Davos, January 28: The head of Saudi oil giant Aramco on Thursday sought to ease international concerns over dwindling stocks of oil but did not convince all his customers.
Khalid al Falih, Aramco’s chairman and chief executive, hit out at “misleading” rhetoric that the world was weaning itself off fossil fuels, saying this did not give producers confidence to keep investing in production.
Cairo, January 28: An Egyptian court ordered on Wednesday a stay of a ban on the full face veil, or niqab, in female schools affiliated with the Islamic Al-Azhar University.
The administrative court’s decision came a week after it ruled, on grounds of constitutional liberties, against a ban by the education ministry on women wearing the niqab in university residences and examination halls.
The court’s ruling came in response to a complaint by a student in a high school affiliated with the prestigious Sunni university.
London, January 28: Former British prime minister Tony Blair will face a public grilling Friday over his decision to wage war on Iraq, seven years after a bloody conflict that still divides his country.
Blair is the star witness in a long-awaited inquiry that commentators hope will finally resolve questions about the intelligence that justified the March 2003 invasion, and whether the US-led war was legal.
Rabat, January 28: Morocco is one of the most open countries in North Africa but its human rights record deteriorated last year, a leading rights watchdog said Wednesday as it presented its annual report on Morocco.
“It has been one of the pioneers in human rights” in the region, said Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East and North Africa director at Human Rights Watch (HRW), but the situation had “globally deteriorated” in 2009.
Whitson praised Morocco’s “free press and dynamic civil society” and welcomed the announcement of legal reform from King Mohammed IV.
Khaoba, January 28: At the small outpost atop the Jebel Doud, Saudi Major General Said al-Ghamedi doesn’t miss a beat as automatic gunfire and mortar explosions echo across the valley below.
“That is where the Huthis smuggle in supplies. We cut them off,” he points, referring to the Yemen rebels just across the porous border.
His vest weighed down with grenades and ammo clips, the paratroop commander says the Saudi campaign against the rebels is drawing to an end, signified by Monday’s Huthi offer of a ceasefire and promise to withdraw from Saudi territory.
Paris, January 28: The sectarian tension is rising a notch in Saudi Arabia: Forty-one Salafi clerics have supported the Saudi preacher Muhammad Al-Arifi, who insulted the Iraqi Shiite cleric, Ayatollah Ali Sistani, drawing Shiites’ ire.
The Wahhabi “Takfirists” treat Shiites as “heretics” and urge them to “repent” or risk stirring up The community’s hatred that is already on edge in both the kingdom and the region.
“Rafidhas” and “seculars” in the same bag
Rosetta, January 28: The Nile Delta, Egypt’s bread basket since antiquity, is being turned into a salty wasteland by rising seawaters, forcing some farmers off their lands and others to import sand in a desperate bid to turn back the tide.
Experts warn that global warming will have a major impact in the delta on agriculture resources, tourism and human migration besides shaking the region’s fragile ecosystems.
Washington, January 28: The war in Iraq is ending and all US troops are coming home, US President Barack Obama said Wednesday in his State of the Union address, vowing continued US support of the Iraqi people.
“As we take the fight to Al-Qaeda, we are responsibly leaving Iraq to its people,” Obama told lawmakers.
“But make no mistake: this war is ending, and all of our troops are coming home,” he added, winning a standing ovation in Congress.
Washington, January 28: US special forces and intelligence officers are working closely with Yemeni troops in secret operations that have killed six of 15 leaders of Al-Qaeda’s affiliate, the Washington Post reported Wednesday.
President Barack Obama approved the joint operations, which began six weeks ago and involve several dozen troops from the US Joint Special Operations Command, which is dedicated to hunting down Al-Qaeda leaders, the Post said, citing unnamed officials.
Panaji, January 28: The alleged rapist of a nine-year-old Russian girl in Goa has given police a slip, a senior police official Thursday said.
Deputy Inspector General (DIG) of police Ravindra Yadav told reporters that a manhunt has been launched to track down Aman Bharadwaj (aged between 25 and 30), resident of Basti district in Uttar Pradesh, working at Intech Pharmaceuticals at the Dhargal industrial estate, 40 km from here.
New Delhi, January 28: Uganda has sought Indian assistance in developing its oil and gas sector.
This was conveyed by the Ugandan Vice President Gilbert Balibaseka Bukenya, in his meeting with the visiting Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister Murli Deora on Thursday.
Deora is on the last stop of his four-nation African journey, during which he has already visited Sudan, Nigeria and Angola.
New Delhi, Janaury 28: A meeting of chief ministers of four Maoist-affected states will be held next month in Kolkata to fine-tune joint operations, the home ministry said on Thursday.
The meeting, scheduled for Feb 9, will be held soon after the internal security conclave in the capital.
The meeting will be attended by chief ministers of Jharkhand, Orissa, West Bengal and Bihar to work out a comprehensive strategy for inter-state joint operations in rebel strongholds.
New Delhi, January 28: A day after Karnataka Chief Minister B.S. Yeddyurappa told people to “chop off hands” of those vandalising churches in the state, his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) sought to soft-pedal the remarks, saying they should be seen in the context of his government’s resolve to stop any violence.
“It is not a question of churches. No government can tolerate violence,” party spokesman Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi told.
