New Delhi, September 30: Mohammad ElBaradei, Director General of International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), will be honoured with the Indira Gandhi Prize for Peace, Disarmament and Development today.
The award will be conferred on Elbaradei by President Pratibha Patil at a function at Rashtrapati Bhawan.
The International Jury of the Prize, chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, had decided to confer the honour on ElBaradei in November last year.
London, September 30: A young Afghan girl died after a box of public information leaflets, dropped by a Royal Air Force plane over Afghanistan, landed on her, a newspaper said today.
Britain’s Ministry of Defence said it was investigating the accident which it described as “highly regrettable,” The Times said.
The drop occurred over a rural area of Afghanistan’s southern Helmand province on June 23 as part of an information campaign, the newspaper said.
“Sadly one of the boxes failed to fully open and on landing caused serious injuries to an Afghan child,” an RAF spokesman said.
Johensberg, September 30: Some three decades ago a cricketing star was announced to the world when the sages of the Cricket Writers’ Club named a blonde, mop-topped Leicestershire batsman as their young cricketer of the year.
The year was 1978 and a rookie left-hander named David Gower had captured the imagination of the nation’s press-box luminaries to win their landslide vote for the best under-23 cricketer in the land.
Washington, September 30: Lashkar-e-Taiba, the Pakistan-based group widely believed to be behind the Mumbai terror attacks, remains largely intact and determined to strike India again, The New York Times has reported citing current and former members of the group and intelligence officials.
Despite pledges from Pakistan to dismantle militant groups operating on its soil, and the arrest of a handful of operatives, Lashkar has persisted, even flourished, since 10 recruits killed 163 people in a rampage through Mumbai last November, the influential US daily said in a report from Karachi.
Shimla, September 30: A Himachal Pradesh court has sentenced a man to life imprisonment for killing his three children two years ago.
Kangra Additional District and Sessions Judge B.L. Soni Tuesday sentenced Bidhi Chand to rigorous life imprisonment on charges of killing his three children, including his two sons.
According to the prosecution, Chand suspected his children were illegitimate and murdered them in a fit of rage.
A case was registered against him in August 2007. The accused is a resident of Kangra district, 250 km from here, said state counsel B.K. Marwah.
Kathmandu, September 30: Twenty-three people attending a prayer service were killed and 65 injured when a church building collapsed in eastern Nepal, a media report said Wednesday.
The incident took place Tuesday night in Dharan area of Sunsari district, some 220 km east of Kathmandu, state-run Nepal Television reported. At least four children are among those killed.
Police said the collapsed structure was three storeys with a tin roof. The cause of the collapse was not immediately known. The injured were taken to a hospital in Dharan.
Shimla, September 30: A Himachal Pradesh court has sentenced a man to life imprisonment for killing his three children two years ago.
Kangra Additional District and Sessions Judge B.L. Soni Tuesday sentenced Bidhi Chand to rigorous life imprisonment on charges of killing his three children, including his two sons.
According to the prosecution, Chand suspected his children were illegitimate and murdered them in a fit of rage.
A case was registered against him in August 2007. The accused is a resident of Kangra district, 250 km from here, said state counsel B.K. Marwah.
–IANS–
New Delhi, September 30: The strike by Air India pilots entered the fifth day Wednesday, leading to the cancellation of 28 flights, including two international ones.
Despite Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel’s assurance that any decision on wages would be taken only after consulting the employees, the pilots were in no mood to relent.
The pilots, who have been told by the minister to report back to work or face action, are expected to meet the management Wednesday. Of the 28 flights cancelled Wednesday, 10 flights have been cancelled from Delhi.
Vancouver, September 30: With their lit-up cellphones thrust high in the air, 16,000 young people rocked GM Place Tuesday — but they weren’t there for a standard music concert. The enthusiastic crowd was chanting and cheering for a group of singers, speakers and activists with a mutual passion for social change.
The show-stopping act was the Dalai Lama, who enthralled the teenagers by urging them to overcome the violence and poverty that racked the world in the 20th century.
Jeddah, September 30: No swine flu deaths were reported among millions of pilgrims during the holy month of Ramadan despite fears of a massive outbreak, according to the ministry of health. Just 26 cases of H1N1 influenza were reported in Makkah and Madinah during Ramadan, the Saudi Press Agency reported, quoting a ministry statement on Monday.
Muscat, September 30: Oman has called for more global investment in medical research to confront epidemics such as H1N1, the benefits from which, it said, should be made available to all countries. It also underlined that drug manufacturers must not be allowed to wield monopoly over medicines developed through such research.
Washington/Wellington, September 30: At least 25 people died in the Pacific island states of Samoa and American Samoa after a tsunami was triggered by a magnitude 8.0 earthquake Tuesday, according to reports from the region.
A number of coastal villages were swept away and reports said the death toll was bound to rise as people who were evacuated to higher ground after the shake returned to lower levels.
