Month: April 2010

I was completely stumped, says Contractor

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Mumbai, April 30: Former India skipper Nari Contractor, who had to return home after being stopped at the gate of the D Y Patil Stadium on last Sunday for not carrying a valid ticket for the IPL final, said that he was flummoxed and wondered how this was allowed to happen by the ticket issuing authorities.

“I was completely stumped when I was asked for a badge to accompany the ticket. I did not have the badge, as it was not given to me along with the ticket. I just turned around and went back,” Contractor told PTI today.

Man burns self in China school

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Beijing, April 30: A farmer attacked children with a hammer at a primary school in eastern China on Friday before setting himself on fire in the latest in a series of apparently copy-cat attacks, state media said.

The rampage in Shandong province left five children and a teacher hurt but in stable condition, Xinhua news agency said, and came as schools across China stepped up security over fears of further attacks.

Ajmer Dargah blast accused arrested :Pragya thakur involvement ?

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Ajmer ,April 30 :A man having alleged links with a Hindu militant outfit has been arrested by the Rajasthan police in connection with the 2007 Ajmer Dargah bomb blast, in which three people were killed and over 30 injured.He is expected to be produced before a local court today, police sources said.

The accused, Devendra Gupta, a resident of Bihari Ganj in Ajmer, was arrested by the Rajasthan Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) on Wednesday night when he had gone to meet his ailing mother, sources said.

Lobbying for post of J’khand Chief Minister begins

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Ranchi, April 30: With BJP pondering over the JMM’s offer to hand over the reins of a new Jharkhand government to its candidate, lobbying for the coveted post has already begun.

According to BJP insiders, ex-cm and party’s national general secretary Arjun Munda and Deputy Chief Minister Raghuvar Das have ‘stepped up lobbying’.

The BJP Parliamentary Board this morning decided to put on hold its decision to withdraw support to the Shibu Soren government after receiving a letter from JMM leader Hemant Soren expressing willingness to support a government led by BJP.

Mobile currency printing machine seized

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Bogota, April 30: A mobile currency printing machine, meant for printing $100 notes, and fake currency of face value $1.4 million have been seized in Colombia.

Three people were also arrested in this connection Thursday near Medellin city, officials said.

The bogus dollars were ‘ready to be sent abroad’, the Attorney General’s Office said, adding that ‘the location of the clandestine factory was constantly changed to elude the authorities’.

—-IANS

Madhuri was mistreated by seniors ?

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New Delhi,April 30: MADHURI Gupta has spilled the beans on her Pakistani lover who pushed her to leak strategic information.

The man in the middle of the espionage row is Muddasar Rana, a senior Pakistan Intelligence Bureau officer with whom the 54- year- old Indian Foreign Service ( IFS)- B officer is believed to have had an affair. Rana was her age or perhaps a couple of years older. The two had instantly struck a chord after meeting in 2007, Gupta’s interrogators said.

‘Bigoted woman’ seals Gordon Brown’s election fate

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Londo, April 30: Polls declared Conservative leader David Cameron the winner on Thursday of a final TV debate before next week’s British election, giving him a boost going into the closing stages of the campaign.

At the start of a debate focused on the economy, prime minister Gordon Brown mocked himself for a high-profile campaign gaffe and stressed his record, trying to convince voters he was the man to secure future economic growth.

Gill wants Rahman to give free service for the Games

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New Delhi, April 30: Union sports minister M. S. Gill on Thursday said the decision to hire music maestro A. R. Rahman for rendering the Commonwealth Games opening ceremony song in the Capital this October was taken by the Organising Committee ( OC).

He loved his bike to death – literally

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London, April 30: A 22-year-old Puerto Rican, who was murdered last week, loved his powerful motorbike so much that his embalmed corpse was put astride his Honda at a funeral home.

The funeral home has put David Morales Colon’s body on display, instead of putting in a traditional casket, reported.

He was killed last Thursday.

