Month: September 2009

14 of a family given life for murder

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Chandigarh, September 02: A court in the Patiala city of Punjab has sentenced to life imprisonment 14

members of a family for killing a man over a land dispute in 2006.

Additional sessions judge P.P. Singh Monday convicted head of the family Kartar Singh, his two sons, four

grandsons and seven other relatives for the murder of land owner Sher Singh.

“The agriculture land originally belonged to Sher Singh and he had all the documents with him supporting his

claim. However, accused Kartar Singh illegally wanted to grab the land,” prosecution lawyer Sarabjeet Singh

Reasoning behind hide and seek to revolutionise video gaming, police work

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Washington, September 02: What do hide-and-seek, police searches and video games have in common? More than you would think, say two University of Alberta (U-A) researchers.

Experimental psychologist Marcia Spetch and computer scientist Vadim Bulitko at U-A are using their research to understand the reasoning and decision-making process involved in hide-and-seek objects.

They hope it will lead to more realistic game environments and advanced search-enhancing tools for law enforcement.

Health ministry official commits suicide in Delhi

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New Delhi, September 02: A senior health ministry official was found Wednesday hanging from the fan in his home here, police said.

M.P. Singh, 49, who was posted as deputy director at Indian Council Of Medical Research (ICMR), was found in his Pragati Vihar hostel room in south Delhi’s Lodhi Colony around 9.30 a.m.

“Prima facie it seems that Singh has committed suicide. We have been told that he was under depression for the last few days,” a police official said.

–Agencies

Hindi out in Nepal but Indian celebrities still very much in

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Kathmandu, September 02: Branded an Indian language, Hindi has been given the thumbs-down in Nepal as the medium of official work.

However, Indian celebrities continue to be courted by Nepal for that touch of glamour, entertainment and driving home a special message.

‘Spiderman’ fined for climbing Malaysian twin towers

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Kualalumpur, September 02: A French climber nicknamed “Spiderman” was fined 2,000 ringgit (£350) today for climbing Malaysia’s 88-storey Petronas Twin Towers.

A Kuala Lumpur court official said Alain Robert pleaded guilty to criminal trespass, a day after he sneaked past security to reach the top of Tower 2 of the landmark buildings.

Robert was arrested immediately after the feat.

He was quoted today by the national Bernama news agency as saying: “Climbing is my passion, my life, my addiction.”

Sehwag wants to play more Tests than T20

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Mumbai, September 02: The public might be enchanted with the Twenty20 format but swashbuckling Indian opener Virender Sehwag prefers to play Tests and ODIs more than the shortest form of the game that has taken the cricket world by storm. “Personally I would like to play more Tests and ODIs than T20 games which I know have become extremely popular.

Student crushed to death by train

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Seoni, Septembet 02: An 18-year-old class XI student was crushed to death by Satpura Express when he was walking parallel to the railway track with his friend at this district’s Ghansore area, Government Railway Police said.

Kamlesh Durve, student of government school, slipped on the track while walking over Badhid bridge and was run over by the train.

Kamlesh was on his way back to his home at Nidhani village.

—-Agencies

Army kills 5 infiltrators in J&K; 10 missing

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Srinagar, September 02: Five terrorists were shot down by the security forces in Jammu and Kashmir while infiltrating into India on Wednesday.

The Indian Army acted on information that some terrorists had crossed the line of control (LoC) in Gurez sector of Bandipora district in Kashmir Valley.

While five terrorists were killed, the army’s search operation was on for the remaining 10 terrorists.

—Agencies

Astronauts begin spacewalk to remove ammonia tank

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Washington, September 02: Two US spacewalkers left the International Space Station (ISS) Tuesday to remove an empty ammonia tank that is crucial for keeping the station cool.

John ‘Danny’ Olivas and Nicole Stott left the ISS at 2149 GMT for the planned six-and-a-half-hour spacewalk.

They will disconnect lines that transfer ammonia and nitrogen in the tank, unhook the electricity and unbolt the tank before lifting it away from the station and placing it on the robotic arm to be moved out of the way.

