Mexico City, January 05: A total of 29 people have been killed in 24 hours in Mexico’s northern state of Chihuahua, including two state police officers and six women, local authorities said on Tuesday.
Drug-linked violence has spiked in Mexico in the past three years, with more than 15,000 killed despite a government crackdown on organised crime involving some 50,000 security forces.
Panaji, January 05: The Goa police have said they did not have any knowledge or intelligence input regarding US terror suspect David Headley visiting the coastal state.
“We don’t know. We had no intelligence input on that (Headley’s Goa visit),” Goa police spokesman Atmaram Deshpande told reporters yesterday.
Deshpande’s statement contradicts the inputs by central agencies which had confirmed Headley?s Goa trip to recce certain installations in the state’s coastal belt.
Headley was reportedly in Goa for two weeks and stayed at Anjuna and Arambol, hot spots for Israeli tourists.
Mumbai, January 05: A 20-year-old woman committed suicide on Monday by hanging herself in her Santa Cruz home after being reportedly pressurised into an abortion by her husband and mother-in-law. Both have been arrested following a complaint by the girl’s fatherThe father of the deceased, Sarika Powar, has alleged in his complaint to the police that she had been put under tremendous pressure from her husband Umesh, 24, and mother-in-law Pratiksha, 40, ever since their marriage a few months ago.
Tokyo, January 05: Japan’s finance minister declined to comment Tuesday on whether he might step down for health reasons, saying he was still waiting for test results after being hospitalised last week with fatigue.
“The doctors’ decision will come soon,” Hirohisa Fujii, 77, said at a press conference after a regular Cabinet meeting. “I will respect the doctors’ decision.”
Asked whether he would consider leaving his post if the test results were not positive, Fujii said the question was too hypothetical to answer.
Singapore, January 05: Oil rose to near USD 82 a barrel today in Asia after a jump in US stock markets boosted investor confidence and helped extend a four-week rally in crude prices.
Benchmark crude for February delivery was up 31 cents to USD 81.81 a barrel at midday Singapore time in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract climbed USD 2.15 to settle at USD 81.51 yesterday.
Ajmer, Janaury Members of the House in the Rajasthan assembly can now raise questions online and also get their answers online and have a lot of e-motions.
The (NIC) has been working for the past six years to make a programme allowing interface between various government state departments and the assembly on the internet. The assembly will send various questions to the department on the intranet whose replies will be digitally signed to ensure validity.
Mumbai, January 05: A 12-year-old Sushant Patil — a seventh standard student of Shardashram School (Marathi medium) at Dadar chose to forget failure by ending his life.
The boy hanged himself with a nylon rope in a toilet in his school early on Monday morning.
He had failed in four papers out of six in the mid-term examinations, but had managed to hide the report card from his parents for a week.
—Agencies
Hyderabad, Jan 05 (Nayeem Wajahat): This is a wrong notion that children of Indian origin having weak financial background groom lavishly if adopted by foreigners.
Here is a real life story where Siasat Daily played vital role to get a girl reunited with her real parents. The girl in question is Insha Mogtel aka Anisha Fatima who now resides in Germany.
Washington, January 05: Travellers from 14 nations including Pakistan, Afghanistan, Nigeria and Saudi Arabia flying into the United States will face additional screening starting today, US officials have said.
The heightened security procedures include full body pat downs before boarding, checking of carry on baggage, and random checks on US bound flights, Transportation Security Administration said on Sunday.
Washington, January 05: The suicide attacker who killed eight people in an attack on a CIA base in Afghanistan was a Jordanian who had been recruited by Jordanian intelligence as a double agent, US media said.
NBC News cited western intelligence officials as saying the Jordanian, identified in the report as Humam Khalil Abu-Mulal al-Balawi, had been brought to Afghanistan with the specific mission of finding and meeting Al-Qaeda number two, Ayman al-Zawahiri.
Mumbai, January 05: A year has gone by since the devastating 26/11 terror attacks, but the city is still vulnerable and people far from secure, says well-known author and columnist Shobhaa De.
The 60-hour terror siege in India’s financial capital began on the night of Nov 26 and claimed 166 lives and injured more than 300. Over 26 locations were targeted, including the Taj Mahal Palace and Tower Hotel, the Oberoi Trident and the Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus. De is still reeling from the shock.
New Delhi, January 05: Making request to speak in his native language Tamil, Chemicals and Fertilisers minister and DMK leader M K Alagiri has been summoned by the Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar to meet her in her Chamber to discuss his request to use in parliament.
Mr Alagiri had already asserted that using Tamil his fundamental right to use in Parliament. Speaker Meira Kumar told reporters that decision can be taken only after she will meet him.
–Agencies
Tehran, January 05: Iraq will file lawsuits in US and Iraqi courts against Blackwater, a private security firm, after an American court threw out charges against five of its guards accused of killing 14 civilians in Baghdad.
Making the announcement, Nuri al-Maliki, Iraq’s prime minister, in a statement on Monday said his government “rejects the ruling issued by the American court acquitting the company of the crime of killing a number of citizens”.
