Month: November 2009

No import of Nepal’s Maoists, arms to India: Home secretary

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Kathmandu, November 08: India’s Home Decretary G.K. Pillai Saturday wound up bilateral security talks with Nepal here with no progress in the new extradition treaty proposed by New Delhi. He also scotched allegations that Nepal’s Maoists and their arms were being ‘imported’ to India to fan anti-government violence in the sub-continent.

‘I don’t think that anybody is importing Nepal Maoists,’ the home secretary said at the end of two-day of talks that focused on combating cross-border terrorism in South Asia. ‘I don’t think that’s a crucial issue.’

Jet, Kingfisher raise fares on higher ATF prices

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Mumbai, November 08: The two largest private carriers, Kingfisher Airlines and Jet Airways, have hiked fares, albeit marginally, after holding on to them for close to 10 months.

Airlines are foreseeing a revival in passenger traffic, giving enough room to the two to hike their fuel surcharge up to Rs 200 on domestic sectors. The previous hike was effected in January this year.

Saudi and Yemen battle Zaidi rebels

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Riyadh, November 08: Saudi forces pounded Yemeni rebels on Saturday for a fifth straight day as Yemeni President Ali Abdallah Saleh ruled out a truce in his war on the Shiite insurgents.

Huge smoke plumes could be seen rising above Jebel al-Dukhan, a 2,000-metre (6,600-foot) peak on the border near the town of Al-Khubah, a sign of continued bombing by Saudi fighter jets, residents said.

Saudi artillery shelled apparent rebel positions to the south, the residents said as medics reported seven Saudis and an unknown number of rebels had been killed since Tuesday.

Goa bombers tried to leave Muslim imprint

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Mumbai, November 08: Investigators believe that the Sanatan Sanstha men who were killed while allegedly planting bombs in Goa during Diwali celebrations last month were hoping to fan communal tensions by misleading the police through items they wanted to leave behind at the site: a shopping bag from a shop in ‘Khan Market’, Delhi, a bottle of traditional perfume popular among Muslims and an empty bag of branded Basmati rice on which all the words were in Urdu.

UAE police seize 1.5 mn pills

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Dubai, November 08: At least 1.5 million pills worth nearly $4 million were seized between January and October in a crackdown on illegal drug supply in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), WAM news agency reported.

Major General Abdul Al Jalil Mahdi Al Asmawi, director of anti-narcotics section of Dubai Police, Friday said the pills are smuggled into the UAE from Asian and Arab countries.

He added that people from more than 70 countries are involved in the trade.

‘Vande Mataram’ should be respected by all Indians: Congress

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New Delhi : The Congress party Friday said ‘Vande Mataram’, around which a controversy has arisen after a Muslim clerics organisation endorsed a fatwa (decree) against it, should be respected by all Indians.

A day after Corporate Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid hit out at Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind which asked Muslims not to recite “Vande Mataram”, Congress spokesman Manish Tewari said endorsement of the fatwa against ‘Vande Mataram’ is the view only of “some organisations” and “not the opinion of the whole community”.

Islam is an Indic religion

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Patna, November 08: God is one. So, the people of the world, professing different religions, are the same offering obeisance to the one and the same God in their own words in different languages.

And, this is what Yajurveda, Brahmsutra and Quran have mentioned, claimed Syed Tariq Abdullah Engineer, president of the World Organisation of Religions and Knowledge.

He was delivering a talk on The Conception of Harmony from Vedas to Quran organised by the Temple of Understanding, an inter-faith global organisation, here on Saturday.

Gaza’s ‘Open-air’ Winter

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Gaza City, November 08: Nine-year-old Mohamed is trying hard to keep the tent door closed against the freezing winter winds.

“A new winter has come,” Mohamed in a desperate voice.

“Again, we will live in dark and cold weather. We will be sinking in rainwater.”

The Gazan boy is living with his family in a tent since their three-storey house was destroyed in a deadly Israeli offensive in Gaza earlier this year.

“I can’t believe that we will see a new freezing winter while living in the open air,” his elder brother Khalil, 17, said.

