Month: September 2009

Deaflympics opens in Taiwan with drums and a firework display

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Taipei, September 05: A spectacular fireworks display and the beating of drums by 80 deaf students heralded the opening of the 21st Summer Deaflympics here Saturday evening.

President Ma Ying-jeou, through sign language, announced the opening of the 10-day games, being attended by nearly 3,000 athletes from 80 countries and regions.

They will compete in some 100 events in 20 sports.

The Chinese team boycotted the opening because of Ma’s presence, as China sees Chinese Taipei (Taiwan) as its breakaway province and does not recognize Ma as president.

FIA summons Renault to answer charges

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Paris, September 05: Motorsport’s governing body FIA has asked Formula One team Renault to appear before a meeting of the FIA World Motor Sport Council to answer a series of charges.
AN FIA statement said the meeting would be held September 21.

Chidambaram slams Pak for deliberately stifling 26/11 investigation

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New Delhi, September 05: Home Minister P. Chidamabaram has accused Pakistan of deliberately holding back investigations into the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks despite concrete evidence against the conspirators being presented to Islamabad linking Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) chief Hafiz Saeed to the carnage that killed over 170 people.

“They have not arrested the perpetrators of the Mumbai attack. They are still on Pakistani soil. We have shared the names with them. They are not investigating the case.

After 18 years, an independent is DUSU chief

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New Delhi, September 05: After 18 long years, the Delhi University Students Union (DUSU) elected an independent candidate as its president on Saturday after a majority of the Congress and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-backed nominees were barred from contesting for violating the poll code.

Manoj Chaudhary, a student of the department of Buddhist Studies, defeated Bajinder Singh of the All India Students Federation (AISF), affiliated to the Communist Party of India (CPI), by just 11 votes.

Maharashtra, Haryana vote count may be advanced: EC

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Chandigarh, September 05: The Election Commission of India (ECI) on Saturday indicated that it could consider advancing the counting of votes in assembly elections to be held in Maharashtra and Haryana next month.

Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Navin Chawla said here that the long gap between the polling (Oct 13) and the counting (Oct 22) for assembly elections in Maharashtra, Haryana and Arunachal Pradesh was kept in view of the Diwali festival season next month and also due to the tough terrain in Arunachal Pradesh.

Air India, United S.C. in Shield semifinals

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Kolkata, September 05: United S.C. stunned fancied East Bengal 4-2 in a group A encounter to enter the semifinals of the 114th IFA Shield football tournament on Saturday.

In another match, Pune F.C. prevailed over Senegal’s A.S. Douanes 2-0 to enable Air India reach the last four from group D. The airmen will take on Churchill Brothers Tuesday for a place in the Sept 12 final.

Pune F.C. struck through Japanese Izumi Arata and Je Je Lalpekhlua to cause the exit of the unimpressive Senegalese from the tournament.

It’s difficult to prove corruption in news: poll panel

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Chandigarh, September 05: The Election Commission (EC) on Saturday said that it had received several complaints about ‘surrogate news’ in the media to favour one politician or the other, but admitted that it was very difficult to prove the charge.

“This is a real problem. It is very difficult to prove ‘paid news’. The information regarding this has to come from you (media),” Chief Election Commissioner Navin Chawla told reporters here after meeting political parties and officials ahead of the assembly elections in Haryana next month.

Durrani calls for frank dialogue between Indian, Pakistani spymasters

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New Delhi, September 05: Pitching for resuming dialogue with India, Pakistan’s former national security adviser Mahmud Ali Durrani on Saturday called for a “frank dialogue” between spymasters and security services to jointly combat terrorism and bridge mistrust.

India’s first all-male quintuplets born to Thane couple

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Maharashtra, September 05: The country’s first all-male set of quintuplets was born to a Thane couple at the Kokilaben Dhirubhai Ambani Hospital in Mumbai on Friday, a hospital spokesperson said on Saturday.

The mother, Sabira Ubaid Khan, 23, and her five children are doing well at the hospital’s advanced tertiary care facility, with an eight-member team of medicos attending to them, the spokesperson said.

Ubaid Khan, the proud father, said that the infants were delivered within a three minute gap Friday.

South Korean wins second ITF title in three weeks

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New Delhi, September 05:Second seed South Korean Young-Jun Kim clinched his second $10,000 International Tennis Federation (ITF) in three weeks here at the DLTA stadium beating Japanese Kento Takeuchi 6-3, 6-1 Saturday.

The 29-year-old Kim was also the winner of the first of the three back-to-back ITF tournament here and has thus won 18 of his last 19 matches; his only loss came in the form a mid-match retirement when he had to concede his semi-final against Vishnu Vardhan due to a sore knee and exhaustion.

Bihar court issues warrant for Bal Thackeray’s arrest

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Patna, September 05:A Bihar court has issued a non-bailable arrest warrant against Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray after he failed to appear before it in a case of allegedly making uncharitable and inflammatory remarks against residents of the state in his party mouthpiece Saamna.

Rakesh Pati Tiwari, the sub-divisional judicial magistrate in Ara, district headquarters of Bhojpur, ordered issuance of the warrant Friday after Thackeray failed to appear before him or send a lawyer representing him in compliance with the court’s July 7 order.

Wipro to offer software-as-service platform to independent vendors

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Bangalore, September 05: Wipro Technologies will offer independent software vendors a platform to provide software-as-service (SaS) using Oracle grid computing and Oracle application grid middleware, the IT bellwether said Saturday.

The technology platform will enable vendors to operate their business applications in the SaS model in a non-intrusive manner. It will also result in 20 percent savings in the total cost of ownership, the company said in a statement.

Moussavi accuses Ahmadinejad of misusing Islam

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Tehran, September 05: Iranian opposition leader Mir-Hossein Moussavi has accused President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of misusing Islam, his website reported Saturday.

