Month: July 2009

Govt bans Assam militant group DHD

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New Delhi, July 02: In the wake of its involvement in recent series of violence in Assam, the Centre today banned the Dima Halam Daogah (DHD)-Black Widow militant group.

The decision was taken at a meeting of Cabinet Committee on Security, headed by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

This comes in the wake of DHD’s involvement in several violent incidents in North Cachar Hills district where the group targeted businessmen, railway properties besides government officials.

DHD’s chief Jewel Garlosa was arrested in Bangalore last month.
–PTI

Amnesty accuses Israel, Hamas of Gaza war crimes

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Jerusalem, July 02: Amnesty International accused Israel and Palestinian militants of war crimes Thursday in the most comprehensive report on the recent Gaza war. Both sides rejected the findings.

Israel used excessive force in violation of international laws of war, killing hundreds of Palestinian civilians and destroying thousands of Gaza homes, the human rights group claimed. And Palestinian militants committed war crimes each time they fired a rocket at Israeli civilians, it said.

Fuel price hike exposes Congress’ shrewd design: Mayawati

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Lucknow, July 02: Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Thursday flayed the Congress-led central government for its ‘shrewd design’ of hiking the fuel prices after the Lok Sabha elections.

Mayawati, however, announced relief for the state’s consumers by freezing the local levy, which would have otherwise witnessed a proportionate increase.

Addressing a press conference, Mayawati said, ‘While the central government has no concern for the common man, we in the state have decided not to enhance our levy that we had reduced in June 2008 in the larger interest of the people of the state.’

Cong, BJP circumspect to HC verdict legalizing gay sex

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New Delhi, July 02: Ruling Congress and opposition BJP today chose to be circumspect to the Delhi High Court verdict legalising homosexuality among consenting adults and refrained from welcoming or condemning it, keeping in mind the differences on the issue in their organizations as well as the society.

Congress said the High Court verdict was between the court and the government.

“It is between the court and the government and the party has nothing to do with it,” party spokesman Shakeel Ahmed told PTI.

No need to put judges assets in public domain: CJI

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New Delhi, July 02: Chief Justice of India K G Balakrishnan today said there was no need put the assets of judges in public domain as it would send a “wrong message” to litigants.

“Judges do declare their assets at the time of taking oath. All their details are with the registrar. There is no need for the assets to be disclosed before the public as that would send a wrong message to litigants,” Justice Balakrishnan told CNN-IBN news channel.

He was responding to a question regarding Law Minister M Veerappa Moily’s call for disclosure of judges’ assets to the public.

India to contribute USD 239.93 mn for S Asia Uni

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New Delhi, July 02: The Government today approved USD 239.93 million as India’s contribution for setting up the South Asian University — the first international university in the country.

The approval for the amount, which is about 79 per cent of the total cost, was cleared at a meeting of the Union Cabinet, chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

India is ready to release the first installment of USD 9.464 million to make the university operational here from next year, Minister for Information and Broadcasting Ambika Soni told reporters.

President’s rule extended in Jharkhand by six months

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New Delhi, July 02: The union cabinet Thursday extended the six-month-old President’s rule in Jharkhand by six months beyond July 18.

The decision was taken at a cabinet meeting chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, said cabinet spokesperson and Information and Broadcasting Minister Ambika Soni.

Soni said the cabinet approved state Governor Syed Sibtey Razi’s June 16 report which said that despite lapse of nearly five months since imposition of the President’s rule, the state continues to suffer political impasse.

Calcutta HC judge Soumitra Sen challenges impeachment

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Kolkata, July 02: Justice Soumitra Sen of the Calcutta High Court, whose removal has been sought by the Chief Justice of India KG Balakrishnan for alleged financial misconduct, has challenged the move to initiate impeachment proceedings against him in the Rajya Sabha.

In a nine-page letter to Rajya Sabha Chairman Hamid Ansari through his lawyer Subhas Bhattacharyya, Justice Sen said that the constitution of a three-member committee comprising three jurists by Ansari was “unconstitutional”.

