Hyderabad, June 30: Investigating agencies are questioning two senior RSS members from Uttar Pradesh in connection with the Makkah Masjid bomb blast in Hyderabad in 2007, suspecting that they may have known about the plot which led to the killing of about a dozen worshippers, and gave shelter to the perpetrators after the attack.
Washington, June 30: McAllen police have arrested a 28-year-old man for killing his 2-year-old stepdaughter during the World Cup soccer game on last Saturday by jamming a screw down her throat in an attempt to make the slaying appear accidental.
According to The Monitor, McAllen Police Chief Victor Rodriguez has said that Hector Castro was arrested after firefighters and emergency medical personnel had been called to the house with reference to the girl’s apparent choking on a screw.
Tehran, June 30: The elimination of England, France and the United States in the early stages of the World Cup was a just reward for their ill-treatment of Iran, its foreign minister said.
Iran did not qualify for the tournament in South Africa but fans have been glued to their televisions nonetheless in a country where soccer is the number one sport.
While the United States often referred to by Iran’s leaders as “the great Satan” were never a favourite at the tournament, the elimination of England and France before the quarter-finals was a crushing blow to their fans back home.
New Delhi, June 30: In a chilling reminder of the worth of human life in a bustling metropolis, pieces of a dead human foetus were spotted lying in a roadside dump in Patparganj, opposite Mother Dairy.
When the locals were queried about the origins of the waste that included syringes, gloves, blood-stained cotton and bandages, they pointed to a nearby maternity centre.
Lucknow, June 29: A special court hearing the Babri Mosque demolition case Tuesday ordered the then Faizabad district magistrate and some leaders of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to appear before it for framing of charges.
The VHP and the BJP leaders are facing charges of criminal conspiracy behind the Dec 6, 1992 demolition of the 16th century mosque.
New Delhi, June 29: Home Minister P. Chidambaram Tuesday said the central government would support Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah in his efforts to end the cycle of violence in the state that has claimed eight lives in the last four days.
Chidambaram said instructions had been reiterated to central paramilitary forces to observe maximum restraint while dealing with rioters but added that the Central Reserve Police Forces (CRPF) personnel “had to use force in self-defence”.
New Delhi, June 29: Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan’s TV production company Red Chillies Idiot Box is set to produce romantic movies for the youth that will be aired on MTV.
After non-stop music and adventure-based reality shows, MTV is venturing into romantic movies that will appeal to the Indian youth.
The channel has collaborated with two production houses – Red Chillies Idiot Box and Milestone Movies Pvt Ltd – to produce three romantic movies as part of their new series “Luv Reels”.
New Delhi, June 29: Fuel price hike will further stoke inflation and prompt the government and the Reserve Bank to take strong measures to ease pressure on prices soon, said country’s Chief Statistician Pronab Sen.
“You (are) already in inflationary process. The non-food inflation is accelerating. In that situation, this (fuel price hike) can actually trigger off stronger inflation process,” he told reporters on the sidelines of a function to mark the Statistics Day.
New Delhi, June 29: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh returned home tonight after attending the G-20 summit in Canada where he met world leaders, including US President Barack Obama and British Prime Minister David Cameron.
Singh arrived here this evening from Toronto after a brief halt in Frankfurt.
During his two-day visit in Toronto, the Prime Minister, besides attending the G-20 summit, also signed a landmark civil nuclear agreement with Canada.
Kollam (Ker), June 29: A local court today declined to admit the petition of Jamal Muhammad, brother of PDP leader Abdul Nasser Madani, seeking to quash police decision to make him a witness in the Bangalore blasts case in which Madani figured as an accused.
Magistrate Unnikrishnan Nair of Karungapally court “returned” the petition on the ground that the matter did not come under the jurisdiction of his court.
New Delhi, June 29: Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar, who is on an official visit to Mongolia, today called for enhanced bilateral relations between the two countries for mutual benefit.
Kumar, along with her Parliamentary delegation, called on the Prime Minister of Mongolia, Batbold S.
During the meeting, the Prime Minister said the relations between India and Mongolia go much beyond diplomatic relations as these are rooted in history.
Srinagar, June 29: Election Commission today sought suggestions from electoral officers from across the country to make poll process more transparent.
“I would like you to give valuable suggestions for making the election process more transparent,” Chief Election Commissioner Navin Chawla said here today while addressing a two-day conference of chief electoral officers of all states.
Mumbai, June 29: Air India today effected senior and middle level changes in its management as part of its turnaround plan, including shifting out two executive director level officer, airlines sources said here.
Air India’s Executive Director-Operations Rakesh Anand and its Western Region’s Executive Director, R Hariharan, were transferred in the exercise, they said.
Anand has been made Director-Training at Air India’s training centre in Hyderabad while Hariharan was posted as Executive Director — Special Business Units and other services, they added.
New Delhi, June 29: Former Australian Prime Minister John Howard’s candidature as the ICC vice president appears to have run into rough weather with the BCCI apparently being reluctant to back him in the executive board meeting tomorrow.