Washington, September 30: US President Barack Obama is scheduled to hold a crucial meeting of his key advisors on Afghanistan in the White House early tomorrow morning.
The meeting is being held in the backdrop of Obama receiving reports on the current situation in the country and recommendations on the way forward from several of his key officials including General Stanley McChrystal, the Commander of US and NATO forces in Afghanistan.
Hyderabad, September 30: A senior Congress leader in Andhra Pradesh has termed as “bogus” the shock deaths of 600 people following the demise of chief minister Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy in a helicopter crash early this month.
Giving a bitter twist to the war of words with the loyalists of the late chief minister, who was known as YSR, Rajya Sabha member V. Hanumantha Rao said the shock deaths were a publicity stunt.
Jerusalem, September 30: Israel’s defense minister won’t rule out a military strike on Iran after the discovery of a secret Iranian nuclear facility.
Ehud Barak says severe sanctions must be imposed on Iran following the revelations of the clandestine uranium enrichment plant near the city of Qom.
He said in a statement released Tuesday that Israel is keeping all of its options on the table, suggesting a military strike on the facility is possible.
Johensberg, September 30: Favourites are falling like autumn leaves in the Champions Trophy. After the demise of the hotly tipped hosts South Africa, the team which was expected to push them all the way, India, could follow them out of the tournament today.
India’s fate depends more or less entirely on the outcome of the tie between Australia and Pakistan. First, India must beat the West Indies, which looks to be an open-and-shut case, but they must beat them soundly, which is not. But that alone will be far from enough for Indian to progress to the semi-finals.
New Delhi, September 30: Desiya Murpokku Dravida Kazhagam (DMDK) president Vijayakant and his party cadres held a day-long fast here in the capital on Monday to protest against the alleged attacks on Indian fishermen by the Sri Lankan navy and the attitude of Central and State governments on the issue.
Addressing the cadres, Mr. Vijayakant demanded the intervention of the Centre to prevent such attacks on Indian fishermen by the Sri Lankan navy.
“Silent spectators”
He alleged that Indian fishermen were attacked, their fish nets damaged and boats destroyed.
United Nations, September 30: Iran chided U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon for criticizing its disclosure of a new nuclear plant, saying he was repeating “baseless” Western charges and should have awaited the views of U.N. experts.
At a meeting on Friday with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Ban expressed “grave concern” about the uranium enrichment plant that is being built south of the Iranian capital, according to Ban’s press office.
His view echoed those of U.S. President Barack Obama, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and French President Nicolas Sarkozy.
Los Angeles, September 30: Murder charges against a US Marine accused of slaying an unarmed Iraqi prisoner in Fallujah in 2004 were dismissed Tuesday, a military spokesman confirmed.
A spokesman at the US Marines Camp Pendleton base outside San Diego said a charge of unpremeditated murder against Jermaine Nelson was dismissed after the 28-year-old sergeant pleaded not guilty.
Nelson admitted one count of dereliction of duty. Sentencing is to be decided later, the spokesman told AFP.
New Delhi, September 30: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is going to America for a state visit Novemer 24, just before Thanksgiving.
Such visits include an elaborate arrival ceremony on the White House South Lawn, one-on-one time with the president and a state dinner.
It’s a plum presidential nod of recognition for the world’s largest democracy and most stable U.S. ally in a hostile corner of the world.
But why India first?
England, September 30: Nothing that England did last night could affect their qualification for the Champions Trophy semi-finals.
This was just as well because for too long nothing was their contribution to their last group match. That they eventually lost to New Zealand by only four wickets merely avoided the walloping they had looked likely to receive.
Sharjah, September 30: The Sharjah Municipality has confiscated and destroyed 10,975 fake items from 72 shops and vendors selling them in subways.
The items included watches, mobile phones and accessories, clothes, pirated CDs, perfumes, shaving machines, medicines and food items considered unfit for human consumption.
New Delhi, September 30: Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi’s iconic Dandi March in 1930 to protest against the British salt tax has inspired pen-makers Mont Blanc to come out with a limited-series pen on the Father of the Nation.
The high-end pen is priced around Rs.14 lakh, according to a watch retailer.
The pen comes with a gold wire entwined by hand around the middle, which “evokes the roughly wound yarn on the spindle with which Gandhi spun everyday.”
Dubai, September 30: The education authority in Dubai said it will strive to be more transparent and open channels of communication with parents through various initiatives in the future.
“In due time there will be a way when parents can talk, raise an issue and can give a suggestion,” said Dr Abdulla Al Karam, director general of KHDA and chairman of the Board of Directors.
Dubai, September 30: A full ban needs to be introduced on asbestos products, experts say, after it emerged that the UAE imports more of the hazardous building material than any other Middle Eastern country.
Construction firms in the UAE still use asbestos in making underground water pipes, despite its use being severely curtailed elsewhere in the GCC and the rest of the world.
According to the latest figures from the US Geological Survey of Minerals, the UAE imported over 17,000 tonnes of asbestos in 2007 — the highest in the region.