Government tells court it is not against Ambani pact

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New Delhi, September 02: Reversing its earlier stand, the Government on Tuesday told the Supreme Court that it was not in favour of declaring “null and void” the family pact between the two Ambani brothers, Anil and Mukesh.

The Government also told the apex court, ahead of a hearing on October 20 on the feud between the companies led by the two brothers, that its policy on pricing and allocation of gas was without prejudice to another legal case involving state-run power utility NTPC.

Senior Chinese legislator arrives in Cuba for official visit

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Havana, September 02: China’s senior legislator Wu Bangguo arrived here Tuesday afternoon for an official visit to Cuba.

In a written statement, Wu, chairman of the Standing Committee of China’s National People’s Congress, highlighted the rapid growth of the China-Cuba relations.

He said the growing bilateral cooperation has already brought concrete benefit to the two nations.

‘I expect to boost the traditional friendship and the bilateral cooperation with mutual benefit to a higher level by my visit,’ Wu said in the statement.

Seoul sees NKorea’s overtures as tactical changes

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Seoul, September 02: A top South Korean official said Wednesday that North Korea’s recent conciliatory

gestures do not represent any fundamental changes because the communist country has shown no signs of

ending its nuclear weapons program.

In April, North Korea quit the six-nation talks — involving the two Koreas, the U.S., China, Russia and Japan

— aimed at ending its nuclear program. In another defiant move, North Korea conducted its second nuclear

test in May, drawing international condemnation and new U.N. sanctions.

We can tackle drought, says Manmohan Singh

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New Delhi, September 02: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Tuesday said the effects of the global meltdown

had begun to wear out and asserted that UPA II was in a commanding position to tackle drought.

Terming the pessimism about the economy unwarranted, Dr. Singh, chairing the first full-fledged meeting of

the Planning Commission in his second tenure here, said: “We are in a very strong position to manage the

consequence of drought. Our food stocks in particular are very high. We should not be over-pessimistic.” The

Japan election winners, govt work on power shift

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Tokyo, September 02: Japan’s incoming leaders met the outgoing government Wednesday to start a power

transition after their landslide election win, as a poll showed three-quarters of people have high hopes for

them.

The centre-left Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) scored a historic win in Sunday’s electoral earthquake,

ousting Prime Minister Taro Aso’s conservative Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) after decades of one-party

dominance.

DPJ leader Yukio Hatoyama is set to become premier on September 16 and has promised to name his cabinet

Nepal police arrest Tibetan protesters

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Kathmandu, September 02: Nepalese riot police on Wednesday arrested ten Tibetans as they tried to protest in front of a visiting high-level Chinese delegation, said an AFP reporter at the scene.

The banner-waving protesters stood in the middle of the street and shouted “Free Tibet” as the Chinese officials drove from their hotel just outside Kathmandu on Wednesday morning, the reporter said.

Around 40 baton-wielding riot police dragged the young men into waiting vans and took them away, the reporter said.

IAS officer arrested for defying court orders

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Ranchi, September 02: The Deputy Commissioner of Sahebganj district of Jharkhand has been arrested for not appointing a peon as ordered by the court, police said Wednesday.

The Jharkhand High Court had Tuesday directed Sahebganj Superintendent of Police (SP) to arrest Deputy Commissioner K Ravi Kumar on charges of contempt of court. Kumar was arrested Tuesday night. He will be produced in the court Wednesday.

US, Cuba to discuss resuming postal links

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Washington, September 02: The US and Cuba will hold talks this month on the resumption of direct mail service between the two countries after a gap of 46 years, according to media reports.

The proposed meeting on mail services will be held in Havana, Spanish-language newspaper El Nuevo Herald reported Tuesday, citing unnamed US State Department officials.

In July this year, the US and Cuba resumed their talks on immigration after they were broken off by the George W. Bush administration in 2003.

