Month: November 2009

Central team visits Nalgonda

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Nalgonda, November 06: A team of officials from the Centre visited the district today to assess the crop damage due to drought in the district.

The team comprising J P Singh, Ravinder Singh and B C Corporation MD Purushottam Reddy held a meeting with District Collector S A M Rizvi and enquired about the drought conditions.

Later, they inspected groundnut, maize and cotton fields in Mamillagudem of Mothey mandal, Chivvemla mandal headquarters, Chikatigudem village in Ketheypally mandal and Bollepally in Kattangoor mandal.

SIMS organises ‘Celsius’ fest

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Hyderabad, November 06: Students of Shadan Institute of Medical Sciences organised ‘Celsius’, a 5-day cultural and sports fest that culminated on Thursday.

Tendulkar pockets another record

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Hyderabad, November 06: The near-capacity crowd – many with colourfully painted faces – had to wait, to be precise, till 7.03 pm to see the biggest crowd-puller – Sachin Tendulkar – keep his date with another piece of history in his illustrious career – scoring 17,000 runs in one-dayers. The way crowds stood up to salute the legend will perhaps be frozen in memory of all those who thronged the stadium. One milestone which made the first-ever, day-and-night international at Uppal truly memorable.

China jails brothers for running criminal gang

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China, November 06: A court here on Friday sentenced brothers Zhang Bo and Zhang Tao to 17 years in prison for running a criminal network in southwest China, an official said.

The accused were also fined 100,000 yuan ($14,647) each by the Second Intermediate People’s Court in Chongqing, Xinhua reported.

Twenty-one other gang members received jail terms ranging from six months to 13 years, a court spokesman said.

Zhang Bo and Zhang Tao have been running a criminal network in Chongqing since 2007.

Mass marriages of Muslims held

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Eluru, November 06: West Godavari Zilla Parishad Chairman Meka Seshu Babu said that the State Government was spending Rs 4.25 crore every year for conducting marriages of poor Muslim girls. The government was implementing the programme under the supervision of Minority Welfare Department, he added.

Top ULFA leaders, held in Bangladesh, now in Assam police custody

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Guwahati, November 06:Two senior separatist leaders of the outlawed United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA), arrested in Bangladesh, are now in the custody of Assam Police, officials Friday said.

According to officials, ULFA “foreign secretary” Sasha Choudhury and “finance secretary” Chitraban Hazarika were being flown in Friday by a special army helicopter from Gokul Nagar Border Security Force (BSF) outpost in Tripura, bordering Bangladesh.

Chinese military calls for peaceful use of airspace

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Beijing, November 06: An air force commander of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Friday called for peaceful use of airspace and said no country will be able to protect itself if the airspace turned into a battlefield.

Air force commander Xu Qiliang made the remarks during an international conference on peace and development here to mark the 60th founding anniversary of China’s Air Force, Xinhua reported.

Air force officials from China and 34 other countries attended the meeting Friday.

Muzumdar goes past Kaypee to become leading Ranji scorer

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Guwahati, November 06: Assam captain and Mumbai discard Amol Muzumdar became the highest scorer in Ranji Trophy, surpassing Punjab’s Amarjeet Kaypee, when he scored nine runs in the second innings against Rajasthan in a Group A Plate match here Friday.

Muzumdar, who was 31 runs short of achieving the landmark, scored 22 runs in the first innings and 25 in the second and he now has 7,640 runs, 17 more than Kaypee’s 7623.

Assam, however, lost the match by 95 runs.

Net closes in on Madhu Koda, close aide arrested

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Ranchi, November 06: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) closed in on former Jharkhand chief minister Madhu Koda on Friday when it made its first arrest in the Rs.2,500 crore money laundering scam by nabbing the brother of the politician’s close associate.

“We have arrested Vikas Sinha,” Prabha Kant, deputy director, ED, told reporters in Ranchi. Vikas Sinha is the brother of Vinod Sinha, who according to income tax (IT) officials is the kingpin of the scam and a good friend of Lok Sabha MP Koda.

