPL romp

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London, July 28: The lure of lucre may be too strong to resist but England captain Andrew Strauss wants the cricket board to maintain a hard line over the players’ participation in the Indian Premier League to ensure that the strongest possible side is available for national duty.

More than 800 died of swine flu worldwide: WHO

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Geneva, July 28: A total of 816 people died of swine flu worldwide, with most of the deaths occurring in South America, the World Health Organisation (WHO) said on Monday.

So far, 707 people have died in the Americas, 44 in South-East Asia, 34 in Europe, 30 in the Western Pacific region and one in the Eastern Mediterranean region, the UN agency said.

In addition, more than 20 countries such as Afghanistan, Belize, Bhutan, Botswana, Haiti, Namibia, Sudan, Tanzania, and Solomon Islands, among others, have confirmed swine flu cases since July 6.

I had a better technique than Gavaskar: Boycott

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New Delhi, July 28: Former England opener Geoffrey Boycott believes he was technically superior to Sunil Gavaskar even though his Yorkshire teammate Dicky Bird feels otherwise.

The England opener with a reputation for straight talking said he and Gavaskar were similar in many respects but he had the better technique.

“There is no question that Sunny was a fantastic batsman.

NTSB meets on Okla. plane brought down by pelican

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Washington, July 28:Federal safety officials are considering whether more needs to be done to prevent bird-plane collisions as they study results of an investigation into the cause of a crash in Oklahoma last year that killed five men.

Requirements engineering, a domain-neutral discipline

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Chennai, July 28: That any subject-matter expert can become a ‘requirements engineer’ is the first of the three misconceptions dealt with in ‘Software & Systems Requirements Engineering.

Requirement engineers need strong communication and knowledge of engineering skills, the ability to organise and manage a dataset of requirements, high-quality written and visual presentation skills, and the ability to extract and model business processes using both techniques, say the authors, Brian Berenbach, Daniel J. Paulish, Juergen Kazmeier and Arnold Rudorfer.

JK Chief Minister Omar Abdullah resigns

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New Delhi, July 28: With Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah today threatening to quit after PDP alleged that he was involved in a sex scandal, coalition partner Congress is trying to prevail upon him not to take such a step.

Congress in-charge of state Prithviraj Chavan has spoken to Omar Abdullah asking him not to resign as it was a trap to get him out of office, party sources said here.

Chavan has also spoken to Omar’s father Farooq Abdullah so that he stops him from resigning, they said.

AI sold 21 aircrafts for USD 451 million: Patel

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New Delhi, July 28:Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel on Tuesday said Air India sold 21 aircrafts for USD 451.88 million during 2007 to 2009.

“17 aircrafts were sold on ‘sale and lease back’ basis whereas, four aircraft were sold on ‘as is where is’ basis,” Patel said in a written reply to a Rajya Sabha query.

He said that the national carrier has leased 46 different types of aircraft from various companies across the globe and was paying a monthly rent of USD 18.945 million.

Air India’s leased aircraft fleet includes different types of Boeing and Airbus airplanes.

Maruti drives out one lakh KB-series cars in 10 months

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New Delhi, July 28: Within 10 months of starting production of its KB-series engines, the country”s largest car maker Maruti Suzuki has rolled out over one lakh of these units that power the two small cars, A-Star and Ritz. Riding on the success of this new fuel-efficient technology, Maruti Suzuki India (MSI) has planned to incorporate KB-series engines in other existing as well as new models.

Hrithik Roshan plays a doting father to his sons

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Mumbai, July 28: Globetrotting and romancing lissome beauty Barbara Mori in some of the most exotic locales of the world had left Hrithik Roshan with little time for his family. But with the shooting of his much anticipated flick ‘Kites’ wrapped up, Hrithik plans to make up for lost time with his sons and his dainty wife. Vying to play the real life super dad, the stunner is embracing the role of a family man.

A father of two, the dishy actor has laid down elaborate plans to spend quality time with his fourteen-month-old son Hridaan and three-year-old Hrehaan.

Tool bag dropped in space to fall back to Earth

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Moscow, July 28: Remains of a tool bag dropped by a NASA astronaut during a space walk last year are expected to reach the Earth surface on Tuesday.

Initially, the tool bag was expected to reach the Earth on July 25, but then scientists recalculated the date of a “mini-Apocalypses”.

However, specialists still cannot say where exactly this can happen.

I am in race to become governor: Indian American woman

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Toronto, July 28: Yet another Indian American, this time a woman born to Sikh parents from Amritsar, is in the race to become governor of a US state.

Nikki Randhawa Haley, 37, who is in the fray for the post of governor of South Carolina in the US, says she is in the race to win. If she gets elected, Nikki will be the first Indian American woman to become governor in the US, and the second Indian after Bobby Jindal of Louisiana state.

Scientists unravel how brain perceives information

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Washington, July 28: The brain is known to perceive information before it reaches a person’s awareness. Until recently, there was little way to determine what specific mental tasks were taking place prior to the point of conscious awareness.

Now scientists at Rutgers University, Newark and University of California Los Angeles (UCLA), have found a way to use functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), and can peer into the brain to uncover accurately how information is processed before reaching awareness.

