Month: August 2010

UN, US designate HuJI as terrorist organisation

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Washington, August 07: The UN and the US have designated Harkat-ul Jihad al-Islami (HuJI) as a terrorist organisation and imposed sanctions on the group and its commander Mohammad Ilyas Kashmiri.

The US department of treasury Friday put the label “A Specially Designated Global Terrorist” on HuJI, a terrorist organisation most active in Pakistan, India and Bangladesh since the early 1990s.

Under US law, assets held by HuJI and Kashmiri in the US would be frozen and American people or companies would be prohibited from engaging in transactions with the group or with Kashmiri.

Inciting child sexual activity, Teacher found guilty

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London, August 07: A school teacher in Britain has been found guilty of inciting two minor girls to engage in sexual activity, while he watched them on a webcam.

Michael Harding, 35, of Chafford Hundred in the outskirts of London, was found guilty Friday by the Basildon Crown Court of four counts of inciting a child to engage in sexual activity, the New Zealand Herald reported citing local media.

Harding, hailing from New Zealand, admitted in the court that his online exchange with two 12-year-old girls was highly inappropriate, but he said it was not sexually motivated.

Working on Indian films becomes a task: Zakir Hussain

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Mumbai, August 07: Tabla maestro Ustad Zakir Hussain, who has returned to music composition after eight years with the crossover movie “For Real”, says he doesn’t work on many films because it becomes a task. He is also impressed with the new crop of talent on the Indian music scene.

” ‘For Real’ is the third film that I have done music for. I am not in India most of the time; so working on Indian films becomes a task,” Hussain told IANS in an e-mail interview.

Silence is not always golden: PM

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New Delhi, August 07: Jawaharlal Nehru was a close approximation of Plato’s philosopher-king. Of all other prime ministers after him, Manmohan Singh has the most distinguished academic record. Yet, the gentle Sikh lacks the communication skills of the patrician Kashmiri Brahmin.

Whereas the first prime minister, who was known for his eloquence, spent considerable time even during public rallies to explain India’s multicultural heritage and digress into foreign policy to underline the meaning of non-alignment, Manmohan Singh has been unusually reticent for a leader of the government.

16 die in China gold mine fire

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Beijing, August 07: Sixteen miners were killed when a fire broke out in a gold mine in eastern China, Xinhua reported Saturday.

About 300 people were working underground when the accident occurred around 5 p.m. Friday in Luoshan gold mine in Zhaoyuan city, officials said.

Most of the victims were suffocated. Seven miners remained trapped.

By 8.30 a.m. Saturday, the underground blaze had been put out but power to parts of the shaft had yet to be restored. Dozens of injured were hospitalised.

Contact with the trapped miners has been established and efforts are on to rescue them.

BJP backs caste-based census

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New Delhi, August 07: The BJP favours caste column in the census rather than OBC-based census, toeing the line indicated by the RSS. The RSS was initially opposed to caste-based census, but later on, revisiting its own stand, the Sangh took the position that caste-based census was preferable over OBC-based census. Thereby it facilitated the BJP to finalise its own stand on the issue.

The BJP now favours a caste column, leaving it, however, to the government to decide to use it whenever and wherever necessary, but with the rider not to disturb the integrity of the headcount.

Naidu sticks to 2-eye policy: Telangana issue

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Hyderabad, August 07: TDP chief N Chandrababu Naidu will remain as equivocal as ever on the issue of bifurcation of the state. This will be the party’s policy, going forward.

In other words, his two-eye policy is in tact, despite the drubbing the party has received in the Telangana region in the recent by-elections.“As both Telangana and Andhra regions are important me, I have taken a neutral stand on the bifurcation issue.

Srikrishna panel to travel and obtain opinion on Telangana

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New Delhi, August 07: Members of the Srikrishna committee, looking into demands for and against separate statehood to Telangana, will travel by train next month to seek the opinion of the people.

