Philippines, November 09: The severed head of a school principal who was abducted by Islamic militants in the troubled southern Philippines was dumped at a petrol station, authorities said.
The head of Gabriel Canizares was found inside a bag at a petrol station on Jolo island at dawn, 22 days after the 36-year-old primary school headmaster was kidnapped, local police chief inspector Usman Pingay said.
His body remains missing, police said.
Viajayawada, November 09: Minister for Ports and Infrastructure, Mopedevi Venkataramana escaped unhurt in an a c c i d e n t here today.
The Minister was proceeding to Vijayawada from Pamarru when an RTC bus heading for Machilipatnam from Vijayawada hit his car. Locals said the Minister’s car was going on the wrong route.
Meanwhile, the police said Venkataramana was not in the care when the incident took place. They said that no case was filed.
–Agencies
Japan, November 09: Japan Airlines (JAL) says its executives will receive no pay in December as the struggling carrier needs to cut costs in the face of massive losses.
The move will affect JAL president Haruka Nishimatsu and some 70 other company officials, a spokesman for the airline said today.
JAL also wanted to skip payment of customary winter bonuses to 17,000 non-executive employees although a formal decision had not been made yet, he said.
“Since we have asked for public money, we must strive to cut costs,” the spokesman said.
Tirupati, November 09: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is very sympathetic to the State, which faced severe drought and unprecedented floods, and promised all help to Andhra Pradesh in implementation of relief and rehabilitation measures, Chief Minister K Rosaiah has said.
Speaking to mediapersons after holding a meeting with the district officials here today, he said the Prime Minister had already sought a report from the Central team, which visited the State to assess the drought, to provide speedy relief.
London, November 09: A Peckish bird briefly knocked out part of the world’s biggest atom smasher by causing a chain reaction with a piece of bread, the European Organisation for Nuclear Research (CERN) said.
Bits of a French loaf being carried by the bird, dropped on an external electrical power supply caused a short circuit last week, triggering failsafe devices that shut down part of the cooling system of the giant experiment to probe the secrets of the universe, CERN said.
The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) was restored several hours after the incident last Tuesday, a spokeswoman said.
Aligarh, November 09: The Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) Monday condoled the death of noted Hindi critic and scholar K.P. Singh, who had written a monograph on famous writer Rahi Masoom Raza as well as edited six of his books.
A condolence meeting was presided over by AMU Vice-Chancellor P.K. Abdul Azis. Singh, a former chairman of the Hindi department and former Dean of faculty of arts, passed away Sunday after prolonged illness. He was 74.
Singh had authored six books and edited nine books, including six of Raza. He was also editor and co-editor of several Hindi magazines.
Kolkata, November 09: A woman tore off a part of a woman constable’s ear following a scuffle after she was caught for an alleged traffic violation in the city Monday.
Police sources said the woman first had a heated argument with a traffic sergeant after he seized her driving licence for parking her vehicle on the wrong side of the road.
Seeing the commotion, woman constable Tapasi Mandal rushed to the spot and managed to put the woman and her husband – who came to her wife’s aid and argued and scuffled with the sergeant – into a police car.
Abu Dhabi, November 09: The Royal Jet, a leading private charter jet company headquartered here in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), has won the World Travel Award (WTA) for the third consecutive year, WAM news agency reported Monday.
Royal Jet CEO Shane O’Hare received the award from WTA’s president Graham Cooke at a ceremony at the Grosvenor House Hotel in London. Etihad Airways and Abu Dhabi Tourism Authority have also won the coveted award.
London, November 09: The United Arab Emirates (UAE) will host World Green Tourism Congress next year, WAM news agency reported Monday.
The event will be organised in Abu Dhabi Dec 6-8, and is the first of its kind in the Arabian Gulf, the report said. The UAE’s Streamline Marketing Group (SMG) and Abu Dhabi Tourism Authority (ADTA), among others, will sponsor the event.
“This congress reflects the core values of the Abu Dhabi government’s 2030 plan which clearly identifies tourism as a key economic driver,” said Dayne Lim, product development director of ADTA.
Dhabi, November 09: United Arab Emirates (UAE) Foreign Trade Minister Lubna Al Qasimi is heading a 70-member delegation to Malaysia to boost economic cooperation between the two countries news agency reported Monday.
The UAE delegation will take part in the Malaysian Trade Fair Nov 10-12, besides interacting with their Malaysian counterparts in a three-day event to be organised there.
The two sides will explore investment opportunities in the respective countries, the report said.
—IANS
New Delhi, November 09: Seventeen swine flu deaths, 15 of them from Rajasthan, were reported on Monday, taking the country’s toll to 502, health department officials said here.
While one death was reported Monday in Rajasthan, the rest 14 had occurred in the state earlier.
With these 15 deaths, the toll has jumped to 17 in Rajasthan where 101 people have been tested positive for the contagious flu so far.
“State health authorities of Rajasthan have communicated 14 deaths of laboratory confirmed cases from the various districts of Rajasthan,” said an official here.
Panaji, November 09: In a major theft, more than Rs. one million in cash were stolen early Monday morning from three separate safes located within the Inox multiplex here, police said.
According to a complaint registered with the Panaji town police station, nearly Rs.12.5 lakh (Rs.1.25 million), part of the collection made during the weekend, were stolen.
The multiplex is one of the main venues for the forthcoming 40th International Film Festival of India, which is expected to be visited by several dignitaries from Bollywood and political personalities.
Kolkata, November 09: Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee on Monday threatened to file a defamation case against West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee for alleging that her partymen were aiding the Maoists in killing Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) activists.
