Month: February 2011

Two sisters shot dead by LeT militants in Kashmir

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Srinagar, February 01: In the first major strike targeting civilians this year, Lashkar-e-Toiba militants have shot dead two sisters after dragging them out of their house in Sopore town of North Kashmir’s Baramulla district.

Arifa and Akhtar, daughters of Ghulam Nabi Dar, were gunned down by three militants, including a Pakistani, at around 10 p.m. on Monday night at Muslim Peer in Sopore town, 52 km from here, Superintendent of Police Sopore Altaf Ahmad told.

Activists says Tejdeep to pay 4 lakh by herself

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Hyderabad, February 01: The State government is now under pressure from human rights groups to make the IPS officer, Ms Tejdeep Kaur Menon, herself pay the amount ordered by the National Human Rights Commission.

The NHRC had ordered the State government to pay Rs 4 lakh as interim relief to a couple, Ms G. Haritha and her husband M. A. Qadir, who were tortured and beaten up by Ms Menon who was inspector general of police (Special Protection Force) in August 2002 when the incident took place. The state police department had made the payment on Friday.

Japan volcano erupts with big blast of ash, rocks

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Tokyo, February 01: A revived Japanese volcano has erupted with its biggest explosion yet, sending a huge plume of gas, rocks and ash into the sky and breaking windows 8 km away.

Officials widened the danger zone to keep residents away. The eruption early Tuesday was the biggest since the Shinmoedake volcano burst to life last week.

Wide areas were covered with ash and boulders landed on roads miles away. The blast also knocked down trees and broke hundreds of windows in local hotels and offices.

What’s bothering Bihar’s entrepreneurs? Ask ‘MBA Sabziwalla’

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Patna, February 01: He is called the “MBA sabziwalla” and wants to make Bihar India’s vegetable hub. Kaushlendra, an alumnus of the Indian Institute of Management-Ahmedabad (IIM-A), is now working towards pre-paid cards for buying vegetables but complains of irritating hurdles that discourage budding entrepreneurs.

Kaushlendra, who refused to join a multinational company like his peers as he wanted to work towards making Bihar a better place, says something as simple as encashing a cheque can take days.

US justifies radio tags, says visa frauds serious

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Washington, February 01: The United States has justified the use of radio ankle monitors on some students of a sham university in California, 95 percent of them from India, saying it takes charges of visa fraud “very seriously”.

“We take these allegations of immigration and visa fraud very seriously,” State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley told reporters Monday when asked about India’s objection to the use of ankle bracelets on the duped students of Tri Valley University.

“These allegations are an excellent example of the universally damaging effects of visa fraud,” he said.

Somali pirates linked to Paki terror groups?

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Maldives, February 01: Security agencies are probing any possible link between Somalian pirates and Pakistan-based terror groups. Somalian pirates were now operating eastwards from their country and moving towards India and posed a threat to all merchant vessels passing through the high seas between India and the Maldives, Indian Coast Guard Director General Vice Admiral Anil Chopra said in New Delhi.

BJP examining legal options on Tiranga Yatra: Advani

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New Delhi, February 01: Terming as “illegal” the Jammu and Kashmir government’s action of not allowing Bharatiya Janata Party activists to hoist the tricolour at Lal Chowk in Srinagar, senior BJP leader L K Advani on Monday said his party was examining availability of legal options.

“Today the situation is such that if somebody hoists tricolour in Kashmir they will be put in jail. What is this? It is illegal,” Advani, who was here to attend a meeting of the Somnath Temple Trust, told mediapersons.

18 arrested for making fake eye drug in China

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Shanghai, February 01: Eighteen people have been arrested on charges of manufacturing and selling fake eye medication that left 61 patients suffering from adverse reactions in Shanghai, authorities said.A total of 116 patients were treated with the fake version of Avastin – originally produced by Swiss pharmaceutical company Roche Group – in September last year at the No. 1 People’s Hospital, Xinhua reported.

