Hyderabad, January 02: Chief Minister K Rosaiah today reportedly told a delegation of the Telangana Congress monitoring group that he would stay in Hyderabad even if Telangana State was formed since he had not constructed a house elsewhere (either in Andhra or Rayalaseema regions) in the State.
London, January 02: A British man kidnapped in Iraq in 2007 arrived back in Britain on Saturday, two days after his release from two-and-a-half years in captivity, the Foreign Office confirmed.
Peter Moore, a computer expert who was released unharmed on Wednesday, touched down at the Royal Air Force (RAF) base at Brize Norton in Oxfordshire, northwest of London, a ministry spokesman said.
The flight from Jordan landed at about 2242 IST and Moore was met by Foreign Office staff.
Ahmedabad, January 02: A Survey conducted by a group of students on the status of child rights has found that child marriage is still prevalent in Kutch district and cases of abuse of young girls and physical harassment are being reported from the urban areas.
The study, to be published next week, has also found that issues related to child labour, health and education of children in rural area, and environment and safety in the urban areas of Gujarat still persist.
Panki(UP), January 02: At least ten persons were killed and about 40 injured in two separate accidents involving four passenger trains amid dense fog near Kanpur within an hour early on Saturday.
DIG, Kanpur, B P Jogdand said four persons were killed and at least 40 others were injured when the Bhiwani-Gorakhpur Gorakhdham Express hit the stationary Prayagraj Express at Panki railway station in Kanpur district at around 9:00 am.
Etawah (UP), January 02: Amid dense fog, the Bihar-bound Lichavi Express rammed into the stationary Magadh Express at Saraibhopat near Etawah early today, killing the driver of one of the trains.
The driver of the Delhi-Sitamhari Lichavi Express was killed in the mishap, railway sources said.
The Delhi-Islampur Magadh Express was waiting at Saraibhopat when the Lichavi Express hit it from behind.
—PTI
New Delhi, January 02: With government’s flagship Sarva Siksha Abhiyan (SSA) scheme showing encouraging results in expansion of elementary education, the World Bank has come forward with an offer to provide additional funding of $ 500 million for the programme.
The World Bank has proposed the government to provide the money as soft loans to be paid over a period of 35 to 40 years with lesser interest.
The World Bank had provided soft loan of $ 600 million for the scheme which aims at universalisation of elementary education.
Toronto, January 02: Online chats can lead – and have often led – to dangerous liaisons. A Canadian family woke to one such liaison Wednesday when they found their teenage son gone from home at the dead of night to meet a much older woman whom he had met online playing a popular game called the World of Warcraft.
Kanpur, January 02: Five peaople have killed as the Gorakhdham Express rammed into the stationary Prayagraj Express at Panki railway station near Kanpur. This accident is being attributed to the heavy fog. The accident took place early on Saturday. Dozens of passengers are left with injuries. BJP leader Dr. Murali Manohar Joshi if safe, who was travelling in the train.
The Prayagraj Express coming from Delhi was standing at the station when the Gorakhdham Express hit it form behind due to fog, PRO of North Central Railway (Allahabad) Amit Malviya said.
Lucknow, January 02: Two passenger trains collided in Uttar Pradesh’s Etawah district early today due to dense fog, an official said. No casualties were reported.
The accident took place near Sarai Bhupat railway station in Etawah, some 300 km from here, when the Lichchavi Express collided with the Magadh Express.
“It is yet to be ascertained whether the accident caused any casualty,” a railway police official told IANS.
“It appears that the collision took place due to heavy fog,” he said.
New Delhi, Janaury 02: Just after a week of Central Government’s advice to file FIRs for all the complaints made to the police, it has come to pass that Delhi Police don’t file FIRs in most of the cases.
According to recent study of PCR records, a stark revelation has dawned on the department that only 10% of the cases are filed as FIRs. In a rather mortifying disclosure, the report suggests that the incidents reported by the victims themselves are not considered as FIRs as thus they are not entered in the crime records.
Porayar, January 02: A four-year-old child, who was allegedly kidnapped by his teenaged neighbour at Sirkazhi near here, was let off by him at Lord Nataraja temple in Chidambaram today, police said.
Gautham (4), son of Kaliaperumal of Keezhasangamedu near Sirkazhi was allegedly kidnapped by Arunkumar (15), a neighbour on December 30 and released him at Chidambaram, 20 km from here.
Hong Kong, Janaury 02: A New Year’s Day march calling for democracy in Hong Kong drew as many as 30,000 people, making it the biggest protest of its kind in years, organizers claimed Saturday.
The crowd marching to the Beijing Liaison Office swelled by the time it ended Friday evening, according to organizers, who initially expected only 10,000 people to take part.
Police said there were 9,000 marchers by the time the march reached the Beijing Liaison Office, but the Power for Democracy group, which organized the march, said the total was much higher.
Bhopal, January 02:(Pervez Bari) The transportation group of Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited, (BHEL), Bhopal unit has once again created a landmark by developing a new design of 167 kW DC traction motor for the prestigious project of Kolkata Metro.
