Month: October 2009

Saudis mull buying Russian air defence system

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Riyadh, October 01: Saudi Arabia is weighing buying an advanced Russian missile system to shore up its defences against a potentially nuclear Iran, Gulf analysts and diplomats said.

They said Moscow and Riyadh are close to sealing a deal on a multi-billion-dollar weapons package that could include Russia’s advanced S-400 missile defence system.

It is the newest version of the S-300 long-range surface to air missile system that Moscow has reportedly been in discussion for several years to sell to Iran, which denies Western charges of aiming to become a nuclear power.

Major Sudan parties threaten election boycott

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Sudan, October 01: Around 20 Sudanese political parties threatened on Wednesday to boycott next year’s elections, the first in more than two decades, unless President Omar al-Beshir implements reforms.

Meeting in the capital of semi-autonomous South Sudan, they called for “amendment of all laws related to freedoms and democratic transformation” to bring them into line with the interim constitution in Africa’s largest nation.

GAIL completes funding for Assam petrochemical plant

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New Delhi, October 01: GAIL India has achieved financial closure for its petrochemical plant in Assam, company chairman B.C. Tripathi said Thursday.

‘We have achieved financial closure for Brahmaputra Cracker and Polymer,’ said Tripathi.

GAIL has 70 percent stake in the plant, with other partners sharing 10 percent each.

He expected the plant to be commissioned by April 2012.

The government has given Rs.2,138 crore as capital subsidy and Rs.909 crore as feedstock subsidy towards the total cost of the project, estimated to be around Rs.5,461 crore.

BJP to launch campaign against Uttar Pradesh government

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Lucknow, October 01: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) will soon come up with a ‘chargesheet’ against Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati in a campaign against the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) government.

‘The chargesheet will expose the misdeeds and corrupt practices committed by Mayawati and her government. With the chargesheet, we would reach the masses and unmask her (Mayawati),’ BJP leader Kalraj Mishra told reporters here Thursday.

Amy Winehouse sending love notes to ex-husband

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London, October 01: Troubled singer Amy Winehouse is still sending love notes to her ex-husband via the internet.

The ‘Rehab’ singer whose divorce from Blake Fielder was finalised in August has been reminiscing with her former spouse through social networking website Facebook, reports femalefirst.co.uk.

This is not the first time that 26-year-old actress has used this networking site to contact Blake.

In August, it was revealed she had been posing as her cat to send secret messages to Blake via Facebook.

—IANS

Over 46,000 fined in Delhi for smoking in public places

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New Delhi, October 01: While Delhi has fined over 46,000 people for smoking in public, Tamil Nadu has earned over Rs.12 million in smoking fines, the highest among all the states after implementing the ban, the health ministry said Thursday.

The smoking ban in public places was a brainchild of former health minister Anbumani Ramadoss and came into effect on Oct 2, 2008. According to government statistics, the national capital has reported 11,362 cases of violation from which the state government has collected Rs.1.07 million in fines till July.

Justin Timberlake dumps Jessica Biel over phone

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London, October 01: Pop star Justin Timberlake has reportedly dumped Jessica Biel, his girlfriend for two-and-a-half years, over the phone.

There have been rumours of trouble in their relationship for a while now but it all came to an end when Timberlake finally got fed up and dumped Biel over the phone, reports femalefirst.co.uk.

Timberlake was seen dancing hot and heavy with Rihanna at a party and according to a source Justin has made it clear he is 100 percent into Rihanna and she equally feels the attraction.

NASSCOM chief sees US visa limits as ‘business killer’

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Washington, October 01: The head of an Indian trade group fears proposals in US Congress to limit visas for foreign high-tech workers would be a ‘business killer’ for India’s burgeoning information technology industry and would not reduce US unemployment.

Som Mittal, president of India’s National Association of Software and Service Cos. (NASSCOM), told the Washington Times Thursday he was concerned that pending legislation would sharply restrict the hiring of foreign workers by domestic and overseas companies operating in the US, harming rather than helping the US economy.

Taj city shuts down to demand high court bench

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Agra, October 01: The Taj city witnessed a near total shutdown on Thursday as business chambers, trade associations and political parties observed a day long strike to demand a bench of the Allahabad High Court.

The response from the ruling Bahujan Samaj Party was however lukewarm, activists said.

Most schools remained closed. Groups of lawyers and political workers went around various markets in the city requesting shop keepers to support the bandh.

India building its defence capabilities just as China says Antony

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New Delhi, October 01: Defence Minister A K Antony on Wednesday said India was building its defence capabilities just as China did.

“Just as what China is doing, we are also trying to strengthen our capabilities,” Antony told reporters here on the sidelines of a defence accounts event.

In the last few years government was bolstering the infrastructure and capabilities of the three forces. “Earlier we were not doing anything,” he added.

TVS Motor logs 4 percent sales growth in September

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Chennai, October 01: Two wheeler manufacturer TVS Motor Company has logged four percent growth in sales last month over the corresponding period of the previous year, the company said in a statement Thursday.

Last month the company sold 142,553 units as against 137,246 units sold in September 2008.

In the domestic market the company sold 132,281 units last month, up from 119,071 units sold in the corresponding month of 2008.

—-IANS–

Advisers split complicates Obama’s Afghan decision

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Washington, October 01: President Barack Obama is confronting a split among his closest advisers on Afghanistan, reflecting divisions in his own party over whether to send in thousands more U.S. troops and complicating his efforts to adopt a war policy he can sell to a public grown weary of the 8-year-old conflict.

