Kolkata, November 03: At least 17 people were injured in a clash between armed activists of the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) and the Trinamool Congress in West Bengal’s Birbhum district Tuesday, police said.
The clash broke out as the rival groups opened fire and also hurled crude bombs at each other, according to police sources.
Beijing, November 03: More than 1,000 lakes have disappeared in China in the past half century and more than 80 percent of lakes along the lower reach of the Yangtze river have been affected by algae outbreaks, officials said at the 13th World Lake Conference.
More than 1,400 environmental experts and scholars from over 40 countries are attending the four-day conference that began Monday in central Hubei province.
The theme of the conference is “rehabilitation of our lakes”.
Chandigarh, November 03: On a hectic six-hour trip to the city where he once resided, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh Tuesday talked of deficiencies in effective healthcare and higher education, but his tight security was blamed for contributing to the death of a young man who failed to reach the hospital in time owing to blocked traffic.
Manila, November 03: Five Islamic militants, including a rebel commander, were killed in fighting with the security forces in the southern Philippines Tuesday, officials said.
The militants belonged to the Abu Sayyaf group that is linked to the Al Qaeda terrorist network, Xinhua reported, quoting the military.
The fighting started after the soldiers attacked a militant hideout in Sitio Bohe Kimeh village in the restive Basilan island, said Maj. Gen. Ben Dolorfino, commander of the Western Mindanao military command. The troops also recovered firearms from the hideout.
Chandigarh, November 03: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s visit to his alma mater Panjab University Tuesday was full of emotions and nostalgic feelings for both him as well as for those who had spent days together with him then in the campus.
Right at the onset of his speech, the prime minister said: “Please forgive me if I become a little bit emotional as I am amidst those people with whom I had interacted and remained in contact both as a teacher and as a student.”
Cairo, November 03: US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will meet Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak here Wednesday to discuss the resumption of Israel-Palestine talks that were stalled over the Israeli construction in the West bank.
The talks come two days after Clinton declared that a full Israeli settlement freeze was at no stage a precondition to the resumption of Israeli-Palestinian negotiations, Xinhua reported quoting the Al-Ahram daily.
–Agencies
New Delhi, November 03: India’s rice output is expected to be around 69.45 million tonnes this kharif season, or about 15 million tonnes less than in the previous season, according to the government’s first advanced estimates for foodgrain production released Tuesday.
During the 2008-09 kharif season, rice production stood at 84.5 million tonnes.
The first advance estimates of production of major crops grown in the country during the kharif season gains significance as the summer crops, mainly paddy, have been hit by drought.
Washington, November 03: In yet another sign of global economic recovery, across the G-20 nations including India, the average overall deficit is projected to fall from 7.9 percent of GDP in 2009 to 6.9 percent of GDP next year, according to the IMF.
Both these figures are somewhat better than projected in July 2009, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said in its latest edition of the Cross-Country Fiscal Monitor released here Tuesday.
Havana, November 03: Cuba has said the autobiography of Juanita Castro, in which she revealed her association with the CIA and her estranged relationship with her elder brothers Raul and Fidel Castro, is “a commercial venture in bad taste and of low morality”.
The Cuban culture ministry made its first official reaction to the book in a magazine published Monday.
Bhopal, November 1 (Pervez Bari): Madhya Pradesh Governor Rameshwar Thakur has said that the efforts of the state government of setting in motion works for all round development of the state are commendable. He said that the public participation works for development and service being undertaken in all the sectors in the state are worthy of emulation.
New Delhi, November 03: Comeback paceman Zaheer Khan took three wickets and discarded all-rounder Ajit Agarkar four wickets as Mumbai restricted Punjab to 242 for nine on day one of the Super League Ranji Trophy match at the Sector 16 Cricket Stadium in Chandigarh on Tuesday.
Electing to bat, Punjab were propelled by a century from Ravi Inder Singh (104) after their batsmen failed to get their act together.
New Delhi, November 03: Indian Premier League (IPL) chief Lalit Modi Tuesday gave his nod to Bollywood production house Percept Picture Company (PPC) for a “fictional biopic” on his life, said a top official of PPC.
“We had to wait for a bit but its through now. I had a meeting with him (Lalit Modi) in Mumbai at 11 in the morning and he is now very excited that he has committed for the film. It’s a fictional biopic like ‘Guru’ on Dhirubhai Ambani,” joint managing director of PPC Shailendra Singh told IANS over phone from Mumbai.
Mumbai, November 03: Telecom operator Reliance Communications (R-Com) on Tuesday announced the launch of its per second billing plan.
As per the new plan, to be effective Nov 5, R-Com will offer outgoing calls at one paisa per second across all sectors sans extra charges for short-duration callers.
The new offer follows the “Simply Reliance” plan the company launched last month, under which it charged 50 paise per minute.
New Delhi, November 03: Two more people succumbed to the contagious swine flu Tuesday, taking the toll in India to 477, health authorities said here.
