Month: February 2010

Hi-tech ‘WUDU’ machine to save water

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Kuala Lumpur, Fabruary 02: A Malaysian company has invented a machine it says will help Muslims perform their washing rite before prayers without excessively wasting water.

The ornate, green-colored machine comes with automatic sensors and basins to curb water usage during wudu, an Arabic word used to describe the act of washing the face, arms and legs before prayers.

The wudu, or ablution, rite precedes the five daily prayers that Muslims perform. There are more than 1.7 billion Muslims in the world, with the majority in Africa and the Middle East where water supplies are scarce.

Father of the girl abducted from Vijayawada dies

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Vijayawada, February 02: Father of the nine-year-old girl, who was kidnapped here and found dead at Guntur, died today due to cardiac arrest, authorities said.

Prabhakar Rao fell unconscious after he learnt of his daughter Vyshnavi’s death and was immediately rushed to a private hospital in the city yesterday.

He died this morning due to cardiac arrest, hospital authorities added.

A large number of political leaders, including Chief Minister K Rosaiah, TDP President Chandrababu Naidu, will be attending his funeral, which would take place this evening.

Genes might have a say in your ability to navigate

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Washington, February 02: You are emerging from the subway and heading for your destination when you realise that you are going in the wrong direction. For a moment, you feel disoriented, but a scan of landmarks and the layout of the surroundings quickly helps you pinpoint your location, and you make it to your appointment with time to spare.

Until now, however, genes were not suspected of playing a role in that ability. A team led by Barbara Landau, professor in cognitive science at the Johns Hopkins University, for the first time, links genes to our ability to navigate the world.

Tendulkar derives inspiration from Bollywood trio

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New Delhi, February 02: Sachin Tendulkar has been a role model for a whole generation of cricketers but when it comes to deriving inspiration for himself, the batting great says he looks up to three Bollywood icons.

Tendulkar said the passion and energy that legendary actor Amitabh Bachchan and melody queens Lata Mangeshkar and Asha Bhonsle put behind their performance make them really inspiring.

“I get inspired by different sources. A powerful speech may inspire me or flawless tennis in a Grand Slam final. You also get inspired seeing the passion in some of the greats.

Gibson to take over as West Indies coach

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Antigua, February 02: Former right-arm pacer Ottis Gibson will take over as West Indies coach for the home series against Zimbabwe starting with the lone Twenty20 match on February 28 in Port of Spain.

In an interview to CBC Radio, the West Indies Cricket Board chief executive Ernest Hilaire has confirmed that Gibson has left his job as England’s bowling coach to take up the assignment with the national team, which has been lying vacant after John Dyson’s sacking last year.

Karunanidhi congratulates Rahman on his Grammy win

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Chennai, February 02: Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi on Tuesday congratulated Oscar winner A. R. Rahman for bringing home two Grammy awards, saying Tamil Nadu is proud that he had bagged the “highest global music awards“.

“Tamil Nadu feels proud on this grand occasion of her son getting the highest global music awards. I am extremely happy that you have been rightly chosen for two prestigious Grammy Awards,” Mr. Karunanidhi told Mr. Rahman in a telegram sent to him.

He congratulated Mr. Rahman on “attaining the top position in music.”

43 injured in city hospital fire

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Hyderabad, February 02: Fire service personnel battled with flames for over two hours after fire broke out in Park Super Speciality Hospital at Somajiguda on Tuesday morning, leaving forty three persons including patients, their attendants and medical staff injured.

The injured have been rushed to the nearby Yashoda Hospital, where condition of six of them was termed ‘critical’.

While most of those admitted sustained injuries when they jumped out of the building, some of them suffered from suffocation, while some got burn injuries.

Businessman dies after abducted daughter found murdered

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Hyderabad, February 02: A top businessman in Andhra Pradesh’s Vijayawada city died following cardiac arrest Tuesday, just hours after his 10-year-old kidnapped daughter was found murdered.

