Month: May 2011

‘U.S. Army may have played role in death of Princess Diana’

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Washington, May 29: The U.S. military may have played a role in the 1997 death of Princess Diana as she was campaigning for a worldwide ban on landmines, says the author of The Murder of Princess Diana.

Noel Botham told Press TV that Princess Diana, during her visit to the U.S. in 1997, succeeded in persuading former U.S. President Bill Clinton to vote in favor of a global ban on landmines at the Oslo Conference, which was due to take place on the 19th of September of that year.

Phase 12 of panchayat polls ends in Jammu and Kashmir

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Srinagar, May 29: Polling for the 12th phase of panchayat elections in nine blocks of Jammu and Kashmir ended Sunday afternoon with enthusiastic voters braving the summer heat to elect representatives for grassroot level governance.

Voting started at 8 a.m. and ended at 2 p.m.

Baramulla, Kakapora and Achabal in the Kashmir Valley and Paddar, Nagseni, Ghat Doda, Gool, Mandi and Poonch blocks in the Jammu region went to the polls Sunday.

EC mulls accounting rules for political parties

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New Delhi, May 29: In an effort to curb the use of black money in the electoral process, the Election Commission now plans to ask political parties to conduct their finances in a corporate fashion by getting their accounts audited and publishing their audited finance sheets annually.

Pak PM attended funeral of Headley’s father in 2010

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Chicago, May 29: Pakistan Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani had attended the funeral of Mumbai attacks accused David Headley’s father in 2010.

This was disclosed by 50-year-old Headley at a Chicago court during the trial of co-accused Tahawwur Rana (50) in the 26/11 attacks case.

He told jury during the course of questioning on Thursday that Prime Minister Gilani attended the funeral of his father Syed Saleem Gilani and also offered condolences to the bereaved family.

CM Kiran is neither male nor female

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Hyderabad,May 29: TDP MLA Revanth Reddy has made a sensational remark that the Chief Minister Kirankumar Reddy was neither male nor female. Speaking in the Mahanadu of his party he said it was unfortunate that Sonia Gandhi has selected Kiran Kumar Reddy instead of selecting a male or a female as the Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh.

5 Lakh fine on hospital for denying treatment

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Ghaziabad, May 29: A local hospital here was slapped with a fine of Rs 5 lakh by a consumer forum on charges of negligence in a case leading to the death of a couple.

Acting on a complaint filed by Manjoor Abbasi in connection with the death of his son, the Consumer Forum Chairman A K Srivastava yesterday found Ganesh hospital guilty and directed it to compensate him by paying Rs five lakh and an additional amount of Rs 8,000 for the expenses of the case.

More countries accepting gay lifestyle, says a study

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Washington, May 29: The vast majority of countries around the world have become more accepting of homosexuality, with the exception of Russia and other former socialist countries, a new study has found.

The report, compiled by the National Opinion Research Centre at the University of Chicago, examined general trends in over 30 countries regarding their attitudes towards homosexuality.

Approval of homosexuality increased in 27 countries and decreased in only four: Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Latvia and Russia, the study noted.

Kangna, Mallika: Secret fetish

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Mumbai, May 29: Kangna Ranaut More PicsA source working with Kangna and Mallika Sherawat in their styling department leaked a very interesting piece of information about their likings for the act of piercing.

Salman’s brand is in smugglers hit list

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Mumbai, May 29: Actor Salman Khan seems to be in the news for all the wrong reasons these days. However, this time, it is the T-shirts of the foundation he has created to help the needy that are in the news, or rather, their fakes.

Phony Being human – named after Khan’s foundation of the same name – T-shirts are in great demand in the black market. So much, that they are giving tough competition to fakes of foreign brands like Versace, Armani and Gabbana.

The Customs recently arrested two people for trying to smuggle fakes of Being human T-shirts from Bangkok.

India commissions study on black money

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New Delhi, May 29: The Indian government said Sunday it had commissioned a study to examine how black money is generated and recommend ways to bring it back into the mainstream economy.

