Mumbai, January 06: Yet another case of molestation has taken up very lightly by the Goa police and the accused walked free after getting bail from the police. Three Goa footballers of Churchill brothers have charged for molesting air hostess of kingfisher airlines which was on the way from Goa to Kolkata.
New Delhi, January 06: Delhi police have came off by nabbing notorious criminal Arif, who was wanted in several cases of extortion and murder, has been nabbed by the officials in early morning from the capital.
The police have taken him in the custody and investigation is going on, as his name was reflected when a Delhi based businessman received threat for money from the criminal. He was also wanted in the case of Madhusuadan extortion murder case in April 2007, where he murdered him for ransom asking it from his father, who was Deputy Director in Doordarshan.
–Agencies
Ahmedabad, January 06: Workers at a gold ornament manufacturing factory in Kalupur struck their employers viciously on the head with iron rods and made off with 2200gm of 22 karat gold worth Rs32 lakhs, in a daring theft here on Monday night.
The Soni brothers, Jitendra and Bharat, are in hospital and while the latter has still to regain consciousness, the former is stable but in bad shape.
Kolkata, January 06: Veteran Marxist leader and former West Bengal chief minister Jyoti Basu was put on ventilator this morning after his condition turned serious.
Superintendent of AMRI hospital in Salt Lake Debashish
Sharma, where Basu is admitted, told PTI, “He has been put on ventilatory support this morning and his condition has turned serious”.
Islamabad, January 06: At least three people were killed and 11 injured on Wednesday in a massive explosion that tore the barracks of a military hospital in Pakistan’s Rawla Kot region, media reports said.
The injured were taken to the military hospital. Four of the injured were in a critical condition, Geo TV reported.
It was not immediately clear whether the blast was caused by a bomb planted in the barracks or a suicide attacker, DPA news agency said.
Washington, January 06: Nigerian terror suspect Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, charged in a botched al-Qaeda plot to blow up an American airliner, has provided useful “actionable intelligence” during his interrogation by FBI sleuths, the White House has said.
“FBI interrogators spent quite some time with him. I don’t want to get into all the specifics, but I think they would agree and I would say that he has provided in those interrogations useful intelligence,” White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said at his daily press briefing.
United Nations, January 06: Citing rising threats and attacks on humanitarian operations, the UN World Food Program has suspended its aid operations in southern Somalia leaving millions of people without aid.
“The World Food Program has suspended much of its operations in much of Southern Somalia due to rising security threats and attacks on humanitarian operations,” UN spokersperson, Martin Nesirky, told journalists here.
“The decision means that about one million people in southern Somalia will not be able to receive much needed assistance.”
Jerusalem, January 06: A group of Israeli army officers has cancelled a visit to Britain because London was unable to guarantee they would not be arrested for alleged war crimes under universal jurisdiction provisions, Israeli officials said yesterday.
Four officers, including a major, a lieutenant colonel and a colonel had been due to visit last week at the invitation of the British Army.
An Israeli official declined to specify the purpose of the visit but said that Israeli officers are invited to Britain “to assist in defensive technology in the military arena”.
Washington, January 06: With 1,964 H-1B visas in 2009, Indian IT major Wipro has topped the list of firms that got the coveted US visas for highly skilled professionals.
Microsoft with 1,318 visas came next, with Intel (723) in third place, while Google with 211 in 25th place brought up the rear. IBM India (695), Infosys (440), Polaris Software Lab India (254) and Satyam (219) were the other major Indian visa getters.
Washington, January 06: President Barack Obama has said his government had enough information to thwart the botched Christmas Day terror attack on a US airliner, but intelligence failure to “connect those dots” shows “the system has failed” in a major way.
“When a suspected terrorist is able to board a plane with explosives on Christmas Day, the system has failed in a potentially disastrous way,” he said Tuesday at the White House in a statement to reporters after a review meeting with his security team.
Washington, January 06: The Central Intelligence Agency was bracing yesterday for a fresh barrage of questions about its competence following reports that the man who blew himself up at its main operating base in Afghanistan on 30 December, killing seven of its employees, had been recruited by the US but had, in fact, been a double agent for al-Qa’ida all along.
Baghdad, January 06: Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki has said his country would file a lawsuit against US private security firm Blackwater over the killing of Iraqi civilians here two years ago.
Maliki has rejected a US judge’s decision to drop charges against five Blackwater security guards who were involved in killing unarmed civilians at a crowded intersection in western Baghdad in 2007, Xinhua reported Tuesday.
Baghdad, January 06: Iraq executed 77 people convicted of capital offences over the course of 2009, the Iraqi government announced Tuesday.
Judge Mahdat al-Mahmoud, chair of Iraq’s Supreme Judicial Council, said a special court for terrorism-related offences had been created to deliver speedy justice in such cases.
The announcement followed a criminal court decision in the Iraqi town of Rusafa Dec 29 to sentence to death three men for their role in a June bombing that killed 88 people and injured 200 outside a mosque in the northern town of Taza.