Mumbai, January 05: The Chief Central Information Commissioner Wajahat Habibullah, whose resignation is still hanging fire, is being accorded preferential treatment.
“His resignation is not being accorded the same legal treatment as that of former Information Commissioner Smt Omita Paul,” pointed out Mr Mittal, who today served legal notice to Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) and Ministry of Personnel & Grievances (DoPT). The notice urges the Union Government to take three steps to set right the wrong:
New Delhi, January 05: A host of new small cars jostled for attention on Tuesday at the start of the Indian auto show, a showpiece event for compact vehicles in one of the world’s fastest growing markets.
In a sign of the attraction of India for foreign manufacturers, Japan’s Toyota took the wraps off its first compact model designed especially for the country.
The Etios will probably be launched later this year, the company said, featuring suspension designed for bad roads and a price — so far undisclosed — that will attract middle class families and professionals.
Abu Dhabi, January 05: Blazing fireworks and dazzling lights marked the opening of the world’s tallest tower, Burj Dubai, which the Gulf Emirates hopes will pep up its international image, shaken by debt woes.
The USD 1.5 billion structure, an “unprecedented” engineering marvel that was thrown open to the public on Monday, was built with a major contribution from India – a vast labour force.
The steel and glass tower was opened by Dubai’s ruler Sheikh Mohammad Bin Rashid al Maktoum, who also lifted the veil on a closely guarded secret of its final height.
Panckula, January 05: In further trouble for disgraced former DGP SPS Rathore, Haryana Police today slapped a fresh charge of abetment to suicide against him in the molestation case.
A third FIR against Rathore and some others was filed under section 306 (abetment to suicide) of IPC at the Sector 5 Police Station here, Superintendent of Police Maneesh Chaudhary told PTI.
New Delhi. January 05: President Pratibha Devisingh Patil asked IPS probationers to work with diligence, intelligence and devotion and to use the authority and power of the uniform to penalize law breakers.
Interacting with the Probationers of the 61st Batch of the Indian Police Service who called on her at the Rashtrapati Bhavan, the President advised the officers to be a few steps ahead of law breakers, as in recent years there have been experiences where criminal elements have displayed the capacity to be skilled in technical areas.
New Delhi, January 05: The longest annular solar eclipse of the third millennium will occur on January 15. There won’t be an annular solar eclipse longer than this one till 3043.
An annular eclipse is when the sun is visible like a ring of fire, with the moon darkening its centre.
The last annular solar eclipse visible from India was in 1976. Even then, it could only be seen from the northeast parts of Jammu and Kashmir.
Sanaa, January 05: The United States embassy in Yemen reopened on Tuesday, an embassy official said, a day after Yemeni forces killed two al Qaeda militants they said were behind a threat that had forced U.S. and European missions to close.
“We are reopened,” a U.S. embassy official said. The embassy had closed on Sunday in response to what it said were al Qaeda threats and came as concern grew about stability in the poorest Arab country.
The British and French embassies resumed operations but remained closed to the public, diplomats at those embassies said.
—-Agencies
Beijing, January 05: Heavy snow has brought more travel chaos to north China, stranding thousands of truckers for two days on a Beijing highway and 1,400 rail passengers in Inner Mongolia, state media said Tuesday.
The snow that blanketed the region at the weekend has ended in Beijing but the national weather centre said the mercury dipped Tuesday to -15.6 degrees Celsius (four Fahrenheit) — the coldest temperature in more than two decades.
Washington, January 05: The government has added dozens of people to the ominous lists of suspected terrorists and those barred from U.S.-bound flights, a crackdown that comes as President Barack Obama is poised to announce changes to the nation’s watchlists.
New Delhi, January 05: Dense fog in parts of North India continued to hamper movement of trains on Tuesday with six trains being cancelled and over two dozen running behind schedule.
The cancelled trains include Rewa-New Delhi Express, Ranchi Garib Rath Express, Lal Qila Express and Purshottam Express, a Northern Railway spokesperson said.
He said three trains on way to Delhi have been diverted due to fog. More than 26 in-coming trains to Delhi are running several hours behind schedule.
—PTI
New Delhi, January 05: The govt has recommended withdrawal of police medal given to former Haryana DGP SPS Rathore and announced that any police officer convicted for “moral turpitude” or bringing “disrepute or disrespect” to the service will be stripped of awards.
“The Central Police Awards Committee (CPAC) has taken two primary decisions. The committee recommended to the President for the withdrawal of police medal given to former Haryana DGP S P S Rathore,” Union Home Secretary Gopal K Pillai, who heads the committee, told reporters in New Delhi.
Hyderabad, January 05: Train services across Andhra Pradesh were affected today as groups supporting and opposing a separate Telangana state stopped several trains. Railway authorities cancelled 89 trains as a precautionary measure.
The “rail roko” protests in Telangana on one side and coastal Andhra and Rayalaseema on the other coincided with the crucial all-party meeting being held in New Delhi on the Telangana issue.