Tehran, March 02: An official with the Iranian Judiciary has refuted reports by certain media that the heads of the sedition movement, Mir-Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi, were shifted from their homes to a prison.
“Reports by certain media about the transfer of Karroubi and Mousavi to a prison are not correct and are rejected,” Iran’s Judiciary Spokesman Gholam-Hossein Mohseni-Ejei told IRNA on Tuesday.
Tripoli, March 02: Fighting has flared up in Libya between anti-government protesters and forces loyal to embattled Libyan ruler Muammar Gaddafi, amid mounting international pressure on the government to stop violence.
Pro-Gaddafi forces have now massed in the country’s west, preparing to retake the city of Nalut from the opposition.
Residents fear an imminent attack by the government forces. The regime keeps suppressing the popular revolution as more cities in the west and east fall under the protesters’ control.
Tehran, March 02: Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi has extended his condolences to Turkey over the passing of former Turkish Premier Najm al-Din Erbakan.
In a letter to his Turkish counterpart Ahmet Davutoglu, Salehi also offered his condolences to Erbakan’s relatives, the Iranian Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Tuesday.
“I have always admired Erbakan as a great statesman and had high esteem for him,” Salehi said in his letter.
Erbakan became prime minister in 1996 as the first devout Muslim to hold the office in modern Turkey.
Washington, March 02: Two US warships would be entering Egypt’s Suez Canal on Wednesday morning as the threat of military intervention in Libya looms large, an Egyptian official says.
Earlier on Tuesday, US Defense Secretary Robert Gates said the USS Kearsarge, an amphibious ship capable of carrying up to 2,000 Marines, and the USS Ponce assault ship will be passing through the Mediterranean shortly, Reuters reported Tuesday.
Colombo, March 02: Sri Lanka Cricket has rubbished allegations of match-fixing that have cropped up against Mahela Jayawardene and Thilan Smaraweera due to a TV report, condemning the channel for carrying a “baseless and demoralising” story.
While commentating on the World Cup match between the Lankans and Pakistan, which the hosts lost by 11 runs, the channel’s anchor had said that Jayawardene and Smaraweera could have deliberately “changed the game” by scoring just two and one run respectively during the game.
Bangalore, March 02: Adarsh Hosalli Shivalingaiah, a Karnataka State Cricket Association academy player, beat Pietersen twice and even got him out stumped on a soft pitch that usually offered minimal turn.
So impressed was the hard-hitting batsman with the amount of turn the youngster generated that after his batting session, he walked up to the lad and told him, “show me how you grip the ball. You’re getting so much turn!”
“I showed him the grip and how I release it. My grip is always very tight. I use my wrist and middle finger to get maximum turn,” Adarsh told MiD DAY later.
Washington, March 02: A group of NRIs, inspired by the historic Dandi March led by Mahatma Gandhi in India’s fight for freedom from foreign rule, have organised a 240-mile walk in the US against corruption in India.
Starting at Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Park, San Diego, California March 12, “Dandi March II” goes through Los Angeles and ends March 26 at Gandhi Statue, San Francisco. The dates coincide with the dates Gandhi did his historic march in 1930.
Hyderabad, March 2: In a shameful and appalling incident occurred in Barkas a minor orphan girl’s uncle made her the victim of his lust. The girl is said to be pregnant.
Police Chandrayangutta have registered a case in this connection and the search is on for the girl’s uncle (aunt’s husband).
According to details two sisters Ajmeri Begum and Fatima Begum reside at Salala. The younger sister Ajmeri Begum who is a widow sent her daughter to her elder sister Fatima Begum’s house to take care of her as she is ill.
Toronto, March 02: Canada’s world-famous McGill University, which is the first-choice destination for Indian and other foreign students seeking to study in this country, faces fine for 900 percent hike in tuition fee for its MBA programme.
The Montreal-based university had announced last spring to raise the tuition fee from $1,673 per semester to $29,500 a year for its two-year MBA programme.
While students earned an MBA degree until now by paying just about $6700, they will now have to shell out $59,000 to earn the degree.
New York, March 02: A US court has issued summons to India’s Congress party to answer charges of “conspiring, aiding, abetting and carrying out organized attacks on Sikh population of India in November 1984.”
The US District Court for the Southern District of New York issued the summons Tuesday in a class action law suit filed by Sikhs For Justice (SFJ), a US based community group along with several Sikh survivors of the 1984 attacks.
London, March 02: A research group from the University of Queensland (UQ) and the Queensland Administration have discovered honey from an Australian native myrtle to be stronger than all other honey brands available in the market.
Therapeutic honeys have an anti-bacterial component, which can be used to cure injures and viruses.
The research group detected that native myrtle honey contains very high levels of the ingredient, Methylglyoxal (MGO).
London, March 02: Researchers said that an hour of sleep during daytime could help control blood pressure level after mental strain.