Palagani Prabhakara Rao, who was in the liquor, real estate and finance business, died at a hospital in Vijayawada, where he had been admitted after hearing the news of his daughter’s killing.

Pak national arrested along IB in Jammu

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Srinagar, February 02: BSF troops have apprehended a Pakistani national along the International Border (IB) in Akhnoor sector of Jammu district, officials said here today.

29-year-old Zaffar Iqbal was arrested when he crossed into the Indian territory along the IB at Deodi border outpost in Akhnoor sector last night, they said.

—-PTI

Sex before marriage is rape: HC

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New Delhi, February 02: The court rejected pre-arrest bail to a man who repeatedly had sex with a woman but refused to marry her even after their engagement.

The woman stayed with her fiance, Nikhil Prasar, in Mumbai for a few days, “where they had fun, and then went to Delhi and stayed in a hotel where they had sex”.

When it came to fixing a date for marriage, however, Nikhil refused, on the grounds that he had learned that she belonged to a different caste.

The woman complained to the police and a rape case was registered.

Rupee strengthens on dlr flows into equity

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Mumbai, January 02: The rupee trimmed some of its early gains on Tuesday after the dollar strengthened slightly following the Australian central bank’s decision to leave interest rates unchanged.

At 10:59 a.m. (0529 GMT), the partially convertible rupee was at 46.23/24 per dollar after hitting 46.17 and stronger than its previous close of 46.37/38.

The euro fell while the dollar and yen rose after the Reserve Bank of Australia surprised markets by its interest rate move. The euro dropped from $1.3917 to $1.3890 immediately after the news.

India’s gold futures edge lower; US jobs data eyed

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Mumbai, February 02: India’s gold futures inched lower on Tuesday morning weighed down by a stronger rupee, with investors awaiting the U.S. jobs report later in the week for direction, analysts said.

The most-active April gold contract was 0.07 percent lower at 16,609 rupees per 10 grams at 10:59 a.m., after hitting an intra-day low of 16,562 rupees in early deals.

The partially convertible rupee was at 46.22/24 per dollar, stronger than its close of 46.37/38 on Monday.

SBI plans to raise Rs 15-20k cr via equity in two yrs: Bhatt

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New delhi, February 02: Largest lender of the country State Bank of India is planning to raise Rs 15,000-Rs 20,000 crore through equity within the next two years to meet its capital requirement.

“More than half of this amount would be sourced from internal accruals, while the rest would be secured from the market,” SBI chairman and managing director OP Bhatt said.

Talking about the bank’s capital requirement over the next five years, he said the bank will require around Rs 50,000 crore .

‘Mentally ill’ man clobbers wife to death

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Mumbai, February 02: A middle-aged man clobbered his wife to death at their house in a Bhandup chawl on Monday night. The accused, Anil Ghag, is mentally disturbed for the past two years.

Ghag stayed with his wife, Ashwini (38), at a chawl on Gamdevi Road and owns around 60 rooms which he rents out. “The incident occurred at 8 pm on monday. Ashwini was watching television when Ghag suddenly stared hitting her head with an iron rod. A neighbour heard the cries and informed the police,” said P. Sawant, police sub-inspector. “The accused has confessed to the crime,” he added.

RBI: will target inflation in coming months

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New delhi, February 02: The Reserve Bank of India will target inflation in the coming months, Governor Duvvuri Subbarao said on Monday.

“It is the responsibility of the Reserve Bank to manage expectations about inflation and what we are going to do in the next few months is to target inflation,” he said at an event in Chennai.

Subbarao also said it is important for the government to withdraw the stimulus and that the government and central bank would have to coordinate in withdrawing stimulus.

Missing Babri files: CBI gets court’s rap

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Lucknow, February 02: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Monday submitted the final report on the probe to trace the 23 missing files relating to the Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri mosque dispute before the Lucknow Bench of the Allahabad High Court, which rapped the premier investigative agency for leaving key questions unanswered.

