Indore, November 28: Congress General Secretary Digvijay Singh today held Rashtriya Janata Dal chief Lalu Prasad Yadav responsible for his party’s debacle in Bihar Assembly elections.
“We had to pay a price in the Bihar polls because of Lalu. Congress in Bihar had twice supported Lalu to form government in that state in past to keep BJP out of power. Due to this we suffered the loss,” Singh told reporters here.
Lahore, November 28: Legendary Sufi singer Abida Parveen was admitted to the ICU after she suffered a heart attack. She is now out of danger, doctors confirmed Sunday.
The 56-year-old was admitted Saturday night at the Doctors Hospital in Lahore. She dunderwent an angioplasty and is under observation for 24 hours, reported Geo TV online.
Doctors have revealed that the singer would have to stay in the hospital for at least five days.
New Delhi, November 28: In the face of uproar against the government over the alleged spectrum allocation scam, Tata group chief Ratan Tata has said that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh did not deserve to face “humiliation”.
“I want to say that it has hurt me to see what he (PM) has gone through in the past weeks… in Parliament… the pressure… the innuendos and the pressure he has been going through to resign and so on,” Tata said in an interview to NDTV.
New Delhi, November 28: Y S Vivekananda Reddy today met Congress chief Sonia Gandhi and is understood to have discussed the political situation in Andhra Pradesh arising out of the rebellious attitude of his nephew and party MP Jaganmohan Reddy.
Vivekananda Reddy, the brother of late Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy, met Gandhi at her 10, Janpath residence in the morning.
Hyderabad, November 28: Amid speculation that Congress will neutralise the Jagan camp by accomodating some of his loyalists in the new Andhra Pradesh cabinet, the rebel Kadapa MP may find the going tough.
For the 38-year-old son of former Chief Minister Y S R Reddy, who has been aspiring to become the CM, the increasing isolation may push him into breaking away from Congress and forming a new party, political analysts feel.
Ahmedabad, November 28: Slamming the Congress for refusing the Opposition’s demand for a JPC probe into the 2G spectrum scam, BJP today said its demand is legitimate and the party would stick to it.
“Congress is running away from the JPC and we have decided to stick to our demand. It has been three weeks now the Parliament is not functioning,” BJP spokesperson Prakash Javadekar said here.
Hyderabad, November 28: Rajya Sabha Member and senior Congress leader Mr V Hanumantha Rao has opined that the idea of weakening the Kadapa MP Mr YS Jagan Mohan Reddy was wrong.
Hyderabad, November 28: The Kandukuru MLA Mr Mahidhar Reddy, a strong aspirant of a Cabinet berth, has opined that the high command would not serve any show cause notice to the Kadapa MP Mr Jagan Mohan Reddy, because the latter did nothing wrong.
Speaking to the media at CLP office premises here on Sunday, Mr Mahidhar Reddy said that Mr Jagan’s ‘Odarpu Yatra’ was his personal one, and there was no serious issue that warranted action against him.
Dubai, November 28: A sword-throwing expert and a traditional dance troupe have powered the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to two new spots in the Guinness World Records.
In a sword-throwing competition held in Fujairah, 18-year-old Hazaa Sulaiman Al Shehhi threw a sword up to a height of 21.275 metres and later caught it by its handle, setting a new world record for the highest tossed sword, the Khaleej Times reported Sunday.
Patna, November 28: Abdul Bari Siddiqui was Sunday unanimously elected leader of the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) legislature party in Bihar.
Bari was elected at a meeting of the newly elected party legislators. RJD chief Lalu Prasad was also present, party leaders said.
RJD state president Bari won from the Alamnagar assembly constituency in the just-concluded polls.
Bari is considered close to Lalu Prasad and is likely to be elected the leader of the opposition in the assembly.
The RJD won 22 seats and its ally Lok Janshakti Party won 3 seats.
Hyderabad, November 28: Former Minister and Congress Party Senior Leader Jeevan Reddy today opined it was not wrong for the MLAs from the Telangana Region to join Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy’s Cabinet.However, they should not forget their commitment to a chieving a separate State.
The former minister exuded confidence that the Justice Sri Krishna Committee would submit its recommendations in favour of a separate Telangana State and Andhra Pradesh would be bifurcated by 2014.
New Delhi, November 28: Scores of students and others from the northeast living in the capital will hold a protest rally at Jantar Mantar Monday to protest the gangrape of a BPO staffer from Mizoram earlier this week and demand speedy justice.
The rally will be organised by the Delhi Mizo Students Association and will begin at 1 p.m.
Patna, November 28: Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) chief Lalu Prasad Sunday said that the party will review its rout in the October-November 2010 Bihar assembly polls where it won less then half the seats than it secured in 2005.
“The RJD will review its rout at a meeting of party workers and leaders here this week,” Lalu Prasad said at a press conference.
He said that RJD will come out with cause of its worst rout in one and half decades. “Lets wait and watch, RJD will review it and share with media,” he said.
