Month: August 2009

BlackBerry to offer better browser

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Toronto, August 30: Browsing on your BlackBerry smart phone could soon become a much better experience.

Customers have been complaining about BlackBerry’s browser since the launch of Apple’s iPhone which offers better browsing experience. To improve browsing on its smart phones, the BlackBerry maker has acquired Toronto-based company called Torch Mobile.

The company, which makes the Iris mobile browser, will give BlackBerry edge in competition with other smart phones, including Apple’s iPhone.

Junior doctors’ strike claims 32 lives in Bihar

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Patna, August 30: Thirty two patients admitted to the Patna Medical College and Hospital (PMCH) have died amid a strike by junior doctors that entered its fourth day Sunday, authorities said.

‘Eleven patients died in the last 24 hours alone (Saturday and Sunday) due to lack of doctors and treatment in the hospital,’ a government official said.

Six patients died during the first 12 hours of the strike beginning Wednesday, followed by 15 on Thursday and Friday, he said.

Bomb diffused near Jha’s residence

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Kathmandu, August 30: The police, with Nepal Army’s help, diffused a bomb near Vice-President Paramananda Jha’s residence on Saturday. A bomb was detonated in the same area on Friday evening, injuring one woman.

The police said the diffused bomb was planted on Friday evening itself.

An underground outfit, Kirat Republican Workers’ Party, had carried out Friday’s explosion. Police say they have identified the bombers and would arrest them soon.

I want to compose music for Bollywood films: Ustad Amjad Ali Khan

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New Delhi, August 30: He has been the face of sarod across the globe for years, created new ragas and collaborated with international orchestras, but now music legend Ustad Amjad Ali Khan says he would love to create tunes for Bollywood movies as well.

“I would love to compose music for a Bollywood film. There haven’t been any talks as of now, but that’s something I am open to and willing to do,” Khan told IANS in an interview here.

He however denies reports that acting in films is on his wish list.

Millions facing famine in Ethiopia as rains fail

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Ethiopia, August 30: The spectre of famine has returned to the Horn of Africa nearly a quarter of a century after the world’s pop stars gathered to banish it at Live Aid, raising £150m for relief efforts in 1985.

Millions of impoverished Ethiopians face the threat of malnutrition and possibly starvation this winter in what is shaping up to be the country’s worst food crisis for decades.

Europe marking anniversary of start of World War II

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Berlin, AugUST 30: Wreath laying and remembrance ceremonies are to be held throughout Europe Sep 1 to mark the outbreak of World War II 70 years ago.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Russian Premier Vladimir Putin are due to join Polish President Lech Kaczynski and Prime Minister Donald Tusk for a commemorative ceremony at Westerplatte near the Polish city of Gdansk, formerly Danzig.

‘Lifeline’ gets cold-shoulder

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Hyderabad, August 30: The so-called “lifeline” given by School Education officials to unrecognised schools seems to have evoked little interest among managements.

Even as the 31 August deadline is just two days away, only 362 institutions came forward to apply for recognition as of Friday.

“Not many school managements have turned up today. These numbers are lower than anticipated, given that we have repeatedly assured them that urgency would be shown in granting recognition,’’ Hyderabad District Educational Officer Victoria Devakumari told Express.

I would love to work with Shah Rukh again: Parzaan Dastur

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New Delhi, August 30: He popularised the line “Tussi na jao” (Please don’t go) as the cute Sikh kid in Karan Johar’s 1998 hit “Kuch Kuch Hota Hain”. Parzaan Dastur, now 17, plays the protagonist in new film “Sikandar” and says he would love to take up acting as a career and work with Shah Rukh Khan again.

Jinnah now dividing BJP: Karunanidhi

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Chennai, August 30: Six decades after Mohammad Ali Jinnah divided India, he is now doing the same to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), says Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi.

Speaking to reporters here on Saturday, Karunanidhi said: “Jinnah sowed the seeds for dividing India. Now he is instrumental for the divisions within the BJP.”

The BJP is teeming with internal strife after it expelled former defence and finance minister Jaswant Singh for his book that argues the Pakistan founder was wrongly being demonised in India for the partition. (IANS)

One has to understand Jinnah to know Pakistan: Jaswant

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New Delhi, August 30: One has to understand Mohammed Ali Jinnah – both as a man and as a statesman – to understand India’s relationship with Pakistan and Bangladesh, veteran politician and author Jaswant Singh said here on Saturday.

RSS sure BJP will solve its problems

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New Delhi, August 30: After a breakfast meeting between Mohan Bhagwat and L K Advani, the RSS today said that it has been assured by BJP that its leaders will resolve all problems faced by the party, including the leadership crisis, unitedly.

Before winding up his three-day visit to the capital, RSS chief Bhagwat drove to Advani’s residence and met him over breakfast and discussed the current crisis. Yesterday, he had driven to senior leader Murli Manohar Joshi’s residence for lunch.

Farewell to a Lion: Obama acclaims Senate giant

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Washington, August 30: In a final eulogy to Edward Kennedy, a sober President Barack Obama told mourners at an overflowing funeral service in Boston yesterday that the man known as the Lion of the Senate – or, he noted, “The Grand Fromage” to his multiple nieces and nephews – had been the “greatest legislator of our time”.

