Beirut, July 06: Tens of thousands of mostly Muslim Shiites Tuesday attended the funeral of Lebanon’s leading Shiite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Muhammad Hussein Fadlallah.
Fadlallah, who was regarded as the spiritual mentor to the militant Hezbollah group and blacklisted as a terrorist by the United States, died in Beirut Sunday, two days after being admitted to hospital.
London, July 06: The British government is to investigate claims that its security services have been complicit in the torture of British nationals held by other countries in the wake of the 2001 terrorist attacks in the US.
Prime Minister David Cameron said an inquiry led by a retired High Court judge would look into allegations that British officials were implicated in the improper treatment of detainees.
London, July 06: Tennis ace Serena Williams says she always desired for a lean figure like her sister Venus.
“I was 23 when I realised I wasn’t Venus. She’s totally different. I’m super-curvy and she is tall and looks like a model,” contactmusic.com quoted her as saying.
“While growing up I always wanted to be like her, to look like her and I was always used to try in her clothes, but then one day I couldn’t.
“Since I don’t look like every other girl, it takes a while to be okay with that. But different is good,” she added.
–IANS
Raipur, July 06: Issues related to the 26/11 Mumbai attacks and infiltration from across the border were raised with Pakistan at the Home Minister-level meeting in Islamabad last month, Union Home Secretary G K Pillai said here today.
When India raised the two issues at the meet, Pakistan responded positively, Pillai said without providing details.
Home Minister P Chidambaram met his Pakistani counterpart Rehman Malik late last month.
New Delhi, July 06: Unearthing a major fake visa racket, security personnel today detained 27 people at the Indira Gandhi International Airport here when they were trying to board two Dubai-bound flights allegedly with forged travel documents.
The detentions by the CISF came this evening after Kingfisher and Jet Airways call centres received calls from an anonymous person that these people were to board two flights to Dubai with fake visas. The caller also gave PNR numbers of their flight tickets, sources said.
Khargone (MP), July 06: Union Minister Arun Yadav today sought the resignation of Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan and his cabinet colleagues who were facing a Lokayukta probe in corruption cases.
“BJP should seek resignation of Chouhan, who is allegedly involved in the dumper purchase scam and other ministers facing Lokayukta probes in different corruption cases,” Yadav, Union Minister of State for Heavy Industries, told reporters here.
New Delhi, July 06: India suffered a severe jolt ahead their three-match Test series against Sri Lanka starting July 18 with strike bowler Zaheer Khan being ruled out due to a shoulder injury.
“Zaheer Khan has been ruled out of the forthcoming Sri Lanka series because of a shoulder injury. The All-India Senior Selection Committee has chosen Abhimanyu Mithun to replace him,” Board Secretary N Srinivasan said in a BCCI release.
The Cricket Board did not divulge any details of the injury. It also did not mention for how long he has been adviced to rest.
New Delhi, July 06: Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah today apprised Union Home Minister P Chidambaram about the situation in the state.
Official sources said the chief minister also sought reinforcement from the Centre on the ground that majority of the state security forces have been diverted for smooth conduct of the Amarnath Yatra.
Omar discussed the law and order situation with fresh violence erupting in Kashmir Valley, leaving four persons dead and 70 injured following which indefinite curfew was clamped in Srinagar.
–Agencies
Ahmedabad, July 06: An application was today filed in Gujarat High Court seeking speedy hearing of a petition demanding a CBI inquiry into the Sadik Jamal encounter of 2003 which involves D G Vanzara, one of the accused in Sohrabuddin Sheikh fake encounter case.
Shabbir Jamal Mehtar in his plea to the High Court sought a speedy inquiry and CBI probe into the police encounter of his brother Sadik Jamal in the city on January 13, 2003.
Dharamsala, July 06: At least thirty people, including nine students, were injured in separate accidents in the town, police said.
Nine students were injured, one of them seriously, when the overcrowded vehicle carrying them turned turtle near Chamunda Devi, 15 kms from here, they said.
The Qualis car was carrying 23 children, Assistant Superintendent of Police Kangra said, adding the driver was arrested.
In another accident, 15 people were injured when the bus they were trevelling in overturned near Bhawarna in Palampur- Hamirpur road, 40 kms from here, police said.
–Agencies
Chandigarh, July 06: Amid stray violence, an estimated 75 per cent voters today exercised their franchise for Panchayat polls in eight districts of Haryana today.
Polling was suspended for over an hour following a clash between rival groups that left four injured in Bhalaut village in Rohtak district.
Adequate police were deployed in all the districts to ensure free and fair voting.
State Election Commissioner Dharam Vir said the turnout was nearly 75 per cent.
–Agencies
Mumbai, July 06: Leading home loan lender HDFC today said an immediate hike in lending rates is unlikely, notwithstanding an increase in key lending and borrowing rates by the RBI last week.
“In the very short-term, I do not see any hikes by banks and non-banking finance companies,” HDFC vice-chairman and chief executive Keki Mistry told reporters here.
The apex bank last Friday hiked its short-term lending and borrowing rates (repo and reverse repo) by 25 basis points to 5.5 and 4 per cent respectively to tighten money supply in view of the rising inflationary pressures.
Chennai, July 06: In yet another suspected honour killing, relatives of a girl, who eloped with her lover after she was forced to marry against her wishes, murdered the man besides seriously injuring the girl in Tamil Nadu?s Sivaganga district today.
