Chennai, March 05: The DMK Saturday withdrew support to the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government after failing to reach a seat-sharing pact with the Congress for the Tamil Nadu assembly elections.
DMK leader T.R. Baalu said DMK ministers had been asked to go to New Delhi and submit their resignations to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
——–IANS
Lucknow, March 05: Accusing opposition parties of trying to malign her government’s image, BSP supremo and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati today asked party leaders and workers to remain alert and thwart their designs.
The increasing popularity of the BSP government had rattled the opposition parties which were trying to sully its image, she told a meeting of Ministers, MLAs and senior party functionaries here.
The Chief Minister asked party workers and leaders to remain alert and foil their designs.
Kolkata, March 05: Trinamool Congress today criticised CPI(M) leader Sitaram Yechury for dubbing its chief Mamata Banerjee’s decision not to contest the assembly polls as her “weakness”, saying the comment was made out of frustration and showed that the Left Front was getting “panicky”.
“It is ridiculous that a man who has never participated in a direct election but always acted from outside is making such comment,” Trinamool Congress vice-president Subrata Mukherjee told reporters here.
New Delhi, March 05: The Delhi Police arrested four youngsters for motor bike thefts and burglaries in various parts of the city, police said Saturday.
Pankaj (24), Mithun (19) and a juvenile were held from West Punjabi Bagh area in west Delhi Friday for stealing motor bikes, while Ajay (24) was held from Madipur area, also in west Delhi, an official said.
With the arrest of Pankaj, Mithun and the juvenile, police claimed to have solved six cases of motor bike thefts and burglaries. Four bikes and jewellery worth Rs.3 lakh were recovered from them.
Singapore, March 05: An Indian-origin officer has been named as the new chief of the Singapore Army, a media report said.
Brigadier-General Ravinder Singh will take charge from Major-General Chan Chun Sing March 25.
Forty-six-year old Singh is currently the defence ministry’s deputy secretary (Technology). He joined the Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) in December 1982.
Singh made significant contributions to the SAF that included the application of the Integrated Knowledge-Based Command and Control (IKC2), the Straits Times reported.
Bhubaneswar, March 05: An Orissa state committee member of the outlawed Communist Party of India-Maoist was arrested Saturday from Bargarh district, police said.
Satrughan Biswal alias Mangu alias Mohan was arrested in Bargarh, some 380 km from here, district superintendent of police Soorya Thankappan told IANS.
He was second in command in the state unit and was operating in three districts of Bargarh, Nuapada and Bolangir, she said.
Tehran, March 05: Head of Kurdistan’s Environment Protection Organization Kheirollah Moradi says four rangers have been killed by counter-revolutionary elements.
The bodies of the rangers, who had gone for patrol on Friday, were found by a mountain climber, Moradi told ISNA on Saturday.
Explaining that the rangers had been killed by fire arms, Moradi added that “initial investigations show that this terrorist attack has been carried out by counter-revolutionary elements.”
Moscow, March 05: All the six crew members of a Russian plane were killed Saturday when the aircraft, on a trial flight, crashed in south-west Russia.
The Antonov AN-148, a twin-turbofan powered regional airliner with a seating capacity of up to 100 passengers, crashed at 1040 Moscow time in the village of Garbuzov.
The plane, which belonged to the Voronezh Aircraft Plant, crashed on a trial flight in Belgorod region in south-west Russia, said a local emergency ministry representative Saturday.
Tripoli, March 05: Muammar Gaddafi’s forces on Saturday broke through rebel lines at an opposition-held city that is closest to Tripoli in a dawn attack that could prove crucial to the regime’s defence of the Libyan capital, witnesses said.
Chennai, March 05: After sewing up seat-sharing deals with six smaller parties for 49 seats, Tamil Nadu’s main opposition AIADMK party is expected to reach a pact with the two Left parties Sunday.
The AIADMK entered the much-expected alliance with the DMDK, led by actor-turned-politician Vijayakant, Friday night.
“We expect the seat sharing to be completed by Sunday,” a Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) leader told IANS Saturday.
However, leaders of the CPI-M and the Communist Party of India (CPI) declined to say how many of the 234 seats they want to contest.
New Delhi, March 05: Students from various organisations will next week march to parliament demanding that the central government introduce a bill for formation of a separate Telangana state in the ongoing budget session.
Students under the banner of “Students’ Solidarity Committee for Separate Telangana” will hold a convention March 11 at Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) and will later march from Mandi House to Parliament House.
Balasore, March 05: To establish a reliable ballistic missile shield, India will launch its indigenously developed interceptor missile from the Orissa coast on Sunday.
“Range preparation for the interceptor missile test is complete and it is likely to be taken up tomorrow from the Integrated Test Range (ITR) complexes off Orissa coast,” defence sources said on Saturday.
Kabul, March 05: The explosion of a roadside bomb in southern Afghanistan has claimed the life of a US-led soldier in the war-torn country, NATO announces.
The NATO said in a Saturday statement that the soldier was killed on Friday, without giving further information, a Press TV correspondent reported.
NATO, however, did not reveal the nationality or the exact location of the bomb blast.
Friday death brings to 74 the number of foreign soldiers killed in war-wrecked Afghanistan so far this year.