With top military commanders and congressional Republicans pushing for a troop increase, Obama pressed key members of his national security team Wednesday for their views during an intense, three-hour session in a packed White House Situation Room.

U.S. general says Afghan insurgency growing

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Washington, October 01: An insurgency in Afghanistan is growing and the success of the military campaign there cannot be taken for granted, General Stanley McChrystal, head of U.S. and NATO troops, said on Thursday.

McChrystal described the situation in Afghanistan as serious. “Neither success nor failure can be taken for granted,” he said in a speech in London.

—-Agencies

Philippines braces for second stronger typhoon

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Manila, October 01: Millions of people were battling on Thursday to cope with the aftermath of a typhoon that cut a destructive path through parts of Southeast Asia, killing 400, as an even stronger storm headed towards the Philippines.

Government reports said 101 people had died in Vietnam and 18 were missing after typhoon Ketsana swept through the country late on Tuesday, affecting about 1.4 million people and damaging or submerging more than 350,000 houses.

The typhoon left 11 dead in Cambodia, while the toll in the Philippines, where Ketsana struck last weekend, rose to 277.

Politics drove me away: Amit Kumar

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Mumbai, October 01: Amit Kumar, in the process of putting together a tribute to his father, Kishore Kumar, talks about being unable to deal with the negativity in Bollywood….

Amit and Sumit Kumar have planned seven concerts across India as a tribute to their father — Kishore Kumar. The concerts will be held in December. The theme song Ek tha Kishore, unke do kishore has been written by Leena Chandavarkar.

Eleven Indian fishermen arrested in Pakistan

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Islamabad, October 01: Eleven Indian fishermen have been arrested by Pakistan for allegedly violating the country’s territorial waters, authorities said Thursday.

The Pakistani Maritime Security Agency (MSA) arrested the fishermen, who were in two boats, on charges of entering the country’s Exclusive Economic Zone.

According to officials, the fishermen said they had crossed the maritime boundary by mistake.

The fishermen were handed over to police in Karachi. They will be produced in a court for completion of legal formalities, officials said.

Sabotage behind refugees’ boat blast: Australian police

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Sydney, October 01: A blast on a people-smuggling boat that killed five asylum seekers off north-west Australia earlier this year was caused by arson, police said Thursday.

The explosion ripped through the boat carrying 47 asylum seekers and two Indonesian crew on April 16, shortly after it had been intercepted by an Australian Navy vessel at Ashmore Reef.

Authorities have previously refused to speculate on how the blast occurred but Northern Territory police said on Thursday a five-month investigation had concluded an asylum seeker set fire to petrol in a bilge pump.

Al Qaeda focuses on Yemen as launchpad: US

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Washington, October 01: Al Qaeda has suffered setbacks due to US pressure but its presence in Yemen threatens to turn that country into a dangerous base for training and plotting attacks, a top US counterterrorism official said.

The extremist network has been steadily weakened since its attacks against the United States on September 11, 2001, with its haven in northwest Pakistan smaller and less secure, Michael Leiter, director of the National Counterterrorism Centre, told a US Senate hearing.

Work on UAE rail network linking GCC to begin next year

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Dubai, October 01: A key railway network linking the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states will begin in UAE by the end of next year, a senior official has said.

Tenders for the 30 billion dirhams (USD 81.5) project, which will run 1,100 km from the Saudi Arabian border to Oman in the east, will be invited in early 2010, Hussein Jassim Al Nuwais, chairman of the Etihad (Union) Railways Company, said.

‘Terror threats’ to Gilani, top Pak political leaders

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Islamabad, October 01: The Pakistan government has received intelligence inputs about terrorist threats to the Prime Minister and other top political leaders like opposition PML-N chief Nawaz Sharif and his brother Shahbaz.

Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani disclosed this during an interaction with the media at Gilgit in the Northern Areas yesterday. He said the federal government had conveyed the reports about the terror threats to the Sharif brothers through the Interior Ministry.

Drug tests for exam students ‘inevitable’

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Sydney, October 01: The spectre of students queuing to provide urine samples before sitting exams is raised today by a scientist who says “academic doping” is likely to become as routine as in sport.

“Smart drugs” that are claimed to boost academic performance have proliferated in recent years, making the introduction of routine drug-testing for students inevitable, according to Vince Cakic, a psychologist at the University of Sydney in Australia.

No lifting sanctions till situation improves in Myanmar: US

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Washington, October 01: Even as the United States began a dialogue process with the military junta, the Obama administration has ruled out lifting of sanctions till Myanmar makes progress on restoration of democracy and human rights of its people.

Kurt Campbell, the Assistant Secretary of State for East Asia and Pacific Affairs, told US lawmakers that though the administration has engaged with the military junta, there is no thinking on lifting of economic sanctions on Myanmar.

3 kisses for Aamir, Bebo

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Mumbai, October 01: That there are three actors (idiots?) in Raju Hirani’s December release 3 Idiots is known, they being Aamir Khan, Madhavan and Sharman Joshi.

There is also Kareena Kapoor, who is nobody’s fool, and that also everybody knows. But what is just coming out is that the film has three kisses as well that Hirani was not keen to publicise until the film’s launch date. All three kisses are between Aamir and Kareena, naturally.

Iraq PM forms new bloc to fight election: Official

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Baghdad, October 01: Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki has formed a new political bloc to fight a general election scheduled for January, a senior official in his Dawa party said on Thursday.

Hassan al-Sined told a gathering of candidates in central Baghdad that the new State of Law alliance was made up of 40 political parties and movements, including Shi’ite, Sunni Arab and Kurdish groupings.