Agra varsity students forcibly close colleges

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Agra, November 08: Hundreds of students of the Dr. B.R.Ambedkar University took to the streets Saturday afternoon forcibly closing down all colleges, to protest the assault on students, including on girls, Friday by varsity employees.

The agitating students want assistant registrar Balaji Yadav sacked for allegedly instigating the employees to beat up the students, who had come to demand redressal of their grievances.

Muslims back Hollywood film on Prophet Muhammad

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Cape Town, November 08: South African Muslims have given the thumbs up to the making of a movie on the life of Prophet Muhammad by a Hollywood producer.

Local Muslims threw their weight behind the international project after learning that leading Muslim scholar Sheik Yusuf Al Qaradhawi of Egypt would be working closely with the film’s Oscar-winning producer Barrie Osborne, who made box-office hits like Lord of the Rings and The Matrix.

The movie, which hasn’t been titled, is the brainchild of Alnoor Holdings, a Qatar-based media company.

Rakhi plays mediator in PPW?

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Mumbai, November 08: Elesh Parujanwala is known for his calm and composed attitude where as Rakhi is recognized for her hot temper. But this time things seem to turn upside down with the entry of the adults in Pati Patni Aur Woh.

Saakshi Bhayana from the fame of Splitsvilla will be entering as the daughter of Elesh and Rakhi in the show. “Her entry is going to be dhamakedar in the show as the janta will see her throwing her weight around in front of Rakhi,” utters our khabroo.

Fort Hood Tragedy… Muslim Soldiers Speak Out

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Several Muslims who have served or are currently serving in the military say the tragic deaths of 13 soldiers in Fort Hood, Texas, at the hands of Army Major Nidal Malik Hasan is an individual action that does not represent them, insisting that Muslims remain an integral part of the US military.

“There’s nothing we [in the military] can do about it,” Robert Salaam, a former Marine who reverted to Islam after 9/11, told IslamOnline.net.

“What Maj. Hasan did does not represent us,” he told IOL confidently.

Probe OMC irregularities, says TDP

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Hyderabad, November 08: Deputy floor leader of the TDP N. Janardhan Reddy on Saturday requested Chief Minister K. Rosaiah to order a probe into the alleged shifting of iron ore worth Rs. 500 crore by Obulapuram Mining Company (OMC) from Andhra Pradesh’s territory into Karnataka illegally.

As the Chief Minister was already in New Delhi, he should meet the Central leaders and officials concerned on the large-scale irregularities being committed by OMC, Mr. Reddy suggested at a press conference here.

Obama Urges Calm Over Muslim Backlash

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Washington, November 08: As fears of a backlash are going high among US Muslims, President Barack Obama urged Americans, not to jump into conclusions over a deadly attack on a military base in Texas, stressing the diversity of the US army.

“I would caution against jumping to conclusions until we have all facts,” Obama said in his weekly address.

He said investigations are still underway into the cause of Thursday’s attack on Fort Hood military base.

“We cannot fully know what leads a man to do such a thing,” he said.

New long-life battery laptops from Dell

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Frankfurt, November 08: Dell has released two new laptops from the nascent ULV class. The 13z and 15z are members of the Inspiron series and cost $550 and $580 respectively. ULV stands for Ultra Low Voltage and refers to processors designed to work at lower voltages and use less power.

In the case of the new Dell laptops, that translates into respective battery lives of 11 hours (13z with a 13.3 inch monitor) and 10 hours (15z with 15.6 inch monitor).

Mecca Masjid blasts: Probe team seeks extension

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Hyderabad, November 08: Even after two-and-a-half years of the terror bomb blast at Mecca Masjid in the city, the Commission of Inquiry that was specifically constituted to inquire into the incident of subsequent police firing is yet to submit its report.

After the eight extension it got, the commission of inquiry constituted with Justice V Bhaskara Rao, retired judge of A P High Court was to have submitted its report on November 6.

“I have already written to the state government for an extension of at least another three months,” Justice Bhaskara Rao told.