A statement from the finance ministry said the study was authorised in March and will be completed by September 2012.

The study is being conducted by three autonomous institutions under the finance ministry — National Institute of Public Finance and Policy, the National Institute of Financial Management, and the National Council of Applied Economic Research.

Indian held in Saudi for meeting employer’s wife

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Riyadh, May 29: Saudi Arabia’s police arrested an Indian driver after seizing him in an illegal meeting with his employer’s wife, a newspaper reported on Sunday.

A patrol of the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, the most feared Islamic enforcement authority in the conservative Gulf Kingdom, spotted the driver sitting and chatting with the woman outside the car in an isolated area in Riyadh, Sabq Arabic language daily said.

Sheik Sadeq agrees to end clashes

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Sana, May 29: Yemen’s embattled president and the country’s most powerful tribal leader have agreed to end five days of gunbattles that killed 124 people and pushed the country’s political crisis closer to civil war.

The fighting between forces loyal to both men made the past week the deadliest since mass street protests for an end to President Ali Abdullah Saleh’s 33-year rule broke out three months ago. Although it could prevent bloodshed, Saturday’s agreement will do little to solve the wider crisis, with Mr. Saleh rejecting efforts to negotiate his exit.

US ex-Guantanamo guard convert, prays in Makkah

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Makkah, May 29: When US soldier Terry Brooks was sent to join military guards at the infamous Guantanamo prison that houses Moslem militants from Taliban and Al-Qaeda, he had not thought he would embrace the religion of those prisoners. After a few chats with a Moroccan inmate, he converted to Islam in 2003.

Brooks was caught by local reporters this week praying in the western Saudi town of Madina before heading for nearby Makkah to perform his first pilgrimage (Umra), which he said had been his dream over the past years.

Sarkar Is Still Mai-Baap

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The revised blueprint for land acquisition envisages government retaining its facilitator role

Contentious Issues:

Protests are often against land acquisition per se, regardless of compensation

Most protests are against private builders acquiring land, changing land use. New norms don’t tackle this.

Poor government track record in R&R does not inspire much confidence; merged bills won’t work for rehabilitation after natural calamities, etc

Can the government, which regulates land use, be regulated in turn by a super-regulator?

CAG Vinod Rai to brief JPC on 2G losses tomorrow

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New Delhi, May 29: The Joint Parliamentary Committee examining the 2G scam has sought to know from Comptroller and Auditor General Vinod Rai as to how he quantified the losses in the spectrum allocation at Rs 1.76 lakh crore.

Rai will tomorrow brief the JPC, chaired by Congress leader P C Chacko on the allocation and pricing of telecom licences and spectrum during 1998 to 2009.

16 injured in road mishap

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Azamgarh, May 29: 16 people were today injured when a truck collided with a bus, carrying a marriage party and a car in Gambhirpur area here in the district, police said.

The incident took place this morning when the speeding truck lost its control and hit the bus and a car, they said.

The injured have been rushed to the hospital, where the condition of driver of the car was stated to be critical, they added.

—–PTI—-

Exhibition-cum-sale of home made products

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Hyderabad, May 29: In connection with the promotion of Cottage industry Exhibition-cum-sale of home made products has been organized by Rahbar-e-Sanat-o-Tijarat monthly, on Sunday, May 29, 2011 at 11 am at the office of Rahbar-e-Sanat-o-Tijarat monthly, opposite Hindi Milap, old Kattalmandi, Moazzam Jahi Market.

Small scale industrialists will showcase items and products made by them and sale for the items will also be carried out.

Employer forces Muslim to cook pork

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Taipei, May 29: A couple in Chiayi, southern Taiwan, has been turned over to the authorities for forcing their Indonesian worker, a Muslim, to cook pork and work long hours, police said Saturday.

Su Yi-liang, director of the Hsinnan police station in Chiayi, said the Indonesian worker recently filed a complaint at the station, saying that she arrived in Taiwan in January 2010 to take care of an elderly person.