Colon’s body is at the Marin Funeral Home in San Juan where he is dressed in his typical biking gear, including his helmet, on top of his beloved machine.

—IANS

Kerala Cong-J heading for split

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Kottayam, April 30 Cracks emerged within the Kerala Congress-J(KC-J) today with rival factions holding parallel meetings to protest the party’s decision to quit the ruling LDF and merge with Kerala Congress-Mani (KC-M).

The anti-merger group, led by former Union Minister P C Thomas and MLA V Surendran Pillai, is likely to adopt a resolution asking party chairman PC Joseph to refrain from joining KC-M to make its way to the Congress-led UDF.

Barbara believes in living life on her own terms

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Mumbai, April 30: Mexican beauty Barbara Mori, who debuts in Bollywood opposite Hrithik Roshan in ‘Kites’ says she believes in living life on her own terms.

“I always wanted to be myself. I try to be honest in relationship and live life as I want without being bothered about people would say. Women are very emotional and men will be men wherever they come from,” Barbara said about her past relationships.

The 32-year-old single mother says she does not think she will ever get married.

US priest stabbed to death in Venezuela

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Caracas, April 30: An American Catholic priest has been stabbed to death in Venezuela’s Bolivar state, officials said.

Esteban Woods, 68, of Vancouver, Washington, had been serving as a priest in Venezuela for the past eight years and was the pastor of the Holy Family Church in Puerto Ordaz, the Venezuelan Attorney General’s Office said in a statement Thursday.

‘We found him gagged and stabbed on the floor of his room,’ Miguel Angel Garcia, pastor of the Our Lady of Coromoto Church, was quoted as saying by Union Radio Thursday.

Three sworn-in as judges of Supreme Court

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New Delhi, April 30: Justice Gyan Sudha Mishra, Chief Justice of the Jharkhand High Court, was today sworn-in as a judge of the Supreme Court alongwith two others, taking the total strength of the apex court to 30.

The other two judges who were sworn-in alongwith Justice Sudha are Justice H L Gokhale, Chief Justice of the Madras High Court and Justice Anil R Dave of the Bombay High Court.

Justice Sudha is the sole woman judge in the present lot.

I am a slave to love: Alisha Chinai

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New Delhi, April 30: Alisha Chinai is probably the only pop diva in Indian music industry, who has also enjoyed success in Bollywood, but personally it has been a tough ride for the ‘Kajra Re’ crooner.

In her 20 years of showbiz, Alisha has given numerous chart-busters — from Sridevi’s sensuous number ‘Katein Nahi Katte Ye Din Ye Raat’ in 1987 ‘Mr India’ to Priyanka Chopra’s ‘Tinka Tinka’ in ‘Karam’ — but behind all the razzmatazz lives a songstress who is a loner.

Journalists’ car found riddled with bullets

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Mexico City, April 30: A car carrying two journalists, missing since an attack two days ago on a caravan of human rights activists, has been found riddled with bullets in Mexico’s Oaxaca state, officials said.

Four vehicles carrying around 40 people were ambushed Tuesday while on a mission to deliver food to people in San Juan Copala, 300 km from Oaxaca city, officials said Thursday.

The car has more than 30 bullet impacts, an official said, adding that two people, including a Finnish national, were killed in the attack, one was wounded and at least four people remain missing.

Sonia raps Hooda over caste violence, seeks report

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New Delhi, April 30: Taking strong exception to growing incidents of caste-related violence in Haryana, Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Thursday shot off a letter to Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda expressing concern about such incidents and demanding a report on the violence against Dalits at Mirchpur village in Hisar district, it was reliably learnt.

‘Housefull will be the biggest hit of 2010’

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Mumbai, April 30: Three years after the hugely successful Heyy Babyy, director Sajid Khan returns with another comedy, Housefull. Joining Akshay Kumar and Riteish Deshmukh (who also starred in Sajid’s debut film) in Sajid’s new caper are Deepika Padukone, Lara Dutta, Arjun Rampal, Jiah Khan Boman Irani, Randhir Kapoor and Chunkey Pandey. Sajid is very confident Housefull will screen to full houses. He tells Patcy N why. Excerpts: How did you get the idea of Housefull?