The five-member committee headed by Justice B.N. Srikrishna will travel from Shadnagar town in Mahabubnagar district to Kadapa in September. The committee will stop at different places both in the Telangana and Rayalaseema regions to feel the pulse of the people.

PDP has nothing to do with meeting with PM: Mehbooba

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Srinagar, August 06:Opposition PDP today said it has nothing to do with the proposed meeting of an all party delegation from Jammu and Kashmir with the prime minister Manmohan Singh.

“This is the state government’s initiative…They have sought time from the Prime Minister to meet an all party delegation from the state. We have nothing to do with it as we were not part of the all party meet convened by the chief minister Omar Abdullah last month”, PDP president Mehbooba Mufti told PTI.

India hints at Pakistan role in Kashmir unrest

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New Delhi, August 06: Home minister P Chidambaram hinted on Friday that Pakistan could be behind weeks of violent anti-India protests in the disputed Kashmir region, a move that could hurt the nuclear-armed rivals attempts to improve ties.

This is the first time New Delhi has linked Pakistan to the violence in Kashmir that has killed nearly 50 people since June. Earlier India had said Pakistan-based militants were inciting trouble in Kashmir, a region divided between India and Pakistan and which both claim in full.

Food prices to ease with rains, says RBI Deputy Governor

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New Delhi, August 09: The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has taken measures to tackle inflation and expects food inflation to subside with good monsoon rains, a deputy governor of the central bank said on Friday. “The call money rates have gone up and that is substantial tightening.

We expect to see the effect of our actions in the second half of the year. Actions act with a lag,” Deputy Governor Subir Gokarn, who heads the monetary policy division, said here Friday.

Satyam scam: Examination of Raju, others postponed yet again

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Hyderabad, August 06: The examination of the disgraced former chairman of Satyam Computers B Ramalinga Raju and nine other accused in the Rs 10,000-crore accounting fraud, was again postponed today, as one of the accused moved the High Court seeking reversal of procedures to commence the trial.

The XXIth additional chief metropolitan magistrate court here adjourned the matter (examination of the accused) to August 11, following a request from one of the accused, Ch Srisailam.

AP bypolls, suicides being noted: Sri Krishna Committee

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Hyderabad, August 06: The Sri Krishna committee on Telangana issue on Friday said it has taken note of the results of recent bypolls in Telangana and alleged suicides in support of the statehood demand but they do not put any kind of pressure on it while preparing the final report.

Bhopal case would take 25 years, victims will be dead: SC

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New Delhi, August 6: Taking a dig at the slow pace of judicial proceedings, the Supreme Court today said it would perhaps take another 25 years before the Bhopal gas tragedy case is decided by it and by that time the victms would be dead.

“It took the trial court 25 years to decide the case. It will then come on an appeal in the High Court where it will drag on for another 15 years. After that, it will come to the Supreme Court where it will go on for another 10 years. By that time, the victims will all be dead,” the apex court said.

Saudi women own $11.9 billion in cash

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Riyadh, August 07: A big portion of Saudi wealth is owned by its women reaching $11.9 billion cash, Almasa Capital’s asset management reported in a study.

Despite the big cash at hand, the study revealed that these Saudi women still feel disempowered due to political and social constraints.

The released study published by the London-based Al-Hayat newspaper showed that Saudi women make up to 45 percent of the Saudi population, and 65 percent of the 79 percent of the literate female population work, however 78.3 percent of female college graduates do not work.

Regionally

Buffet and Gates to urge Indian rich to donate wealth

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New York, August 06: Philanthropist billionaires Bill Gates and Warren Buffet will approach rich people in India and China to urge them to donate at least half their wealth.

The move is part of Gates-Buffet initiative, launched in June, that originally aimed at asking American billionaires to pledge that their wealth would be donated either during their lifetime or upon death.

The two now plan to take the idea beyond the US borders.

US Senate approves steep hike in H1B fee

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Washington, August 06: The US Senate on Friday approved a substantial increase in application fees for H-1B and L1 visas, most sought after by Indian IT professionals to fund a USD 600 million emergency package to improve security along the porous Mexican border.