“We will look for legal redressal. In the past whenever we have given legal notice to CPI-M leaders, their lawyers have denied that their clients ever made such statements,” Banerjee said at a party rally here.
“This time we will sue him for defaming us by bracketing us with Maoists.
Sangareddy, November 09: Tension prevailed on the outskirts of Zaheerabad when over 1,000 supporters of Karnataka Chief Minister Yeddyurappa proceeding towards Hyderabad where rebel BJP MLAs were camping were detained by the police. The dissidence has thrown Karnataka government into crisis.
T he police swung into action on information that Yeddyurappa loyalists from Bidar and Gulbarga districts were on their way to Hyderabad reportedly to vent their anger against 52 dissident MLAs of the party camping there for over 10 days.
Bangalore, November 09: A miffed Karnataka High Court Chief Justice P.D. Dinakaran Monday walked out of the court amid chaos when lawyers protesting against his continuation in office laid a siege to his courtroom and refused to withdraw their boycott call.
The controversial top judge, who is facing allegations of land-grabbing and amassing disproportionate assets, tried to dissuade the lawyers from disturbing the proceedings, as the high court stayed Saturday the boycott call given by the Advocates Association of Bangalore (AAB) Nov 4.
Dhaka, November 09: Bangladesh wants custody of fugitive former army officers hiding abroad, who killed founding father Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and his family members on Aug 14, 1975, for an ongoing murder trial.
Attorney General Mahbubey Alam, the government’s top law officer, Monday prayed to the Supreme Court to pass “some observations that can help the government bring back the convicted accused hiding abroad,” Star Online reported.
New Delhi, November 09: A delegation of students and Congress workers from the northeast will meet Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Tuesday over the rise in crime against people from the region in the national capital.
“We are meeting the prime minister at his residence at 9 a.m. Tuesday. As he has been elected from Assam (to the Rajya Sabha), we want to apprise him about the problems the northeast students face in the Indian capital,” Sharif Laskar, general secretary of the Northeast Congress Committee, told.
New Delhi, November 09: In a bid to tone down the row over its fatwa against the singing of ‘Vande Mataram’, clerics from the Deoband Islamic seminary have said they won’t stop Muslims from singing the national song but the fatwa would stay.
The climbdown comes after some clerics from Darul Uloom Deoband met Hindu spiritual leader Sri Sri Ravi Shankar.
“The clerics have changed their stand on ‘Vande Mataram’ to bring the Hindu-Muslim communities closer,” said a press statement from Sri Sri Ravi Shankar.
Hyderabad, NOvember 09: Heavy rains in five districts over the last three days have left a trail of destruction in Andhra Pradesh, having damaged crops causing losses to local farmers.
Rains have destroyed crops in over 600 hectares, according to preliminary estimates but no human loss has been reported in any of the districts.
Chief Minister K Rosaiah reviewed the situation at a high-level meeting here today and directed the authorities concerned to be on alert despite the low-pressure area moving away towards Lakshadweep.
Kolkata, November 09: Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee on Monday threatened to file a defamation case against West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee for claiming that her party was hand-in-glove with Maoists.
“How can he say that Trinamool Congress is acting as spotters of Maoists? While we will fight this kind of accusation politically, at the same I am telling Kalyan (Banerjee, party MP) you can go ahead and file defamation proceedings against this falsehood,” Banerjee told a party rally in Kolkata.
Karimnagar, November 09: Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) Chief K Chandra Sekhara Rao said that he will “fast unto death” in case the Centre fails to settle Telangana issue by end of this month.
“My goal is to fight for Telangana and my goal is to achieve it. I’m committed to fast unto death,” Rao told reporters here.
The minister had visited the temple town of Vemulawada here yesterday.
–Agencies
Hyderabad, November 09: BJP would highlight the Vande Mataram issue in the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) polls, senior party leader Ch Vidyasagar Rao said here on Monday.
The party would raise the Vande Mataram issue owing to its importance and other political parties should make their stand clear on the subject, he told reporters here.
Hyderabad is home to people not only from other regions of Andhra Pradesh but also from other states like Maharashtra, Gujarat and north Indian states and BJP would work for their welfare, Rao said.
Ranchi, November 09: The Enforcement Directorate summoned former Jharkhand chief minister Madhu Koda, facing charges of money laundering and illegal investments of over Rs 2,000 crore, today to appear before it on November 15.
Income Tax department Additional Director (Investigation), Ajit Srivastav, told PTI that the ED would grill Koda in connection with the alleged hawala and illegal investments unearthed during nation-wide raids on 76 premises on October 31, including his residences.
Earlier in the day the ED handed over a sealed envelope to Koda at his residence here.
New Delhi, November 09: Accused of rape, a man who approached the Delhi High Court for anticipatory bail found himself in more trouble as the Court sought an explanation from the police for not arresting him.
Justice Kailash Ghambir took strong exception to the the police inaction in arresting Arif, accused of raping a middle-aged woman, despite the passage of more than one and half years since the crime was allegedly committed and sought an expalnation from it.
Bhagalpur (Bihar), November 09: A court here today awarded a life term to Kameshwar Yadav, a prime accused in the Bhagalpur riots of 1989.
Additional District and Sessions Judge Arvind Madhav found Yadav guilty of firing and throwing bombs at 15 year-old Mohammad Qayyum at Assananpur in Bhagalpur on October 24, 1989 that claimed his life.
The judge held Yadav guilty under various sections of the Indian Penal Code besides Arms Act and sentenced him to life imprisonment.