280 more stranded Indians in Egypt return home

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Mumbai, February 01: Another 280 Indians stranded in strife-torn Egypt reached here early Tuesday on a special flight.The Air India flight – AI-800 – carrying the Indians landed here at 2.30 a.m., an official said.

This is the second flight to Mumbai in Air India’s efforts to bring back the Indians stuck in different Egyptian cities. One flight with 320 passengers arrived Monday.

Metro woes: Slow trains, crowded stations in Delhi

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New Delhi, February 01: Hundreds of Metro commuters in Delhi faced problems reaching their destinations Tuesday morning with delays, slow-running trains and overcrowding. On the Noida-Dwarka line, one of the trains got stuck near the Mayur Vihar station for over 30 minutes.

Commuters had to wait long which led to overcrowding in the trains and the stations.

The Jahangirpuri-Huda City Centre line also faced problems due to delay in trains and unnecessary stoppages.

–IANS–

Prayer will not bring us to our goal

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Basavanagudi, February 01: “Prayer will not bring us to our goal,” said the Dalai Lama while addressing a mixed audience of Tibetans, Indians and expatriates at the National College Grounds in Basavanagudi on Sunday.

The Tibetan spiritual leader, who was invited by the Choe Khor Sum Ling Study Group to give a speech on ‘Finding Happiness in Troubled Times’, stressed on the importance of dialogue between nations in order to realise the ultimate goal of world peace.

Pak’s Nuclear Tops 100: Report

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Washington, February 01: A prominent U.S. newspaper says Pakistan has doubled its nuclear arms stockpile in recent years to exceed 100 weapons.

The Washington Post reported Monday that Pakistan now has a larger arsenal than its nuclear-armed neighbor and arch-rival India based on estimates provided by non-governmental analysts.

Based on recently accelerated production of plutonium and highly enriched uranium, analyst David Albright of the Institute for Science and International Security told the newspaper that Islamabad may now have up to 110 nuclear weapons.

Indian students duped by US varsity forced to wear radio collars

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Washington, February 01: After being duped by a California-based “sham” university, scores of Indian students in the US are now enduring the ignominy of being forced to wear radio collars around their ankles so that authorities can keep track of their movements.

The students, mostly from Andhra Pradesh, may also be deported as authorities shut down Tri-Valley University in Pleasanton, a major suburb in San Francisco Bay Area, on charges of a massive immigration fraud.

Indian girl falls to death in Abu Dhabi

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Dubai, January 01: An Indian teenager died after accidentally falling from the window of a high rise building in Abu Dhabi, according to a news report.

Thirteen-year-old Asma Abdul Rasakh, an eight class student of Indian High School, was fixing a curtain hook at her residence on Saturday when the chair she was standing on slipped and threw her out of the window and she died on the spot, according to eyewitnesses.

Man survives 1000-ft mountain fall

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London, February 01: A man in the UK has survived miraculously after falling off 1,000 feet from the top of a Scottish mountain — he even walked away after the accident, a media report said.

Adam Potter, a 35-year-old climber, lost his footing after reaching the summit of 3,589-feet Scottish peak Sgurr Choinnich Mor, around eight kilometres east of Ben Nevis, and fell down the steep and craggy eastern slope of the mountain at around lunchtime on Saturday.

Subsequently, a helicopter rescue mission found he was standing up and reading a map, The Sun reported.

Bombings Strike Police in Pakistan

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Islamabad, February 01: At least six people were killed and more than a dozen were wounded on Monday by a pair of bombs in northwestern Pakistan that were aimed at security forces, officials said.

The first attack took place Monday morning near Peshawar, the capital of the restive Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Province, formerly called North-West Frontier Province, where security forces are battling the Taliban insurgency.

I want to talk to India’s rich about philanthropy: Gates

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New Delhi, February 01: Does Bill Gates expect India’s super rich to open up their wallets for philanthropy when the Microsoft founder and fellow billionaire Warren Buffett come calling next month?