Dal de-weeding opn goes on

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Srinagar, July 02: De-weeding operation in Dal and Nigeen lakes is progressing as planned and 7,000 channels have been cleared so far, a government spokesman said.

Against the target of removing weed from over 2.25 lakh square meters of the Dal lake this fiscal, a marginal 1.2 square meters have been cleared so far in the initial days.

The project is undertaken as part of measures to develop and restore the originality of these world famous water bodies.

Gavaskar advises youngsters to focus on India cap

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Mumbai, July 02: Former captain Sunil Gavaskar today advised young cricketers to aim for the India cap and said playing in the cash-rich Indian Premier League could not be their ultimate goal.

“Today, parents are encouraging their children to take up cricket as a career option because of the IPL and the amount of money it provides. But the worrying factor is far too many youngsters see IPL as the be all and end all,” Gavaskar said at the inaugural Dilip Sardesai Memorial Lecture here.

Lawyers hail Delhi HC verdict legalising homosexuality

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New Delhi, July 02: The historic judgement by the Delhi High Court legalising gay sex among consenting adults was hailed by legal experts who described it as a “progressive” verdict in keeping with the changing times.

Former Law Minister Shanti Bhushan, senior advocates K K Venugopal and K T S Tulsi termed its as a “landmark judgement” which will have a bearing across the country.

“It is an absolutely correct judgement and I welcome it whole heartedly. It is a much-delayed judgement and it should have come much earlier,” Bhushan said.

Air India won’t pay salaries July 3, workers’ strike Friday

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New Delhi, July 02: The Air India management Thursday backtracked on its commitment to the employees’ union to pay staff salaries by July 3, pushing employees to threaten again that they would go on strike from Friday.

Yielding to pressure from its employees, the cash-strapped national carrier had June 29 said it would pay the June salaries July 3, instead of July 15 as had been decided earlier.

Undeterred by the strike threat, Air India has said it would deal with the situation. ‘We are working it out. We cannot be held at ransom,’ a spokesperson told IANS.

Govt moots 25% quota for poor students in pvt schools

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New Delhi, July 02: Launching the consultation process for reforms in education, HRD Minister Kapil Sibal on Thursday underlined his commitment to implement 25 per cent quota in private schools for poor students as proposed in the Right To Education Bill.

Interacting with school principals here, Sibal said the institutions have responsibility to educate the people as the country is estimated to have 47 million surplus students by 2020.

Iran says arrested Newsweek journalist has “confessed”

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Tehran, July 02: A correspondent for the US weekly magazine Newsweek who was arrested by Iran for allegedly writing articles slanted against the Tehran vernment has confessed to the allegation, the CNN network reported Thursday, citing Iranian media.

CNN cited the semi-official agency Fars as saying that the journalist, Maziar Bahari, had admitted at a press conference to having written articles slanted against Tehran prior to the June 12 presidential election with the aim of toppling the government.

Pakistan nuke facility bus bombed, six die

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Rawalpindi, July 02: Six people were killed when a suicide bomber blew himself up after ramming his motorcycle into a bus belonging to the A.Q. Khan nuclear research facility here in Pakistan Thursday, Geo TV reported.

About 30 people were injured in the blast when the motorcyclist hit the stationary bus near a petrol station in the busy commercial area of Chauhar Chowk.

The mangled remains of the motorcycle betrayed it was a suicide attack, police officer Nasir Durrani told reporters. He said there were government officials in the bus but did not elaborate.

US launches major offensive against Afghan Taliban

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Washington, July 02: The US Thursday launched a massive operation, considered one of the largest since the Vietnam war, against the Taliban in Afghanistan’s southern Helmand province as part of a new initiative under President Barack Obama.

About 4,000 US marines and 650 Afghan troops, supported by NATO combat aircraft, are taking part in the offensive.

US Brigadier General Larry Nicholson said the operation is different from the previous ones in Afghanistan because of the ‘massive size of the force’.

