London, June 23: Moroccan security services broke up Monday a suspected Palestinian-led Islamic extremist network that was planning to carry out attacks in the North African country, the interior ministry said.
The network of 11 members led by a Palestinian “planned to commit terrorist acts within the national territory,” the ministry said in a statement without giving details of the panned attacks.
Baghdad, June 23: Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki on Wednesday accepted the resignation of his besieged electricity minister, government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said.
“It is correct that Electricity Minister Karim Wahid’s resignation has been accepted,” Dabbagh said.
Wahid’s decision to quit came after a fiery demonstration in the southern city of Basra at the weekend against power rationing in which a man was killed amid chaotic scenes that saw protesters smash up a government building.
Baghdad, June 23: Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki called on international and regional powers on Tuesday to stop meddling in Iraqi coalition talks, blaming them for the absence of a new government nearly four months after elections.
“I am not prepared to wait for what the external intervention will say, but unfortunately, the external intervention is influencing the national situation,” Maliki told a news conference.
“National political leaders are no longer able to make any decision because of that,” he said in response to a question about the influence of neighbouring countries.
New Delhi, June 23: Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee was today believed to have told senior officials of her ministry that the alleged multi-crore job scam could have been prevented and that the recruitment process will be expedited despite the incident.
During the Railway Consultative Committee meeting held here, several members raised the issue to which the minister replied that necessary steps are taken to prevent leakages of question papers, a member who attended the parleys said.
New Delhi, June 23: Despite his controversial statements on Bhopal Gas tragedy, Congress Chief Sonia Gandhi seems to have reposed faith in senior party leader Digvijay Singh by nominating him to address a global meet at the UN Headquarters in New York.
Singh, who addressed the Council meeting of the Social Democrats on June 21 and 22 and spoke on the economic scenario in India in the context of global recession, had recently said that then UCC CEO Anderson was released “under US pressure”.
Mumbai, June 23: Air India will be operating direct air services between Melbourne and Delhi from the winter schedule 2010.
The services will meet a long-felt demand for direct connectivity between India and Australia, a press release issued here today stated.
Air India will be resuming services to Australia after a lapse of over a decade.
Apart, from serving the Indian diaspora in the region, the new link will cater to the growing demand of business travellers, not only between the two countries but also beyond India to the Gulf and Europe, the release said.
Mumbai, June 23: India today said “nothing spectacular or dramatic” was expected from a series of forthcoming high-level political contacts with Pakistan because of the complexity of bilateral ties.
“I don’t expect anything spectacular or dramatic because the Indo-Pak relationship is so complex”, External Affairs Minister S M Krishna told reporters here.
He said Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao’s visit to Pakistan was primarily “to prepare the ground for my visit to Islamabad next month”.
New Delhi, June 23: A hike in petrol and diesel prices looks imminent this week as Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee appears to have agreed to the proposal, sources said.
An Empowered Group of Ministers on Friday may decide to free petrol prices from government control, a move that will result in rates increasing by up to Rs 3.73 a litre, they added.
The panel headed by Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee may, however, not approve of a similar hike for diesel and instead give the nod for a maximum increase of Rs 2 per litre.
Bangalore, June 23: Self-styled godman Nityananda Swami, facing criminal cases including rape and currently on bail, was today summoned by CID for certain clarifications.
Nityananda, accompanied by his advocate came to the CID headquarters and answered queries from investigating officials, sources in the CID told PTI here.
He spent about an hour with the CID in offering clarifications sought by them, the sources said, adding, he returned to his Dhyanapeetam Ashram, situated near Bidadi.
New Delhi, June 23: Qutab Minar Metro station will soon have a larger parking space.
DMRC chief E Sreedharan today asked authorities to increase the parking space as he inspected the newly-inaugurated Gurgaon corridor.
Sreedharan, along with senior DMRC officials, inspected the 14.47-km Qutab Minar-HUDA City Centre (Gurgaon) corridor which was thrown open to the public on Monday.
The DMRC chief, who had recently undergone a by-pass surgery, inspected the corridor for about 3 hours.
Dhar (MP), June 23: Bhartiya Janshakti Party today accused BJP President Nitin Gadkari for his party’s “poor performance” in the recent civic elections in Maharashtra and charged that he failed to fullfill the assurances made when he was appointed party chief.
New Delhi, June 23: Ruling out privatisation, Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee today said her ministry will follow public-private partnership (PPP) mode for infrastructure development of the largest PSU.
Banerjee, while addressing the Railway Consultative Committee meeting here, told the members that the PPP mode will be followed in expanding infrastructure and assets and for creating more employment.
Mumbai, June 23: Former husband of Manyata Dutt, actor Sanjay Dutt’s wife, has written a letter to Bombay High Court accusing the bollywood star of “implicating” him in false cases.