“I have no agenda. I just want to share my personal experience. I just want to have a conversation with Indian billionaires on their views of philanthropy. I will not be visiting with any set or high expectations,” Gates told TOI in a telephonic interview from the US.

He and Buffett held a similar discussion in Beijing in November with 50 Chinese business leaders.

SHOULD “BUTCHER” MODI BE ALLOWED IN CANADA?

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Canada, February 01: Mahatma Gandhi, India’s apostle of non-violence and Hindu-Muslim unity, hailed from the western state of Gujarat.

It’s the same province whose current chief minister (premier) presided over a 2002 pogrom against the minority Muslims that left 1,100 dead and 100,000 homeless.

Narendra Modi, dubbed “a merchant of death,” is still under investigation for his role. Since 2005, the state department has barred his entry into the United States. The EU has denied him diplomatic status.

Yet some of his supporters in Toronto want him to visit Canada.

Can the Palestinian Authority Survive?

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With the 18-year-long Middle East peace process finally pronounced dead, is the Palestinian Authority finished too?

That is the question being asked by Palestinians in the wake of a week of damaging revelations that Palestinian negotiators secretly made major concessions to Israel in talks on Jerusalem, refugees and borders.

The PA — the Palestinians’ government-in-the-making, led by Mahmoud Abbas — was already in crisis before the disclosure of official Palestinian documents by Al Jazeera television last week.

‘Sachin key to India’s WC success’

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Mumbai, February 01: Sachin Tendulkar would be crucial to India`s success in the upcoming World Cup and the Mahendra Singh Dhoni-led side was far ahead of the history-making `Kapil`s Devils` in terms of talent and experience, feels member of the 1983 Cup-winning side Balwinder Singh Sandhu.

Sandhu said apart from Tendulkar the present Indian team has plenty of match-winners in Yuvraj Singh, Yusuf Pathan and skipper Dhoni, who are capable of turning things around from a losing position.

Winehouse back in hospital

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London, February 01: Singer Amy Winehouse has checked into a private medical facility in London after falling ill with influenza, according to her publicist.The “Rehab” singer has been admitted to a clinic in Harley Street. It is the same facility where she had a breast augmentation in 2009, reports dailystar.co.uk.

The 27-year old singer returned to the clinic several times during 2010 due to complications following the procedure, as well as checking in after injuring herself in a drunken fall.

Spielberg’s ‘I Am Number Four’ to release Feb 18

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Los Angeles, February 01: Filmmaker Steven Spielberg’s sci-fi thriller “I Am Number 4″ is set to hit theatres worldwide Feb 18.The film, based on a book of the same name, is being presented by Dream Works Pictures and Reliance Big Entertainment. It is directed by D.J. Caruso.

Knightley struggled to accept success

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London, February 01: Hollywood actress Keira Knightley has admitted she used to feel like she didn’t deserve her success.The British actress shot to fame with “Bend It Like Beckham” before going on to star in the hugely successful franchise “Pirates of the Caribbean”. But the 25-year-old actress feels she struggled to come to terms with the success, reports femalefirst.co.uk.

“I had success very young. I found that confusing and rather frightening for a long time. I didn’t feel I deserved it,” she said.

Kim Cattrall finds hard to stay in shape

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London, February 01: “Sex And The City” actress Kim Cattrall is finding it tougher to stay in shape as she gets older.Cattrall, 54, says she is very fond of food, and so she had to grow up with a healthy attitude towards exercise from her younger days. But it is difficult for her now, reports dailymail.co.uk.

Gagarin’s daughter wants to register his trademark

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Moscow, February 01: The daughter of the world’s first cosmonaut, Yury Gagarin, has filed an application to register in the name of her father a trademark titled “Yury Alexeyevich Gagarin”.”I do not consider it shameful given that everyone is making money on Gagarin’s name. Why can’t his family do it?” head of Russia’s space agency Roscosmos, Anatoly Perminov said.