Gold prices gain on firming overseas trend

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New Delhi, July 02: Gold prices gained to recover part of its previous losses in the bullion market today on emergence of stockists buying influenced by a firming global trend and jewellers buying.

The precious metal gained Rs 50 at Rs 14,730 per ten gram and silver by Rs 50 to Rs 22,000per kg after reports the bullion prices in overseas markets as weaker dollar spur demand. In previous day’s trading, the gold had lost Rs 120 per ten gram and silver by Rs 700 per kg.

Homosexual behaviour evolved over years

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New Delhi, July 02: Homosexuality, which was a taboo and considered unnatural and a criminal act attracting maximum death penalty in the medieval period, has evolved over the years.

The first registered case of MSM (men having sex with men) goes back to 1290 in Felta and 1300 in the Britton in the United Kingdom where the offenders of sodomy were burnt alive.

The Delhi High Court, which legalised gay sex, dwelt on the history of legislation on homosexuality which for the first time was codified in 1533 by England under the Buggery (unnatural sex) Act.

Taliban captures US soldier, as fresh offensives begin

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Kabul, July 02: The US military Thursday began a large-scale offensive against the Taliban in Helmand province in southern Afghanistan as a local militant commander said the Taliban had captured a US soldier.

The US military said the Taliban was believed to have captured the soldier, who has been missing since Tuesday, in the southeastern Afghan province of Paktika.

Mullah Sangon, a local Taliban commander, said that besides the US soldier, the militants had also captured three Afghan soldiers.

All women-debate in TN Assembly

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Chennai, July 02: In a novel way of expressing support for the Women’s Reservation Bill pending in Parliament, Tamil Nadu Assembly today had an all women-debate.

Designated women MLAs alone were allowed to speak on the discussion for grants for Social Welfare and Nutritious Meal Programme, headed by a woman minister, Geetha Jeevan.

Speaker R Avudaiappan said through out the country there was a demand from various quarters for the implementation of Women’s Reservation Bill.

North Korea raises tension with missile launch

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Seoul, July 02: North Korea fired two surface-to-ship missiles off its east coast that flew about 100 km (60 miles) and splashed into the sea, a South Korean defence official said.

A South Korean daily said that the secretive North may also test fire mid-range missiles in a matter of days.

Washington said this week it had tightened its crackdown on firms linked to the North’s lucrative proliferation of missiles, a major source of cash for the destitute state, and has sent the U.S. point man for sanctions to Asia for discussions.

Cong must go solo in Maharashtra: Deshmukh

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New Delhi, July 02: Notwithstanding the party’s gag order, Union Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh says Congress should go it alone in the assembly elections in Maharashtra.

He says the party workers are bitter about alliance with NCP, whose projection of Sharad Pawar as Prime Minister had hurt the alliance in the Lok Sabha elections.

Making it clear that it was his personal opinion that Congress should go it alone in the state elections that are due in October, he said though the final decision was with the High Command “I have every right to say (my opinion)”.

HC verdict makes India 127th country legalising gay sex

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New Delhi, July 02: With Delhi High Court legalising gay sex, India today become the 127th country in the world to decriminalise homosexuality while 80 nations still consider it as an offence.

The process of legal sanction to homosexual acts began in 1989 when Denmark became the first country to grant a status on a par with married couples to same sex partners which was soon followed by other European countries.

Seven years thereafter, Norway, Sweden and Iceland enacted similar legislation in 1996 and Finland followed suit six years later.

Gilchrist tips Lee to bounce back in Ashes

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Melbourne, July 02: Retired Test wicketkeeper Adam Gilchrist has backed struggling paceman Brett Lee to turn around his woeful record in England in a predicted 2-1 Ashes victory for Australia.

Lee, 32, making a comeback after ankle surgery, has taken just 29 wickets at an average of 45.44 in 10 Tests in England.

With fast bowlers Mitchell Johnson and Peter Siddle considered certain starters for next week’s first Test in Cardiff, commentators believe it’s between Lee and Stuart Clark for the other pace bowling spot.