Mumbai, Jun 02: A senior citizen who allegedly tried to collect extortion money from a doctor at the behest of a person claiming to be an aide of underworld don Dawood Ibrahim has been arrested, police said today.
Acting on a complaint of the doctor, 63-year-old Merchant Abdul Hamid Suleman was nabbed near Saifi Hospital at Charni Road last night when he arrived to collect Rs 5.3 lakh extortion money, a Crime Branch official said.
Ambala, June 02: Six members of three Delhi-based families on way to Dharmshala for a vacation were killed and six others injured when a mini bus they were travelling in collided head-on with a truck near here early today.
The families of Gulshan Arora, Harminder Singh Sachdeva and Kamal were on the way to Dharmshala when they met with the accident in which four adults and two children were killed.
Bangalore, Jun 02: The Art of Living Foundation today claimed that the bullet was fired in the direction of its founder Sri Sri Ravi Shankar’s car and slammed Union Home Minister P Chidambaram and the state police for their versions about the shooting incident at its ashram on Sunday.
Police remained tight-lipped about the incident and the probe’s progress amid continuing controversy and conflicting reports about it.
Taking strong exception to Chidambaram’s statement on the incident, the AOL described it as “hasty and damaging”.
Chandigarh, Jun 02: A Punjab police team visited the residence of Ruchika Girhotra family lawyer Pankaj Bhardwaj to arrest him in a 2007 cheating case in Amritsar even as he today claimed that the move was aimed at pressuring him to withdraw from certain cases involving high ups.
The police team from Amritsar had descended at his residence yesterday to arrest him but could not find him, police said today.
Hyderabad, June 02: Telangana Jagruthi president K Kavita has demanded that the state government all revaluation of the answerscripts of all Intermediate students hailing from the Telangana region free of cost. She has also urged the government to direct the Board of Intermediate Education (BIE) to take stringent action against those who were careless in evaluating the Intermediate students’ answerscripts.
Hyderabad, June 02: Thirteen ministers of the state government have made a vain attempt to convince the media that there was no failure on the part of the government in handling the Odarpu Yatra of Congress MP YS Jaganmohan Reddy peacefully last week.
They tried hard to defend chief minister K Rosaiah and to drive home the point that the there were no differences between the ministers and the chief minister, and the decisions were collective.
Visakhapatnam, June 02: The Congress government in the state will continue all the welfare schemes which were introduced by former chief minister YS Rajasekhara Reddy notwithstanding the hurdles posed by the economic slowdown, Union minister of state for human resource development D Purandeswari has said.
Speaking with mediapersons after laying the foundation stone for various works at Dandu Bazar here today, Purandeswari said that some political leaders were spreading rumours that the Congress government would disband all the welfare schemes.
Hyderabad, June 02: Telugu Desam Party (TDP) president N. Chandrababu Naidu’s brother-in-law N. Harikrishna has warned him against ignoring party leaders and nominating the rich industrialists for the upcoming Rajya Sabha polls.
Harikrishna, who is also a member of upper house of parliament, Wednesday asked Naidu to field only those who were working hard for the party.
Harikrishna, son of TDP founder and former chief minister N.T. Rama Rao, met Naidu and urged him to ignore industrialists and businessmen lobbying for Rajya Sabha tickets.
New Delhi, June 02: Congress on Wednesday said the issue of Y S Jaganmohan Reddy’s ‘Odarpu’ yatra and the party’s stand on it was a “domestic affair” which the party was capable of handling.
Law Minister M Veerappa Moily, who is also the party in charge of Andhra Pradesh, today refused to get drawn into the controversy over Jagan’s claim yesterday that he had given him a go ahead to continue with his yatra.
“I don’t want comment anymore on Jagan….” Moily told reporters here.
Batala, June 02: A 3-year-old girl fell into a borewell at Dheera village in Gurdaspur district on Wednesday, official sources said.
Dinnaj Kaur, a resident of Dairywal village, had come to her maternal village Dheera where she accidentally slipped into the borewell while playing near the spot with other children, Deputy Commissioner Gurdaspur Prithi Chand said.
The owner of the borewell had covered it with a gunny bag after its electric motor stopped functioning a few days back.
Sydney, June 02: Smokers are more than twice as likely to have symptoms of depression as compared to non-smokers, research says.
A study by University of Otago involved over 1,000 people, who were asked at ages 18, 21 and 25 years about their smoking habits and whether they had symptoms of depression.
Sophisticated statistical analysis of results found that smoking increases the risk of developing depressive symptoms, rather than the other way round, says an Otago release.
Washington, June 02: Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari has said he was disappointed with India but insisted he can never be a hawk vis-a-vis New Delhi.
‘I’m a little disenchanted with India. I expected the largest democracy in the world to behave much more maturely. We are facing a threat on the eastern and western borders,’ Zardari told Newsweek in an interview.
The president spoke in response to a question on Islamabad’s call to extradite the lone surviving 2008 Mumbai attacker, Pakistan’s Ajmal Amir Kasab.
New Delhi, June 02: He may be an ace on the pitch but cricketer VVS Laxman is no match to Bollywood beauty Neha Dhupia when it comes to online gaming.
The two were in the city to promote an online gaming championship when they were pitted against one another to play a car racing game.
Though Dhupia did not seem quite confident in the beginning as she announced she is a “lousy driver”, the actress raced ahead of Laxman in no time and won the contest.
Israel, June 02: Israel vows to continue its naval blockade of the Gaza Strip, after launching a bloody attack on an international aid convoy which had aimed to break the siege.
The Israeli security cabinet said in a statement on Tuesday that it was “a clear act of self defense” for Tel Aviv to maintain the restrictions at sea, Reuters reported.
The Israeli siege of the strip also includes cutting Gaza off from the land and aerial routes which reach the coastal sliver. It took effect in mid-June 2007, reinforcing the limitations Tel Aviv had already put in place.
Hyderabad, June 02: Four Indian Navy officers were injured when their helicopter crashed near the coastal city of Visakhapatnam, police said.
The Chetak helicopter, deployed at INS Dega, crashed into a stream at Ankapalle near Visakhapatnam, which is the headquarters of the Eastern Naval Command.
A police officer at the scene of the crash told reporters that the chopper, which was flying low, crashed into the Sharda Nadi stream after it entangled in high tension electricity wires.
The helicopter was on a routine training sortie.
——IANS—
Chandigarh, June 02: Lawyer Pankaj Bhardwaj, a key player behind former Haryana police chief S.P.S. Rathore’s conviction in the Ruchika molestation case, Wednesday claimed that a lobby had conspired for the Punjab Police raid on his house here Tuesday.
A special team from Amritsar city in Punjab raided Bhardwaj’s house Tuesday to arrest him, in connection with a multi-crore-rupee land scam, but they did not find him there.
Bhardwaj Wednesday appeared in the high court and argued on Rathore’s bail plea in the Ruchika case.
New Delhi, June 02: Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan dotes on his two children – Aryan and Suhana – and says playing a perfect father to them is the best role he has ever got in real life.
“Being a parent is the greatest joy for me and playing the perfect father is the best role ever! Whilst I am the actor-entertainer, it’s definitely my children who offer unconditional love and bring entertainment and joy to my life,” Shah Rukh said in a statement.
Jerusalem, une 02: Israel has deported more than 120 activists who were detained after a raid on a Gaza-bound aid flotilla, while as many as 300 activists from Turkey have been released to be flown home.
Israel’s commando raid on international aid ships on Monday left at least nine activists dead, prompting international criticism and fresh calls to lift its blockade of Gaza. Israel has defended its military action and says the blockade is necessary for its security.
Washington, June 02: Tough days ahead for British Petroleum and oil industry at large, as Federal Authorities opened criminal investigation into the worst oil spill of U.S.
Attorney General Eric Holder said Tuesday, “We will closely examine the actions of those involved in the spill. If we find evidence of illegal behavior, we will be extremely forceful in our response.”
Washington, June 02: Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari has said he was disappointed with India but insisted he can never be a hawk vis-a-vis New Delhi.
“I’m a little disenchanted with India. I expected the largest democracy in the world to behave much more maturely. We are facing a threat on the eastern and western borders,” Zardari told Newsweek in an interview.
The president spoke in response to a question on Islamabad’s call to extradite the lone surviving 2008 Mumbai attacker, Pakistan’s Ajmal Amir Kasab.
Batala (Punjab), June 02: A one-and-half years old girl fell into a 200-foot-deep, two-foot wide borewell at Dhira village near Batala town in Punjab’s Gurdaspur district Wednesday, police said. Indian Army officials were called to save the child.
Dilrajpreet Kaur accidentally fell into the borewell while playing in the courtyard of her uncle’s house, police said.
“Indian Army officials from Tibri cantonment in Gurdaspur district have reached the village and started the rescue operation,” a police official, who was present on the spot, told IANS.
New Delhi, June 02: The Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) Wednesday rejected as untenable Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee’s demand for early assembly elections in West Bengal following its victory in the civic polls.
“Only 16 percent of the states’ electorate have taken part in the civic polls. Based on that alone such a demand smacks of a certain mindest, which is against the overall understanding of the constitutional process,” CPI-M leader Nilotpal Basu told IANS.
Mumbai, June 02: Saif Ali Khan has worked with most of the b’wood babes which includes Deepika, Kareena, Bipasha. Now according to the latest gossip in the industry Saif might team up with Katrina for a romantic movie.
Grapevine is that Priyanka is also a strong option for the role. But Kat has more chances of getting through.
Wonder if Kareena has anything to say about the choice!
–Agencies
Mumbai, June 02: Ranbir blindly trusts the take of Katrina on any film when it comes to commercial success.
Ever since Katrina and Ranbir were paired in Ajab Prem Ki Ghazab Kahani, latter considers Kats as his lucky mascot
it so happened that, Ranbir who was not so confident about Ajab Prem Ki Ghazab Kahani, but Kat puts his thoughts to rest and gave him a positive assurance. And as the film worked wonders at the box-office, Katrina’s verdict is the final word for Ranbir there after.
Beijing, June 02: At least 18 people were killed and over 2,000 houses were damaged in rain-triggered landslides in China’s Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region Wednesday, authorities said.
Heavy rains since Monday caused Wednesday’s landslides, which killed eight people in Yangchong village and 10 in Rongxian county, Xinhua reported, citing a statement from the land and resources department.
Over 18 people from Yangchong village and 16 from Rongxian county were still missing.