GHMC in a catch-22 situation over YSR cutouts

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Hyderabad, November 08: Though the model code of conduct for the November 23 Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) elections came into force a week ago,civil officials are caught in a catch-22 situation over cutouts and banners of the late chief minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy erected near the former chief minister’s camp office at Greenlands.

Several cutouts and flexi banners, including the ones at the camp office, were erected by the Greater Hyderabad Congress Committee after the death of Y S Rajasekhara Reddy in a chopper crash on September 2.

Windows 7 and Vista offer best file search

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Hamburg, November 08: Ever wonder where you stored a certain file on your computer? If you have the new Windows 7 or even Windows Vista on your computer, you won’t need any extra software to answer that question. The functionality already built into Windows 7 and Vista beats the performance offered by four free search programmes, the experts at Germany’s Computer Bild magazine found.

India opts to bat against Australia

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Guwahati, November 08: India captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni won the toss and opted to bat against Australia in the sixth One-Day International at the Nehru Stadium here Sunday.

Teams:

India: Mahendra Singh Dhoni (captain-wicket keeper), Virender Shewag, Gautam Gambhir, Sachin Tendular, Suresh Raina, Yuvraj Singh, Ravindra Jadeja, Harbhajan Singh, Praveen Kumar, Ashish Nehru, Munaf Patel

Australia: Ricky Ponting (captain), Shane Wadson, Shaun Marsh, Cameron White, Mike Hushey, Graham Manou (wicket keeper), Adam Voges, Mitchell Johnson, Clint McKay, Nathon Hauritz, Doug Bollinger

Karan Singh honoured by New York varsity

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New York, November 07: Karan Singh, president, Indian Council of Cultural Relations (ICCR), was conferred with an honorary doctorate of Humane Letters by the State University of New York here Saturday.

“As an internationally respected humanitarian and one of the most learned individuals of modern times, you have a lasting impact on philosophy, culture, education and the environment in India and abroad,” the university said in its citation.

British PM revives global tax idea at G20 meet

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London, November 07:British Prime Minister Gordon Brown Saturday resurrected the idea of the international community imposing a global tax on banks as a repayment for the billions of pounds of taxpayers’ money they have received from governments.

The idea is said to mimic the so-called “Tobin tax” – a 0.1 percent tax on all international currency transactions proposed by the economist James Tobin in the 1970s in order to fund global development.

29 new dengue cases take Delhi’s total to 527

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New Delhi, November 07: At least 29 fresh cases of dengue were reported here Saturday, taking the total number of people affected by the vector-borne disease in the capital to 527, said health officials, adding that over 200 people were fined in the last one week for allowing stagnant water to accumulate in their homes.

“There were 29 fresh cases of dengue confirmed today (Saturday). This takes the total number of cases to 527,” Chief Medical Officer, Municipal Corporation of Delhi, N.K. Yadav told IANS.

Right to Education Act: NGO

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New Delhi, November 07: Starting this Children’s Day Nov 14, child rights NGO CRY will start a nationwide campaign asking the government to amend the Right to Education Act 2009.

Listing out a three-point agenda, members of the NGO said that amendment in the act is necessary in order to make education accessible to all.

The Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act 2009, in the present form, talks about compulsory education to children in the age group of six to 14.

Alwal citizens live in constant fear of rains

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Hyderabad, November 07: Rainfall. The very word causes many residents of Alwal circle to shiver with fear. Not that they dislike rainfall, but the slush and inundation threat it brings. Encroachments along the main Alwal sewerage nala have blocked its free flow, which results in water flooding the houses, what many residents describe as a dreadful experience.

RBI Colony, Shiva Nagar and Sai Datta Colony are the most affected localities during the rainy season. Because of an improper nala system, the approach routes to a couple of colonies are in pretty bad shape.

State Govt remains silent spectator

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Hyderabad, November 07: Even as illegal mining by the Obulapuram Mining Company is kicking up clouds of controversy in two States, the AP Government has chosen, by and large, to remain a silent spectator.

Its role has been confined to merely “reviewing the situation’’ and while it has directed the officials to “act’’, in the absence of specific instructions the officials of the department concerned have been able to do nothing beyond whistling in the dark.