Mumbai, November 09: At a point of time there was a slogan by RSS combine, Pehle Kasai Phir Isai (First the Muslims then the Christians). And lo and behold that was the pattern of communal violence. First it began against Muslims and in the decade of 1990s Christians were also put on the chopping block.
Mumbai, November 08: The paparazzi doesn’t seem to be tired of Sarfaraz Khan — the wonder boy from Rizvi Springfield High School — one bit. On Saturday, the cameras followed him till the land’s end, literally. He was found hobnobbing with Shah Rukh Khan at the superstar’s residence in Bandra.
It now transpires that the Kolkata Knight Riders owner had evinced interest in meeting the young cricket sensation. On Saturday afternoon, ‘King Khan’ star spent time with the 12-year-old boy, who scored a record-breaking 439 in a Harris Shield match recently.
Warangal, November 08: The Kakatiya Urban Development Authority (KUDA) has chalked an action plan to develop the historically significant Warangal city into a tourist hub.
Several new projects will soon be taken up on KUDA lands on Build-Operate- Transfer (BOT) basis.
Information regarding the various projects has been put on the website www.kuda.in. Tenders have been invited from private builders and construction companies for taking up the projects and those interested can download the applications from the website and submit them before 25 November.
New Delhi, November 08: The Supreme Court today acquitted all the 19 persons who were convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment for killing five persons whom the accused suspected of practising black magic at Thimmapur village in Warangal district.
The apex court said that though the victims were burnt to death in a gory manner, there was not much evidence to establish the guilt of the accused and the High Court had erroneously convicted them.
Rajahmundry, November 08: A Special Grade Deputy Collector P Chiranjeevi (54), working in the Office of Special Collector (land acquisition) of Indira Sagar Project (ISP) attempted suicide by consuming pesticide here today.
Chiranjeevi came to the office located at Tilak Road here around 9 am and came out vomiting around 11.30 am.
The office staff noticed it and alerted Special Collector Markendeyulu.
Chiranjeevi was immediately shifted to the ICU of the ‘Abhaya’ Hospital. The cause behind the official’s extreme step was yet to be ascertained.
Hyderabad, November 08: CPI general secretary AB Bardhan has demanded that the Centre order an inquiry into the corruption charges made against chief ministers, ministers and other public representatives across the country.
The CPI leader made this demand in the backdrop of former Jharkhand chief minister Madhu Koda’s episode.
Hyderabad, November 08: Chief Minister K Rosaiah’s main objective of visiting the national capital is to thank UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi for choosing him as chief minister of the State.
This was disclosed by Rosaiah himself while talking to the media here today for the first time after becoming chief minister.
Though he, as chief minister, had met Sonia Gandhi and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh when they visited the State to survey the flood havoc and thanked them for his appointment, he said, he thought it fit for him to go to Delhi and convey his gratitude.
Rajahmundry, November 08: Anti Corruption Bureau (ACB) Director-General G Aravind Rao has said that the department would be strengthened with additional staff and added that they would urge the Government to allot 300 officers and staff from the 37,000 new police recruits.
Speaking to mediapersons at the Police Guest house here today, he said steps were being taken to spread awareness among people about the functions of the ACB. Boards with phone numbers of the ACB officials would be displayed at all government offices, he said.
Hyderabad, November 08: Praja Rajyam Party (PRP) president Chiranjeevi will campaign for the party candidates in the GHMC elections for ten days. He is likely to expose the misdeeds of the ruling Congress during his campaign.
At a meeting with senior party leaders here today, Chiranjeevi said that he would campaign in the City for ten days. A monitoring committee of the party is likely to finalise Chiru’s tour in a day or two. Chiranjeevi’s tour will commence after November 10, according to party sources.
Adilabad, November 08: Dengue and viral fevers are worrying people in the district what with the toll mounting to 50 within a month.
Several others, including children and the elderly, are suffering from symptoms of the fevers which have stalked Agency areas in particular. Of the 50 who died, 22 belonging to tribal hamlets died of dengue and the remaining fell victims to viral fever.
Some others suffering from fever and suspected to have contracted dengue were shifted to Hyderabad and Karimnagar hospitals.
Dengue has not spared even Adilabad MP Rathod Ramesh. He has just recovered.
Washington, November 08: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has gone to Washington to address Jews and hoping to meet President Barack Obama amid a delicate time in US efforts to restart Middle East peace talks.
Although officials in the hawkish premier’s office expressed optimism Mr Netanyahu will see Mr Obama during his three-day visit, the White House had yet to confirm such a meeting would take place.
“I can’t confirm in a categoric manner that there will be a meeting,” Mr Netanyahu’s spokesman Nir Hefetz said.
New York, November 08: Bosnian Serb wartime leader Radovan Karadzic won a small victory in a battle of wills with UN court judges when they adjourned his genocide trial to March next year, legal analysts have said.
While the judges opted to impose a lawyer on Karadzic, who has boycotted his trial since it started on October 26, they did not strip him of the right to conduct his own defence and effectively gave him more time to prepare – exactly what he was after.
Australia, November 08: The greatest ever Australian crawl to prove that the impossible is possible, has begun.
Paralympian Kurt Fearnley set out this afternoon to drag himself on his hands over 96km of Papua New Guinea’s infamous Kokoda Track.