Japan gropes toward power handover, coalition seen

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Tokyo, September 02: Japan groped its way on Wednesday toward a rare handover of power as the untested Democratic Party sought to firm up a coalition with tiny partners after its stunning weekend election victory.

Yukio Hatoyama, whose decade-old Democrat Party of Japan (DPJ) beat the long-ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) by a landslide in Sunday’s general election, will be voted in as premier on Sept. 16 and should form his cabinet soon after.

U.S. journalists say entered N.Korea, arrested in China

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Washington, September 02: Two U.S. journalists held by North Korea for illegal entry admitted they crossed into the reclusive state, but said North Korean guards arrested them on the Chinese side of the border and dragged them back into the country.

In their first public account, published on the Los Angeles Times website (http://link.reuters.com/cug44d) on Tuesday, Laura Ling and Euna Lee of Current TV said that when they set out onto the frozen river marking the border between the two countries they had no intention of leaving China.

Bio-transformed blueberry juice fights fat and diabetes

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Toronto, September 02: Juice of North American blueberries, bio-transformed with bacteria from the skin of the fruit, looks promising as an anti-obesity and anti-diabetic agent.

Researchers from the Universities of Montreal, de Moncton and Institut Armand-Frappier, tested the effects of the bio-transformed juices on mice as part of a study.

‘Results of this study clearly show that bio-transformed blueberry juice has strong anti-obesity and anti-diabetic potential,’ says study co-author Pierre S. Haddad, pharmacology professor at the University of Montreal faculty of medicine (UMFM).

Mexico begins evacuations ahead of powerful hurricane

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Mexico, September 02: (EFE) Officials in the Mexican state of Baja California Sur have started evacuating residents of Pacific coastal communities as Hurricane Jimena approaches the area.

Hurricane Jimena is a category four storm on the five-point Saffir-Simpson scale.

‘Already in Los Cabos, particularly in San Jose del Cabo and Cabo San Lucas, we have a significant number of families in the temporary shelters. In the city of La Paz, we are still waiting to get the order to begin the evacuations,’ Baja California Sur Government secretary Luis Armando Diaz said Tuesday.

Sony plans to come out with 3-D TV next year: Report

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New York, September 02: The Japanese electronics company Sony Corp plans to introduce a liquid-crystal-display television capable of playing 3-D programming by the end of next year, The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday.

Sony is to announce its plans for the new TV next week at the IFA consumer electronics show in Berlin, an unnamed source familiar with the plans told the Journal.

Rahul to woo Tamil Nadu youths

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New Delhi, September 02: After placing the party on revival path in Uttar Pradesh, Rahul Gandhi’s next stop seems to be Tamil Nadu where he is making efforts to give a new lease of life to the Congress by injecting ‘youth power’.

Highly-placed Congress sources said Rahul’s target among the southern states is Tamil Nadu which sends 39 members to the Lok Sabha. This, he plans, to do by giving preference to youth and holding organisational elections for the State Youth Congress, a move found useful in Punjab and Uttrakhand.

14 of a family given life for murder

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Chandigarh, September 02: A court in the Patiala city of Punjab has sentenced to life imprisonment 14 members of a family for killing a man over a land dispute in 2006.

Additional sessions judge P.P. Singh Monday convicted head of the family Kartar Singh, his two sons, four grandsons and seven other relatives for the murder of land owner Sher Singh.

‘The agriculture land originally belonged to Sher Singh and he had all the documents with him supporting his claim. However, accused Kartar Singh illegally wanted to grab the land,’ prosecution lawyer Sarabjeet Singh told Wednesday.

India’s forestry plan in spotlight

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New Delhi, September 02: India has turned to its vast forest cover to absorb its growing greenhouse gas emissions and stem international pressure to sign on to binding carbon reduction targets.

Authorities pinned their hopes earlier this month on the concept of carbon capture in an effort to boost India’s environmental credentials ahead of global talks in Copenhagen aimed at reaching a consensus on fighting climate change.

But with forest expansion restricted and woodland degradation on the rise, it is likely to be an uphill battle, experts say.