Month: April 2010

Iran FM urges Italy to free detained Iranians

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Tehran, April 06: Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki has called on Italy to secure the release of two Iranian citizens jailed in Rome on charges of arms trafficking.

Mottaki made the appeal on Monday during a meeting with the families of Iranian correspondent Hamid Masouminejad and Ali Damirchilou, an Iranian living in Italy, who are being held by Italian authorities on charges of arms trafficking.

“We ask the Italian officials to prepare the ground to secure the release of these two men,” he said.

Iran rejects US claim of arms aid to Afghan militants

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Tehran, April 06: Iran has rejected accusations by the top US military commander that it is providing weapons to the militants in Afghanistan.

The US Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Mike Mullen claimed in a Kabul news conference that Iran has shipped arms to Taliban militants in Kandahar.

In a statement released on Monday, the Iranian Embassy in Kabul rejected the charges as “recurring allegations” and a sort of “fabrication” by the US in order to justify its defeat in Afghanistan.

New video shows US choppers mowing down Iraqis

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Baghdad, April 06: A new footage of a classified US military video showing the killing of a dozen civilians in Baghdad in 2007 by helicopter gunships has been released.

The secret video, released by the whistleblower website WikiLeaks, shows US air crew hunting civilians in the streets of the Iraqi capital purportedly mistaking them for ‘insurgents.’

US military service members laughed and cursed at their victims that included Reuters photojournalist Namir Noor-Eldeen, and his driver, Saeed Chmagh, who appear unarmed.

Turkey detains more suspects linked with alleged plot

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Ankara, April 06: Turkish police have detained 86 more suspects as part of a probe into an alleged 2003 plot to topple the government of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

On Monday, the suspects, most of them serving soldiers, were rounded up in Istanbul, Ankara and a dozen other provinces in the third wave of arrests since the investigation was launched in February, NTV television reported.

Seventy of detainees were serving in the armed forces. One of them was a retired general, Anatolia news agency reported.

Amnesty concerned over jailed Palestinian children

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Gaza, April 06: Human rights group Amnesty International has voiced concern over the rising number of Palestinian children held in Israeli jails.

The rights group said in a report that many Palestinian prisoners suffer medical negligence at the hands of Israeli prison authorities.

Children face routine beatings, torture and strip searches, it said.

While some children only spend a few days in detention before their release, others could end up spending years behind bars, the report added.

AIIMS entrance test to go online

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New Delhi, April 06: Entrance exams to the All India Institute of Medical Sciences’ (AIIMS) will soon go the Common Admission Test (CAT) way – online – by 2012. AIIMS administration wants to conduct its entrance exams for undergraduate, PG and other courses, online, on the lines of the Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) to ensure total transparency. The other online model being considered is from Manipal Medical College.

Maya’s garlands: ‘UPA lacks guts to carry an inquiry’

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Kanpur, April 06: Hitting out at the UPA-led government at the Centre, BJP today said it does not have the guts to conduct an enquiry to ascertain the source of currency notes used to make multi-crore rupee garlands presented to Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati on two occasions recently.

“Mayawati wore cash garlands made with corrupt money.

However, the Union government does not have the courage to initiate an enquiry into the source of the money,” leader of opposition in Rajya Sabha Arun Jaitley said at a party function here.

Delhi sizzles as mercury goes northwards

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New Delhi, April 06: Delhi Tuesday witnessed yet another warm start to the day with the minimum temperature five notches above average. The met department has forecast the day temperature to be higher.

‘The minimum temperature recorded this morning was five degrees above average at 23.6 degrees Celsius. The maximum will also be above average at around 38 degrees Celsius,’ an India Meteorological Department (IMD) official said.

The rising mercury has left the capital’s residents sweating.

Madonna takes David, Mercy to Malawi

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London, April 06: Pop diva Madonna is in Malawi for a charity tour with her four children, including David Banda and Mercy who are from the African nation.

The singer, who has undertaken a number of aid projects in Malawi, is accompanied by her biological children, Lourdes and Rocco, as well as her adopted children.

She plans to introduce her adopted children to their birth parents and lay the first brick of her $15 million Raising Malawi Academy for Girls, a school due to be opened in 2011.

Impotence an early sign of heart disease

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Hamburg, April 06: Impotence may be an early warning sign of heart disease in older men, according to a team of German scientists.

In a study involving 1,549 male cardiovascular patients from 13 nations, the researchers at the University of the Saarland found nearly 55 per cent had reportedly mild to severe cases of erectile dysfunction.

They also found that, over a five-year period, 11.3 per cent of the patients with erectile dysfunction died. Also, 16 per cent of those deaths were the result of cardiovascular disease.

Israel allows commercial goods into Gaza

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Jerusalem, April 06: Gaza border official says Israel has allowed a commercial shipment of shoes and clothes into the blockaded Palestinian territory for the first time since 2007.

Raed Fattouh says 10 truckloads of shoes and clothes entered the Hamas-run strip Sunday. He says many of the goods were damaged after more than two years in storage.

It was the first non-humanitarian shipment of such items, though an Israeli army spokesman says Israel allows such items into Gaza occasionally as part of UN-coordinated aid shipments.

Analyst Says Zuma Calmed Tensions After White Supremacist’s Murder

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South Africa, April 06: The two persons suspected of murdering South African white supremacist Eugene Terre’Blanche are scheduled to make a court appearance Tuesday. Police said Terre’Blanche was bludgeoned to death Saturday on his farm by two black workers with whom he had a wage dispute.

Meanwhile, a South African political analyst says President Jacob Zuma moved swiftly to calm tensions following the murder.