Katrina Kaif: The case of the Coffee Cuppa!

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Mumbai, April 30: Actress Katrina Kaif may be quite a shy person in everyday life, with very few friends in the film industry to call her own.

But, she is one lucky girl when it comes to being invited for a special coffee cuppa, with none other than.

The yahoo star of yester years, Shammi Kapoor. After having invited Deepika Padukone for a hot cuppa.

The veteran star has now invited Katrina Kaif for the evening cup of Coffee! Reportedly, initially when such reports were out.

J& K doctor couple under lens for links with Madhuri

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Srinagar, April 30: The intelligence agencies have interrogated a doctor couple with whom arrested Indian diplomat Madhuri Gupta had stayed in Sunderbani town last month.

The couple were questioned after it emerged that Gupta, who was arrested on charges of spying for Pakistan, had visited sensitive areas near the Line of Control ( LoC) in Rajouri district.

Alleged spy Madhuri Gupta knew it coming

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New Delhi, April 30: The disgraced Indian diplomat wanted to get out of the mess she had got into. During the interrogation Madhuri confessed that she had sensed trouble several months ago after which she had applied to the External Affairs Ministry to send her back home or outside on another posting.

“She said her family members had seen movement outside her residence and also received anonymous phone calls,” highly-placed sources in the Special Cell of the Delhi Police said.

Ajmer Dargah blast arrested

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Ajmer, April 30: A man having alleged links with a Hindu militant outfit has been arrested by Rajasthan police in connection with the 2007 Ajmer Dargah bomb blast, in which three people were killed and over 30 injured. He is expected to be produced before a local court today, police sources said.

Army foils infiltration bid, guns down three ultras

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Srinagar, April 30: Army on Friday foiled an infiltration bid from across the Indo-Pak border by killing three militants at Kupwara district of north Kashmir, a defence spokesman said in Srinagar.

He said a heavily armed group of militants entered Machhal sector, 150 km from Srinagar, in the wee hours but were confronted by alert troops guarding the border.

The intruders were asked to surrender but they opened fire and in the retaliatory action, the three militants were killed, he said.

The operation was still on, he added.

—Agencies

MEA sings different tune on espionage case a day later

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Thimpu, April 30: A day after Union external affairs minister S. M. Krishna called Madhuri Gupta’s case serious, his junior minister seemed to be going soft on the arrested IFS- B officer.

On Thursday, minister of state for external affairs Preneet Kaur downplayed the incident by saying Gupta did not have access to highly classified material.

In a statement in the Lok Sabha, Kaur said counterintelligence efforts had revealed that an officer in the High Commission of India in Islamabad had been passing information to the Pakistan intelligence agencies.

Japan seeks arrest of anti-whaling ship chief

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Tokyo, April 30: Japan is seeking an international arrest warrant for the head of anti-whaling group Sea Shepherd over high-seas clashes in Antarctic waters, media reports said Friday.

Tokyo will seek Interpol’s help to arrest Canadian Paul Watson for ordering his crew to harass whaling ships in clashes in which Japanese crew were allegedly injured by rancid butter projectiles, broadcaster NHK reported.

IPS officer was Sohrabuddin’s extortion partner: CBI

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Ahmedabad, April 30: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) said IPS officer Abhay Chudasama, who was arrested on Wednesday, ran an extortion racket with Sohrabuddin Sheikh and was the prime conspirator in the abduction and murder of Sheikh and his wife Kauserbi.

The CBI, while seeking his remand on Thursday, told an Ahmedabad court that the IPS officer had also offered Rs 50 lakh to Sohrabuddin’s brother Rubabuddin to withdraw the petition in the Supreme Court and threatened him with dire consequences when he refused to do so.