London, November 28:A “test of nerve” game in Britain ended in tragedy after a man stabbed his friend to death thinking he was wearing a pierce-proof vest. The attacker was jailed.
Thirtyone-year-old David Baxter knifed his friend Christopher Baker through the heart as he thought the latter was wearing a pierce-proof vest, The Sun reported.
After being knifed, Baker initially laughed and said: “It’s gone through, Davey.”
He then collapsed and died.
Baxter was sentenced to two-and-a-half years in prison after pleading guilty to manslaughter.
Lucknow, November 28: Reality show Bigg Boss is proving to be a boon for contestant Seema Parihar’s family in finding a foothold and some respect, which they were waiting for since the former bandit queen put her guns down in 2003.
While Parihar is far away locked in the Bigg Boss house, her family in Dibiyapur area of Auraiya district near here in UP are gradually coming to terms with the new identity and adulation.
New Delhi, November 28: Non-teaching employees of about 200 universities from across the country have decided to stage a rally here on December 1 to press for enhanced allocation to the education sector and UGC pay scale for them.
The ‘march to Parliament’, being held under the banner of All India University Employees’ Confederation (AIUEC), would also seek to draw attention to the issue of “saving university education from the onslaught of private and foreign direct investment,” said AIUEC representative Bhabani Hota.
Bangalore, November 28: While India may have stemmed the AIDS epidemic “it miserably failed in prevention of parent to child transmission of HIV”, says the AIDS Society of India (ASI), a professional body of doctors in HIV care.
Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad told parliament on Nov 24 that nearly 53,000 children in the country are HIV positive. He admitted that the major source of the infection “is vertical transmission from their infected pregnant mothers”.
New Delhi, November 28: In the early 1970s when my father got married, among the pieces of advice he received from his uncle, he recalls one the most: “Young man, now that you are married, have you booked a phone for yourself?” My father answered in the negative as he had heard that getting a phone connection meant a long 10-year wait and ‘sifarish’ (recommendation).
Islamabad, November 28: A pack of dogs mauled to death a six-year-old girl in Pakistan’s Multan, a media report said.
Sonia Bibi was returning home after attending a madrassa when the dogs viciously attacked her. The dogs used to guard the poultry farm of a local landlord, the News International reported Sunday.
The girl was seriously injured in the attack. She was taken to a hospital where she died.
Police official Muhammad Imran, however, said that the girl was bitten by stray dogs.
–IANS
New York, November 28: The US has refused to enter talks with the whistle-blower website WikiLeaks over its planned release of millions of classified documents and asked it to return the “illegally obtained” papers, the leak of which would “endanger the lives of countless individuals.”
“We will not engage in a negotiation regarding the further release or dissemination of illegally obtained US government’s classified materials,” Harold Hongju Koh, the Legal Adviser at the State Department, said in a letter to Jennifer Robinson, Attorney for WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange.
London, November 28: A high-powered laser, which unblocks arteries in minutes, is being used on patients for the first time in London.
The Turbo Elite ‘drill’ fitted to a new laser, called the Excimer, blasts tissue into particles so small they can only be seen under a microscope.
Trials at University College Hospital in London have proved a major success with reduced operating times and hospital stays.
Mumbai, November 28: Key papers pertaining to the scam-ridden Adarsh housing society are missing from the Urban Development Department here, police said.
Police have registered a case of theft after a secretary of the department, Gurudas Bajpe, gave a written complaint to the Marine Drive police last night about the missing documents.
“We have registered a case against unknown persons. According to the UD department officials, several papers from the 10 files on Adarsh society were missing,” DCP Cherring Dorje said.
Washington, November 28: A Muslim boy says four bullies made his life a living hell in the halls of a Staten Island public school, calling him a “terrorist” and beating him every chance they got.
The victim, a 16-year-old high school freshman, told his father and the police of the constant abuse he endured, prompting the arrests Sunday of his teen tormenters on suspicion of hate crimes.
“[They] punched me in my groin, and I fell to the floor. They started kicking me, and calling me ‘You f—in’ terrorist,’ ‘You f—in’ Muslim,'” the victim, Kristian, told the Media.
Patna, November 28: Listing priorities for further improvement in the law and order situation in Bihar, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has said he would not tolerate crime in the state under any circumstances.
While reviewing the overall law and order situation in Bihar during a three-hour-long meeting with top police officials late last night, Kumar said more improvement on the law and order front, drive against Maoists, maintenance of communal harmony, tackling crimes on wheels and land disputes would be the priorities of his government.
Mumbai, November28: If Imran can’t stop raving about Bebo, who also happens to be his co-star in Karan Johar’s next Short Term Shaadi, Kareena too is generous with her compliments for this Khan, though she is smitten with only one Khan (Saif Ali Khan).
The actress is quoted as saying, “He (Imran) looks good and he’s handsome. I think he is the next generation super-star.”Kareena and Imran haven’t started shooting for their film, but going by their compliments, we can imagine how they are going to light up the big screen.
–Agencies