A research carried out by Ryan Brindle and Sarah Conklin from the Allegheny College in United States, discovered that study partakers who slept 45 minutes during daytime had lower average blood pressure level after stress as compared to those who did not sleep during daytime.
Lengthy work plans shift work, augmented nervousness and a greater utilization of the web and TV late during night impacts night-time sleep.
Mumbai, March 02: She is one of the most sought after anchors at award functions now, but actress Mona Singh admits nothing can surpass the success of her debut show “Jassi Jaisi Koi Nahin” – which is why she consciously stays away from fiction content on television.
New Delhi, March 02: Sixty-three persons, including promoters and CEOs of 10 telecom firms have come under its scanner in the 2G spectrum case, the CBI on Tuesday told the Supreme Court which expressed satisfaction over the ongoing probe.
The central government, which is also party to the case, informed a bench of justices GS Singhvi and AK Ganguly that it is in favour of setting up a special court to try the accused in the 2G case and the law minister has written a letter to the Delhi High Court chief justice asking him to constitute a court and identify a judge for this purpose.
Washington, March 02: Indian American Rajat Gupta, a former director at Goldman Sachs, has been slapped with insider trading charges for allegedly leaking secret details to Galleon Group hedge fund manager Raj Rajaratnam about Warren Buffett’s plan to invest $5 billion in the company.
Mumbai, March 02: Director Anees Bazmee has denied rumours that his forthcoming film ‘Ready’ includes a steamy sequence between leading stars Salman Khan and Asin.
“I don’t know where these rumours came from. There is no steamy sequence between Salman and Asin in ‘Ready’,” said Bazmee.
Mumbai, March 02: Director Rohit Shetty is all set to bowl over the audiences with the action of his next film Singham. For the uninitiated, ‘Singham’ is the remake of the Tamil hit by the same name and features Rohit’s best buddy Ajay Devgn along with newcomer Kajal Aggarwal.
The director, who is known for his flair for comedy, is ecstatic to return to an action-packed film after a long time. Singham is all set to hit the floors on March 2 and the news is that Rohit has conceptualized, designed and will be executing the action for the film himself.
New Delhi, March 02: Pakistani hottie, Veena Malik celebrated her 27th birthday with ‘good friend’ Ashmit Patel at a five star hotel in New Delhi recently.
The former housemates of ‘Bigg Boss 4’ , Ashmit and Veena set the mercury soaring with their PDA while they were in the show. And since then speculations have been rife that the two have been seeing each other. Of course, like all other celebrities they have maintained that they are just ‘good friends’.
New Delhi, March 02: With due apologies to Australian cricket captain Ricky ‘Punter’ Ponting, he is not the only punter playing in this World Cup. Seriously, there have always been punters in cricket and they never retire.
Washington, March 02: US Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke says the US unemployment rate will remain high for years to come, despite relatively modest economic growth this year.
On Tuesday, Bernanke once again defended the Fed’s 600-billion-dollar Treasury bond-purchase plan to rev up the slow pace of the US economic recovery, but warned that the scheme is unlikely to make a dent in unemployment, a Media correspondent in Washington reported.
Tehran, March 02: A 1977 Peugeot 504 that had been owned by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has been sold for $2.5 million in a charity auction organized to raise money for a housing project for low-income families.
The 34-year-old Peugeot sedan was sold on Tuesday in an exhibition of classic cars in the Arvand Free Trade Zone in the southwestern province of Khuzestan, the Fars news agency reported.
Tehran, March 02: Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi has met with Swiss President Micheline Calmy-Rey and Serbian Foreign Minister Vuk Jeremic in Geneva.
In a meeting with the Swiss president on Tuesday, Salehi said there is much common ground for cooperation between Iran and Switzerland, IRNA reported.
Salehi and Calmy-Rey discussed ways to enhance bilateral ties in various areas as well as the latest international developments.
Washington, March 02: High-ranking US defense officials say Washington is mulling over a full range of options for Libya and that two US warships have been sent into the Mediterranean Sea.
The USS Kearsarge, an amphibious assault ship capable of transporting up to 2,000 Marines, and the USS Ponce will be entering the Mediterranean “shortly,” US Defense Secretary Robert Gates said following a Pentagon briefing session with Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Mike Mullen, AFP reported on Tuesday.
Tripoli, March 02: Violence and chaos in Libya have triggered an exodus of more than 140,000 refugees to Tunisia and Egypt, a UN official said, as aid workers warned the situation at the Tunisian border has reached crisis point.
Officials say the situation has been made even more volatile by humanitarian aid workers being blocked from reaching western Libya, patients reportedly being executed in hospitals, or shot by gunmen hiding in ambulances.
New Delhi, March 02: Women need to enter politics in large numbers to clean the system, asserted speakers at the national conference on ‘Emerging trends in women leadership in India’ jointly organised by the Women Studies Centres of Holy Cross and Cauvery College for Women on Tuesday.