Five held in China for dressing up like women to loot men

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Beijing, November 06: Shanghai Police have detained five Filipino men who allegedly disguised themselves as women to rob other men in bars, a media report said on Friday.

Police said the suspects are aged between 26 and 30, and look quite like women when they make an effort, the China Daily reported.

The suspects allegedly mixed sleeping pills into their victims’ drinks just before agreeing to go home with them.

“The victims would invariably fall asleep during the taxi ride, which is when the suspects robbed them,” police said.

—IANS

One-Day format still reigns supreme

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Hyderabad, November 06: One run required in setting another milestone in his career. The entire stadium cheered Sachin Tendulkar as he scored his 17,000th One-Day International run in his career. He scored the run off the 17th ball in his innings.

The crowd watched in silence as it watched Sachin achieve the feat. Once that was accomplished, the delighted crowd shrieked and screamed.

“I’m proud to be part of the crowd that witnessed the ‘Little Master’ achieve another record,” said Anirudh, a student who came with his classmates and friends to watch the match.

EU urges Cuba to carry out democratic reforms

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Havana, November 06:Cuba must carry out democratic reforms in the country as a step to normalise relations with the European Union (EU), an official of the 27-member bloc said.

EU aid commissioner Karel de Gucht made the remarks after ending his five-day visit to Cuba Thursday.

The official described his talks with Cuban President Raul Castro as “very open, frank and constructive” and said “the EU’s position is not regime change in Cuba”.

489 dengue cases recorded in Delhi

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New Delhi, November 06: Twenty five new dengue cases were recorded in Delhi Friday, taking the number of people affected by the vector-borne disease to 489, health officials said.

The Delhi government has appointed a nodal officer to whom all dengue cases will be reported by government and private hospitals.

The Municipal Corporation of Delhi attributed the rise in dengue cases to stagnant water found at the various under-construction Commonwealth Games sites in the city.

489 dengue cases recorded in Delhi

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New Delhi, November 06:Twenty five new dengue cases were recorded in Delhi Friday, taking the number of people affected by the vector-borne disease to 489, health officials said.

The Delhi government has appointed a nodal officer to whom all dengue cases will be reported by government and private hospitals.

The Municipal Corporation of Delhi attributed the rise in dengue cases to stagnant water found at the various under-construction Commonwealth Games sites in the city.

YSR copter crash: ‘cockpit voice recorder not yet decoded’

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Kurnool, November 06: The cockpit voice recorder (CVR) of the ill-fated Bell 430 helicopter that crashed at Pavuralagutta on September 2 killing then Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy and four others has not yet been decoded.

This was stated by V.V. Lakshminarayana, DIG, Central Bureau of Investigation, after an investigation team visited Pavuralagutta on Thursday. The team, comprising officials from CBI, bomb disposal squad, dog squad, forensic science laboratory and other agencies spent nearly five hours at the crash site carefully examining every inch of the area.

Chinese military calls for peaceful use of airspace

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Beijing, November 06:An air force commander of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Friday called for peaceful use of airspace and said no country will be able to protect itself if the airspace turned into a battlefield.

Air force commander Xu Qiliang made the remarks during an international conference on peace and development here to mark the 60th founding anniversary of China’s Air Force, Xinhua reported.

Air force officials from China and 34 other countries attended the meeting Friday.

Muzumdar goes past Kaypee to become leading Ranji scorer

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Guwahati, November 06:Assam captain and Mumbai discard Amol Muzumdar became the highest scorer in Ranji Trophy, surpassing Punjab’s Amarjeet Kaypee, when he scored nine runs in the second innings against Rajasthan in a Group A Plate match here Friday.

Muzumdar, who was 31 runs short of achieving the landmark, scored 22 runs in the first innings and 25 in the second and he now has 7,640 runs, 17 more than Kaypee’s 7623.