At least 76 new cases were reported in the country, taking the total number of people affected with the virus to 14,049.
One death was reported from Maharashtra and Kerala each.
With the latest casualty, the toll in Maharashtra has gone up to 204 – the highest in the country.
In Kerala, 16 people have died.
Bhubaneswar, November 03: Bodies of two pilgrims who drowned when an overloaded boat capsized Monday in the Mahanadi river in Orissa’s Cuttack district Monday, were recovered Tuesday. Five passengers are still missing.
“We have recovered two dead bodies so far from the spot. We will continue the search operation for a few hours more, then we will see,” said Arbind Agrawal, the sub-collector of Athagarh in Cuttack district, about 25 km from state capital Bhubaneswar.
According to the officials, the chances of survival of the missing pilgrims are grim.
Washington, November 03: There were tears of joy and a real sense of history in the making. For many African-Americans, Barack Obama’s election in November 2008 as President of the US was an undeniable landmark in race relations. One year on, it is not clear just how Obama’s unlikely journey to the White House has changed the underlying dynamics between white and black Americans.
Obama entered office facing a torrent of crises – an economy in deep recession, wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and a series of major domestic priorities including health-care reform and tackling climate change.
Bhopal, November 03: (Pervez Bari): The Delhi-based All India Muslim Majlis-e-Mushawarat, (AIMMM), [umbrella body of Indian Muslim organisations] has expressed its pain, agony and dismay at the unwarranted and hasty rejection by the Supreme Court of India of the appeal against Delhi High Court order, thereby rejecting the request for a judicial enquiry into the fake police encounter at Batla House on September 19, 2008.
Chandigarh, November 03: Coming to his alma mater, the Panjab University, after many years made Prime Minister Manmohan Singh feel a “little emotional”. But that did not stop him from questioning the quality of higher education being imparted by institutions in the country.
United Nations, November 03: Objecting to Pakistan raising the Kashmir issue at a UN panel on humanitarian issues, India has asked Islamabad to take credible action against terrorists and their support base to create conditions for meaningful dialogue.
“Pakistan would be well advised to concentrate its focus on combating terrorism and not allowing the use of its territory by terrorists and their infrastructure,” Indian delegate B.K. Hariprasad said at a special session of the panel Monday.
New Delhi, November 03: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Tuesday struggled to end the nine-day old crisis in it Karnataka with rebels insisting on the removal Chief Minister B.S. Yeddyurappa, ignoring party chief Rajnath Singh’s assertion that he would continue to lead the state.
Yeddyurappa sent out contradictory signals while talking to reporters in Bellary, stronghold of Tourism minister G. Janardhana Reddy and his elder brother and Revenue Minister G. Karunakara Reddy, who are leading the campaign against him.
Deoband (Uttar Pradesh), November 03: Terrorists and Maoists were urged Tuesday to give up arms by a mass gathering of Muslim clerics at India’s oldest Islamic seminary here, prompting Home Minister P. Chidambaram to applaud the move “as a call to duty … to all right thinking people”.
Addressing an estimated 500,000 followers, the clerics said the Muslim community, the country’s largest religious minority, would take up their cause if the terrorists and Maoists shunned violence.
slamabad, November 03: The Pakistani military today claimed to have wrested the Taliban stronghold of Sararogha in South Waziristan, where 21 militants and a soldier were killed in fierce clashes over the past 24 hours.
Soldiers had “commenced the sanitisation of Sararogha” and several improvised explosive devices had been neutralised, the military said.
Sixteen militants and a soldier were killed in clashes around Sararogha, where the army believes the main Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan leaders are holed up.
Islamabad, November 03:The Pakistani Taliban today threatened they would launch a guerrilla war once security forces entered the whole of the South Waziristan tribal region, where a military operation is currently underway.
Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan spokesman Azam Tariq said the militants have retreated from various areas in South Waziristan as part of a strategy.
“We have vacated the areas in accordance with our war strategy and our fighters will launch a guerrilla war after Pakistani forces enter deep into all areas (in South Waziristan),” Tariq told BBC Urdu.
Bangalore, November 03: Grappling with the turmoil in the party in Karnataka, BJP’s central leadership today summoned Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa whose ouster the dissidents are demanding in what appeared a final attempt to defuse the week-old stalemate.
Yeddyurappa told reporters that he would be leaving for Delhi tomorrow evening or Thursday morning and added he would abide by any decision of the central leadership.
“I will go to Delhi tomorrow or Thursday morning”, the Chief Minister said when asked if he has been summoned by the party’s central leadership.
Jaipur, November 03: The Rajasthan High Court today asked the state government to explain the rescue operation and other measures, it had undertaken during the IOC depot fire tragedy here, which claimed 12 lives.
On a PIL, a division bench of Chief Justice Jagdish Bhalla and Justice Manish Bhandari directed the state also to come up with steps it would take to avert such mishaps, which led to loss of life and public property.
The court asked the advocate general to furnish it with details on various steps the government had taken up after the inferno by Novermber 9.