New Delhi, September 06: L.K. Advani is not to be brow-beaten into retirement. The old warhorse is believed to have figured an ingenious method to survive the generational change that the RSS is bent on effecting in the beleaguered BJP. The contours of a brilliant survival strategy that establishes Advani in a slot equivalent to Sonia Gandhi’s position in the Congress parliamentary party are now visible.
New Delhi, September 06: Infection of turkeys in Chile by H1N1 virus has raised concerns that the pandemic virus may infect poultry around the world.
Kolkata, September 06: Call it the influence of a woman railway minister or an acknowledgement that the fairer sex is a better homemaker – the South Eastern Railway (SER) has deployed a team of its female employees to test the quality of food and beverages served in trains.
The initiative is a brainchild of SER general manager A.K Jain who constituted the team comprising five women officials spearheaded by assistant commercial manager Indrani Bandyopadhyay.
The officials will pay surprise visits to trains in five different SER divisions to check the quality of food items.
New Delhi, September 06: Pakistan’s founder, Mohammed Ali Jinnah, is clearly the most visible face at the 15th Delhi Book Fair, which ends on Sunday at Pragati Maidan.
It is not just the huge banners for Jaswant Singh’s book, Jinnah: India-Partition-Independence, put up all over the venue by the book’s publishers (Rupa as well as Rajpal), that make him so evident. All other books on the man and related subjects, including the Partition, are the biggest draw at the fair.
Sydney, September 06: A body representing Indian students here on Sunday called on the Australian government to take steps for the welfare of students stranded by closed private colleges and stop any kind of violence against them.
The Federation of Indian Students of Australia (FISA) said Deputy Prime Minister Julia Gillard should immediately stop “the spin on the state of affairs” within her portfolio of Education as it was causing great despair to a large number of foreign students.
London, September 06: Top finance officials from rich and developing countries agreed Saturday to curb hefty bankers’ bonuses, but the proposed crackdown on excessive payouts so far falls short of European demands after the U.S. and Britain shied away from imposing a cap.
The Group of 20 finance ministers also pledged to maintain stimulus measures such as extra government spending and low interest rates to boost the global economy, warning that the fledgling recovery that provided the backdrop to their meeting here is by no means assured.
Switzerland, September 06: A MODEL that replicates the functions of the human brain is feasible in 10 years according to neuroscientist Professor Henry Markram of the Brain Mind Institute in Switzerland. “I absolutely believe it is technically and biologically possible. The only uncertainty is financial. It is an extremely expensive project and not all is yet secured.”
New Delhi, September 06: The right to education is more empowering than the right to vote, Vice President Hamid Ansari said on Saturday as he conferred awards on 300 school teachers from across India on the occasion of Teachers Day.
“It has taken us six decades to provide the right to every child in the 6-14 years age group to free and compulsory primary education in neighbourhood schools. The Right to Education Act passed by the parliament last month is a historic step and probably more empowering, in terms of its impact, than the right to vote,” Ansari said.
Gangtok, September 06: The Sikkim Manipal University has declared the results for B.Sc., M.Sc, BCA for the year 2009.
One can see the results visiting the website address (url) given below.
Sikkim Manipal University of Health, Medical and Technological Sciences was established in 1995.
It is the first government-private initiative in the region. SMU is recognized by the University Grants Commission and approved by the Government of India.
Check the results at the below links
http://www.smude.edu.in/SMUDEResult/
http://dde.smuhmts.edu/SMUDEResult/
Bhopal, September 06: A group of socio-cultural organisations in Madhya Pradesh on Saturday said they would file a petition in the high court demanding that the compulsory recitation of ‘bhojan mantra’ prayers before the mid-day meal in schools be immediately stopped.
The decision came after the groups failed to get an appointment from state Education Minister Archana Chitnis to discuss the issue.
Islamabad, September 06: Pakistani security forces no Saturday killed more than 60 militants in two districts of the country’s troubled northwestern tribal region bordering Afghanistan, officials said.
Paramilitary Frontier Corps troops aided by helicopter gunships destroyed the headquarters of the pro-Taliban fighters in the Khyber tribal district and destroyed seven vehicles, according to a statement.
The operation in Gogrina and Sanpal areas of Tirrah valley in the district killed at least 43 militants and injured several others, the Frontier Corps said.
Jammu, September 06: The Jammu and Kashmir police Saturday released a photograph of Pakistani Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) militant Abu Jindal, who was killed in a gun battle with the security forces Friday, after speculation that he had taught Hindi to the 26/11 Mumbai attackers.
The sole surviving terrorist of the Mumbai attacks, Ajmal Amir Kasab, had told the special court that their Hindi tutor during their training had been the LeT’s Abu Jindal.
Jakarta, September 06: The 7.3-magnitude earthquake that jolted Indonesia’s West Java Wednesday has killed 70 people and wounded 966 while 32 are still missing, the national Antara news agency reported Saturday.
Rano Harjaya, an official from the coordinating unit of the West Java Disaster Mitigation Service, said that most of the dead, wounded and missing victims were from Cianjur of West Java.
Stockholm, September 06: The European Union (EU) will strengthen its presence in Afghanistan, especially its political role there, Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt said here Saturday.