The 28-year-old wheelchair-user and athlete started the epic ten-day challenge with 15 family members plus his Kokoda Spirit trek team of porters and guides.
Washington, November 08: US President Barack Obama has hailed the House of Representatives’ “historic vote” to remake US health care and said he was sure of signing the ambitious overhaul in 2009.
“Tonight, in an historic vote, the House of Representatives passed a bill that would finally make real the promise of quality, affordable health care for the American people,” Mr Obama said in a statement savouring the political triumph.
London, November 08: A French security van driver suspected of making off with 11.6 million euros ($18.96 million) in cash has become a rising star on the web.
Several Facebook groups have cropped up to discuss the heist allegedly carried out by Tony Musulin, a 39-year-old employee of the Loomis security firm who disappeared from the central city of Lyon on Thursday morning.
Two co-workers who had briefly stepped out of the van to run an errand returned to find that Musulin had disappeared. Three hours later the vehicle was found empty in an area nearby.
North Korea, November 08: State television in communist North Korea has abandoned capitalist-style commercials after leader Kim Jong-il expressed his anger, a news report said.
Yonhap news agency quoted informed sources as saying that Kim was furious when he saw the advertisements, which began appearing on Korean Central Television in early July.
“What is this? That kind of rubbish appeared when China started reforms and openness” three decades ago, said Kim, who is strongly opposed to suggestions that the North should follow in China’s footsteps.
Berlin, November 08: French President Nicolas Sarkozy has shared his memories of the fall of the Berlin Wall, telling his Facebook fans he chipped away at the concrete slabs with a pickaxe on November 9, 1989.
Mr Sarkozy posted his personal account a day before he heads to Berlin to join European leaders for joyous celebrations marking the 20th anniversary of the collapse of the Wall.
The president recounted that he travelled to Berlin from Paris on the morning of November 9 after hearing the first news reports of the mass influx of East Germans to West Berlin.
Russia, November 08: Russia’s interior minister has ordered an report to be drawn up for Prime Minister Vladimir Putin after a senior provincial police officer posted a video alleging chronic corruption in his force.
In a highly unusual move for a member of the security forces, Alexei Dymovsky accused his superiors in the southern Russian city of Novorossiisk of treating officers “like cattle” and preordaining the results of investigations.
Afghanistan, November 08: British politicians and military chiefs have defended the mission in Afghanistan as Remembrance services for generations of war dead highlighted the human cost of the unpopular conflict.
Prime Minister Gordon Brown led calls for the public to back the increasingly bloody war, as a new poll revealed falling support, confusion over the mission’s purpose and skepticism about its success.
“If we do not take action in Pakistan and Afghanistan then Al-Qaeda would be plotting more trouble and more chaos in the streets of our cities,” Mr Brown told BBC television.
Berlin, November 08: Berlin warmed up today for the 20th anniversary of the Wall’s fall with celebrations throughout the city, as crowds gathered to relive the ecstatic scenes that heralded the demise of European communism.
Leaders from across the continent were due in the German capital to join around 100,000 revellers tomorrow at the Brandenburg Gate, the symbol of national unity since the peaceful revolution that tore down the Wall in 1989.
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was to give a speech later today on the challenges facing the West two decades after the Cold War.
Sudan, November 08: Sudanese President Omar al-Beshir, who is wanted for war crimes, on Sunday warmly thanked China for its diplomatic support over the conflict in Darfur.
“We express our deep appreciation for China’s efforts in backing the comprehensive peace agreement (between south and north) in Sudan and its peace efforts in Darfur,” he said in a speech at a China-African summit in Egypt.
“We thank China particularly for backing efforts by our countries to achieve peace and stability in Africa’s zones of conflict,” Beshir added.
Kuwait City, November 08: A hardline Kuwaiti Islamist MP on Sunday threatened to call for the prime minister to face a grilling in parliament after the government made music classes compulsory in schools.
“We hold the prime minister responsible for this decision… We call for halting this, otherwise, we will use constitutional tools. This could lead to grilling the prime minister,” Mohammad Hayef told reporters.
Abu Dhabi, November 08: Bait Al Oud Al Arabi (The Arabian Oud House) celebrated Friday night the graduation of its first student at the headquarter of the house in Abu Dhabi.
Bait Al Oud Al Arabi (The Arabian Oud House) was founded two years ago by the Abu Dhabi Authority for Culture and Heritage (ADACH) under the supervision of oud master Nasser Shamma.
The graduate Ali Obaid, an Emirati national performed, in this occasion before a specialist committee and played some famous authentic Arab music from different schools and eras.
Palestine, November 08: Palestinian relatives of accused Fort Hood gunman Nidal Malik Hasan grappled with his motives on Sunday as some neighbours hailed the rampage as revenge for US wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Many Palestinians living in and around the West Bank town of Al-Bireh have friends and relatives who have gone to the United States and prospered after finding that opportunities lacked in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
China, November 08: With cheap labour, investment incentives and unrestricted exports, one Chinese textile group has turned to Egypt as an ideal location to produce its ready-made garments, beating stiff competition at home.
The Chinese-owned Nile Textile Group has set up shop in the Port Said free zone, overlooking the north entrance of the Suez Canal, and developed an industrial estate now hiring 600 workers, 20 percent of which are Chinese and the rest Egyptian.
Cheap raw materials and favourable export conditions have given the company easy access to foreign markets.