Month: May 2010

London, May 03: Two Church of England bishops say they have travelled to the Vatican for exploratory talks about joining the Catholic Church.

The bishop of Fulham and the bishop of Richborough said they and a third bishop travelled to Rome to speak with Catholic officials.

The Sunday Telegraph said that the bishops had told the Vatican they were ready to defect, but Rev Keith Newton, the bishop of Richborough, said that was not true.

He said he and his colleagues were in Rome for “nothing more than exploratory talks” and that no decision had been made.

Panaji, May 03: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is formulating a code of conduct for party workers on tackling issues ranging from handling obstinate bureaucrats and time management to personal conduct while dealing with women, a senior party functionary said.

Manohar Parrikar, convener of the BJP’s newly formed governance cell, told a news agency that the code of conduct would be shortly evolved by the cell after discussions with other senior party leaders and chief ministers of party-ruled states.

United Nations,May 03: India will not be participating in the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty Review Conference that begins here tomorrow, during which the US is expected to push non-NPT signatories to sign the pact.

“We are not parties to the NPT and we will not be participating,” an official at the Permanent Mission of India to the UN said.

He said India would not be represented in the conference in any capacity not even as an “observer” country.

New Delhi, May 03: India can become an agricultural superpower and the proposed food security bill is coming at the right time as it has the potential to prevent a backlash from people, says the chief of one of India’s largest farming cooperatives.

“Unless the government can provide food security to its people, there will be a terrific backlash,” asserted CV Ananda Bose, managing director of the National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India Limited.

New Delhi,May 03: The Lok Sabha was adjourned twice Monday as opposition members disrupted the proceedings over the allocation of 2G telecom spectrum, the demand for a caste-based census and the introduction of the Foreign University Bill.

New Delhi, May 03: Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi on Monday met UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi and demanded the early passage of the Women’s Reservation Bill in Lok Sabha.

Karunanidhi, who is here on a three-visit, met the Congress President at her 10, Janpath residence here and the two are understood to have discussed the latest political situation in the country.

The DMK chief will meet Prime Minister Manmohan Singh later in the evening.

Melbourne, May 03: An Indian national was let off lightly with a suspended eight-month jail term after it was found that he took advantage of racial tensions in Australia to falsely claim that he was set on fire after he accidentally burnt himself in a botched insurance claim bid.

Jaspreet Singh, 28, had claimed that he was racially attacked in Melbourne after he reportedly burnt himself while torching his car to make an insurance claim.

Chennai, May 03: Tamil Nadu government has written to the Centre recommending that Parvathi Ammal, mother of slain LTTE leader V Prabhakaran, be allowed to enter the state for medical treatment.

Deputy Chief Minister MK Stalin informed the Assembly that “we have written to the Union Home Secretary to consider allowing Parvathi Ammal for treatment in the state provided certain conditions are met”.

“We received an e-mail from Parvathi Ammal requesting us to allow her to come to Tiruchirappalli for treatment”, Stalin said. However, he did not specify what the conditions were.

Koderma, May 03: The parents of Nirupama Pathak, who was murdered by her family members on Thursday, were taken into custody for interrogation Monday, a senior police official said.

“We have taken the parents of Pathak, who was attached with a reputed English business daily from New Delhi, for interrogation in connection with her murder”, Koderma police superintendent Kranti Singh said.

He, however, refused to comment whether it was a “honour killing” saying investigation was still on.

Mumbai, May 03: A 22-year-old Pakistani man who faces the death sentence if convicted for taking part in the 2008 Mumbai attacks that left 166 people dead is due to learn his fate in an Indian court on Monday.

Mohammed Ajmal Amir Kasab, said to be the lone surviving gunman, was arrested after 10 militants went on the rampage in India’s financial capital on November 26, 2008.

India blamed the assaults, which targeted multiple sites around the city, on the banned Pakistan-based Islamist group Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), straining already tense diplomatic ties with its neighbour.

Chennai, May 03: The Tamil Nadu government has written to the Centre recommending that Parvathi, mother LTTE leader V. Prabakaran, be allowed to enter the State for medical treatment.

Deputy Chief Minister M.K. Stalin informed the Assembly that “(the government had) written to the Union Home Secretary to consider allowing Parvathi Ammal for treatment in the State provided certain conditions are met”.

Kathmandu, May 03: Nepal’s three largest parties failed to reach a consensus to resolve the political crisis that has spilled on to the streets, but agreed to resume talks on a power-sharing deal on Monday, even as the Maoists’ general strike paralysed the capital for a second day.

The Unified CPN-Maoist, Nepali Congress and CPN-UML failed to arrive at a power sharing agreement last evening, with both the Maoists and the ruling coalition sticking to their stands.