Yangon, July 04: The Myanmar junta Saturday snubbed UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s requests to free opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, or even to visit the Nobel peace laureate, who is currently in a Yangon jail, sources said.
Ban arrived in Yangon midday Saturday from Naypyitaw, Myanmar’s military headquarters, 350 km north of Yangon, where the UN chief met twice with junta supremo Senior General Than Shwe.
Mumbai, July 04: Heavy rains lashed the Mumbai and the neighbouring Thane district for the second day on Saturday, bringing respite from the sweltering heat and easing concerns of water scarcity.
In many parts of the suburbs people welcomed the rains by performing traditional ‘aartis’ and ‘poojas’ as the rains played truant over the last few weeks, as they feared of more water cuts due to delayed monsoon.
BMC has already effected 20 percent water cut in metropolis.
Washington, July 04: Well planned vegetarian diets are healthy and nutritious for all age groups and help prevent heart diseases, cancer, obesity and diabetes.
Winston Craig, professor of nutrition and wellness at Andrews University, and Reed Mangels, nutrition advisor at the Vegetarian Resource Group, Baltimore, conducted the study on behalf of the American Dietetic Association (ADA).
Mumbai, July 04: Akshay Kumar talks about his latest release, leading a disciplined life and why he is so proud of his wife
Name one international actor who you would really like to work with?
Bruce Lee. But seeing as he’s not here to kick my butt, I’d have to say Jack Black. He’s such a genuine actor. I find him very funny.
What would you rather be: an actor or a popular Hollywood stuntman?
Hyderabad, July 04: Andhra Pradesh is now mulling fixing an upper limit on the fees charged by private schools. A panel constituted by the state government has recommended that private schools in urban areas should not charge more than Rs 24,000 per annum as tuition fee up to Class 5 and Rs.30,000 up to Class 10.
The six-member panel was constituted last month following public complaints that several schools effected a steep hike in tuition fees from the academic year 2009-10.
Mumbai, July 04: Shruti Haasan, Sarika and superstar Kamal Haasan’s light eyed, fiery natured daughter, is days away from debuting into bollywood. She is used to all the attention, having performed live with her own maiden band and her penchant for singing. However, it is Soham Shah’s high-octane action drama, Luck, which she has her hopes pinned on.
Dehradun, July 04: Controversy surrounded gunning down of an MBA qualified youth in an alleged police encounter, with his parents claiming that he has no criminal history, raising doubts that it could be a killing in a case of mistaken identity.
Ranbir Singh, 22, hailing from Ghaziabad in Uttar Pradesh, was shot dead Friday in an alleged encounter with police in Ladpur jungles here.
“We have ordered a magisterial inquiry into the incident,” Principal Secretary Home Subhash Kumar said.
Mumbai, July 04: Kambakkht Ishq is the first Akshay Kumar starrer that his son Aarav stayed awake watching till the end, thanks to his Naani Dimple Kapadia who not only cheered the film at a private screening on Wednesday night but also made sure Aarav remained enthused.
It hasn’t been an easy time for the gorgeous Dimple Kapadia.
In spite of a cloud hovering over her happiness, what with sister Simple seriously ill for some time now, Dimple was prominently present at Akshay’s special screening of Kambakkht Ishq on Wednesday evening.
Mumbai, July 04: She’s just two films old at 24. Togged in a trendy black jumpsuit, she flashes her trademark mischievous grin that reaches all the way to her eyes. Sonam Kapoor epitomises today’s youth. Here’s the perky and perceptive actor at her chirpy best
Have you finished unwrapping your birthday (June 8) gifts yet? Which is best one of all?
The best gift was that dad flew into Mumbai from Los Angeles for four days and then we went together to Macau.
Lucknow, July 04: A Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) leader and his two aides have been booked for allegedly raping a 25-year-old married woman in Uttar Pradesh’s Bareilly district, police said Saturday.
“BSP leader Sumer Singh, who is in charge of the party’s affairs in the Nawabganj Assembly constituency of Bareilly, along with two of his friends raped the woman after abducting her,” police Inspector Veer Singh Nayak said.
A case was registered against them Friday on the complaint of the victim’s husband.
London, July 04: Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, who has been going through a divorce, has decided to solve the problem of not having a First Lady to play host to other leaders’ spouses by appointing a former topless model to play the part.
Former calendar girl Mara Carfagna, who is now Italy’s Equal Opportunities Minister, will be looking after the wives of the world’s top leaders at the G8 summit next week, reported.
The idea of Carfagna playing hostess was conceived by Berlusconi, 72, himself.
Stockholm, July 04: The European Union has delayed a vote on the re-election of incumbent European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso until later this year.
Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt said the re-election vote would probably be held at the end of September.
Speaking at a joint press conference with French President Nicolas Sarkozy in Stockholm, Reinfeldt told reporters that a decision on Barroso’s re-election this month would be unlikely.
“We will not make a decision on Barroso in July, but we hope that this decision will be taken in due course.”
Sirte, July 04: The African Union on Friday refused to act on an international war crimes warrant for Sudan’s president, at a summit that also yielded a deal on the powers of a new regional Authority.
The refusal to arrest Sudan President Omar al-Beshir granted a continent-wide reprieve to a leader accused of war crimes and crimes against humanity in Darfur.