U.K. expresses concern over security situation in Pakistan

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London, August 30: Pakistan’s President Asif Ali Zardari was on Friday given a firm message that Britain remained concerned about extremists operating from Pakistani soil when he met Prime Minister Gordon Brown in Downing Street.

The security situation in Pakistan and along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border dominated the talks with the two leaders agreeing that a “comprehensive” approach was needed to tackle the root causes of extremism.

A Downing Street spokesman said security in the border area between Pakistan and Afghanistan remained a “high priority.”

Mexico forecasts 1 million winter swine flu infections

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Mexico City, August 30: The Mexican government has forecast that influenza A (H1N1) cases in the country will soar to 1 million in winter 2009.

Health Secretary Jose Angel Cordova said on Friday that the swine flu virus epidemic is currently stabilised with an average number of daily infections between 80 and 100 nationwide.

Cordova said that authorities are preparing a complementary national plan to deal with that emergency that includes such measures as closing schools, suspending certain activities and getting hospitals fully prepared.

US accuses Pakistan of illegally modifying missiles: report

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Washington, August 30: The US government has accused Pakistan of illegally modifying US-made antiship missiles to make them capable of striking land targets and thus creating a new threat for India, The New York Times reported late on Saturday.

Citing unnamed senior administration and congressional officials, the newspaper said the accusation was made in an unpublicized diplomatic protest delivered in late June to Pakistani Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani.

Sangh likely to favour a dark horse for the top job

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New Delhi, August 30: The search for a GenNext leader to replace L.K. Advani in the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), in keeping with the ‘youth’ prescription of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), is spread far and wide.

Political circles are abuzz with the names of Arun Jaitley, Sushma Swaraj, Ananth Kumar and M. Venkaiah Naidu.

But sources in both the BJP and the RSS claim that these names have been projected by the media – not the party itself.

“The BJP is in an ‘after Nehru who?’ situation,” said a top leader who did not want to be identified.

Smoking in the military: An old habit dies hard

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Baghdad, August 30: Gen. Douglas MacArthur had his signature corncob pipe. Soldiers got cigarettes in their C-rations during World War II. Even today, America’s war on tobacco seems to have largely bypassed the military.

Now a proposal to make the forces smoke-free is drawing strong reactions from troops who have served in Iraq and Afghanistan, even though the Pentagon itself says any ban is a long way off.

Melting glaciers threaten ‘Nepal tsunami’

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Nepal, August 30: Over two decades, Funuru Sherpa has watched the lake above his native village of Dengboche in Nepal’s Himalayas grow, as the glacier that feeds it melts.

The 29-year-old, who runs a busy Internet cafe for tourists visiting the Everest region, remembers his grandfather telling him that 50 years ago the lake did not exist.

“Before, it was all ice,” he told AFP in the eastern Himalayan town of Lukla, in the shadow of Mount Everest.

“This is proof that the glaciers in the high Himalayas are melting. And that must be because the temperatures have gone up.”

US faces smaller, smarter enemy in Afghanistan

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Kabul, August 30: After three tours in Iraq, U.S. Marine Sgt. Andre Leon was used to brutal shootouts with enemy fighters and expected more of the same in Afghanistan.

Instead, what he’s seen so far are anonymous attacks in the form of mines and roadside bombings — the mark of what he calls a cowardly adversary.

Coastal erosion threatens Goa’s idyllic beaches

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Panaji, August 30: India’s resort state of Goa has been hit by several setbacks in the last 18 months, including high-profile crime and the knock-on effects of Islamist extremist attacks up the coast in Mumbai.

But with each holiday season, a greater threat to the tourist trade emerges — coastal erosion that is leading to fears that some of the former Portuguese colony’s famous white sandy beaches could disappear for good.

Brown’s Afghan visit highlights West’s concerns

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Kabul, August 30: A flying visit to Kabul by the prime minister highlights the urgency among Western backers to shore up home support for their huge military and financial commitment to Afghanistan, analysts said.

Afghanistan’s status as one of the world’s most corrupt countries — number five, according to watchdog Transparency International — has been reinforced with allegations that the August 20 elections were riddled with fraud.

2 bombs explode in Gaza compound, outside mosque

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Gaza City, August 30: Two bombs went off near a mosque and inside Gaza’s main security compound early Sunday in the latest violence to shake the troubled coastal territory, security officials said. No injuries were reported.

The explosions appeared to be revenge attacks against Gaza’s rulers, the Islamic militant group Hamas.

Officials said they defused two more bombs hidden in the Ansar compound in Gaza City. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not allowed to speak to reporters.

Japan’s ruling party enters elections as underdog

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Tokyo, August 30: Japanese cast ballots Sunday in hotly contested parliamentary elections in which the ruling conservative party, battered by a laggard economy and voter desire for change after more than half a century of virtual one-party rule, was expected to suffer an overwhelming defeat.

The Liberal Democratic Party, which has governed Japan for all but 11 months since 1955, went into the elections with all major polls projecting it would lose control of the lower house of parliament.