New Zealand girl, 14, beats off shark attack

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Wellington, February 02: A 14-year-old New Zealand girl told Tuesday how she beat off a shark which grabbed her in shallow water off a southern beach by hitting it with her body board.

Lydia Ward said she stood on the 1.5-metre shark while body-boarding at Oreti Beach, near Invercargill, Monday evening and it lunged at her, wrapping its jaws around her hip.

As the sand shark’s teeth penetrated her wetsuit and her skin she bashed it with her polystyrene body board until it let go.

Obama to travel to Indonesia, Australia next month

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Washington, February 02: President Barack Obama will travel to Indonesia with his family next month, returning to the country where he spent four years as a child, the White House said on Monday.

Obama, who has referred to himself as “America’s first Pacific president” because of his birth in Hawaii and his years in Indonesia, will also visit Australia during the trip, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said.

Plan to reserve more seats for women in Bangladesh parliament

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Dhaka, February 02: The government is considering increasing the number of seats reserved for women in the Bangladesh parliament from the present 45 to a hundred.

The figure was 30 in the last parliament.

A report under consideration and to be placed before the country’s development partners at the Dhaka Development Forum Feb 15-16 says the government wants to promote gender equality, said.

Every part of India belongs to every Indian: Rahul Gandhi

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Patna, February 02: Every part of India belongs to every Indian, Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi said Tuesday while hitting out at the Shiv Sena for its ‘Mumbai for Marathis’ slogan and asserted that he would not remain silent if migrant workers in Maharashtra were subjected to violence.

“India belongs to every Indian. Every part of India belongs to every Indian. All Indians have every right to go and work anywhere in the country,” Gandhi told reporters here on the last day of his two-day visit to Bihar.

Mexico’s drug violence

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Mexico, February 02: Gunmen killed 18 youngsters Sunday when they opened fire on high school students during a party in Ciudad Juarez, a town across the US border that’s been labeled the Mexico’s deadliest city.

In a similar incident that took place almost simultaneously in another northern city, Torreon, ten people were killed by suspected drug cartel gangsters inside a bar.

Armed men also killed another five people at a bar in Ciudad Juarez early Monday.

Meanwhile, in another shootout incident between organized crime groups in Madgalena, seven people lost their lives.

Toyota exec: worried about recall impact on sales

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Mumbai, February 02: A Toyota Motor Corp executive said on Tuesday he was worried about the sales impact from a recall to fix its vehicles equipped with faulty accelerators.

Executive Vice President Shinichi Sasaki, in charge of quality, said he has heard that there has been some impact.

—Agencies

Iranian ‘ballistic missile’ has failed

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Washington, February 02: The US military fired a ballistic missile from the west Pacific island of Kwajalein in the Marshall Islands late on Monday and minutes later launched an interceptor missile from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California in an attempt to shoot down the ballistic missile.

However, the interceptor failed to destroy the target due to radar problems, the US Missile Defense Agency said.

The US Air Force says both missiles performed well during the launch and the flight phases but the system’s sea-based radar fell short of expectations.

Pak Sports Min calls for fencing, alcohol ban in Oz

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Melbourne, February 02: The recent pitch invasion in Perth has forced Pakistan Sports Minister Aijaz Hussain Jakhrani to ask Cricket Australia to beef up security at grounds and ban alcohol before it is too late.

“The thing that really worried me, what if that person had a knife on him, he got there and could have done anything he wanted,” Jakhrani was quoted as saying by the Sydney Morning Herald.

Nippy morning greets Delhi

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New Delhi, February 02: It was a nippy start to the day for Delhiites Tuesday with the minimum temperature recorded below average for this time of the year.

‘The minimum temperature recorded this morning was a notch below average at 7.9 degrees Celsius. There was shallow fog too, but visibility was not affected,’ an India Meteorological Department (IMD) official said.

The visibility at 7.30 a.m. was 800 metres.

As the day advances, it is expected to get warmer. According to the IMD, the maximum temperature is expected to hover around 23.6 degrees Celsius.

—-IANS