Hyderabad, January 03: For a change proving equal to the wiles of K Chandrasekhar Rao, the TDP today responded to his demand that only one rep per party be invited to the all-party meeting on the Srikrishna report on Jan 6 by suggesting that that one rep be the respective party’s president. That would mean that Sonia Gandhi would have to represent the Congress party at the meeting.
Hyderabad, January 03: Telangana Congress leaders today strongly condemned the ‘unethical’ behaviour of the Srikrishna committee members, including its chairman Justice BN Srikrishna, for allegedly making public the broad contours of the report and for violating the code of secrecy much before January 6, the day the Centre has decided to make the report public.
Guntur, January 03: The state government should leave no stone unturned to get a fair share in Krishna river water in the wake of pronouncement of KWDT verdict, said former chief minister K Rosaiah. Speaking to newsmen here today, the former chief minister said he was not convinced by the verdict of Krishna Water Dispute Tribunal headed by Justice Brijesh Kumar.
–Agencies
Karimnagar, January 03: Exactly after a month’s gap, Maoists made their presence felt by killing a youth, Gouthu Lachaiah (25), who is also a relative of former Naxalite, in the eastern division of Karimnagar district. The incident took place in Sarvaipet village in Mahadevpur mandal last night but it came to light on Sunday. According to local reports, about 40-50 Maoists descended on the village on Saturday night. Actually, they wanted to meet Kummari Babu Rao, who earlier worked with Praja Pratighatana group in Bakkanna dalam.
Kadapa, January 03: Police raided the houses of D Sivashankar Reddy, vice-chairman of DCMS and D Krishna, both close associates of former Kadapa MP YS Jaganmohan Reddy, in Pulivendula today.
The police said the raids were conducted to verify whether Sivashankar Reddy and Krishna, had renewed their gun licences. Considering that normally such a verification is done by the DSP rank official or by ringing up to the license-holder or by calling him to the DSP’s office along with his license, the raids, out of the procedure, have raised eyebrows.
Bangalore, January 03:Injury marred Hindustan Aeroneutics Sports
Club (HASC) surrendered to Salgaocar, Goa 0-1 in the seventh round
of I-League tie here today.
The solitary goal was a header by Francis Fernandes who superbly headed a pass given by the skipper and Japan midfielder Luciano Sobrosa in the 10th minute. Luciano was awarded man of the match with a prize money of Rs 5000.
Bangalore, January 03: Last edition runner up ONGC opened the campaign on a winning note defeating GAIL 3-0 in the 29th Petroleum Sports Promotion Board (PBPB) Inter Unit Tournament which began at the KSHA Stadium here today.
All the goals were scored in the first half with Harpal Singh, Pramodh Kumar and Bikas Potto scoring in 2nd, 8th and 15th minute respectively in the Pool ‘A’ match.
In Pool ‘B’ match, BPCL defeated EIL 2-1 with Indian team striker Tushar
Khanderkhar and R S Rana scoring in 12th 24th minute.
Hyderabad, January 03: A convicted murderer (of Paritala Ravi among others) made famous in his lifetime as a hero in Ram Gopal Varma’s recent Rakta Charitra, Maddalacheruvu Suri was attacked this afternoon at Navodaya Colony in the city (on the way from Sanathnagar to Yousufguda), by a follower of his, Bhanu, who was travelling with Suri in Suri’s own car.
Three bullets were shot at point-blank range into Maddalacheruvu Suri’s body – one entered his chest, one entered his lower abdomen, and one was shot into his head from behind his ear.
jaipur, January 03: The Rajasthan Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) has submitted a proposal to the state home department to declare a cash reward of Rs5 lakh each for information of three suspects of Ajmer Dargah bomb blast case.
“We recently submitted the proposal to the state home department and awaiting response. We have proposed to declare cash rewards of Rs5 lakh each for the arrest of Jayanti Bhai, Ramesh Gohil and Mafat Bhai of Gujarat,” additional superintendent of police (ATS) Satyendra Singh said today.
New Delhi, january 02: After questions were raised over his claim, Congress general secretary Digvijay Singh could be having the last laugh on the issue of his telephonic conversation between him and slain Mumbai ATS chief Hemant Karkare.
Singh has called a press conference here tomorrow saying he would release the call record of the phone call he made to Karkare hours before he was killed in the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks.
New Delhi, January 03: Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president Nitin Gadkari Monday interacted with ten state party units through video conferencing and called upon party functionaries to strive for “accountability and auditing” in every work.
“There should be evaluation of the work done. State presidents should give an account of the work done,” Gadkari said, adding that he too will give an account of his work as party president in the last year.
San Francisco, January 03: Facebook has nabbed $450 million in funding from investment bank Goldman Sachs that values the social networking company at $50 billion, the New York Times reported Monday.
The company also took a $50-million investment from Russian firm Digital Sky Technologies, which has already invested some $500 million in Facebook.
News of the investment came just days after the site was named as the most popular site in the US in 2010 as well as the most searched-for term. The company last year passed the 500 million member mark.
Srinagar, January 03: By ruling out reduction of troops and revocation of the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) in Jammu and Kashmir, the central government is compromising the democratic ethos of the nation, opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) said Monday.
Reacting sharply to the reported statement of union Home Minister P. Chidambaram ruling out reduction of forces in the state, PDP president Mehbooba Mufti in a strongly worded statement said “this stance was against the democratic ethos and constitutional mechanisms of India”.