“We will be in Afghanistan for a long time to come. Our presence is politically oriented,” Bildt said at a news conference when the EU foreign ministers concluded their two-day informal meeting in Stockholm.
Kolkata, September 06: Indian Grandmaster Sandipan Chanda continued in the pole position but his all-win record was broken as he drew with Vietnamese GM Le Quang Liem in the fifth round of the 4th Kolkata Open Grandmaster Chess tournament here on Saturday.
Chanda (4.5) let Liem (4) off the hook to split point on the first board at Gorky Sadan.
Sandipan had a better game but made a slight error in the endgame to let his Vitnamese opponent, who had defeated top ranked Azerbaijan GM Shakhriyar Mamedyarov Friday, off the hook.
New Delhi, September 06: A man who duped a non-resident Indian (NRI) of Rs.1.4 million by posing as an agent of a private bank was arrested here on Saturday, police said.
The victim, Pritpal Singh Malhotra, resides in the US. He wanted to purchase a flat in Gurgaon and was looking for a good home loan scheme. He was approached by Davinder Singh Ratra who posed as the chief executive of a company that helped procure loans from private banks, police said.
Ratra arranged a home loan of Rs.5 million for Malhotra from ICICI Bank’s Janakpuri branch, police added.
Hyderabad, September 06: The Salar Jung Museum in Hyderabad has postponed the Qur’an Exhibition planned to be held from 4th to 12th of this month.
The decision was taken due to the sudden demise of the state Chief Minister YS Rajasekhara Reddy. The exhibition will be held after 10 days, informed the director of the museum.
The exhibition titled “Exegesis of Holy Qur’an” was to be organized by the museum as part of its educational and cultural activities.
Mumbai, September 06: Shiv Sena dared the government to arrest party chief Bal Thackeray after a non-bailable arrest warrant was issued by a Bihar court against the Sena supremo for allegedly making uncharitable and inflammatory remarks against Biharis in party mouthpiece ‘Saamana’.
“The Sena chief was arrested earlier and the government has seen what happens when he is arrested. I don’t think they will commit the mistake again,” Thackeray’s son and Sena executive president Uddhav Thackeray said, reacting to the development.
Hyderabad, September 06: It was a holiday of unease for most people clued in to the news this week in Hyderabad.
Most schools in the city got a holiday on Thursday, while Government schools and colleges were closed on both days, extending the weekend to four days. While the news of Chief Minister Rajasekhara Reddy’s demise still hung heavy through the city, a considerable portion of people who got a holiday chose to stay indoors.
Washington, September 06: Two astronauts from the space shuttle Discovery began a third and final spacewalk Saturday outside the International Space Station (ISS).
US astronaut John “Danny” Olivas and Swede Christer Fuglesang began the scheduled six-and-a-half-hour spacewalk at 4.39 p.m. (2039 GMT), US space agency NASA said.
They were to deploy an attachment system that will be used to hang spare parts on the station’s truss. They were also to replace a device designed to help the station determine its position relative to the Earth.
London, September 06: A rally against Islamic extremism in the ethnically mixed English city of Birmingham turned violent Saturday as protesters clashed with counter-demonstrators. Police reported more than 30 arrests.
Trouble broke out when protesters from the English Defense League, a group which says it is opposed to militant Islam in Britain, were met in Birmingham’s downtown area by anti-fascist activists and counter-demonstrators.
Thessaloniki (Greece), September 06:Thousands of people marched in the northern port city of Thessaloniki Saturday to protest the ruling conservative government’s austere economic reforms ahead of elections next month.
More than 10,000 people marched through downtown Thessaloniki towards the International Trade Fair where Greek Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis was giving a speech on the state of the economy.
Karamanlis, whose conservative administration has been plagued with scandals, called a snap general election Oct 4, which was needed to deal with the economic downturn.
Islamabad, September 06: The Indian government has allowed expelled Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Jaswant Singh to visit Pakistan Sep 26 to promote his book “Jinnah: India, Partition and Independence”, a media report said.
He will arrive in Karachi Sep 26, before heading to the Pakistani capital Sep 27 to attend a launching ceremony of the book at the Islamabad Press Club.
The former Indian external affairs minister was expelled from the BJP for praising Pakistan founder Mohammed Ali Jinnah in his book “Jinnah: India, Partition, Independence”.
New York, September 06: Roger Federer recovered from a stuttering start to finally beat Lleyton Hewitt for the 14th time in succession, posting a 4-6, 6-3, 7-5, 6-4 victory into the fourth round of the US Open Saturday.
“The way I came through, I was very happy, because I knew that being down a set against Lleyton is always going to be a difficult situation for me to be in,” said Federer. “Make one more mistake and I’m in the fifth set maybe, or I go down completely. So I was relieved coming through.”
London, September 05: Jack Tweed, the 22-year-old widower of British reality TV star Jade Goody, has been arrested for sexually assaulting a young girl.
Tweed, who wed Goody just weeks before she died from cervical cancer in March, was held after police barged into his home Friday morning following a 19-year-old woman’s allegation that he had sexually assaulted her hours earlier, reports contactmusic.com.
Tweed and his friend, Ashley Rubin, were arrested for the incident.
–Agencies