Islamabad, March 05: As unrest continues to grip Pakistan, militants have destroyed three state-run schools in separate incidents in northwest of the country.
Militants detonated a high school building in Shalobar area of Bara Tehsil in Khyber Agency on Saturday morning, a Press TV correspondent reported.
As a result of the blast, the building was completely destroyed, the report added.
In another incident, militants attacked another school building with explosives in the Kohat region of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.
Mathura, March 05: An 18-year-old Dalit girl was abducted by some unidentified youths in a village near Mathura when she was returning from school, police said today.
The girl identified as Pushpalata Jatav of Nagla Bhoji village was returning home last evening when some youths forced her into a car and sped away, police said.
The girl is a niece of former district panchayat president of the BSP, they said.
—Agencies
Patna, March 05: Two Home Guards have been arrested in Bihar and face dismissal for raping a woman in a police station, police said Saturday.
A woman who had reportedly eloped in Kushinagar district of neighbouring Uttar Pradesh was brought to the Patkhauli police station in Bagaha district Friday.
On Friday night, the Home Guards raped the woman, who complained to police Saturday.
Additional Director General Rajvardhan Sharma said Bihar Police chief Neelmani had ordered the dismissal of the Home Guards.
——IANS
Colombo, March 05: Sri Lanka captain Kumar Sangakkara won the toss and opted to bat first against Australia in their World Cup Group A match at on Saturday.
Holders Australia, who have not lost a World Cup match since 1999, are seeking their third straight win in the tournament but the co-hosts Sri Lanka are aiming for their third win in four matches.
Sri Lanka’s maverick right-arm speedster Lasith Malinga can churn out yorkers after yorkers with amazing regularity, which was in full display against Kenya as he grabbed six wickets, including a hat-trick, on Tuesday.
Britian, March 05: The UK Border Agency has permitted a failed asylum seeker who murdered a 12-year-old girl and was also banned from driving to remain in the UK.
Mohammed Ibrahim, an Iraqi Kurd asylum seeker, who was guilty of murder and was also banned from driving was granted a chance to stay in UK.
Although the father of the murdered teenager Paul Houston and UK Border Agency denounced the decision, two senior immigration judges allowed Ibrahim to stay. However, Houston has been campaigning to deport Ibrahim.
Hyderabad, March 05: Alleged financial problems, fear of examinations and health reasons drove four students to end their lives in the city and neighbouring Medak district on Friday.
In Patancheru of Medak district, a first year engineering student committed suicide allegedly unable to bear the pressure from his college management to pay the fees before the examinations.
According to police, K Shankar Reddy (19), was a first year ECE student of TRR Engineering college at Inol village in Patancheru mandal.
Bangalore, March 05: JD-S leader and former Karnataka Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy today demanded that the state government challenge a local court’s order acquitting the accused in the 2007 bus burning case, in which two persons were charred to death.
The state unit president of JD-S alleged the BJP government had “weakened” the case during the trial and made the “witnesses turn hostile”.
Mumbai, March 05: In the world of glitterati, where actresses do all possible things to keep their real age under wraps, bong beauty Bipasha Basu dares to be different. The dusky hottie has candidly admitted that she is indeed ageing and looks a lot different from what she used to look earlier.
Talking to a daily about how she has transformed over the years, Bips said, “Yes, I do. That`s because I`m ageing. I`m not as young as I used to be.”
Jammu, March 05: The Jammu and Kashmir government today said as many as 31619 families displaced from PoK during partition riots in 1947 were registered in the state.
Altogether 31619 PoK families displaced during 1947 were registered by the Provincial Rehabilitation Organisation here, Revenue Minister Raman Bhalla said in the Legislative Council.
Of these, 26319 families opted to stay in Jammu and Kashmir, he said in a reply to a question.
The rest opted to settle outside the state, Bhalla said adding the land was allotted to 21116 families and flats and quarters to 3200.
Allahabad, March 05: A case has been registered against five persons, including four panchayat members, for allegedly pressurizing a rape victim, who is hearing and speech impaired, not to pursue her police complaint after asking the accused to pay a “compensation” of Rs 2100 to her.
The incident occurred in Sarai Sultan village falling under Bahariya police station of the district, 40 kms from the city, where the dalit woman, an agricultural labourer, was allegedly raped by a local youth while she was working in the fields on Tuesday, police sources said.
Visakhapatnam, March 05: A pregnant woman, who was returning home on foot, was brutally killed in full public view at Maddilapalem sending shock waves across the city on Friday.
Duvvi Krishnaveni was married and was into her third month of pregnancy. Her husband Ch Ravi Kumar is suspected to have killed her.
She was a final-year engineering student (Computer Science) of the Vignan College of Engineering, Duvvada.
Islamabad, March 05: A Pakistani anti-terrorism court today adjourned till March 26 the case of the police guard who assassinated Punjab Governor Salmaan Taseer after recording the statements of two witnesses.
Mumtaz Qadri, a member of Taseer’s security detail, gunned down the Governor in Islamabad on January 4.
He said he was angered by Taseer’s opposition to the country’s controversial blasphemy law.
Over 100 supporters of Qadri gathered outside Adiala Jail in the garrison city of Rawalpindi, where the case is being heard for security reasons, and shouted slogans.