Businessman shot dead in Patna

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Patna, April 06: A businessman was robbed and shot dead by unidentified assailants in Bihar’s capital Patna, police said Tuesday.

Radheyshyam Agarawal, who owns a wholesale medicine business, was shot dead late Monday at Govind Mitra Road when he was returning home.

According to police, the criminals snatched a bag full of money from Agarawal after shooting him and fled.

The incident has sent shockwaves among businessmen and traders here.

‘It was shocking for us, the incident has created panic among businessmen,’ Suresh Sharma, who also owns a whole sale medicine business, said.

At least 7 dead, 20 missing in US mine blast

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Washington, April 06: An explosion ripped through a coal mine in West Virginia, killing at least seven workers and leaving more than 20 unaccounted for in one of the worst US mining disasters in recent years.

The blast occurred towards the end of the afternoon at the Upper Big Branch mine run by Performance Coal Company, a subsidiary of Massey Energy, in the town of Mountcoal located some 30 miles (50 kilometers) south of Charleston.

Education Act forces school to take back expelled student

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New Delhi, April 06: A student expelled by St Xavier’s School, in Delhi’s Civil Lines area, for failing in Class VI has successfully invoked the Right to Education Act against her school, five days after it came into force. Referring to the Act, the Delhi High Court ordered the school to take back Suman Bhati (12).

Rupee falls by 6 paise against dollar in early trade

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Mumbai, April 06: The Indian rupee turned somewhat weak today after climbing to a 19-month high yesterday and depreciated by 6 paise to 44.50 a dollar in early trade in line with the dollar’s gain overseas.

Dealers said that firm domestic stock markets, however, prevented any major fall in the rupee.

Dollar’s gain overseas and demand for the US currency mainly weighed on the rupee sentiment, they said.

The rupee closed at 44.44/45 a dollar in the previous session, a level last seen on September 4, 2008.

Hitachi president says green focus key to recovery

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Tokyo, April 06: Money-losing Hitachi will focus on ecological businesses including hybrid railways and batteries for green cars in its latest effort to return to profitability, its new president said Tuesday.

The electronics maker must use its sprawling assets in telecommunications and “social infrastructure” such as power systems and data management to expand in businesses that “fuse these two technologies,” including smart grids for cities and energy-efficient data centers, said Hiroaki Nakanishi, who took office April 1.

60 notices but few responses to Kandhamal riots probe

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Bhubaneswar, April 06: The 2008 communal violence in Orissa’s Kandhamal district may have attracted heated debate, but the anxiety seems to have whittled away with political parties, religious groups and the media cold-shouldering the inquiry commission set up by the government.

25 Members of Sunni Family Killed Near Baghdad

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Baghdad, April 06: Iraqi soldiers stopped vehicles at a checkpoint in Baghdad on Saturday as part of security measures after killings in the south district of Hur Rijab.

By the time they left the village of Hawr Rajab on Friday evening, they had fatally shot or slit the throats of 25 members of an extended family, Iraqi officials said Saturday, in a chilling episode of violence reminiscent of the worst days of the country’s sectarian warfare in 2006 and 2007.

Ayatollah Supports Bid to Sharply Cut Iran Subsidies

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Tehran, April 06: Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, offered a crucial gesture of public support Monday for President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s effort to enact a sweeping economic reform plan that would sharply curtail the country’s long-established system of state subsidies.

IranAfter Mr. Ahmadinejad issued his latest call for Parliament to support his proposal, Ayatollah Khamenei, speaking at a meeting of cabinet ministers and other senior figures, urged all parties to help Mr. Ahmadinejad’s administration in “facilitating” passage of a subsidies reform bill.

I appeal to all cricketers to stand by Shoaib Malik

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Karachi, April 06: Former Pakistan captain Rashid Latif has backed Shoaib Malik in his ongoing marriage row with Ayesha Siddiqui, saying the girl being shown on TV channels is not the one his teammate fell in love with during internet and telephone chats.

Rashid said he had seen the photographs of the girl with whom Shoaib used to chat with on the internet.

“Shoaib Malik used to borrow my laptop for chatting with a girl and he did show me a few pictures of her. I can assure you that the girl I saw in pictures is not the one on TV these days,” Rashid told a private news channel.

Businessman shot dead in Patna

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Patna, April 06: A businessman was robbed and shot dead by unidentified assailants in Bihar’s capital Patna, police said Tuesday.

Radheyshyam Agarawal, who owns a wholesale medicine business, was shot dead late Monday at Govind Mitra Road when he was returning home.

According to police, the criminals snatched a bag full of money from Agarawal after shooting him and fled.

The incident has sent shockwaves among businessmen and traders here.

“It was shocking for us, the incident has created panic among businessmen,” Suresh Sharma, who also owns a whole sale medicine business, said.

Obama Limits When U.S. Would Use Nuclear Arms

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Washington, April 06: But the president said in an interview that he was carving out an exception for “outliers like Iran and North Korea” that have violated or renounced the main treaty to halt nuclear proliferation.

Sensex up 53 points in early trade on global cues

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Mumbai, April 06: Continuing its winning-streak for the third straight session, the Bombay Stock Exchange Tuesday shot up by another 53 points in early trade on increased capital inflows by foreign funds amid hopes of strong fourth quarter corporate earnings.

The Sensex, which had gained over 407 points in the last two sessions, added 53.21 points, or 0.29 percent, to 17,988.89, the highest level since February 2008.

Similarly, the wide-based National Stock Exchange Nifty index rose by 20.25 points, or 0.37 percent, to 5,388.65.