Beijing, January 28: China on Thursday asked the European Union to scrap the embargo imposed on it against inking any arms deal with EU member countries, saying the 21-year-old sanction was based on “prejudice”.
“The EU’s arms embargo, in nature, is political prejudice against China, which runs counter to world tides and China-EU all-round strategic partnership,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Ma Zhaoxu told reporters here.
New Delhi, January 28: Russian Ambassador to India Alexander Kadakin on Thursday threatened to issue an advisory to his citizens not to travel to Goa if the Indian authorities did not act fast to punish the rapists of a Russian minor girl in the beach resort.
The Russian envoy also stressed that he had faxed his country’s view in the matter to Home Minister P. Chidambaram and expected the Indian government to act fast.
Mumbai, January 28: Well-known Kannada theatre artist and movie actress Arundhati Nag, who got Padma Shri Award, is happy that the government has recognised the efforts of a theatre personality.
“I see the newspapers and the channels are filled up with the news of even debutant film actors and models, but not even a small space is given to the achievement of theatre personalities who have worked to give a new identity to the theatre movement,” said Arundhati, who was recently seen as Amitabh Bachchan’s grandmother in “Paa”.
New Delhi, January 28: A security alert has been sounded following the seizure of ammunition on the Tamil Nadu coast and the arrest of four Indian men who allegedly helped former Tamil Tiger guerrillas fleeing Sri Lanka take shelter in India.
Also unearthed from prime accused Selvakumar alias Jeeva’s property in Rameshwaram were Rs.800,000 in Indian currency and half a kilo of heroin valued at 100,000 dollars in the global market, official sources here said.
Mumbai, January 28: India’s central bank Thursday set the stage for tightening the monetary policy in the quarterly update due Friday with concerns over rising inflation even as it upgraded the country’s growth outlook for this fiscal to 6.9 percent from 6 percent.
“With a stronger recovery in India, the risk of food price inflation causing generalised inflation cannot be ignored,” the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) said in its review of the macroeconomic developments for the third quarter.
Karnataka, January 28: Rural Development and Panchayat Raj Department of Karnataka (RDPR Karnataka) has published the answer key of PDO.
As far as PDo result is concerned the PDO result is available at http://recruitment.kar.nic.in/rdpr/view_result.aspx.
The RDPR PDO result has been available district-wise.
Students can also view their provisional list and cut off mark by visiting the official website of RDPR.
For more details students can visit the official website of RDPR i.e. www.kar.nic.in/rdpr/. Students can get the helpline numbers for PDO result on the website.
New Delhi, January 28: Union Home Minister P Chidambaram’s love for cricket came to the fore yet again in the midst of a perceived snub to Pakistani players by IPL when he said today he would be happy to see some of them in action.
“I am speaking as a cricket lover…What I see on the television seems to be a good beginning,” Chidambaram said when asked to comment on the statement by the Indian Premier League (IPL) that Pakistani cricketers still have a chance to be part of the glitzy sporting event.
New Delhi, January 28: The much-talked about Committee to examine the demand for separate Telangana will be announced next week, Home Minister P Chidamabaram said today.
“We are almost at the end of concluding that exercise. If all goes well, we should have a committee by the end of this week. We will announce the committee by next week,” he told reporters declining to give out the names.
The Home Minister said the government would have more or less finalised the names and will do by the the end of this week. “Perhaps by the next week, the committee will be announced,” he said.
Nellore, January 28: Yet in another shocking incident, a youth attacked a college girl with a blade, when she turned down his request to accompany him for a chat at Sulurpet today.
According to police the girl A Vijetha, (16), was attacked by a stalker near her house in DVS Nagar, when she was on her way to college. He attacked her with a blade slashing her forehand and fled away leaving behind the girl writhing in pain.
The girl was rushed to Government Hospital.
Hyderabad, January 28: In defiance of the stand taken by Telangana Joint Action Committee of politicians, the students of Osmania University have reiterated that they will stall the Indian Premier League-3 (IPL-3) until an announcement on separate Telangana is made.
The decision was taken by the students on a day when political JAC convener Kodandaram appealed to Union Home Minister P Chidambaram and the president of Hyderabad Cricket Association to reconsider the decision to shift the venue of the inaugural of IPL-3 from Hyderabad to Mumbai.
New Delhi, January 28: Don’t forget to watch the moon on Saturday. The moon will be closest to the earth on that day and will appear to be bigger and brightest of the year, a scientist said Thursday.
Explaining the reason, director SPACE (Science Popularisation Association of Communicators and Educators) C.B. Devgun said: “Some full moons are genuinely larger than others and the one on Saturday will be huge.”
The moon will be 15 percent bigger and 30 percent brighter than we will see for the rest of the year, he said.
Mumbai, January 28: A special court today acquitted five persons, accused of firing at TV producer Anand Mahendroo, due to lack of evidence.
Mahendroo, producer of the famous television show, ‘Dekh Bhai Dekh,’ was shot at by a person in January 2006 at suburban Andheri.
The police had arrested prime accused, L M Singh, soon after the incident and four others for conspiracy.
According to the police, Singh, who was employed with Mahendroo, had been sent behind bars after he was caught red handed stealing from the producer’s house.