Mairaj Shaikh, who is currently lodged in Mumbai jail for allegedly sending lewd text messages to an actress, has alleged that Dutt threatened to implicate him in false cases if he did not withdraw the case he had filed against the actor for bigamy in January this year.
Gulbarga (Ktk), June 23: 25 students of Gulbarga University, including 20 from UP, were arrested when they were allegedly found taking exams at a private college here without the knowledge of the University officials, police said today.
The Indira Gandhi Memorial B.Ed College here had arranged 40 of its students, who had abstained from the regular exams conducted earlier, to write the examinations last night without the knowledge of the University under which it falls, after collecting money, Superintendent of Police Padmanayana told reporters here today.
Patna, June 23: Five people were arrested and one lakh blank and pirated CDs of pornographic films worth Rs two crore were recovered from their possession here, police said.
“Acting on a tip-off, a joint team of GRP and police arrested Vishwanath Prasad and his four accomplices, allegedly involved in the sale of pirated CDs of pornographic films,” IG (Railway) S K Bhardwaj said.
The cost of the seized one lakh CDs was estimated to be around Rs two crore, he said, adding, “It is perhaps the largest-ever seizure of pirated and blank CDs in the country.
–Agencies
Palampur (HP), June 23: Textile, food and information technology Parks would be set up soon in industrial areas in district Kangra to generate employment about 36,000 youth, Himachal Pradesh chief minister Prem Kumar Dhumal today said.
Addressing a meeting at Dheera after dedicating the newly-constructed Rs 1.82 crore bridge at Baloti on Neugal Khad, Dhumal said providing quality health and animal husbandry services to the people was prime concern of the government.
Ahmedabad, June 23: The Central government has asked the Gujarat government to hand over investigation of the 2008 Modasa blast case to the National Investigation Agency (NIA), police said today.
“We have received a letter today from central government stating that the NIA has found links between Modasa blast and some of the cases it was investigating,” Additional Director General of Police (ADGP) S K Sinha told PTI.
“Hence they have asked that the investigation in the Modasa blast case be handed over to the NIA,” he said.
Hyderabad, June 23: Andhra Pradesh government will enact a law in the coming monsoon session of state assembly to engage convicts in community service rather than lodge them in prisons.
As per the proposed legislation “AP Community Service of Offenders Act, persons convicted for crimes that carry a prison term of up to one year need not spend the period in a jail, said state Home Minister P Sabita Reddy.
New Delhi, June 23: Delhi University, India’s premier university, Wednesday began admitting students for undergraduate courses, with thousands crowding the sprawling main campus and its affiliated colleges.
Anxious students stood in queues as they filled up forms and paid the annual fees after the university issued its first list Tuesday giving the minimum percentages needed for admission into various colleges.
Hyderabad, June 23: UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi is “positive” over the formation of Telangana, which will be a reality once Srikrishna Committee submits its report, Andhra Pradesh Congress President D Srinivas claimed today. “Telangana is not going to take long.
Sonia Gandhi is positive about Telangana. Separate statehood will definitely come after the Srikrishna Committee submits its report,” Srinivas said.
He said the Congress is in power both at the Centre and the state. “It is this government which has to give Telangana.
Kapurthala, June 23: Four members of a family were burnt alive in the wee hours today when the cot they were sleeping on caught fire at Dayalpur village in the district. The deceased have been identified as Paramjit Kaur (32), her son Ajay Kumar (11), and two daughters Preeti (9) and Muskan (6).
New Delhi, June 23: BJP on Wednesday sent mixed signals to its ally JD(U) by making it clear that conditions like keeping Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi and Varun Gandhi away from the election campaign in Bihar for continuance of the coalition were not acceptable to it.
At the same time, the party is keen that the alliance between the two parties should continue in their mutual interest, reliable party sources said.
New York, June 23: A young father with a long criminal history, including assault charges, fatally shot his 3-month-old son in front of state troopers yesterday morning, then was shot and critically wounded by officers.
Adam Theall, 21, was outside the home in rural Oneida County in upstate New York when troopers arrived after getting emergency calls around 9:30 a.m. that he had threatened to kill the child.
New York, June 23: The 2007 raid at Islamabad’s Lal Masjid, where Faisal Shahzad often prayed when visiting his home, was the “triggering event” that drove the Pakistani-American to terrorism, culminating into the failed Times Square bombing plot.
The Red Mosque, believed to have become a hub of extremist activity, was stormed by the forces of former president Pervez Musharraf in 2007 after days of siege. Nearly a 100 people died in the raid.
Lal Masjid was the mosque where Shahzad had offered prayers on his frequent trips to Pakistan.
United Nations, June 23: At least 245 million women around the world have been widowed and more than 115 million of them live in devastating poverty, according to a new study launched Tuesday night by Cherie Blair, wife of the former British prime minister.