New Delhi, January 03: The Bofors ghost is out again to haunt the Congress-led government as an Income Tax tribunal has ruled that Italian businessman Ottavio Quattrocchi and his partner Win Chadha received a commission of over Rs.412 million in the Rs.15 billion Howitzer gun deal in 1987. The opposition BJP has demanded that the “fraud” and “cover up” be probed by a special investigation team.
The Congress said it would study the tribunal’s order before making a comment. “We are not going to be hurried into reacting,” said Congress spokesman Abhishek Manu Singhvi.
Mumbai, January 03: The Jawarhalal Nehru Port Trust (JNPT) today said the Pakistani onions pending for release at the port since December 29 would be released tomorrow as the scanning by the Customs was over this evening.
The 200 tonne onions shipped from the Karachi port landed at the JNPT last Wednesday and were awaiting Customs and other clearances even as people were paying through their nose for this commodity.
New Delhi, January 03: Prime Minister’s economic advisory panel (PMEAC) has said a hike in diesel prices may be deferred to next fiscal due to high inflation rate.
“Perhaps, if by March 2011, the inflation rate comes to about 6 per cent, perhaps that may be the time at which they may revise the diesel prices,” PMEAC chairman C Rangarajan told PTI.
A meeting of a ministerial panel headed by Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, to consider raising diesel price by at least Rs 2 a litre, was deferred twice last month and no new date has been notified yet.
Kolhapur, January 03: Their first win of the season continued to elude them as hosts Air India were held to a goalless draw by Pune FC in a round seven I-League match at the Shahu Maharaj Ground here today.
Pune FC’s Lamine Tamba was named the man of the match.
Air India are lying at the bottom of the points table having scored just seven points from four games, while the visitors have amassed eight points from as many games.
–Agencies
Ajmer, January 03: Former President A P J Kalam today offered prayers and offered ‘chadar’ at the shrine of Sufi saint Khwaja Moinuddin Chisti here.
Kalam, then, went to meet his friend S K Salvan, a former Vice-Chancellor of Punjab Technical University.
Earlier, the former President was welcomed by the district collector Rajesh Yadav and SP Bipin Pandey at the circuit house here.
–Agencies
New Delhi, January 03: A scare was created in a south-west Delhi locality when a youth barged into a chemist shop and fired in the air when the salesman told him that the owner was not there, police said today.
The incident took place in Dwarka Sector-VII yesterday afternoon with police suspecting it to be a case of personal enmity. The accused Vicky (26) also allegedly attempted to take away cash from the shop.
Vicky allegedly barged into the shop and started looking for the owner, Suresh Kumar Gupta.
Islamabad, January 03: Pakistan’s beleaguered Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani, facing calls to resign from former allies, received a boost today as President Asif Ali Zardari and the ruling Pakistan People’s Party threw their weight behind him.
Zardari, who is camping in the southern city of Karachi, said he and the PPP have “full confidence” in Gilani and would “solidly stand behind him in foiling any attempt to destabilise the coalition government”.
Jammu, January 03: Jammu and Kashmir DGP Kuldeep Khoda today said all those involved in planting of “fake” IEDs would be dealt with under the law.
“Case is under investigation. All those involved in the fake IED planting case would be be dealt with under law.
No one would be spared”, Khoda told reporters here.
Interrogation of the arrested persons is going on and evidence is being collected to punish those involved in planting of “fake” improvised explosive devices, he said.
New Delhi, January 03: Two senior Defence Ministry officials, including one of Additional Secretary rank, have come under scanner as probe gathered momentum into an incident in which a secret IAF file related to multi-billion dollar aircraft deal was found by a roadside here.
Viewing the development seriously, Defence Minister A K Antony today said the officials needed to be careful while dealing with files related to the proposed procurement of Medium Multi-Role Combat Aircraft (M-MRCA).
Chennai, January 03: Indian Davis Cup star Rohan Bopanna today exuded confidence of getting past last year’s finalist Stanislaus Wawrinka in his first round match of the Aircel Chennai Open tennis tournament here tomorrow.
“Obviously it is going to be a tough match (against Wawrinka) for me. I had played him here last year. But it will be a different day tomorrow and I am looking forward to it,” Bopanna said.
“I will give it my best shot. I did better here during the Davis Cup. Hopefully, I will play in the same way and get a better result,” he added.
Davangere (Ktk), January 03: Three Bajrang Dal workers were arrested on charges of attacking and seriously injuring a pastor using “deadly weapons”, police said today.
According to Deputy Superintendent of Police S S Nayak, the pastor, who runs a Christian institution here for the past three years was attacked last night by the trio, who charged him of being engaged in conversion.
The seriously injured pastor was admitted to a private hospital and is stated to be “out of danger”, police said.
The three were produced before a local court and remanded to judicial custody.
Sangareddy (AP), January 03: Five persons, including four members of a family, were killed when the car they were travelling in collided with a bus in Medak district of Andhra Pradesh today, police said.
The victims, who hailed from Karimnagar district, were on their way to Hyderabad when their car crashed into an Andhra Pradesh State Road Transport Corp bus coming from the opposite direction, they said.
The deceased were identified as Ramesh Dodia (55), a businessman, his wife Anitha (38), brothers Brij Mohan (42), Santosh Kumar (43) and car driver Y Laxmaiah, police added.