Abu Dhabi, April 30: For Mansi Shah and her mother, the ill-fated hot air balloon trip, which claimed the lives of two at Al Ain last Sunday, was a gift that took the giver away for ever.
And tragically, when they were returning to their home in India on Tuesday night they had to carry the body of their beloved head of the family who had brought them to Dubai on the trip a couple of days ago.
Sala, April 30: Representative of the President in the Western Region Shaikh Hamdan bin Zayed Al Nahyan has said 400 residential units will be built for citizens in Sala town in the Western Region.
The move is on the instructions from President His Highness Shaikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan and follow up from General Shaikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces, to build an integrated city. It will also include clinics, schools, parks and other premises.
Ajman, April 30: The Ajman Municipality and Planning Department has closed 12 big oil and petrochemical plants since the beginning of this year to help manage oil and petrochemical wastes.
Shaikh Rashid Al Nuaimi, Chairman of the municipality, told Khaleej Times on Thursday that the decision to close down these plants was taken by the Executive Council as the emirate does not have a landfill to dispose of such wastes and since improper disposal would have resulted in environmental problems.
Dubai, April 30: Dubai Public Prosecutor Essam Al Humaidan has issued an order referring all suspects in the murder of 16-year-old boy Ali in Rashidiya in March to the juvenile court. “Considering the ages of the suspects and the victim, the accident is a strange one in the UAE community,” Al Humaidan said in press statements.
Although the suspects are all juveniles, the murder, according to reports by the public prosecution, was a harsh and vengeful one, he noted.
Dubai, April 30: The UAE is committed to protecting workers’ rights and providing a work environment that enables workers to discharge their duties in a better way, a senior official has affirmed.
In a statement marking the International Labour Day which falls on May 1, Jasim Jamil, Director of Guidance and Acting Director of Work Relations, Ministry of Labour, called on employers to commit themselves to these principles as workers are a fundamental asset of their firms.
Houston, April 30: Shrimpers in Louisiana and Alabama have filed class-action lawsuits against oil giant BP Plc and owners of the drilling platform that exploded in the Gulf of Mexico, as claims for economic losses anticipated from the disaster began to mount.
Two similar lawsuits, filed late on Wednesday in U.S. District Court in New Orleans and on Thursday in the adjacent Gulf Coast state of Alabama, accuse the companies of negligence.
London, April 30: British Prime Minister Gordon Brown sought to overcome a major gaffe by trumpeting his economic record in a final TV election debate, but polls suggested he was soundly beaten by main rival David Cameron.
Brown trailed Cameron, leader of the opposition Conservatives, by more than 10 percent in an average of five instant surveys taken after the US-style televised showdown Thursday, just a week before polling day.
Birmingham, April 30: Conservative leader David Cameron was seeking on Friday to use a strong performance in a televised debate to help propel his party to an outright parliamentary majority in Britain’s May 6 election.
Most snap polls judged Cameron, 43, the victor after the third and final TV debate on Thursday night with Prime Minister Gordon Brown and Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg.
Washington, April 30: Top US arms control negotiator Ellen Tauscher on Thursday set modest ambitions for next week’s UN nuclear talks, saying the event would be successful even without a consensus final document.
“A final document, which can only be reached by consensus of all 189 nations — and yes, that includes Iran — can be valuable,” Tauscher told the Center for American Progress, a think tank.
“It can energize our efforts, but it cannot change the substance of the treaty,” the assistant secretary of state for arms control and international security.
Mexico City, April 30: Two Indian women freed by Mexico’s Supreme Court for lack of evidence after spending almost four years in prison on kidnapping charges demanded a public apology on Thursday.
Otomi Indians Alberta Alcantara Juan and Teresa Gonzalez Cornelio, whose case drew international outrage, said that if Mexico wants to repair the damage done, the very least that officials should do is recognize and acknowledge the mistake.
Washington, April 30: US Secretary of State Hillary on Thursday warned Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad that he will fail if he tries to disrupt next week’s UN nuclear talks.
Ahmadinejad has asked for a visa to travel to New York to lead his country’s delegation to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) review conference, something US officials say they expect to approve.
Biharsharif (Bihar), April 30: A local court today sentenced a former RJD MLA and two others to life imprisonment in a murder case.
The fast track court judge B N Yadav had on April 27 found former RJD MLA Nausadul Navi alias Pappu Khan, Gulrej and Gulfam guilty of killing Mohammed Monabar in Chajju Mohalla area here on October 16, 2005.
Pappu Khan was the RJD MLA from Biharsharif constituency in Nalanda district from 1999 to 2004.
–PTI
Hong Kong, April 30: Children whose mothers had low exposure to sunlight during their first three months of pregnancy may have a higher risk of developing multiple sclerosis later in life, a study in Australia has found.
Low vitamin D levels have long been linked to a higher risk of MS. Experts suspect an expectant mother’s lack of exposure to sunlight – the main source of vitamin D – may affect the foetus’s central nervous system or immune system, and predispose it to developing MS later in life.
London, April 30: Actress Lindsay Lohan says her dad distracts her by saying “foul” things about her.