-Agencies
Melbourne, January 06: As India issued a travel advisory for Australia following unabated assaults and killing of its citizens, Deputy Prime Minister Julia Gillard insisted that her country is safe for all international students and said “acts of violence” occur in big cities around the world.
She said the travel warning was a matter for the Indian government and that Australia will continue to welcome students from that country.
Gillard insisted that Australia was a safe country for all international students.
Abu Dhabi, January 06: Fuel stations across the United Arab Emirates (UAE) have adopted the litre instead of the imperial gallon as a unit of measurement from Jan 1 this year, WAM news agency reported Tuesday.
The new unit of measurement for gasoline is effective in all fuelling stations run by oil companies and corporations in the UAE.
The new provision will remain effective for a period of four months in line with the cabinet’s decision, which mandates the use of international system of units.
The imperial gallon equals to approximately 4.5 litres.
Abu Dhabi, January 06: Officials of developed and developing countries, including India, will meet here Jan 18 at the World Future Energy Summit 2010, WAM news agency reported.
Finland’s Economic Affairs Minister Mauri Pekkarinen will be the keynote speaker at the panel session on the first day of the summit.
India’s Minister for New and Renewable Energy Farooq Abdullah will also attend.
The Finnish government announced this year that it will support efforts to limit global warming by cutting green house gas emissions by at least 80 percent of the 1990 levels by 2050.
Dhaka, January 06: Bangladesh will not allow its territory to be used by “militants and terrorists of another country”, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has said.
Hasina said she would “not invite trouble for the country” by allowing militants and terrorists to use Bangladesh for carrying out terrorism in another country.
She is heading for New Delhi next week for summit level talks where cooperation against militancy and terrorism, both bilaterally and in the South Asian region, is high on the agenda.
Mumbai, January 06: Technology has made it possible for the visually challenged to access the print. But there is little awareness among publishers and authors about the need to make printed documents accessible to all. An amendment in copyright laws is needed to bring about this awareness.
To make it happen, the Xavier’s Resource Centre for the Visually Challenged (XRCVC) has urged authors and publishers to support the global Right to Read [RTR] campaign initiated by the World Blind Union and Sight Savers International among others.
Jalandhar, January 06: Robbers struck at a Samsung electronics showroom in this Punjab city Tuesday morning and decamped with laptops, LCD screens and goods worth Rs.30 lakh, police said.
The employees of the showroom at Namdev Chowk here found the locks of the shop broken, when they came to open it in the morning, a police official said.
“Some unidentified robbers have struck at the Samsung showroom here. According to the showroom owner, they made off with laptops, LCD screens and various other accessories worth over Rs.30 lakh,” the official said.
New Delhi, January 06: Eight national and regional parties discussed the Telangana logjam with Home Minister P. Chidambaram here Tuesday for four hours, but failed to arrive at a consensus on an issue that has violently split Andhra Pradesh. The minister urged all parties to be accommodating and help the government find a solution.
The political parties, ranging from the ruling Congress to the Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS), did issue a joint statement urging people to be calm, but the TRS insisted on breaking up of Andhra to form a state of Telangana.
Gandhinagar, January 06: A leader of the opposition Congress party Tuesday alleged large-scale irregularities and siphoning of funds in the state public sector undertaking, Gujarat State Petroleum Corporation (GSPC). The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has rubbished the allegations.
Shaktisinh Gohil alleged that GSPC had till March 2009 taken a loan of Rs.4,933.50 crore from the state government, but had not repaid it so far.
New Delhi, January 06: Former New Zealand all-rounder Chris Cairns has not been included from the IPL’s auction list for his alleged involvement in match-fixing during his stint with the rebel Indian Cricket League (ICL).
His name was in the lists that were available for the Indian Premiere League player auction on January 19, but his name has now been pulled off.
IPL commissioner Lalit Modi asserted that the (IPL) governing council has decided against keeping him on the list.
–Agencies
Bangalore, January 06: Sweeping changes are on the anvil in the Council for The Indian School Certificate Examinations (CISCE) board rules and curriculum. The changes will come into effect from April 2010.
To begin with, a new subject, English Speaking and Listening Skills, will be introduced for high school students in grades IX, X and XI.
Kolkata, January 06: Veteran Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) leader Jyoti Basu’s health deteriorated early Wednesday. The nonagenarian had trouble breathing, and the team of doctors treating him at a private hospital here since last week decided to put him on artificial ventilation.
“His condition is serious,” the hospital’s Medical Superintendent Debasish Sharma told IANS.
Kabul, January 06: The suicide bomber who killed eight people in a CIA base in Afghanistan had told the Americans he could help them find Osama Bin Laden’s deputy.
Humam Khalil Abu-Mulal al-Balawi, a doctor, won the trust of first Jordanian intelligence, then the CIA, by posing as a prominent Al Qaeda defector.
The 36-year-old was not even searched when he arrived at the supposedly high-security base in Khost province to meet top agents.