Month: April 2010

Sensex holds on to gains in afternoon trade

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Mumbai, April 30: A benchmark index for Indian equities Friday was holding on to its morning gains and ruling 0.5 percent higher than its previous close in afternoon trade.

The 30-scrip sensitive index (Sensex) of the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), which opened at 17,503.47 points, was ruling at 17,591.51 points, 88.04 points or 0.5 percent higher than its previous close at 17,503.47 points.

At the National Stock Exchange (NSE), the broader 50-share S&P CNX Nifty was ruling at 5,281.45 points, a gain of 0.52 percent from its previous close at 5,254.15 points.

Gold hits 2010 high in dlr, record peak in Swiss francs

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Mumbai, April 30: Gold prices hit 2010 highs in Europe on Friday as investors turned to the metal as a haven from sovereign risk in the euro zone, with a recovery in the euro and other commodities like oil adding to buying momentum.

Spot gold hit a high of $1,176.40 an ounce and was bid at $1,175.35 an ounce at 0910 GMT, against $1,166.10 late in New York on Thursday.

Gold priced in Swiss francs also rose to a record 1,281.19 francs an ounce.

—-Agencies

Rajasthan couple defy panchayat, prefer death to separation

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Barmer, April 30: A newly-married couple in Rajasthan’s Barmer district have requested the authorities to allow them to commit suicide, as they would rather die than be separated on the orders of their panchayat.

Khama and her husband Chatraram approached the district collector during a public hearing session Tuesday and urged him to permit them to end their lives as they would not be able to fulfil the orders of the panchayat in Bimda village of Barmer, over 550 km from Jaipur.

Madhuri Gupta: A lonely woman exploited for her insecurities?

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New Delhi, April 30: She was a lonely spinster with a taste for life’s good and extravagant things. She also bore a grudge against her superiors.

And when Madhuri Gupta got a chance to work on her Urdu language skills at the Indian mission in Islamabad, exposing her to virulent anti-India propaganda from rightwing Pakistani media, it didn’t take long for the junior Indian diplomat to turn against her own country.

Four sentenced to life imprisonment for murder

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Meerut, April 30: A local court here sentenced four persons to life imprisonment for murdering a youth nine years ago. The District Court Judge Renu Agarwal yesterday held Brijpal, Brijesh, Pappu and Rajendra guilty of murdering Dinesh in Mawana of Meerut district.

According to prosecution, Dinesh was murdered by the four accused in 2003 following an altercation over a petty issue. An FIR was registered on the complaint filed by the victim”s mother Jagjeevi following which the accused were arrested.

—PTI

HC stays use of ‘Lawaris’ song in ‘Housefull’

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Kolkata, April 30: The Calcutta High Court restrained the use of the 1981 hit song ‘Apne to jayse tayse’ from Amitabh Bachchan starrer ‘Lawaris’ in the Sajid Khan directed ‘Housefull’, which premiered today.

In an interim stay till June 2, Justice Nadira Patherya today restrained producer Sajid Nadiadwala from the cinematic use of the Kalyanji-Anandji number in the new film, where it has been remixed with another song ‘Dhanno’.

Sarkozy in Shanghai for World Expo

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Shanghai, April 30: Dignitaries gathered in Shanghai for the opening of the 2010 World Expo, a six-month event that kicks off Friday night with a lavish riverside display of fireworks and lights expected to rival the Beijing Olympics’ launch in its extravagance.

The Expo is showcasing China’s dazzling commercial capital but also has brought a massive security crackdown and renewed harassment of political dissidents.

Rajasthan couple defy panchayat, prefer death to separation

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Barmer, April 30: A newly-married couple in Rajasthan’s Barmer district have requested the authorities to allow them to commit suicide, as they would rather die than be separated on the orders of their panchayat.

Khama and her husband Chatraram approached the district collector during a public hearing session Tuesday and urged him to permit them to end their lives as they would not be able to fulfil the orders of the panchayat in Bimda village of Barmer, over 550 km from Jaipur.

Clapping along songs improve kids’ brain power

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Washington, April 30: Clapping while singing songs is likely to spur development of important skills in children, a first-ever study on the subject says.

‘We found that children in the first, second and third grades who sing these songs demonstrate skills absent in children who don’t take part in similar activities,’ explains Idit Sulkin, a member of Ben-Gurion University (BGU) Music Science Lab in the Department of the Arts.

After RTE, no quota for MPs in Kendriya Vidyalayas

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New Delhi, April 30: Government has abolished MPs’ quota in admission to the Kendriya Vidyalayas after enactment of the Right to Education Act that reserves 25 per cent seats in the school for local students.

Replying to supplementaries during Question Hour, Human Resource Development Minister Kapil Sibal said the MPs could earlier nominate two students from certain sections of society to KVs.

Under the Right to Education Act, 25 per cent seats in Kendriya Vidyalaya have been reserved for civil category for people in 3-km radius of the school, he said.

New tool tracks eye disease before symptoms show up

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Washington, April 30: A new non-invasive tool can detect signs of eye disease at early molecular stages, before symptoms can be seen using traditional methods, say opthalmologists.

In fact, this tool even promises to detect some eye diseases so early that they may be reversed before any permanent damage can occur.

Its use may well extend to other areas of the body in the future, and this tool may also give physicians a more precise way of evaluating the effectiveness of therapies.

Manmohan today laid the foundation stone

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Thimphu, April 30: Taking India-Bhutan ties a step further, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today laid the foundation stone of a state-of-the-art medical college to be set up here and launched a project that would make half of the population of this nation computer literate in the next five years.

Dr. Singh also laid the foundation stone of two hydroelectric projects with a combined capacity to generate 1710 MW of electricity.