The proposed massive increase in H-1B and L1 visa application fee would primarily affect the top Indian IT companies who rely majorly on these categories of visas to continue with their work in the US.

Government willing to restart quiet dialogue in Kashmir: Chidambaram

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New Delhi, August 06: Home Minister P. Chidambaram said Friday the government was committed to reactivating the political process in Jammu and Kashmir and would be ‘very happy’ if hardline separatist leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani joins in the dialogue.

The minister told the Rajya Sabha that an all-party delegation from the state is expected to meet Prime Minister Manmohan Singh next week and the government will soon convene a meeting of leaders of political parties in parliament to discuss the situation in the troubled state.

Banks not following RBI norms on no-frills accounts:Pranab

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New Delhi, August 06: Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee today admitted that a number of banks were not following RBI guidelines on opening of no-frills accounts and said a mechanism will soon be developed to involve people’s representatives at state level meetings with banks so that they are able to take up their issues.
Mr Mukherjee informed the Lok Sabha during Question Hour that there have been complaints on banks not giving zero balance facilities in the rural areas.

The Finance Minister said he has asked banks to give an action plan to address their grievances.

–Agencies

20 Tanzania children feared dead in boat capsizing

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Arusha (Tanzania), August 06: Police say 20 school children are feared drowned after a boat they were travelling in capsized on the Tanzanian side of Lake Victoria.

Police commander Saymon Siro says the boat capsized yesterday while carrying the children to a school located on an island in the lake. He says the boat was filled with about 40 children between the ages of 6 and 14.

Siro said today that six bodies already have been recovered and efforts were underway to search for at least 14 more bodies in the area off the coastal town of Mwanza. Twenty children have been rescued.

US jobless rate unchanged in July at 9.5pc

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Washington, August 06: The number of employed Americans dropped by 1,31,000 in July as the government continued to cut temporary workers hired for the Census activities, but the jobless rate remained unchanged at 9.5 per cent.

Indicating that the labour market recovery will take a longer time, private sector employment rose by just 71,000 last month, much lower than expected.

Bilawal not yet ready for political baptism

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London, August 06: Bilawal, the 21-year-old-son of President Asif Ali Zardari and late premier Benazir Bhutto has dismissed reports about his political baptism at a major UK rally, saying he is not yet ready to take the plunge.

Amid reports that Bilawal will be launching his political career by addressing a Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) rally at Birmingham, the Oxford graduate announced that he intended to continue his “academic and political” education.

“I will not be attending the event.

Delhi Police rapped for filing dowry cases without proper probe

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New Delhi, August 06: A day after the Supreme Court held that a person cannot be convicted for merely demanding dowry, the Delhi High Court Friday pulled up the Delhi Police for registering a case of dowry against a person without carrying out a proper probe.

While granting bail to a person arrested under the dowry act, Justice S.N. Dhingra observed that before registering an FIR, the police must investigate the allegations levelled against a person in a detailed manner.

Azad, medical team to reach Leh Saturday

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New Delhi, August 06: Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad along with a seven-member medical team will Saturday visit Leh town of Jammu and Kashmir, where at least 115 people were killed and over 350 injured in flash floods triggered by a massive cloudburst.

The seven-member team comprising a public health specialist, two orthopaedic surgeons, two surgeons and two anaesthetists will cater to the medical needs of the injured, an official said.

Four doctors are from Safdarjung hospital, two from Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital and one from the National Institute of Communicable Diseases.

RJD demands Central University for Bihar

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New Delhi, August 06: Rashtriya Janta Dal today demanded a central university for the Bihar and giving Patna University the status of such an institution.

“Why is it so that there is no central university in Bihar whereas other states have more than one such institutions,” Raghuvansh Prasad Singh asked in the Lok Sabha during Zero Hour.

Expressing dissatisfaction over no progress on the proposal to set up a central university in Champaran, he demanded that the Centre should give Patna university the status of such institution.