Assam, however, lost the match by 95 runs.

Ranbir Kapoor beats Shah Rukh Khan

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Mumbai, November 06: Ranbir kapoor may be a new kid on the block when compared to veterans like Aamir, Shah Rukh and Sanjay Dutt but the young Kapoor has beaten all of them when it come to public relations.

The Ajab Prem Ki Ghazab Kahani is on top and Shah Rukh at the bottom according to the latest result of a celebrity survey which reveals that Ranbir has pipped SRK to the post in terms of PR strategy and popularity.

Now a Indo-US bilateral agenda on women’s issues

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New Delhi, November 06: US Ambassador-at-Large for Global Women’s Issues Melanne Verveer, who is on a visit to India, Friday said she would discuss a “bilateral agenda” on issues concerning women during her stay here.

Talking to reporters at the Indian Women Press Corps (IWPC) in the capital, Verveer, whose position was created by the Barack Obama administration this year, said women’s issues were of primary global concern and every effort needs to be made on behalf of the government and the civil society to address them.

Islamic banks weather economic storm

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London, November 06: Banks that comply with Islamic Sharia law are thriving despite the global financial crisis, thanks largely to a “conservative approach to risk,” according to a new listing published Thursday.

The latest research by The Banker magazine reveals that assets held by fully Sharia-compliant banks or the Islamic units of conventional banks rose by 28.6 percent to 822 billion dollars (550 billion euros) in 2009, up from 639 billion dollars (430 billion euros) in 2008.

Life goes on in Lebanon – without a government

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Beirut, November 06: Lebanese taxi driver William Hanna couldn’t care less that his country has been without a government for five months, a feeling shared by some fellow Lebanese.

“I gave up listening to the news a while back,” said the 52-year-old from the town of Jounieh, north of Beirut. “It’s business as usual anyway so why get a headache thinking about politics?”

The Mediterranean country of four million people has been without a government since a June 7 general election.

Advocate’s response sought on contempt of court plea

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New Delhi, November 06: The Supreme Court Friday sought advocate Prashant Bhushan’s response to a plea seeking launch of contempt of court proceedings against him for allegedly accusing a sitting apex court judge S.H. Kapadia of judicial impropriety.

Prashant Bhushan, in a recent interview to Tehelka magazine, raised the issue of judicial corruption and also whether a judge having any stake in a business firm should hear and decide cases involving the firm.

Lots of success for Iraqi stamp auction

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Baghdad, November 06: Reckoned to be Iraq’s top expert on cement, Anis Amjad does the rounds of factories during the week but nothing can stop him conducting the stamp auction in old Baghdad every Saturday.

On that day the 56-year-old chemical engineer takes off his white coat and raises his auctioneer’s gavel. The lots are knocked down in an old Ottoman building dating from 1908 which, nine years later, became the first British Post office and where a traditional red letter box still adorns the facade.

Abu Dhabi’s Million’s Poet audition attracts poets from all Arabia

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Abu Dhabi, November 06: Poets from GCC and Arab courtiers flocked to Abu Dhabi starting last Tuesday to participate in the final audition for the fourth season of “Million’s Poet” T V competition.

The live TV competition organized by Abu Dhabi Authority for Culture and Heritage (ADACH) is dedicated to keep Nabati poetry alive by encouraging young talent in one of the biggest poetry competitions in the Arab world where the first winner is given a prize of AED 5 million and total prize of AED 22 million.

Mobs block trains, seek justice for 1984 riots victims

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Ludhiana (Punjab), November 06:Rail traffic on the busy Amritsar-New Delhi section was severely hit Friday as mobs demanding justice for the victims of the 1984 anti-Sikh riots, stopped trains at various places in Punjab, leaving hundreds of passengers stranded.

Over 20 trains were either halted for a few hours or diverted to alternate routes due to the widespread agitation. The protesters also pelted stones at an engine in Ferozepur division.