Kabul, January 02: Five people have been killed by a roadside bomb in a region of western Afghanistan under Taliban control, local police said on today.
The incident happened in the province of Badghis yesterday, provincial police chief Sayed Ahmad Sameh said, adding the dead were two women and three men.
They were travelling in a public mini-van when the bomb exploded in the Joi Ganj area, Sameh said.
“The Taliban rule that area and government forces can’t go there because of planted mines,” he said.
Banglore, January 02: Aamir and Raju Hirani invite actress and her family for special screening at IIM Bangalore
Deepika Padukone is moving in exalted company these days. She had dinner with PM Manmohan Singh and his wife on Monday with Japanese PM Yukio Hatoyama and his wife Miyuki Hatoyama also present.
On Tuesday, she was invited to a special screening of 3 Idiots along with her entire family, including her father, badminton great Prakash Padukone.
Washington, January 02: President Barack Obama said he would meet the heads of US intelligence agencies on Tuesday to discuss ways of preventing a repeat of the attempted bombing of a Detroit-bound airliner on December 25.
Obama said in a statement he expected to receive assessments from several intelligence agencies on Thursday evening and would review them during the weekend.
He ordered the assessments after criticising what he called the systemic failure that allowed the accused bomber to board the plane in Amsterdam.
—Agencies
Washington, January 02: US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton late Friday condemned the suicide bombing at a volleyball game in Pakistan that killed at least 95 people. Clinton said the United States would continue to provide support to Pakistan as it confronts terrorism within its borders.
“The United States strongly condemns todays terrorist attack on civilians in Pakistan, and we offer our condolences to the families of the victims and all the people of Pakistan,” Clinton said in a statement.
Noida, January 02: The credit war for Aamir Khan-starrer latest blockbuster ‘3 Idiots’ turned ugly on Friday when producer director Vidhu Vinod Chopra lost his cool and outburst over media persons during a press conference.
During a press conference, when a reporter asked him whether the story of ‘3 Idiots’ has been copied with author Chetan Bhagat’s best seller ‘Five Point Someone’, the producer lost his cool and asked the reporter to shut up.
He threw a question on reporter, “have you seen the film or read the book Five Point Someone?”
New Delhi, January 02: India and Pakistan yesterday exchanged the lists of their nuclear installations for the 19th consecutive time under an agreement which prohibits any kind of attack on such facilities.
The lists were exchanged through diplomatic channels simultaneously at New Delhi and Islamabad under the Agreement on the Prohibition of Attack against Nuclear Installations and Facilities, a statement by the External Affairs Ministry said here.
Mumbai, January 02: The Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) on Friday announced the second phase of the Common Admission Test (CAT) 2009 — to be conducted on January 30-31 — for candidates who faced disruptions during the test and eventually could not complete the test.
The first phase of CAT 2009 was from November 28 to December 8th, 2009 but a virus attack and computers crashing in centres across the country led to chaos with the test being disrupted for the first few days.
Lahore, January 02: Contradicting the popular perception that T20s will spell the death knell of Test cricket, swashbuckling all-rounder Shahid Afridi today asserted that the 20-over game has proved to be beneficial for the traditional form of the sport.
London/Singapore, January 02 – Somali pirates captured a Singaporean chemical tanker with 24 crew members in the Gulf of Aden on the first day of 2010.
The 150-metre long, 20,000-tonne M. T Parmoni was on its way from Italy to India when it was boarded Friday and forced to turn towards the Somali coast, according to the European Union’s Atalanta mission, based in Northwood, Britain.
The crew includes 17 Indonesians, five Chinese, one Nigerian and one Vietnamese.
Chennai, January 02: There is a Tamil saying: “chozhiyan kudumi summa aadathu.”
Roughly paraphrased, it means: “ If one finds a Brahmin’s tuft moving up and down, one should not presume it must be due to the breeze. There could be a hidden reason for it. One should look deeper.”
I was reminded of this saying on New Year’s Day as I noticed that the Times of India has started an Indians-Pakistanis bhai bhai ( Indians and Pakistanis Are Brothers) campaign under the theme “Aman Ki Asha” ( The Desire For Peace) in association with the Jang group of Pakistan.
Baghdad, January 02: Iraqis seeking justice for 17 people shot dead at a Baghdad intersection responded with bitterness and outrage Friday at a US judge’s decision to throw out a case against a Blackwater security team accused in the killings.
The Iraqi government vowed to pursue the case, which became a source of contention between the US and the Iraqi government. Many Iraqis also held up the judge’s decision as proof of what they’d long believed: US security contractors were above the law.
London, January 02: Somali pirates captured a Singaporean chemical tanker with 24 crew members in the Gulf of Aden on the first day of 2010.
The 150-metre long, 20,000-tonne M.T Parmoni was on its way from Italy to India when it was boarded Friday and forced to turn towards the Somali coast, according to the European Union’s Atalanta mission, based in Northwood, Britain.
The crew includes 17 Indonesians, five Chinese, one Nigerian and one Vietnamese.