Afghan civilians killed in US-led raid

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Kabul, May 29: US-led warplanes targeted two civilian houses in Nawzad district of Helmand province on Saturday, leaving 14 dead, Reuters reported.

Those killed include five girls, seven boys and two women, the report added.

On Saturday, a US-led airstrike in the remote northeastern province of Nuristan claimed the lives of at least 12 people.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai on Saturday ordered the Defense Ministry to take control of night raids.

Karzai said the arbitrary operations have resulted in the death of many Afghan civilians so far.

Thackrey attack on Sachin

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Mumbai, May 29: Shivasena Chief Bal Thackeray has said that all the cricketers including Sachin Tendulkar were mad only after money.He said they were playing for money and not the country.

Thackeray has also questioned the service attitude of Sachin. “If you need money, Sachin will give you a bat. He will ask you to make money by auctioning the bat”, he said.

Bal Thackeray made these cryptic remarks in an interview to a news channel.“I like Sachin as a player. No one will be able to surpass his records. However, I do not like his style of functioning,” Thackeray said.

Gujarat riots: Mallika Sarabhai wants to quiz Sanjiv Bhatt

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Ahmedabad, May 29: Even as the Nanavati-Mehta Commission will decide on June 8 whether IPS officer Sanjiv Bhatt should be cross-examined by different parties, noted danseuse and activist Mallika Sarabhai has filed an application before the commission, requesting that she be allowed to question Bhatt and former DGP RB Sreekumar about Bhatt’s statement that her PIL filed in Supreme Court in 2002 was “undermined by Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi”.

During his deposition before the commission on Monday last, Bhatt had also stated that Sreekumar could give some information on this issue.

All day training ijtema of JIH, Malakpet

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Hyderabad, May 29: An all day training ijtema has been organized by Jamat-e-Islami Hind Malakpet for men and women members and activists.

The programme will be held on Sunday, May 29 at Chand Khan Guda, Ibraheem Patnam.

Departure will be from local office Malakpet at 6:30 am. Programme will include dars-e-Quran, speeches and open discussion which will be addressed by Mr. Mohammad Ameen Uddin, Mr. Zia Uddin Siddiqui, Mr. Abdul Azeez, Mrs Arjumand Razvi, Mr. M N Baig Zahed and Rashaduddin local president.

Siasat news

Free coaching for Jamia Nizamia annual exams

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Hyderabad, May 29: According to Maulana Mohammad Sajid Husain Quadri free education and training is being arranged for Jamia Nizamia annual exams from Maulvi to Kamil at Jamia Anwarul Haq, Rajiv Gandhi Nagar, Borabanda.

Free training will be provided along with hostel facility for Maulvi awwal and duwwam, Alim awwal and duwwam, Fazil awwal and duwwam and Kamil awwal and duwwam.

Interested students can contact from 11 am to 4 pm at the above cited address.

For more details contact phone no. 9290192447.

Siasat news

Obama ‘to be hit by a major scandal soon’

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London, May 29: US President Barack Obama may face his first big scandal pretty soon, according to a leading political scientist.

Based on his mathematical formula, Brendan Nyhan of Michigan University has predicted in his report to ‘Center for Politics’ website that President Obama’s administration is set to be rocked by a major controversy soon.

The political scientist defines scandal as the “elite perception of misbehaviour whose occurrence is also influenced by political and media context”.

Dalai Lama’s power to be given to elected leadership: Samdhong Rinpoche

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Dharamshala, May 29: The outgoing Tibetan Prime Minister-in-exile Samdhong Rinpoche has said the powers of the Dalai Lama would be given to the new leadership and its Parliament members.

Speaking to mediapersons after the closing of the 14th house of Tibetan parliament in-exile here, Rinpoche said: “The amendments as per wish of his holiness have been completed. Now all the powers and functions of the Dalai Lama have been devoted to the elected leadership.”