New Delhi, June 25: Alleging a nexus between the mining lobby and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders in Karnataka, the Congress Friday sought a probe into the matter and said the state government should take steps to persuade Justice N. Santosh Hegde to continue as the state’s Lok Ayukta (Ombudsman).
Chennai, June 25: AIADMK General Secretary J. Jayalalithaa has strongly opposed the Tamil Nadu government’s decision to release 500 life convicts to mark the first World Classical Tamil Conference being held at Coimbatore.
In a statement issued here Friday, Jayalalithaa citing media reports said: “In order to prevent occurrence of crime in the society, law has provided life imprisonment. Freeing such prisoners prematurely is a crime, the high point of misuse of authority and encouraging murderers. Releasing the convicts would result in increase in the rate of murders and robbery.”
Los Angeles, June 25: An American couple have been arrested for trying to sell their six-month-old baby for $25 outside a department store, police said.
Patrick Fousek, 38, and Samantha Tomasini, 20, were detained after Fousek allegedly approached two women outside a Walmart store and asked if they would like to buy his child.
The women initially thought Fousek was joking, but when he became persistent, they became suspicious and reported it to police.
New Delhi, June 25: The Supreme Court Friday asked Andhra Pradesh to reply to a contempt petition alleging that the state government has breached its interim order in the recruitment of secondary grade teachers for primary schools.
The vacation bench of the Supreme Court headed by Justice R.M. Lodha and Justice A.K. Patnaik told the state government counsel D. Bharti Reddy that “prima facie it appears there is something that has to be put in writing stating that under these circumstances the government order was issued”.
Bangalore, June 25: The ruling BJP in Karnataka on Friday celebrated completion of two years in office, even as the resignation of Lokayukta N Santosh Hegde over the alleged ”indifferent attitude” of the state government filched away some sheen from the bash here.
At a well-organised convention “Sadhana Samaavesha” at the sprawling Palace grounds here to project the achievements of BJP’s first independant government in southern India, senior party leaders Sushma Swaraj, M Venkaiah Naidu and H N Ananth Kumar lauded the B S Yeddyurappa-led Ministry.
London, June 25: India’s leading industrialist Ratan Tata, Chairman of the Tata Group, has been conferred the honorary degree of Doctor of Law for his role in producing the world’s cheapest car Nano.
The degree was conferred by Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh, who is also the chancellor of the ancient seat of learning.
Tata was among eight individuals similarly honoured at a special ceremony on Monday.
The citation for Tata, in Latin, was read out by Dr Rupert Thompson from the Faculty of Classics.
New Delhi, June 25: After a spate of attacks on security forces, the Maoists are now raising specially trained small teams to eliminate leaders of various political parties across the country.
The central committee of the CPI (Maoist) at a recent meeting has decided to raise “action teams” in all states dominated by them to target political leaders and workers, a Home Ministry official said quoting intelligence inputs.
He said the Naxals were planning to launch the attack in both rural and semi-urban areas in West Bengal, Jharkhand, Orissa, Chhattisgarh, Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra.
New York, June 25: Gold today rose for a second day, as investors bought the precious metal to protect their wealth amid financial market turbulence.
The metal in futures trading rose by USD 6.30, or 0.5 per cent, to USD 1,252.20 an ounce on the Comex in New York. In London for spot trading was 0.7 per cent higher at USD 1,251.55.
The metal cut its weekly loss on speculation that group of 20 leaders meeting this weekend will fail to agree on ways to tackle Europe’s debt crisis, while the cost of protecting Greece?s debt from default rose to a record.
New York, June 25: After being commissioned an officer in the British Army, Prince Harry will join the US Military Academy at Camp Buckner, a cadet training centre at West Point in New York, for a three-day training.
The third-in-line to the British throne will take part in live-fire drills and watch field exercises at Camp Buckner, 40 miles north of New York City in the Hudson Valley, during a three-day training on his visit to the US, the media reported.
The 25-year-old Prince attended Royal Military Academy at Sandhurst before being commissioned an officer in British Army.
Mumbai, June 25: The Cricket Board will recover Rs 425 crore from IPL’s sub-continent media rights holders MSM Satellite as part of the amended media rights agreement which was approved by the T20 League’s Governing Council here today.
The BCCI successfully contended that the Rs 425 crore facilitation fee paid by MSM to Mauritius-based World Sport Group rightfully belonged to the Board, said BCCI secretary N Srinivasan in a media release after the IPL meeting.
Islamabad, June 25: India is expected to press for action against LeT founder Hafiz Saeed and perpetrators of the Mumbai terror attack when Home Minister P Chidambaram meets his Pakistani counterpart Rehman Malik here today.
Chidambaram, who will arrive here this evening on a two-day visit to attend SAARC Interior Minister’s Conference, will have a bilateral meeting with Malik at 7 p.m. local time, the sources said.
He will also meet Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi at 8.15 p.m., they said.
New Delhi, June 25: Petrol and diesel will cost up to Rs 3.73 per litre more, households will have to pay an additional Rs 35 per cylinder and poor man’s cooking medium kerosene will be dearer by Rs 3 a litre from today, the government said here.
In a major decision to bring petroleum products in line with market rates, the government today freed petrol from all pricing controls and hiked diesel prices by Rs two a litre, Oil Secretary S Sundareshan announced after the meeting of the Empowered Group of Ministers. .
–Agencies
Jakarta, June 25: Defending champion Saina Nehwal overcame an opening game deficit to reach the semifinal of the Indonesian Open badminton tournament and stay on course for back-to-back Super Series title here today.