“Islam is frequently referred to but seldom followed,” Moussavi said in a statement carried by his website Kalame.

Moussavi is one of main opponents of Ahmadinejad, whom he has charged with fraud in the June 12 presidential election, and whose re-election he refuses to acknowledge.

“Islam is filtered and those parts (of Islam) which are not beneficiary are simply skipped,” Moussavi said.

Now, Sonam Kapoor takes up social causes

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New Delhi, September 05: Bollywood actor Sonam Kapoor was Saturday made the brand ambassador of a fund-raiser organised by NGO Khushii that will spread awareness about various causes like health care and child welfare.

She said that she was “just the face” of the cause and everyone should do their bit.

Megan Fox calls Michael Bay “Hitler”

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Melbourne, September 05: Hollywood bombshell siren Megan Fox has the opinion that her Transformer’s director Michael Bay was like ‘Napoleon or Hitler’. Megan said that the director was insane and mad at the same time.

Sharing her experiences of working with the Bay, the petite damsel revealed that she considered the director was a tough at assigning task.

Megan Fox also wished of letting loose on Michael Bay and said that he imitates Hitler and was comfortable in behaving like Hitler.

The Transformer star also called him as a nightmare to work with.

Two more swine flu deaths in Hyderabad

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Hyderabad, September 05:Two women died of swine flu here Saturday taking the toll due to influenza A (H1N1) in Andhra Pradesh to four, officials said.

Rupa Devi, 38, who was admitted to government-run Chest Hospital a week ago, succumbed to the illness Saturday. The woman, a resident of Bholakpur area in the city, was brought to the hospital after she did not get any relief from fever at two hospitals.

Another woman, identified as Lakshmi Devi of Kadapa town, died at a private hospital, where she was admitted Aug 25.

Delhi youth want minimum age for drinking to be lowered

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New Delhi, September 05:A majority of youngsters in Delhi would like a drink before the legal age of 25 and want the government to lower the age limit, a new survey has found.

The survey, carried out by the voluntary organisation Campaign Against Drunken Driven (CADD), spoke to 1,000 people in the city, including 761 from the age group of 16-24.

“Nearly 16 percent of the 16-18 years age group consume alcohol on a weekly basis and around 12 percent of the under-age drinkers spend Rs.1,000 on alcohol on a weekly basis,” the study revealed.

Five arrested; police claim robbery bid foiled

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New Delhi, September 05: Delhi police today claimed to have foiled a robbery bid with the arrest of five persons, who were planning to loot a petrol pump owner here. Two pistols, a toy pistol and four vehicles were also recovered from the gang arrested yesterday, Deputy Commissioner of Police (South) H G S Dhaliwal said.

I’m tired of playing T-20’s, wanna play Tests: Sehwag

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New Delhi, September 05: virender sehawgHere’s another cricketer who is tired of playing the shorter version of cricket, T-20’s.

Dashing Indian opening batsman Virender Sehwag has made it clear that instead of T-20’s, he was looking forward to play more Tests and ODIs.

Speaking with the reporters, Sehwag said: “Personally I would like to play more Tests and ODIs than T20 games which I know have become extremely popular. I would like to play at least eight to 10 Tests in a year.”

The Delhi batsman hopes to return to international arena with the Twenty20 Champions League next month.

Butt approves of Players Association idea

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Islamabad, September 05: Pakistan skipper Younus Khan’s idea of forming a players’ association can materialise soon as PCB Chairman Ezaj Butt has pledged support for the cause, saying the move will not pose any threat to the Board.

Younus had said yesterday that he was keen on launching a players’ association which would be affiliated with the Federation of International Cricketers Associations (FICA).

“Younus has not spoken to me on this subject as yet but when he does I will tell him the Board will support him all the way,” Butt said.

Divya’s Dancing To New Tunes!!

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Mumbai, September 05: The versatile actress Divya Dutta seems to be taking her role as a multi-faceted actress quite seriously!

Our jaasus gave us inside news that Divya has actually choreographed an entire dance sequence for her latest international film “Heartland’ directed by award winning American director Fred Holmes.

Our jaasus adds, “The sequence required Divya’s character to dance dreamily. Having seen Divya’s previous works, Fred was sure that Divya would be able to bring out the true essence of the character’s persona.”

Swat, Malakand almost cleared of militants: Pakistan president

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Islamabad, September 05: Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari has said that militants have been ‘almost cleared’ from the northwest of the country and were on the run, Online news agency reported Saturday.

‘Militants are on the run as Swat and Malakand have almost been cleared of them. This huge success in the battle for the integrity of Pakistan has been made possible by the sacrifices of our armed forces and the people,’ Zardari said in his message to the country on the eve of Defence Day Sep 6.

Gas dispute: NTPC moves SC against Bombay HC order

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New Delhi, September 05: State-run power PSU NTPC on Saturday moved the Supreme Court challenging the Bombay High Court judgement that allowed it to amend its petition on the gas dispute.

A ministerial group had approved USD 4.2 per mmBtu as the value of gas from RIL’s KG-D6 fields, but before that the company had won a contract to supply 12 million cubic metres of gas per day to NTPC’s Kawas and Gandhar projects with a bid of USD 2.34 per mmBtu in 2004.

China sacks Party boss of strife-torn western city

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Beijing, September 05: China sacked the top official of Urumqi, the strife-hit capital of far-west Xinjiang, on Saturday, as the city crept back to an uneasy normality after days of sometimes deadly protests that have inflamed ethnic enmity.

The brief announcement from the official Xinhua news agency did not explain why the city’s Communist Party Secretary, Li Zhi, was dismissed and replaced by Zhu Hailun, the head of Xinjiang region’s law-and-order committee.