BCCI is drawing up its strategy for the ICC executive board meeting where Howard’s nomination will come up for discussion.
BCCI former president Sharad Pawar is also set to take over as the ICC president, becoming the only second Indian after Jagmohan Dalmiya to occupy the coveted post, after the meeting on July 1.
Chennai, June 29: A man was today arrested for allegedly duping a city-based businessman of Rs 52 lakh by selling an nine kg stone claiming it to be a precious stone belonging to erstwhile royal family, police said.
49-year-old V P Kathiresan had sold the stone for more than Rs five crore to R Umakanth claiming it to be ‘Ruby’ belonging to erstwhile Vijyanagar empire, they said, adding he took Rs 52 lakh as advance from him.
On verifying the stone, Umakanth realised that he was cheated and registered a police complaint.
Kathiresan was remanded to judicial custody, they said.
Panaji, June 29: The Anti-Corporation Bureau (ACB) today trapped a senior state government officer while accepting a bribe.
P K Patidar, registrar of cooperative societies, who also holds additional charge as director of animal husbandry and veterinary services, was trapped by the sleuths while accepting Rs 15,000, ACB officials said.
The officer had demanded a bribe of Rs 2.3 lakh to clear off certain bills which were pending with the animal husbandry department, sources said.
Jagdalpur, June 29: In yet another daring attack on security personnel, Maoists killed at least 20 security personnel and injured over 20 in the Narayanpur district of Chhattisgarh on Tuesday.
The seventy-strong battalion of CRPF jawans, district police officials and STF were ambushed near a drain in the Daurai forest area, 32-kms from Narayanpur in south Chhattisgarh when they were returning after a road opening duty.
Ludhiana, June 29: Three children of a family, two of them girls, were killed when a wall of their old house collapsed early this morning while they were sleeping at Tajpur village in this district.
Soni (15), her brother Rohit (11) and sister Kamlesh (10) died under the weight of the collapsed wall of an old dilapidated haveli they were living in. Monika, another sister of the victims, received serious injuries in the incident and was referred to Rajendra hospital in Patiala. The deceased were the children of Ansh Chander, a migrant labourer from Uttar Pradesh.
—Agencies
Hyderabad, June 29: With massage centres in and around Hyderabad being used for flesh trade, Hyderabad Police has banned massage parlours where female employees massage male customers.
Police Commissioner A.K. Khan told reporters that the ban on all such massage parlours and body massage centres would come into force from July 1.
The police chief also warned the owners of the buildings who offer their shops on rent for such massage parlours that action will be taken against them.
Kolkata, June 29: West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee has urged Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to reconsider the decision to hike prices of petroleum products.
In a letter to Singh, the chief minister said rise in prices of petroleum products would push up cost of all essential commodities.
Opposing the hike, he demanded a rollback.
–Agencies
Phnom Penh, June 29: A Cambodian court charged a Buddhist monk today for secretly filming hundreds of women as they bathed naked with holy water at a temple and then sharing the clips, officials said.
Net Khai, 37, faces up to a year in jail after being charged with “producing and distributing pornographic images” by Phnom Penh Municipal Court, prosecutor Ek Chheng Huot told AFP.
He was arrested at his pagoda in the Cambodian capital on Saturday over allegations that he secretly taped the women pouring sacred water over themselves in a pagoda bathroom, said police chief Touch Naruth.
Beijing, June 29: Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari will commence a high level visit to China from July 6 during which the two countries will firm up a deal for supply of two new nuclear reactors to Islamabad.
Announcing the visit of Zardari, which comes close on the heels of a tour of China by Pakistan Army chief Gen.
Ashfaq Pervez Kayani, Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesman Qin Gang defended the nuclear cooperation between the two countries.
But, parried questions relating to China’s plans to build nuclear reactors saying the move was not aimed at any third country.
Ahmedabad, June 29: The Gujarat High Court today asked the wife of former president of Medical Council of India (MCI) Ketan Desai to approach the special CBI court here in connection with her anticipatory bail plea.
Alka Desai had sought transit anticipatory bail as her name appears in the case filed by CBI against Desai in a disproportionate assets case.
When the matter came up for hearing before Justice Z K Saiyed, CBI laywer Y R Ravani submitted that Alka had not approached the lower court and had directly come with the anticipatory bail plea to the High Court.
Bhagalpur (Bihar), June 29: Two school girls lost their legs when it came under a goods train after they were knocked down at an unmanned level crossing near Sabour railway station today, police said today.
Vandana Kumari and Sangeeta Kumari — natives of Mamalka and Harka villages — were riding their bicycles on way to their college when the goods train hit them and ran over their legs at the level crossing, police said.
Mumbai, June 29: Trial in the 2006 Aurangabad arms haul case, stayed two years ago by the Supreme Court, today resumed in a Special MCOCA court here.
Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) had in May 2006 claimed to have seized 43 kgs of RDX, 50 hand grenades, 16 AK-47 rifles and over 3,000 live bullets from Chandaud in Aurangabad, Central Maharashtra.
Twenty-one persons arrested in the case are facing trial under the stringent Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA).