Month: October 2009

US troops not likely to leave Iraq

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Washington, October 02: Gaining the upper hand against Al-Qaeda in Iraq has required a big US military force coupled with manhunts against militant leaders, the American commander there said on Thursday.

“You have to have both combined,” General Ray Odierno, the commander of US forces in Iraq, told a news conference.

Al-Qaeda did not have a presence in Iraq, and observers say they are likely to remain in Iraq as long as US troops remain there because of their eagerness to follow and fight American military presence in the region.

Orissa private bus owners announce indefinite strike

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Bhubaneswar, October 02: The private bus owners in Orissa Friday night announced an indefinite strike from Sunday after the state government refused to roll back the toll fee and turned down their three-point proposal.

“We have received a letter from the state government turning down our proposal – of reduction in VAT, keeping the old toll fee rate and giving concession in diesel VAT. We have, therefore, decided to go on statewide strike from 4th of this month,” said Prakash Mishra, president of the private bus owners’ association.

Iran hails ‘good’ nuclear talks in Geneva

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Geneva, October 02: Iran negotiator Saeed Jalili said Thursday “good” discussions had taken place over the country’s nuclear programme and international inspectors would be allowed to “supervise” its new enrichment plant.

“We had good discussions and we expressed the points of view of the Islamic republic,” he said after the talks with six world powers, adding the meeting agreed on the format for further negotiations to be held by the end of October.

Irani Trophy: Bowlers put Rest of India on top against Mumbai

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Nagpur, October 02: Taking advantage of the overcast conditions, bowlers brought back Rest of India into the game as they reduced Mumbai to 200 for six in the first innings at the end of second day’s play in the Irani Trophy at the Vidarbha Cricket Association Stadium here Friday.

At stumps, Vinayak Samant was batting on 25 and Ramesh Powar on 10 as Rest of India still led by 60 runs after pacemen Munaf Patel (3-47) and Sudip Tyagi (2-56) troubled the Mumbai top order. Rest of India were bowled out for 260 runs in the first innings.

Campaign against violence on women launched with human chain

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New Delhi, October 02: Scores of people, who included home makers and anganwadi workers as well as well known personalities, formed a human chain at the India Gate lawns Friday to send out the message that violence against women should not be tolerated and to formally launch the women and child development ministry’s campaign.

Tiger Woods becomes sport’s first billion-dollar earner

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Washington, October 02: Tiger Woods has become the first sportsman to earn more than a billion dollars, according to a report in Forbes magazine.

The 14-time major winner reached the financial milestone courtesy of the $10 million bonus he received for winning the PGA Tour’s FedEx Cup title last weekend.

According to Forbes, the 33-year-old American began the season on $895 million and has accumulated his fortune by means of prize money, endorsements, appearance fees and his golf course design business.

–Agencies

Chicago, Tokyo lose out in Olympic bid

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Copenhagen, October 02: Chicago and Tokyo were eliminated Friday in the first and second rounds of International Olympic Committee voting to choose the 2016 Games host city.

Chicago reached the lowest number of votes in the first round, despite the personal lobbying of US President Barack Obama and his wife Michelle.

Tokyo was eliminated in the second round of IOC voting, leaving Rio de Janeiro and Madrid in the final round.

Manavjit traps gold in Asian shooting, India bag silver

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New Delhi, October 02: World champion Manavjit Singh Sandhu shot the gold while his compatriot Mansher Singh won the bronze in the trap event of the Asian Clay Shooting Championship at Almaty, Kazhakastan, Friday.

According to information received here, Manavjit shot 121 out of 125 in the qualification round and in the finals he shot 19 out of 25 while Mansher won the bronze medal with a score of 113 in qualification and 21 in final.

Punjab teachers to make weekly reports on students

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Chandigarh, October 02: To keep a regular tab on students’ performance and to streamline the education system, all teachers in the state schools have been asked to maintain school diaries, the state education minister said here Friday.

“Among various steps for improvement in imparting quality education, teachers have been instructed to maintain diaries on weekly basis. They have to mention about syllabus covered, students’ weekly tests record, homework reports and planning for the next week,” Education Minister Upinderjit Kaur said.

Israel frees 19 Palestinian prisoners in proof-of-life deal

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Tel Aviv/Betunia (West Bank), October 02: Israel freed 19 female Palestinian prisoners late Friday morning, in exchange for a proof-of-life video of a soldier held in the Gaza Strip for over three years.

Although observers say the swap could be for first step in a deal to bring Gilad Shalit back to Israel, Israeli officials have cautioned that the soldier’s release may still a long way off.

The video of Shalit, running to over two minutes, showed the soldier looking in good health, thin and clean-shaven, Israeli media reported.

‘Inglourious Basterds’ – drama takes centrestage, not action

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Washington, October 02: Everything that comes out of Hollywood need not be always perfect. Even if the filmmaker at the helm of affairs is none other than Quentin Tarantino, an institution in himself, one can’t get extraordinary results in each of his outings. However, from Tarantino one did expect a lot more out of this 150 minutes long drama.

Tharoor feels people should work rather than enjoy holiday

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New Delhi, October 02: Continuing to ‘tweet’ his opinion despite receiving flak, minister of state for external affairs Shashi Tharoor now feels people should work rather than enjoy a holiday on Mahatma Gandhi’s birthday.

“Gandhiji said ‘Work is Workship’ and we enjoy holiday on his birthday,” he said in a reply to a posting on the social networking site Twitter.

To support his contention, Tharoor cited the views of visiting Vietnamese Vice President Nguyen Thi Doan.

Drug peddler with ISI ‘links’ held

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New Delhi, October 02: An alleged drug peddler with suspected ISI links, and issued a red corner notice by Interpol against him, was arrested in the national capital, police said on Friday. Sabir Ali, hailing UP’s Muzaffarnagar and residing in Lahore for the past two years, was caught by Delhi Police’s Crime Branch from near Welcome Metro station around 3.30 pm yesterday, a senior police official said.

Maha polls: Vajpayee, Thackarey will be non-playing captains

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New Delhi, October 02: Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Bal Thackarey are virtually the non-playing captains of the BJP-Shiv Sena combine for the October 13 Assembly elections in Maharashtra.

Even though they have not stirred out for canvassing support, the former Prime Minister and the Shiv Sena supremo have been named the top campaigners by the combine.

The posters of Vajpayee and Thackeray will now be used across the state in the campaigning as also their names in the cassettes and CDs as they will not be personally present.

Quattrocchi’s fate to be decided tomorrow in Bofors case

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New Delhi, October 02: The fate of Italian Businessman Ottavio Quattrocchi might be decided tomorrow as the CBI will be pleading before a Delhi court seeking closure of prosecution in Bofors pay off case as all efforts to extradite him for facing the trial here has failed.

Quattrocchi, the sole surviving accused in the two-decade-old case after the Delhi High Court quashed the charges on May 31, 2005 against other accused, has never appeared before any court in the country.

IAEA Chief Mohamed ElBaradei to visit Iran

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Geneva, October 02: UN nuclear watchdog Chief Mohamed ElBaradei will travel to Iran within days for talks with the Tehran nuclear officials, an Iranian nuclear industry source said on Friday.

ElBaradei will meet Ali Akbar Salehi, head of the Iranian Atomic Energy Organisation, the source said. He said the visit will be at the start of the Iranian week, which meant in theory it could be on Saturday.

BSNL launches festive tariff scheme

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New Delhi, October 02: State-run Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) on Friday announced the launch of a tariff scheme for the festive season.

It has introduced night packs where the user would be charged 20 paise per minute for local calls and 50 paise per minute for STD calls between 11 pm and 7 am, BSNL said in a statement.

Under its GPRS plan, BSNL will provide unlimited data usage for Rs 230, it added.

It has also launched two SMS packs for Rs 30 (all local and national messages would be charged at 10 paise) and Rs 50 (300 local and national SMS free).

ICICI Pru pips SBI Life to become largest private insurer

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New Delhi, October 02: Private insurer ICICI Prudential has pipped SBI Life to regain the top position among private players garnering new businesses Rs 1,725 crore in the first five months of the current fiscal.

SBI Life, promoted by the country’s largest lender State Bank of India, earned first year premium worth Rs 1,704 crore in April-August period while ICICI Prudential collected Rs 1,725 crore in the same period, according to the IRDA data.

2016 Olympics to be hosted by Rio de Janeiro

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Copenhagen, October 02: The International Olympic Committee (IOC) president Jacque Rogge announced Rio de Janeiro as the host for the 2016 Olympic Games on IOC Friday.

Rio beat off competition from Chicago, Tokyo and Madrid in the International Olympic Committee’s voting at Copenhagen.

Earlier, the International Olympic Committee sensationally rebuffed US President Barack Obama on Friday, eliminating Chicago from the contest for the 2016 Olympics and narrowing the field to Rio de Janeiro and Madrid.

Sutil displays wet-weather skill, tops FP2

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Suzuka, October 02: Adrian Sutil underlined his stature as a wet weather specialist by posting the quickest time of today’s rain-marred second practice session ahead of Sunday’s Japanese Grand Prix.

Heavy rain nearly washed out today’s practice sessions and it was worse in the afternoon as puddles covered the track for the first hour, with only the final 10 minutes allowing the field to venture out to complete flying laps.

Another Indian student Racially attacked in Australia

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Melbourne, October 02: After a brief lull in attacks on Indians in Australia, a student from the community was attacked with a “plank of wood or a baseball bat” by two men which left him with 20 stitches in his head.

The 28-year-old student, whose name is not known immediately, was attacked by the men after he got down from a bus at Keilor Plains train station on Tuesday.

He has been left with 20 stitches in his head after an “unprovoked” attack in Melbourne’s north-west, the ‘Age’ newspaper reported.

Malegaon blast accused Pragnya Singh hospitalised

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Nashik, October 02: Prime accused in the Malegaon blast case, Pragnya Singh Thakur, was on Friday shifted to the Nashik civil hospital from the central jail as she is “not well”, hospital sources said.

Pragnya Singh could not appear before the Nashik court today, the second time in a row, and the court remanded her and ten others to judicial custody till October 7.

She was admitted to the ICU ward in the Civil Hospital and her condition is stable, they said, without elaborating.

41 die as tourist boat capsizes in India

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New Delhi, October 02: Rescuers found another nine bodies Thursday from a double-decker tourist boat that capsized on a reservoir in southern India, raising the death toll to 41 with more than a dozen people still missing, police said.

The boat carrying 74 tourists capsized Wednesday evening after the tourists rushed to one side to look at elephants in a wildlife sanctuary, tipping the vessel, told police officer R. Rajesh.

Rain claims 16 lives

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Hyderabad, October 02: Fourteen students were on Thursday fighting for survival amidst the swirling waters of Dundubhi stream in Mahaboobnagar district in a replay of Wednesday’s near-tragedy in exactly the same location. The only difference being that the Indian Air Force, which rushed to rescue five stranded boys on Wednesday, refused to oblige this time citing bad weather.

AI panel to begin meetings with unions next week

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Mumbai, October 02: A newly-formed official committee to look into the problems of Air India employees would begin meetings with at least 14 unions representing a cross-section of staffers including pilots from next week.

The panel, which is a sub-committee of the Air India Board, was set up on Tuesday following which the executive pilots withdrew their five-day long agitation against slashing of their productivity-linked incentive (PLI) and flying allowance by half.