Scientists edge closer to growing replacement bones

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London, July 28: Scientists have edged closer to growing replacement bones with stem cell technology.

Molly Stevens, professor at Imperial College London and author of a new study said: “Our study brings us one step closer to developing materials that will have the highest chance of success when implanted into patients.”

The effort is on to create bone-like materials, derived from stem cells, to implant into patients who have damaged or fractured bones, or who have had parts of diseased bones removed.

Medical robot to treat soldiers in combat zone

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Washington, July 28: A revolutionary robot is helping doctors treat and save soldiers, including those deployed in combat zones, from just about any location in the world.

The state-of-the-art robot, which is mounted with a high-tech camera, has helped army doctors conduct at least 200 medical interventions from remote locations in three years, a TV news channel reported.

It has the capability to perform potentially life-saving operations in emergency situations, such as on the battlefield, the report said.

Indian drug peddler jailed for life in Bangladesh

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Dhaka, July 28: An Indian drug peddler found in possession of heroin has been jailed for life along with two Bangladeshis by a court in Khulna, a town in the west of the country.

A kg of the drug was seized from Indian national Tarak Debnath and his hosts, Alamgir Hossain and Jahangir Alam, in March last year, The Daily Star said Tuesday.

Debnath, who carried the heroin from India, was picked up from Alamgir’s house.

Illegal drugs are one of the more lucrative items smuggled across the 4,300 km border between Bangladesh and India.

–IANS

Chandigarh gets positive swine flu case

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Chandigarh, July 28: A 23-year-old resident of Punjab’s Patiala town, admitted to a Chandigarh hospital, has tested positive for the influenza A (H1N1) virus.

Officials said the patient from Patiala, about 70 km from here, had returned from Thailand last week. On Friday, he approached doctors at the Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER) here with complaints of fever and cold.

Children ill after lizard-infested meal in Bihar school

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Patna, July 28: At least 21 students of a school at Khemanbigha in Nalanda district fell ill soon after having their mid-day meal, officials said Tuesday. Their parents told police that a lizard was found in the food.

‘They are suffering from food poisoning but after initial treatment they are out of danger,’ said a doctor at the hospital where the children have been admitted after their meal Monday.

Various such cases have been reported in Bihar in the last one month.

Saffron Rice

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Try this rich, delicious and aromatic dish this Rakhi.

Ingredients:

• 3/4 Cup rice
• 1/2 tsp Saffron strands
• 4 tbsp Hot milk
• 4 tsp ghee
• 2/3 Cup cold milk
• 3 Cardamom seeds
• 1 Inch stick cinnamon
• 4 tbsp Sugar
• 2 tbsp Cream
• 30 gm Chopped walnuts
• 1/2 Cup raisins

Procedure:

• Soak saffron strands in hot milk.
• Boil rice for 5 minutes, then drain.
• Melt butter in a pan.
• Fry the boiled rice, cardamom seeds and cinnamon stick for 3 minutes.
• Mix cold milk and sugar, stir gently.

Hindustan Unilever net profit dips 2.68 percent

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Mumbai, July 28: Net profits of fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) giant Hindustan Unilever dipped 2.68 percent to Rs.5,431.9 crore in the first quarter this fiscal from Rs.5,581.8 crore in the same period a year ago.

The total income of the company increased 7.5 percent to Rs.44,758.8 crore in the first quarter of current fiscal from Rs.41,628.4 crore in the year-ago period.

While sale of FMCG products in the period under review grew by nearly 13 percent, that of health and personal care goods increased almost 12 percent.

Katrina Kaif is making Salman wait for marriage

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Mumbai, July 28: Finally the ‘kat’ is out of the box as Katrina Kaif has made a confession long due. After using every trick in the book to keep her romantic alliance with Bollywood’s angry man Salman under wraps, and snubbing every controversy with her coy smile, Katrina Kaif has boldly owned up to her cushy clandestine love affair with the macho actor.

In a candid interview given to a magazine, the swishy babe has thwarted all murky speculations surrounding her ever so guarded personal life.

Four of family killed as house caves in MP town

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Bhopal, July 28: Four members of a family including two children were killed when the house in which they were living in a Madhya Pradesh town caved in following incessant rains, police said Tuesday.

‘The incident occurred late Monday when the roof a house in Jaora town of Ratlam district fell and the side walls of the house also caved in killing all the four members of the family instantly,’ a police official from Ratlam police control room told IANS on phone.

‘After the rescue operations, the police found four dead bodies. Further investigations are on’, he said.

Indian military acquisitions threaten peace: Pakistan

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Islamabad, July 28: Pakistan has accused India of threatening peace in South Asia by expanding its military arsenal.

“Continued induction of new lethal weapon systems by India is detrimental to regional peace and stability,” Pakistan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said late Monday.

The statement came a day after arch-rival India launched its first nuclear-powered submarine for sea trials.

Cong asks Omar not to resign

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New Delhi, July 28: With Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah today threatening to quit after PDP alleged that he was involved in a sex scandal, coalition partner Congress is trying to prevail upon him not to take such a step. Congress in-charge of state Prithviraj Chavan has spoken to Omar Abdullah asking him not to resign as it was a trap to get him out of office, party sources said here.