Police sources said 18-year-old Menaka was married to Kalidoss, much against her wishes a month ago.
She was reported missing for the past one week and her parents and relatives came to know that she was living with her lover Sivakumar near a village near Manamadurai town.
Srinagar, July 06:Security forces shot dead three protestors in different places here Tuesday as thousands took to the streets in waves after the death by drowning of a youth sparked a chain of events that shook the Kashmir Valley.
What started off as one mourning procession took an ugly turn by early evening as a woman, a male government employee and a 14-year-old boy were killed in firing in separate incidents, further fuelling the mob fury.
New Delhi, July 06: A Delhi court on Tuesday remanded former Medical Council of India (MCI) president Ketan Desai to 14 days of judicial custody for allegedly possessing assets disproportionate to his known sources of income.
Special CBI Judge O P Saini sent Desai to jail till July 20 after he was produced at the end of his eight-day custodial interrogation in the case.
The court came down heavily on CBI for filing an application for extension of Desai’s police custody by six more days.
Chennai, July 06: Twenty three cooperative banks in Andhra Pradesh have hit upon a novel idea of using single core banking solution (CBS) and save on hardware and software costs.
“Individually they are 23 entities. But they decided to use single CBS installed at Andhra Pradesh State Cooperative Bank Ltd (APSCOB) in Hyderabad on a multi-entity CBS model thereby saving each individual bank from investing in hardware and software,” Founder and Managing Director of Laser Soft Infosystems B. Suresh Kamath told IANS.
Kabul, July 06: A NATO soldier was killed in a roadside bombing in eastern Afghanistan Tuesday, while suspected Taliban militants killed six construction workers after kidnapping them in southeastern region, officials said.
The NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) confirmed the death of the soldier, but did not reveal his nationality.
The casualty came a day after six ISAF soldiers were killed in separate attacks in the country. A total of 335 foreign troops have been killed in Afghan conflict so far this year, according to ICasualties.org.
Melbourne, July 06: Over a third of babies (34.4 percent) born in Australia in 2008 were to mothers who were not married, registering a whopping rise in such births from 8.3 percent in 1970.
“For many children it’s been a good revolution, but it depends on the extent to which they are in safe and stable homes,” said the director of the Australian Institute of Family Studies, Alan Hayes, after a study.
Shimla, July 06: Hydropower major Satluj Jal Vidyut Nigam Ltd (SJVNL), which owns and operates the 1,500-MW Nathpa-Jhakri project in Himachal Pradesh, Tuesday reported a net profit of Rs.972.74 crore for the 2009-10 fiscal.
The state-run power utility posted a sales growth of Rs.161 crore on account of increased production.
SJVNL, the sixth divestment deal of the UPA government in its second term, is a joint venture between the central and the Himachal Pradesh government. The former held a 74.5 per cent stake, while the remaining 25.5 per cent is held by the state government.
Chennai, July 06: AIADMK chief J. Jayalalithaa Tuesday reiterated her opposition to the Tamil Tigers, noting it assassinated former Indian prime minister Rajiv Gandhi and several moderate Sri Lankan Tamil leaders.
Reacting to a statement by DMK chief and Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi earlier, she said: “Karunanidhi thinks that by making me appear as an opponent of the LTTE (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam), he can paint me as anti-Tamilian.
Kochi, July 06: CBI, which is probing the custodial death of a murder accused here, today moved the Kerala High Court seeking a direction to the state Home secretary to handover the case file to it.
The probe agency, which was ordered by the court to investigate the case, said they could not proceed with the investigation as the police have not yet handed over the case files to it.
Mumbai, July 06: Abdul Samad Bhatkal, who was picked up by police for alleged links with the Feb 13 Pune terror blasts, Tuesday denied he had anything to do with the bombing and said he was questioned in an illegal arms case.
Speaking to reporters after Samad was released on bail, his lawyer Mubin Solkar said Samad was made an accused in an illegal arms act case of 2009. He categorically denied any connection with the Feb 13 terror attack in Pune’s German Bakery, situated in the upmarket Koregaon Park area, in which 17 people were killed.
Raipur, July 06: Steps taken to combat Maoist insurgency had slowly started yielding results, union Home Secretary G.K. Pillai said here Tuesday.
Giving details about the ongoing anti-Maoist drives in many Chhattisgarh districts, he cited the example of tribal-dominated Kanker district and noted that ration shops had opened and weekly markets were being held in remote areas because of the presence of security forces.
New Delhi, July 06: Newly-wed Indian cricket captain M.S. Dhoni Tuesday met Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi.
“Dhoni accompanied by cricketer R.P. Singh met Rahul at 9.30 a.m. The meeting lasted 20 minutes,” a Congress source told IANS.
Dhoni was not accompanied by his wife Sakshi Rawat, whom he wed in Dehradun Sunday, a day after their engagement.
Although the meeting was held at 10 Janpath, Congress president Sonia Gandhi was not present, the source said, denying an earlier claim by a party leader that Dhoni and his wife had called on her.
–Agencies
Guwahati, July 06: Two NDFB rebels were today shot dead by securitymen in Assam’s Udalguri district.
Police said a joint team of police and Assam Rifles raided a NDFB hideout at Rowta and the two were killed in the shootout that followed.
The securitymen recovered 30 kg of ammonium nitrate, used to make explosives, two pistols, one grenade and 24 batteries from the slain ultras.
–Agencies