Saina, who yesterday jumped three spots to third in world rankings after winning the Singapore Super Series, looked rusty against Ella Diehl of Russia in the first game and was doing the catch up job from the start before losing it 17-21.
New Delhi, June 25: Justice Mohit S Shah was today appointed as the new Chief Justice of the Bombay High Court, Law Ministry sources said here.
Born on September 9, 1953, Shah was the Chief Justice of the Calcutta High Court.
Shah succeeds Bombay High Court Acting Chief Justice J N Patel, who has been elevated as Chief Justice of the Calcutta High Court, the sources said.
Justice F I Rebello of the Bombay High Court has been elevated as the Chief Justice of the Allahabad High Court, they said.
A notification on appointment of the three judges was issued today, the sources said.
New Delhi, June 25: A Delhi court today granted interim bail to a Congress MLA from Karnataka in a case of alleged cheating after he promised to pay Rs 7.75 crore to a capital-based land development firm as settlement amount.
“The accused (Santosh Lad) is enlarged on interim bail till June 14,” Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Ajay Kumar Pandey said, asking him to furnish a personal and surety bond of Rs 1 lakh each as pre-condition of release.
Kolkata, June 25: Key UPA ally, Trinamool Congress today demanded rollback of the hike in prices of petroleum products and dubbed the CITU-sponsored 24-hour transport strike in West Bengal as a “cosmetic movement”.
Trinamool Congress Secretary General Partha Chatterjee told reporters here that hike in prices of petroleum products would have a direct burden on common people and demanded that the government should roll it back.
He said that TC supremo Mamata Banerjee has called for reconsidering the decision of increasing prices of petroleum products.
New Delhi, June 25: The hike in fuel prices has stirred a hornet’s nest with key UPA ally Trinamool Congress joining the opposition parties in slamming the Centre and demanding its roll back.
The CPI-M will be hitting the streets tomorrow to protest against the decision, which it said was “unprecedented”.
Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee, who faces Assembly polls in the CPI-M ruled West Bengal next year, said she does not support the hike because kerosene, LPG and diesel are directly linked with the common people’s kitchen.
New Delhi, Jun 25: The Socialist Unity Centre of India (SUCI) today demanded a special session of Parliament to discuss the Bhopal gas tragedy and matters related to the disaster.
“We have handed over a letter to Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar today, requesting her to convene a special session to have a thorough debate on the issue,” SUCI (Communist) MP Tarun Mandal told reporters here.
Describing the verdict on the Bhopal gas tragedy as ridiculous, he said it was mockery in the name of justice. “In fact, justice was done to the perpetrators,” he said.
Srinagar, June 25: CRPF Director General Vikram Srivastava called on the Governor N N Vohra at Raj Bhavan here this evening and briefed him about the security situation in the state, an official spokesman said.
He said the Governor discussed with Srivastava some of his concerns about the security scenario, taking into account both the internal and external influences and factors.
–Agencies
Manama, June 25: A web portal which once belonged to the Indian Embassy in Bahrain has now turned into a porn site with a local telecom services provider blaming the mission for the lapse.
“The embassy should not have let the name go and should have secured it, even if they had to change the administrator,” said an official of Batelco, the local telecom services provider.
The official told the Gulf Daily News that Batelco was powerless to help, since it was only responsible for registering domain names ending in .bh.
Mosul, June 25: A bomb on Friday damaged the perimeter wall of the Nabi Yunes mosque in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul, revered by Christians as the burial place of the Biblical prophet Jonah, police said.
The explosion caused no casualties and the mosque itself was untouched, police said.
The large mosque, built on the site of an earlier church, sits on a hill that marks one of the two main settlement mounds of ancient Nineveh, in the eastern part of modern Mosul.
New Delhi, June 25: Thirty-five years after the Emergency stifled India’s prized democracy, questions continue to be asked whether it can be imposed again as men and women who were jailed for 19 painful months differ over the prospects of another dictatorship in the country.
Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) O. Rajagopal, who spent the entire 1975-1977 Emergency period in prison, feels that one cannot completely rule out another prime minister copying Indira Gandhi’s tactics.
Mumbai, June 25 (IANS) The Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) of Mumbai Police has arrested two aides of Dawood Ibrahim Kaskar who were trying to revive the criminal network of the absconding mafia don and his close associate Chhota Shakeel in Mumbai, ATS chief Rakesh Maria said Friday.
A large quantity of arms and ammunition were seized from them, he said.
The duo – Nasser Ahmed Shaikh, 35, and Ali Hassan Abdullah Qureshi, 64 – were arrested from Ghatkopar Friday night, Maria said.
Jammu, June 25: The Jammu and Kashmir government is against the hanging of parliament attack convict Afzal Guru, warning this could spark widespread violence in the state, official sources said Friday.
Already facing frequent protests in the Kashmir Valley, the National Conference government is not prepared for another wave of mass protests if the 40-year-old Sopore resident is hanged, the sources told IANS.
They said the state government had cautioned the central government about the consequences of carrying out the sentence.
Lucknow, June 25: Ronak Ali, eldest among the brood of five stunned his family and friends of Gunnor in Baghpat last Tuesday when he marries with his step-mom Beghum — both had been missing since June 13 — by his side. This time, as his one-day-old bride. With an eight year older step-mother Husna Beghum as his love interest, things had been never been smooth for Ronak Ali, 25, and an unskilled labour.