Tehran, July 04: An Iranian official has denied reports that six people who had protested against the results of the June 12 presidential vote were hanged in the city of Mashhad.
“No-one has been detained or executed during the post-election turmoil in Mashhad,” the city’s Chief Prosecutor Seyyed Hassan Shariati said in an interview.
In a recent report, the Israeli Jerusalem Post daily had cited anonymous sources as claiming that six supporters of defeated candidate Mir-Hossein Mousavi had been hanged in Mashhad.
New Delhi, July 04: The Indian cricket board said on Saturday it will work out a schedule for a key one-day domestic tournament after moves to axe the event were met with angry protests.
“The schedule of the Deodhar Trophy will be finalised at the board’s working committee meeting in August,” the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) said in a press release.
The Indian media had reported that the Deodhar Trophy was being dropped from next year’s calendar to fit in matches of the Indian Premier League (IPL), leading to protests by the right-wing Shiv Sena party in Mumbai.
Jahangeerabad, July 04: We’re seriously not horsing around. In an Uttar Pradesh village, the groom sits and waits for his bride who, dressed in fine bridal wear and a pagri, comes riding on a white mare to marry her man.
In Jahangeerabad village of Rae Bareli district, some 80 km from state capital Lucknow, it’s the bride and not the groom who sits on a decorated white mare and heads towards the wedding venue.
kabul, July 04: Militants exploded a vehicle outside the gates of a U.S. coalition base in eastern Afghanistan on Saturday, sparking a two-hour gunbattle that ended when American troops called in airstrikes, officials said. Two U.S. troops were killed and four were wounded.
More than 30 insurgents were killed by the airstrikes in Zerok district of Paktika province, said Hamidullah Zawak, the provincial governor spokesman.
Nairobi, July 04: The International Criminal Court (ICC) will set up a special tribunal for ringleaders of Kenya’s worst post-election violence, which claimed the lives of about 1,500 people.
The Hague-based court’s prosecutor said that the tribunal will be set up only for those who have not already been punished in Kenya.
“If there are no national proceedings, we’ll do it,” Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo told AFP after meeting with Kenyan Justice Minister Mutula Kilonzo.
Darfur, July 04: Armed men have abducted two foreign aid workers in the western Sudanese region of Darfur, UN officials say.
The two women — one Irish and one Ugandan — work for the Irish aid group Goal and were abducted from their compound in the northern town of Kutum on Friday evening along with a Sudanese guard who was later released, officials said.
John O’Shea, the chief executive of Goal, named the two women as Hilda Kawuki, 42, from Uganda and Sharon Commins, 32, from Ireland.
Tehran, July 04: Following a leak in a crude oil pipeline in central Iran, a vital river has been put in danger, but it remains unclear whether there has been serious contamination.
The leak occurred Thursday morning in a 10-inch (25.4 cm) oil pipeline along the Serkan-Makuh axis, some 30 kilometers (19 miles) from the town of Pol-e Dokhtar in the province of Lorestan.
Some sources have reported that thousands of liters of oil had ended up in the River Kashkan, resulting in the death of some 30,000 sea animals.
Jerusalem, July 04: Israeli army forces have injured three Palestinian demonstrators protesting against the Apartheid Wall in two separate West Bank villages.
Three people were injured and dozens suffered from tear gas inhalation when Israeli troops attacked Palestinian villagers and international activists during the weekly non-violent protests against the wall in the villages of Bil’in near the central West Bank city of Ramallah and in Ni’lin on Friday.
Muzaffarnagar, July 04: A man killed his wife and two children today before committing suicide as he suspected his partner of having an illicit relationship, police said here.
Pemender (32) killed his wife Pinki (28) and two children Aryan (4) Lawish (2) by slitting their throats when they were asleep early this morning and later shot himself dead with a country-made revolver.
The incident took place at Butradi village under Fugama police station in the district.
Pemender suspected his wife of having an affair and was enraged over the fact, police said.
Srinagar, July 04: Jammu and Kashmir High Court on Saturday directed exhumation of the bodies of two women allegedly raped and murdered in Shopian last month to collect their DNA samples subject to the consent of their family.
Noting that the DNA report is missing and post-mortem was done in a proper way, a division bench of the high court comprising Chief Justice Barin Gosh and Justice Mohammad Yaqub Mir ordered exhumation of the bodies of Asiya and Nelofar.
Justice Gosh directed the principal of medical college Srinagar to set up a team of doctors to perform the tests.
Hyderabad, July 04: UniverCell – the mobile expert today launched ‘UniverCell Live’ at Ameerpet, the first mobile experiential store in Andhra Pradesh.
UniverCell also launched seven other stores in various locations in the state.
”UniverCell Live is the first Touch and Feel concept store in India. We want customers to touch, feel and experience mobiles.
UniverCell Live is beyond just advertisements and boxed mobiles. It allows consumers to avail a holistic view of a mobile phone of their choice,” UniverCell Founder Sathish Babu said in a press release here.
Washington, July 04: With every new administration comes a new era and with it, a new art collection to reflect the shifting sands of American cultural politics. In the Clinton years, it was a frothy portrait of Mamie Eisenhower clad in a pink debutante ballgown that took pride of place on the imperial walls of the White House. George Bush fancied the more muscular patriotism of George Caitlin’s “wild frontier” paintings.