Earlier, External Affairs Minister S. M. Krishna and his Bhutanese counterpart Khandu Wangchuk signed the implementation agreement for the two power projects.

Apple attacks Adobe over iPhone

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Mumbai, April 30: After receiving flak for not having the Adobe Flash programme on its iPhone smartphone, Apple is going on the offensive.

Apple CEO Steve Jobs is going on the offensive against Adobe’s Flash technology. He says it’s too buggy, battery-draining and PC-oriented to work on the iPhone and iPad.

In a statement Thursday, Jobs laid out his reasons for excluding Flash – the most popular vehicle for videos and games on the Internet – from Apple’s blockbuster handheld devices.

Samsung’s smartphone hurdle could put brake on profits

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New Delhi, April 30: Investors in Samsung, the world’s top maker of memory chips and flat screen TVs, might overlook that question as the South Korean company repeatedly beats estimates as sales from its mainstay businesses boom in a global economic recovery.

However, rapid spending by leading chip companies and Samsung’s weak footing in the lucrative smartphone sector dominated by Apple and Research In Motion could play spoilsport to Samsung’s rapid growth.

BJP formally decides to stick with JMM

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New Delhi, April 30: New Delhi: The Bharatiya Janata Party Parliamentary Board, which met in New Delhi on Friday, has decided to put on hold its earlier decision of withdrawing support to the Shibu Soren government in Jharkhand.

Soren had on Thursday written to BJP president Nitin Gadkari apologising to him and senior leaders Lal Krishna Advani and Sushma Swaraj for voting in favour of the United Progressive Alliance government on the cut motion.

Corruption concerns surface in Twenty20 game

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Caribbean, April 30: A police investigation into suspected “match irregularities” at Essex county cricket club has stirred unwelcome memories of the match-fixing scandal which rocked the sport a decade ago.

The investigation follows rumours of match-fixing in the second Indian Premier League (IPL) tournament staged in South Africa last year and was announced shortly before the third Twenty20 World Cup opens in the Caribbean on Friday.

‘Hakimullah no longer running Pak Taliban’

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Washington, April 30: The Pentagon on Thursday said that Pakistani Taliban leader Hakimullah Mehsud is no longer running the terrorist outfit, even as news reports from that country claimed that he is still alive.

It has been widely believed that Hakimullah, who had succeeded Baitullah Mehsud, was killed in a drone attack early this year.

Texas ‘terrorist’ posts death threat against Obama

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Dallas, April 30: A Dallas man describing himself as a terrorist threatened to kill US President Barack Obama in an online posting because he was upset about health care reform, according to a criminal complaint.

Brian Dean Miller, 43, faces one count of making threats against the President, which carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison and a USD 250,000 fine. He is scheduled for arraignment in federal court on Friday.

His public defender and his mother did not return phone messages on Thursday.

Hillary warns Iran against any bid to disrupt N-talks

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Washington, April 30: US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Thursday warned Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad that he will fail if he tries to disrupt the UN nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) review conference.

“If President Ahmadinejad wants to come and announce that Iran will abide by their non-proliferation requirements under the NPT, that would be very good news indeed and we would welcome that,” Hillary told reporters.

Rights groups to challenge Arizona immigration law

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Phoenix, April 30: Civil rights groups said on Thursday they would mount a legal challenge to Arizona’s new immigration law, which critics say enshrines racial profiling in the border state.

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), the Mexican American Legal Defence and Educational Fund (MALDEF) and the National Immigration Law Centre (NILC) announced the challenge in front of Arizona’s state capitol.

Pamela Anderson finds Obama ‘incredibly sexy’

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Washington, April 30: Actress Pamela Anderson finds US President Barack Obama incredibly sexy and wants to dance with him.

“I love him. He is incredibly sexy. Everything he does is brilliant. He’s my favourite political figure. There’s a lot going on in the world and I think he’s got it together,” the dailystar.co.uk quoted her as saying.

The former “Baywatch” star, who is currently seen in “Dancing With The Stars”, insists that if she wins she will head straight to Washington and “do the fandango” with Obama.

UN extends Sudan peacekeeping mission for another year

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New York, April 30: The UN Security Council is extending for another year the UN mission in Sudan that backs up the 2005 agreement ending the north-south civil war.

The council’s 15 members voted unanimously on Thursday to keep the mission known as UNMIS going until April 30, 2011 “with the intention to renew it” again.

A referendum is expected to be held early next year to determine whether the south secedes from Sudan and the future of the disputed oil-rich region of Abyei.

New York Times reporter subpoenaed over book on CIA

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Washington, April 30: The US government is seeking to compel an author to testify about his confidential sources for a 2006 book he wrote about the Central Intelligence Agency, The New York Times reported on Thursday.

James Risen, the author of ‘State of War: The Secret History of the CIA and the Bush Administration’ and a reporter for the Times, received a subpoena on Monday, the newspaper said.

France denies Noriega war prisoner status

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Paris, April 30: France on Thursday rejected a demand by Panama’s former dictator Manuel Noriega to be treated as a prisoner of war while he awaits trial in Paris on charges of laundering drug money.

“Mr Noriega does not have prisoner of war status. He is charged on our territory with breaches of common law that were not committed in the course of his military service,” Justice Ministry spokesman Guillaume Didier said.

Syria providing weapons to Hezbollah: US

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Washington, April 30: The Obama administration has said that there are indications that Syria is providing weapons to Hezbollah.

“Are we concerned about the nature of missiles that are being provided from Syria to Hezbollah? Absolutely, and that is at the heart of why Syria is a member of the State Sponsor of Terrorism list,” Assistant Secretary of State for Public Affairs PJ Crowley said.

“We have had direct conversations with Syria about the nature of their assistance to Hezbollah. It is destabilising,” he said.