“I think it’s just foul, some of the things that my dad (Michael Lohan) said. No one should ever have to worry about their father saying those things publicly against them… it distracts from all the work that I’m doing,” contactmusic.com quoted her as saying.
The 23-year-old also hit out against her party girl reputation and insists she is just a young woman having fun.
Los Angeles, April 30: Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger will join Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa on Friday to announce that Chinese electric car company BYD will locate its North American headquarters in downtown Los Angeles.
Officials of BYD Inc. based in Shenzhen, China also will attend the announcement outside City Hall.
The company says BYD will open in Los Angeles in late 2010 and plans to enter the U.S. electric car market about the same time, shipping its vehicles through the Port of Los Angeles.
New Delhi, April 30: Prime minister Manmohan Singh and Pakistan premier Yousaf Raza Gilani took the first cautious steps towards serious re-engagement on Thursday by asking their respective foreign ministers to meet.
Manmohan Singh calls for better coordination among Saarc nations
India, Pak prime ministers should interact at Saarc meet: Pak minister
Both the premiers met on the sidelines of the Saarc summit in Bhutan capital Thimphu. This is the first time that the India-Pakistan talks have not raised expectations.
Beirut, April 30: Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah refused to confirm or deny Israeli allegations his group had obtained long-range Scud missiles from Syria and said he did not think Israel was seeking a pretext for war.
Nasrallah, in an interview with Kuwait’s al-Rai television broadcast on Thursday, said the claims were an attempt to “intimidate” the armed Lebanese political group and Syria.
Lucknow, April 30: The Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) has decided to restore Hyderabad as one of its test centres for conducting the 2010-11 MBBS entrance examination to be held May 8, officials said.
The varsity had earlier cancelled Hyderabad as a test centre following unrest and disturbances there over the Telangana issue.
‘After reviewing the present scenario in Hyderabad, the varsity has decided to revive the test centre there,’ AMU official spokesperson Rahat Abrar said Friday in Aligarh, some 300 km from Lucknow.
—IANS
St Lucia (WI), April 30: Up against an unheralded Afghanistan in their tournament-opener, India will have to guard against complacency to ensure a flying start to their campaign in the T20 cricket World Cup here tomorrow.
Considering there is very little room for errors in the slam-bang format of the game, India would have to be at their best to avoid the ignominy of being destroyed by the minnows of international cricket.
Washington, April 30: Prime minister Manmohan Singh, cricket legend Sachin Tendulkar and economist Amartya Sen are among nine Indians figuring in Time magazine’s annual list of 100 most influential people while Bollywood sensation Aishwarya Rai-Bachchan tops its 100 Alumnae list.
Manmohan Singh calls for better coordination among Saarc nations
BJP targets PM for his statement over joint parliamentary committee
Manmohan Singh finds himself in the 19th spot in the Leaders list headed by Brazilian president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva with US president Barack Obama in the fourth place.
New York, April 30: The UN has paid $590 million to nine Kuwaiti claimants in connection with Iraq’s 1990 invasion of their country.
The latest payment brings the total amount of compensation disbursed by the UN Compensation Commission (UNCC) to individuals, corporations, governments and international organisations to nearly $29.5 billion, the UN said Thursday.
The majority of funds for compensation payment have come from sale of Iraqi petroleum under the Oil-for-Food programme, which ended in 2003, and later by arrangements made under Security Council resolutions.
Cleveland, April 30: Police say an 8-year-old boy has been found hog-tied with duct tape and tied to a coffee table in a Cleveland home as his mother slept. They’ve removed nine children from the home.
Officers received a call before dawn Thursday from a 15-year-old boy, who said his mother makes his sister tie his brother up every night or she gets beaten.
They say they found the younger boy on the floor with his hands and feet bound behind his back with tape and a shoelace around his neck. They say his feet were tied to the table.
Washington, April 30: A high—level American energy delegation would travel to India next week for Indo—US energy dialogue as part of the effort of the two governments to boost up their relationship in the critical energy sector.
In her opening remarks at the Indo—US Regulatory Dialogue, Deputy US Assistant Secretary for International Energy Cooperation Phyllis Yoshida said, next week a delegation led by her would be travelling to India for a US—India energy dialogue with the government officials in the Union Ministry of Power.
Washington, April 30: The International Monetary Fund’s board will meet in mid-May to approve the next installment of Pakistan’s $11.3 billion loan but Islamabad must do more to tackle rising inflation and overcome power shortages that stifle the economy, the IMF said on Thursday.
Pakistani finance officials were in Washington last weekend ironing out problems before the IMF board meeting, which has been postponed several times partly due to delays by Pakistan over imposing a value added tax and raising power tariffs.
Chandigarh, April 30: The ruling SAD- BJP alliance in Punjab is engaged in a tug- of- war with the Congress over the inauguration of various projects in the state.
The situation has worsened to such an extent that the state government, fearing that the Congressmen will usurp the credit for construction of a bridge over the Bhangi Choe — a seasonal rivulet in Hoshiarpur town — has deployed the police to ward off unwanted elements.